Paper cut can be seen in many parts of China during the Spring Festival. People put it on windows, doors and walls for the festival.
A thousand years ago, paper cut was used for decoration (装饰). In Tang Dynasty women used paper cut as headdress. In Song Dynasty, it helped make gifts more beautiful. What's more, people would feel happier when they saw paper cut on windows, doors and walls. Now people use paper cut to express their wishes for welcoming the New Year.
There are different kinds of paper cut in different parts of China. Pictures usually cover nearly all things, from flowers, birds to the famous people. Now, there are factories for paper cut in China. Paper cut has changed from decoration to a kind of art. At the same time, paper cut also appears in cartoons, magazines or TV programs.
I read some stories about amazing people today. Here I'd like to share something interesting with you. Xie Qiuping, a Chinese woman, has the longest hair in the world. Her hair is 5,085 meters long! How amazing! Before I got to know this, I thought my hair was quite long. It is nearly 50cm long. I don't know how she washes her hair.
The tallest man in the world lived in the USA. His name was Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was 2.72 metres tall. I want to know if he lived in a flat like mine, how could he go into the room? The tallest man died in 1940.
There is a man in France called Michael Lotito. He eats such items as metal(金属), glass and rubber. He even once ate a model plane! How strange! I don't think metal is as tasty(美味的) as sweets or chocolates.
China's female swimmer Fu Yuanhui came third in Women's 100 meter backstroke(仰泳) on Monday morning(Beijing time)at Rio(里约)Olympics.China's online community has gone crazy about the 1996一born girl,not because of her performance in the semifinal or her achievement,but because of her cheerful answer to her performance during an interview by CCTV.
Finishing the 100 meter backstroke with 58.95 seconds,Fu,who thought it was 59 seconds,was quite surprised with the result.This was the first moment when she impressed Chinese audience with her surprising look and body language in front of the camera.The second time that the young swimmer amazed the audience was her honest and direct answer to a question raised by the reporter. “We know that your body condition was not that good in the past year and it's not easy to have such a result.Do you think you are now as good as before?”asked the reporter. “It is my best score ever.I have worked for three months on the recovery.Only tile ghost knows what I have come through.”said Fu.“It was so painstaking that sometimes I felt like l was going to die.”
In the interview, Fu used a phrase ”Hong Huang Zhi Li” to describe the great efforts she has made in preparing for the competition,which soon became a popular word on the Internet.
Mr. Brown is an American. He is now in Beijing with his family. This is his first visit to China. Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown are going to stay in China for three weeks. They want to visit some cities and villages. They hope to learn some Chinese, too. Mr. Brown is a doctor. He is going to visit some hospitals in Beijing. Mrs. Brown is a school teacher. She is going to visit some schools. Their daughter is a student. She is going to meet some Chinese students. They are going to take a lot of photos of China. When they are back to America, they are going to show the photos to their friends. They want the American people to know more about China.
Robots seem to be getting cleverer and cleverer. Here are four examples.
Budgee
·He was created by Five Elements Roboties. ·With two wheels and a little basket, he can carry things for you while you're at the shops. | Paro
·He was made by Takanori Shibata. ·He is used on patients in hospitals. ·He can learn a name and even show feelings such as surprise, happiness and sadness. |
Rover
·He was created by a team at Sydney University. ·He is used to make cows move together from a field to a diary(牛奶场). | Simon
·He was developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology. ·He can clean up offices. ·In tests, he could tell whether someone was paying attention to him or not. |
Bob Smith is old. He has two big houses and a new car. He has no wife, but he is a father of four children. He has two sons and two daughters. One son is from (来自于) Canada. His name is Jack. The other (另一个) is from England. His name is Mike. One of his daughters is from China. Her name is Meimei. She is eleven years old. The other is from America. Her name is Lucy. She's eleven, too.
Bob Smith is not the children's real father, but he loves them very much. The children love their “father”, too. Bob Smith has many toys (玩具) for the children. He gives different (不同的) toys to different children. The boys play with toy cars. The girls play with doll (娃娃) and toy animals. Bob Smith is their good friend.
