As you're busy with your studies, the weeks during the Spring Festival can be a time when training and healthy eating plans go out of the window. But you can continue running and avoid weight gain during the holiday season.
Pick a race
Having a race on your calendar is a motivation to keep running during the holiday. Check our active.com or Running in the city for events near you.
Don't skip breakfast
If you're going to a holiday party in the evening, don't make the mistake of skipping breakfast. You may think you're saving calories for later.
Bring your own healthy dishes
Chances are that most of the dishes at holiday gatherings are going be high in taste and calories. Bring your own healthy appetizers to the party. The host will appreciate it, and you know where will be at least one wise choice on the buffet table.
If you are heading to an evening event, eat regular meals and snacks every few hours until party time. You won't arrive at the party ready to attack appetizers. Make sure you include fiber at each meal because it keeps you full longer.
Plan your runs
It's easy to say that you'll keep running regularly during the holiday season, but sticking to it requires a strategy. Schedule your runs like appointments, so you make them the first thing during a busy week.
A. Treat yourself B. Eat small meals C. Try some or all of these strategies. D. In fact, it may lead to overeating later in the day. E. Buy yourself a gift of some new running shoes and clothes. F. If you have runs scheduled, you are more likely to get them done. G. Once you choose one that is in a few weeks, set a plan and stick to it. |
A. A general sleep rule. B. The importance of sleep. C. A funny sleeping example. D. Different levels of sleep. E. The time we need for sleep. F. Different states of sleep. |
Sleep, as we know, is important to us because it helps restore tired organs and tissues in our body. But how much sleep do we actually need?
For most of us, eight hours seems to be about the right amount. Yet we know that there are a great many people who get along perfectly with less sleep and some who may even need more. A great deal depends on the way we live. But a good general rule to follow is to sleep as long as we have to in order to feel happy and be able to work at our best when we are awake.
There are actually different levels of sleep. There is a deep sleep and a shallow sleep. In a shallow sleep our body does not get the same kind of rest as it gets in a deep sleep, so that after eight hours of a shallow sleep we may still feel tired. But a short deep sleep can be very restful.
Alexander the Great was able to get a deep sleep whenever he needed it. Once, during the night before an important battle, he remained awake longer than anyone else. Then he wrapped himself in a cloak and lay down on the earth. He slept so deeply that his generals had to wake him three times to give command to attack!
Normally when we go to sleep, our “ sleep center” blocks off nerves so that both our brain and our body go to sleep. One prevents us form wanting to do anything and the other makes our internal organs and limbs go to sleep. But someone will fall asleep (brain sleep) and keep on marching, because his body is not asleep!
Do you want to improve your networking skills? If so,check out five ways to promote your networking skills.
Research the event before you go.
Do your research before you attend an event.Figuring out the dress standard and the theme of the event will help you perfect your clothes, attitude, and approachMental preparation will help you feel confident and comfortable.
Describe yourself differently.
Most people choose to describe themselves to strangers by saying their name and job. However, unless you have a unique name and an eye-catching job, this probably won't help. Give them a little more to work withIn that case, people may have a chance to ask you a few questions.
Network with everyone.
At networking events, there are probably specific people that you want to talk to.While this could be beneficial to you, don't cut off your other choicesIt can also help you to get noticed by the people you want to speak to.
Smile to make a great first impression.
According to a research,people decide whether you are trustworthy or not after looking at your face for 34 milliseconds（毫秒）.Make those milliseconds count by relaxing the muscles in your face and smiling.
Don't let the end of your conversation affect your networking for the worse.Have a reason for leaving,smile as you say goodbye,and shake hands if appropriate.Even though you are leaving,this guarantees the person will remember you as polite,pleasant,and sincere.
A.First impressions mean a lot.
B.Finish the conversation gracefully.
C.Work on finding a conversational balance.
D.It is important to keep the conversation flowing.
E.Provide a more general and mysterious（神秘的）description.
F.It will also help you prepare some great conversation starters.
G.Being polite and friendly to everyone enables you to make a great impression.
Maybe you are an average student.This is not necessarily so,however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to.Here's how.
Plan your time carefully.When planning your work, you should make a list of things that you have to do.After making this list,you should make a schedule of your time.First your time for eating,sleeping,dressing,etc.Then decide a good,regular time for studyingA weekly schedule may not solve all your problems,but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.
Find a good place to study.Look around the house for a good study area.Keep this space,which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room,free of everything but study materials.No games,radios,or television.When you sit down to study,concentrate on the subject.
Make good use of your time in classListening carefully in class means less work later.Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.
Study regularly.When you get home from school, go over your notes,review the important points that your teacher is going to discuss the next day and read that materialIf you do these things regularly,the material will become more meaningful,and you'll remember it longer.
Develop a good attitude towards tests.The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge.The world won't end if you don't pass a test,so don't be over worried.
You will probably discover them after you have tried these.
A.There are other methods that might help you with your studying.
B.Don't forget to arrange enough time for entertainment.
C.Make full use of class time to listen to everything the teacher says.
D.No one can become a top student unless he or she works hard.
E.You probably think you will never be a top student.
F.Make full use of class time to take notes of what the teacher says in class.
G.This will help you understand the next class.
Brainstorming for Ideas
Try blind writing. When trying to get past a writing block or a brainstorming lag, take at least ten minutes to sit down and write. Force yourself to write for the full ten minutes, no matter what comes of it. The act of putting pen to paper will stimulate the part of your mind that generates ideas.
Make a mind map. Mind mapping is a brainstorming strategy that allows you to map out different tangents of thought to stimulate new ideas. Get a piece of paper, poster board, or whiteboard and write your goal in the center. Write subtopics and related thoughts around the goal, and continue branching out from them to develop your train of thought. For example, a mind map about the environmental goal “Going Green” could branch into subtopics such as “Reducing Waste”, “Eco-travel”, and “Global Warming”.
Attempt “rolestorming”. For a fresh perspective on a topic，attempt “rolestorming”. Picture yourself as someone else (e.g. a parent, friend, colleague, or partner) and imagine how you would approach a scenario as them. You can extend this brainstorming technique to famous people or historical figures (e.g. Albert Einstein, Bill Gates).
Try meditation. To open your mind to new ideas, try meditation. Find a peaceful place to sit quietly and focus on the question at hand (e.g. “How can I promote my new business on my limited budget?”). Bring a pen and paper to jot down ideas, and meditate for about 30 minutes, or until a good idea comes to you. To avoid worrying about the time, set an alarm on your phone to signal the 30 minute mark.
Remove limitations. Remove the limitations that may be hindering your brainstorming progress by approaching the subject as if there were no obstacles. While this process may not yield feasible solutions right away, it will open your mind to possibilities you would not look at otherwise. For instance, when planning a surprise party, you might overlook certain venues because of financial constraints, such as an expensive French restaurant that your friend would love to try. By allowing your mind to go there during brainstorming, you might get the idea to simulate the restaurant and meal for a house party.
Discuss things in a group. Group brainstorming sessions can allow you to develop your thoughts by feeding off of the ideas of others. If you are working on a group project or collaboration, schedule brainstorming time in a quiet location with no disturbance. If you are working on your own project, ask friends or colleagues if you can bounce ideas off of them and get their input.
Brainstorming for Ideas | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
Try blind writing. | •Force yourself to write for the full ten minutes, comes of it. •The part of your mind that generates ideas will be by the act of putting pen to paper. |
Make a mind map. | •Mind mapping is a brainstorming strategy allowing you to find out different ways to stimulate new ideas. • Get a piece of paper, poster board, or whiteboard and write your in the center. • Branch out from subtopics and related thoughts to your train of thought. |
“rolestorming”. | •Picture yourself as someone else and imagine how you would approach a scenario as them. • This brainstorming technique can be to famous people or historical figures. |
Try meditation. | •Find a peaceful place to sit quietly and focus on the question at hand. •Bring a pen and paper to jot down ideas, and meditate for about 30 minutes, or until you up with a good idea. |
Remove limitations. | • the limitations that may be hindering your brainstorming progress by approaching the subject as if there were no obstacles. • While this process may not bring out practical solutions , it will open your mind to other possibilities. |
Discuss things in a group. | • When cooperating with others, remember to brainstorm quietly without being . |
Everybody gets angry sometimes. Being angry doesn't really solve much—but what people do when they feel angry is important. The goal is to calm yourself down and try to solve whatever problem is bothering you. This is hard for some kids (and adults too). Instead of calming down, some kids might keep getting more and more upset until they explode like a volcano!
Some kids get angry more often or more easily than some other kids. Their anger might be so strong that the feelings gets out of control and causes them to act in ways that are unacceptable and hurtful. People might say kids like this have a temper, which is a term for acting out of control. Some kids might get so angry that they scream at their mom or dad, hit the wall, close doors violently, break something, or even hit a brother or sister. Kids are allowed to express their feelings, even angry ones, but it's not OK for a kid to do any of those things. Kids don't want to (or mean to) act this way—but sometimes angry feelings can be hard to manage.