A young man was traveling down a country road, going a bit too fast in his new car. There were many kids playing between the cars parked on the side of the street.
As his car passed, one child suddenly appeared and threw a brick at the car. The man stopped the car and jumped out. He caught the kid and shouted at him, “What are you doing?” He continued shouting, “That's a new car. It will be expensive to fix the damage you did with that brick. Why did you do it?” “I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. It's my brother,” he said, “He rolled(滚落)off the side of the road and fell out of his wheelchair. I can't lift him up. He is hurt and he is too heavy for me.”
The young man felt shameful and said nothing. He lifted the kid's brother back into the wheelchair.
“Thank you, sir.” the child said. The man then watched the little boy push his brother toward their home.
The young man did not repair the dent(凹槽)in his car. He can hear the boy's hopeless voice whenever he saw it.
Sometimes, when you don't make the time to listen, life throws a brick at your head.
Erik Weihenmayer was born with an eye disorder. As a child his eyesight became worse and then, at the age of 13, he lost his sight completely. However, he did not lose his determination to lead a full and active life.
Erik became an adventurer. He took up parachuting, wrestling and scuba diving. He competed in long-distance biking, marathons and skiing. His favorite sport, though, is mountaineering.
As a young man, Erik started to climb mountains. He reached the top of Mount McKinley in 1995 and then climbed the dangerous 1000-metre rock wall of EI Capitan. Two years later, while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya with his girlfriend, they stopped for a time at 13,000 feet above sea level-in order to get married. And on May 25, 2001, at the age of 33, Erik successfully completed the greatest mountaineering challenge of all. He climbed Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world two years after he climbed Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America in 1999.
Erik invented his own method for climbing mountains. He carries two long poles: one to lean on and the other to test the way ahead of him. The climber in front of him wears a bell to guide him. Erik is a good team member. He does his share of the job, such as setting up tents and building snow walls.
Although he could not enjoy the view, Erik felt the excitement of being on the top of Everest. He hopes that his success will change how people think about the blind."When people think about a blind person or blindness, now they will think about a person standing on top of the world."
My name is Tim. Daddy didn't know how to show love. He went to work every day and blamed(责备)me for the mistakes I had made when he came home.
Once I broke my leg and it was Mum who held me in her arms all the way to the hospital.
Later Dad pulled the car right up to the door of the hospital.
They asked him to move it, saying the place was saved for the ambulances(救护车), for an emergency. Dad shouted, "What do you think this is? A tour bus?"
At my birthday parties, Dad always seemed out of place. He just kept himself busy blowing up balloons, setting up tables, and welcoming the guests. It was Mum who carried the cake with the candles on it for me to blow out.
When I learned to ride a bike, I asked him not to leave me alone, but he said it was time. I fell and Mum ran to pick me up, but he stopped her. I was so mad that I showed him that I could ride it myself. He just smiled.
When I went to college, Mum did all the writing. He just sent money and a little note about how great his garden looked now just because I wasn't playing football on it.
Whenever I called home, he acted like he wanted to talk but always said," Wait, Tim. I'll get your mother."
When I got married, Mum cried.
He just blew his nose loudly and left the room.
Daddy just didn't know how to show love, unless.
Was it possible he showed it and I didn't recognize it?
Big data (数据) is a lot of sets of information that are put together so they can be used by a computer program. The computer program looks for different kinds of answers or patterns in the data. Big data can have different kinds of information from many sources, such as information that comes from schools, social media sites, companies, and governments. One set of data can have people's names and addresses. Another set can have what they like, where they go to school, and how much time they spend on the computer.
Big data can be used in many ways. The government uses it to understand how many people travel on buses or trains. This information is then used to make bus or train systems better. Some schools use big data to understand which children may need extra help in class. The teacher can then give certain students more help or support so those students can succeed in school. Companies use big data, too. It helps them understand who buys their products. For example, one company uses weather data to see when people eat the most ice cream.
Big data can be used for good reasons. Some hospitals use big data to predict if a baby who is born too early will get sick. The hospital can then take extra steps to take care of that baby so he or she does not get sick. Big data can also be used for bad reasons. It can be used to predict which kinds of people are likely to break the law or hurt others, even if they have not done anything wrong.
How can big data be used for good and bad things? It is because the computer programs used to look at big data and understand it are written by people. People think a certain way. Because they think a certain way, they build a model of those ideas. These ideas are then used to look at the data. Sometimes, these ideas are helpful for people or businesses. Other times, bad ideas can cause problems for certain groups of people.
Thirteen-year-old Sophie had been bullied (欺凌) at school for two years. She had had her keys and mobile phone stolen. She had also been knocked off her bicycle, kicked and punched (以拳重击). She tried to fight back, but it always seemed to be her, not the bullies, who got into trouble.
Her headmaster encourages students to look after one another. He encouraged Sophie to play the guitar in a school concert. It gave Sophie new confidence and earned her respect from the other students.
Sadly, Sophie's story is not rare. Bullying is always around us. They can take many forms. And there are new bullies. Cyber (网络的) bullies can be harder to avoid and harder to catch. It is too easy to send a nameless threat by text, or post something insulting (侮辱的) on social media. Yet the results can be serious for the victim.
But help is out there. There are many charities and organizations giving support to young people. Remember one very important piece of advice: If you are being bullied, don't put up with it-tell someone.
It's 8: 00 in the morning. Mr. White goes into the classroom and finds Tom isn't in. Then he begins his lesson. He asks the students to read their English books.
"May I come in, sir?" a boy asks at the door.
"Come in, please," says Mr. White. "You're twenty minutes (分钟) late, Tom."
The boy is often late and every time he makes an excuse. "I am sorry, sir," says Tom. "I'm late because the traffic is bad, and I have to wait for (等待) the lights to turn green."
"But why don't you catch an earlier (更早的) bus?" asks Mr. White.
"I just take the earlier bus. But the later (晚点的) bus often overtakes (超过) the earlier one!" answers Tom.
It is a fine Sunday morning. Ann and her mother are on a big bus. There are many people on it. Some of them come from America, and some come from England and Canada. They are going to the Great Wall.
There are only two Chinese on the bus. One is the woman. She is driving the bus. The other is a young man. He is their guide and can speak English very well. Now he is talking with an American girl. Other people are listening to them. They are very interested in the Great Wall. They want to see it very much.
Gary and Gavin were twin brothers who worked in a store owned by their father. After the father had passed away, they took over the store. One day, Gary left the bill on the cash register (收银台), but when he returned, the money was gone.
Gary then asked his brother," did you see that twenty-dollar bill on the cash register?" Gavin said no. But Gary did not let it go and kept asking. That made Gavin very angry and they quarreled with one another. The quarrel divided the young men. Later, a wall was built in the center of the store. For twenty years, hostility (敌意) never ended.
One day, a strange man came to the store. He walked in and asked Gary, "How long have you been here?" Gary replied that he'd been there all his life. "Then you are the person I'm looking for," the man said. "Twenty years ago, I was totally broke and hungry. I entered this store from the back door and saw a twenty-dollar bill on the cash register. And I took it. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I had to come back and apologize for that."
The stranger felt shocked when seeing tears well up in the eyes of the middle-aged man in front of him. "Would you please go next door and tell the same story to the man in the store?" Gary asked. Then something surprised the stranger even more-after hearing his story, the two middle-aged men hugged each other. After twenty years, the wall that separated them finally came down.
When your pen is broken, you think that's the end of its life. You throw it away. It then joins tons of other garbage that is becoming a big problem in cities.
Each day, about 10,000 tons of waste is produced in Guangzhou, and 17,000 tons of household waste is produced in Beijing. In other countries, the case is similar. "If you're like most of us, most Americans, you're making seven pounds (3.17kg) of trash a day," US writer Edward Humes told CNN. So, an American makes 102 tons of trash in a lifetime.
If you simply throw away that broken pen, it goes to a landfill(垃圾填埋场) and is buried together with many other trash. To prevent polluting the groundwater, workers cover the trash with soil and keep it dry. And your pen will stay there for a long, long time, without having further use. But it could have a better destination: the recycling bin.