【写作内容】
1）以约30个词概括上文的主要内容；2）结合上述信息，简要分析导致孩子发脾气的主要原因；3）提出建议如何控制发脾气（不少于两点）。
【写作要求】
1）写作过程中不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2）作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3）不必写标题。
【评分标准】概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，语篇连贯。
Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month.
One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.
Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons (神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day.
Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right. The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.
If Tononi's theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.
Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. "You keep what matters," Tononi says.
A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.
B. It's as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.
C. That's why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.
D. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.
E. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.
F. Tononi's team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.
G. "Sleep is the price we pay for learning," says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.
One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: I was to walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to defeat my strange problem — inability to read.
In the library, I found my way into the "Children's Room." I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.
There on the book's cover was a beagle which looked identical to my dog. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.
Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.
My mother's call returned me to the real world. I suddenly realized something: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them.
I never told my mother about my "miraculous" (奇迹般地) experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held.
Most of us probably dreamed about becoming an astronaut when we were little. But how many of us actually became one, or are at least working toward it?
The advice “Always follow your dreams” is something that is typically easier said than done.
But still, this is the one piece of advice that Alyssa Carson wants to share with her peers. This 17-year-old girl from the US has become one of the candidates for NASA's 2033 project to go to Mars. If everything goes well, Carson will be one of the first human beings to ever set foot on the red planet.
Carson has dreamed of going to Mars since she was only three years old. Watching an astronaut-themed cartoon and learning that humans have only been to the moon but not Mars, Carson decided that she wanted to be the first one to do so.
Since then, she has worked hard toward this goal. At the age of 12, Carson became the first person to attend all three NASA space camps, and she sat with real astronauts in a NASA panel(座谈会) to discuss the future of Mars missions.
Now 17, Carson is continuing with her space training while still taking on her high school work like a “normal” teenager, except that she studies all her subjects in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Chinese.
“I don't think there's anything specific that makes it easier for me or makes it something that others can't do,” Carson said in an interview with Uproxx News. “I've just really focused myself on what I want to accomplish.”
And Carson is willing to make sacrifices for her dream. She's fully aware of the danger of the mission and the possibility that she might never be able to come back. She also accepts the fact that she can't get married and start a family because any loved ones left on Earth may be a distraction for her and for the mission. But Carson believes that it's all worth it, summarizing her view with this ancient Greek proverb she once quoted, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they'll never sit in.”
So after all the hard work that Carson has done and all the sacrifices she's made, everything still boils down to the simple phrase, “follow your dreams”. And while some people's dreams may sound out of this world, in Carson's case, they literally(毫不夸张地) are.
Attachment is not just a connection between two people; it's a bond that involves a desire for regular contact with that person and the experience of distress(悲伤) during separation from that person.
According to psychologist John Bowilby, there are four critical characteristics of attachment. The first is the desire to be near those with whom we share an attachment since we are happy while staying with them. Attachments also create a safe shelter, meaning that during times of distress, fear, or uncertainty, we may seek out the people we're attached to for care and comfort. Next, attachment figures also offer a secure base for exploration. This is particularly important during childhood. This secure base allows kids to explore the world while they know they can still return to the safety of the attachment figure. Finally, we experience separation distress when parted from an attachment figure. For example, kids tend to become upset when parents have to leave them in the care of others.
Attachment serves a number of important purposes. For instance, it helps keep babies and children close to their caregivers so that they can avoid potential dangers, which in turn helps boost their chances of survival. However, if a child doesn't form a secure attachment to a caregiver, he or she will suffer from a number of problems including conduct disorder and oppositional -defiant (对立反抗的) disorder. Researchers also suggest that the type of attachment displayed early in life can have a lasting effect on later adult relationships.
Psychologist Harry Harlow conducted an experiment on social isolation in monkeys. Baby monkeys were separated from their mothers and placed with surrogate mothers (代母). One mother was simply a wire armature (电枢) that held a bottle, while the other mother was covered with a soft terry cloth material. Harlow found that the baby monkeys would receive food from the wire mother, but preferred to spend most of their time with the soft mother. When compared to monkeys that had been raised by their birth mothers, the monkeys raised by surrogate mothers were shyer and more nervous and suffered from social and emotional problems.
All in all, developing secure and healthy attachments early in life is very important. Such attachments play a vital role in our future development.