Have you ever noticed the different colors of trash bins in the street? Many cities in China have been running a waste-sorting (垃圾分类) campaign. They divide trash into "recyclable waste" and "unrecyclable waste". So in Yiwu there are many "Little Yellow Dog" appearing all around the city, even in our campus.
Recycling waste can save energy, reduce greenhouse gas, and keep space free for the unrecyclable trash. Take your pen as an example. At the recycling factory, its metal parts could be taken out and reused to make other things.
But recycling is not enough, experts say. Making less waste in the first place is the way forward. "The best thing to do is just keep using your stuff for as long as you can," US writer Adam Minter told Time Out magazine.
a. save energy b. produce greenhouse gas
c. save landfill space d. save water
One Sunday morning in June my mother walked into my room. "Surprise!" she said, proudly holding up a yellow dress with black and white stripes. "I made it just for you. What do you think?"
I bit my tongue. How could I tell Mum it was the ugliest dress I had ever seen?
"It's perfect for church," my mother continued delightedly. "I wish someone had made a dress like this for me."
Too bad you can't wear it, I thought. But I knew Mum had spent a lot of time on the dress. Only the world's most ungrateful daughter would refuse. Unwillingly I put it on.
All through church I prayed, "Lord, let me get out of here without anyone seeing me." Especially Dennis Pearce, the boy I had a crush on. He was one of the cutest boys at Neptune High School. Although we were in some of the same classes, Dennis had never taken any notice of me. Every time I got near him, I became tongue-tied.
At the end of the service I hurried to the door. But I had to wait on the steps while my parents chatted with their friends. Just a little while longer…Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the Pearce approaching. Before I could escape, Dennis was right beside me.
I started talking a mile a minute, hoping if I kept it up he wouldn't notice my awful dress.
"I'm going to college in September," I said.
"That's great," Dennis replied, "I got accepted to police academy."
"Wow!" I said. Somehow I kept the conversation going. Soon we were walking to the parking lot together. The next thing I knew Dennis had asked me out on a date!
We fell in love through college, and finally got married. Months after our wedding I asked Dennis if he remembered the day he had first asked me out.
"You bet I do," he said. "You were always quiet in school, almost coldhearted. I didn't think you'd be much fun. But you were so lively when we talked on the church steps, I wanted to get to know you better." Maybe that zebra-striped yellow dress wasn't what I would have chosen, but that day it was the perfect dress for me.
A kid hero
"If you could have any three things, what would you want?"
Eleven-year-old Ruby Chitsey loves asking that question, but it's not a game she plays. She asks the seniors(老年人)at nursing homes in Arkansas where she lives. Even more amazing, she then sets out to make their wishes come true. Ruby has long been close to the elders. Her mother has worked in nursing homes for many years. Ruby often stays with her in summer and asks the seniors if they need anything.
Last May, Ruby noticed an old lady named Pearl staring(凝视) out a window. She seemed sad. "What are you looking at?" Ruby asked. Pearl said she was watching her dog being led away by his new owner. Ruby asked around and discovered that nursing home doesn't allow the seniors to have dogs and Pearl couldn't afford to pay anyone to look after her dog. Ruby also heard many stories about Pearl's friends here and found that they were unable to afford life costs. That was when she decided to do something about it.
She started by asking the seniors what three things they wanted most in the world. Her mother worried that people would ask for cars and other things that an 11-year-old wouldn't be able to provide. Instead, they asked for chocolate, fries, and even just pants that fit properly.
"I felt really upset," Ruby says. "We left the nursing home that day and went straight to a store and bought as many things as we could."
Using their own money, Ruby and her mother helped about 100 people in three months. Then, they started asking for donations (捐款). The good people in Arkansas strongly supported them, so Ruby and her mother set up a GoFundMe page—Three Wishes for Ruby's Residents. After GoFundMe named Ruby a Kid Hero and spread her story internationally, Three Wishes raised more than $250, 000 in five months. One of Ruby's new goals is to set up a shared computer in one nursing home in each state.
Ruby doesn't plan to stop there. "I consider kindness to be my hobby" she says, "and I'm very good at it."