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Attachment |
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Introduction to attachment |
Attachment means that you feel so connected to someone else that often want to contact him or her and you may feel distressed in the of the person. |
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Characteristics of attachment |
·We enjoy the of those we're attached to, so we always take any chance we get to be with them. ·We may tum to attachment figures when experiencing negative emotions. ·Attachment figures are always and serve as powerful supporters when children their surroundings. ·Any from an attachment figure is an invitation to distress. |
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Importance of attachment |
·Attachment makes children seek from their caregivers, thus enabling them to survive. ·to form a secure attachment with a caregiver leads to a series of problems in children. ·Childhood attachment influences later adult relationships. |
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An experiment |
In a study, with their early attachments baby monkeys are likely to suffer mentally, and emotionally. |
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Conclusion |
We should form secure and healthy attachments while young, because they will have important impacts on our future development. |
After we all came to the conclusion that our family could responsibly care for dog; my husband and I started our search at a local animal shelter.
We discovered a medium-sized male dog named Duke. This dog was a approximately only two years old and seemed to have the sweetest character. He looked at us through intelligent eyes and already knew how to fetch a ball. My husband and I immediately adopted him Duke quickly fit into our family's lifestyle. And he quickly learned the tricks like "sit", and "come".
But there was one skill that Duke could not seem to grasp—that of a watchdog. My husband was trying to teach him to remind us by giving a single warning bark when someone came into the yard. Duke would listen carefully to my husband's commands, but would cock （竖起）his head to one side in confusion and disappointment as if to tell his master that he just didn't understand what my husband was asking him to do. My husband would give his "watch" command. Duke would stand up—muscles tightened in readiness, but would not have a clue as to what he was in readiness for.
One morning we heard the garbage collectors come up the driveway to get our garbage.
My husband went to the open bedroom window so Duke could hear and see the men through the screen.
"Watch" my husband commanded. Duke rose in readiness, looked at my husband as sudden comprehension dawned on him, gave a quick tail wave, and leaped through the window screen jumping happily out to greet the garbage men.
Seeing that, I couldn't help laughing. My laughter did nothing for my husbands mood when he found what was happening and he just went away to repair the screen with no expression on his face.
Duke brought our family so much fun. We never scolded or beat him. He was one of our family members.
The Bigger Sleep
School starting times in America vary from an average of 7:48 am in go-getting Mississippi to 8:31am in late-rising Connecticut. According to a survey by the National Centre for Education Statistics in 2017-18, only in two states - Alaska and Connecticut—do schools start after 8:30 am, the earliest recommended time by a number of medical organisations.
On October 13th Gavin Newsom, California's governor, signed legislation setting a limit on starting times of half past eight for high-schoolers , in the hope that they will benefit from the extra time in bed.
There is plenty of reason to think they will. Adolescents require more sleep in the morning which will keep them energetic the whole day. A research review by scientists at the Centres for Disease Control finds that later school starting times correspond with improved attendance, less falling asleep in class, and better grades. The Rand Corporation estimates that moving to a half-past-eight start across the country would boost the economy by more than $80bn within a decade.
In response to the evidence, school districts across the country have begun to move starting times back, but California is the first state to take the leap. Parents and unions are often bitterly opposed. The California Teachers Association resisted the change, citing the financial burden on schools as they adjust to the new hours, as well as the burden on parents who work as laborers or in the service industry, and cannot start work later. Last year Mr Newsom's predecessor, Jerry Brown, vetoed similar legislation, saying the decision should be left to school districts.
Supporters argue that it is appropriate for the state to set a minimum health-and-welfare standard, as it does in other areas. It will be up to school districts to decide whether to end the day later, or cut its length. Anthony Portantino, the democratic state senator who introduced the legislation, believes evidence of the change's benefits will soon win over opponents in rural areas. "There really is no significant reason not to do this," he says, "other than an overwhelming resistance to change from adults."
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The Bigger Sleep |
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Background to the legislation |
• American schools have starting times. • Only schools in Alaska and Connecticut the recommended starting times. |
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Content of the legislation |
High-schoolers should start school no than 8:30 am, which allows them extra time in bed. |
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Benefits of the legislation |
• Adolescents feel with more sleep in the morning. • Later school starting times are linked to decreased , less falling asleep in class and better grades. • It is that later school starting times can boost the economy. |
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Opinions of the |
• Schools may bear the burden of when they adjust to the new hours. • Parents working as laborers or in the service industry may to get to work on time. |
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Opinions of the supporters |
• Setting a minimum health-and-welfare standard seems to be an appropriate practice. • Although an overwhelming resistance does in adults, it is reasonable to make the change. |
Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here's how:
When planning your work, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you should make a schedule of your time. First plan your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. Then decide a good, regular time for studying. Don't forget to set aside enough time for entertainment. A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.
Find a good place to study. Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios, or television. When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.
Make good use of your time in class. Listening carefully in class means less work later. Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.
Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes, review the important points that your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read that material. If you do these things regularly, the material will become more meaningful and you'll remember it longer.
Develop a good attitude towards tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge. The world won't end if you don't pass a test, so don't be over worried.
A. Plan your time carefully.
B. This will help you understand the next class.
C. No one can become a top student unless he or she works hard.
D. Look around the house for a good study area.
E. Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teacher says.
The Maginot Line was one of the largest military structures ever built, second only to the Great Wall of China. It was a series of sand traps, forts, turrets(炮塔), and obstacles that spanned more than 450 miles of France's border with Germany. Built between 1930 and 1940, it was one of the world's most impressive forts, yet it proved to be almost useless.
The Maginot Line was named after the man who argued for its construction, French Minister of War André Maginot. André Maginot had fought with the French against the Germans in the First World War. Much of this conflict took place along the Western Front, which was a line of trenches(战壕)across which the two sides faced one another. Both sides dug in deep and each lost many men over little ground. Conditions were horrid for all and there was a deadlock for many years as neither side was able to move the other.
Maginot never forgot these awful conditions. He wanted to build a line of defenses that would give the French an advantage in a similar conflict. It made sense that he feared that the Germans would attack France again. Germany's population nearly doubled France's. The line of defenses that Maginot pictured would allow a smaller French army to hold off a larger German force. In 1929, Maginot convinced the French Parliament to fund his vision.
Though calling it a line makes it seem thin, the Maginot Line was in fact quite deep. It was fifteen miles wide at some points and varied in structure. There were outposts(前哨站)disguised(伪装)as houses. These were manned by troops and equipped with explosives. There were antitank rails and obstacles. These were planted in the ground to prevent tanks and trucks from passing. There were sand traps armed with mounted machine guns and anti-tank guns. These were for pushing back attackers. And there were many large and small fortresses(堡垒)along the line. Each had dining halls, lots of supplies, and air conditioning. The Maginot line would give the French a supreme edge in the case of a head-on invasion by the Germans.
Unfortunately for the French, the Germans did not attack head-on. They positioned a decoy(诱饵)army in front of the line to distract the French. While the French waited, the Germans snuck a larger force through Belgium. Belgium is France's northeastern neighbor. The French did have some defenses along their border with Belgium, but this part of the Maginot line was weak. The Germans made quick work of these defenses. Within five days of their initial attack they were well into France.
Once they were in France, the Germans attempted to seize the main forts along the Maginot Line. They were not successful. The forts had proved to be strong, but they failed to hold back the Germans. The Germans had taken Paris, France's capital city. Soon after the French commander ordered his men to stand down. He commanded the French defenders to leave their bases along the Maginot Line. These soldiers were then taken to POW camps.
While the Maginot Line did not work in the way that the French had hoped, they did benefit by having built it. Belgium and England were strong allies. England had promised to protect Belgium. Belgium declared itself a neutral country, one which wanted to stay out of wars. When Germany invaded Belgium to bypass the Maginot Line, they violated Belgium's neutrality. This led to England entering the war sooner.
Though the Maginot Line is no longer used militarily, many of the buildings remain. Some of the forts are now wine cellars(酒窖)or mushroom farms. One was turned into a disco club. Today the Maginot Line is often used as a metaphor. People may refer to a failed project in which someone placed a lot of hope as a Maginot Line. Also, the Maginot Line lives on as the best-known symbol of the common saying that "generals always fight the last war."
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Introduction to the Maginot Line |
Built between 1930 and 1940, it was the largest military structure ever built, only next to the Great Wall of China. |
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It was made up of varieties of forts, more than 450 miles of France's border with Germany. |
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How was it built? |
In WWI, the Western Front was deadlocked for many years, both heavy losses. |
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Never forgetting terrible conditions, Andre Maginot suggest building a line of defenses to their own , considering Germany has nearly twice the population of France. |
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What did the inside of the Line look like? |
Outposts to be houses were controlled by troops and equipped with explosives. |
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Antitank rails and obstacles were planted to prevent vehicles passing and sand traps were armed with guns to attackers. |
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Fortresses along the Line had canteens, supplies and air-conditioning. |
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was the Line out of action? |
Germany gave up a attack and bypass the Maginot Line into France. |
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The defenses along the border with Belgium was weak. |
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past |
Leading to England into the war. |
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now |
Acting as wine cellars or mushroom farms. |
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Being transformed into a disco club. |
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Moral |
A white hope but turned out to be a . |
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A symbol of the saying "generals always fight the last war." |
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A. Between August and April, they sought food in low elevations (海拔) on China's Qinling Mountains. B. Scientists think the research show that pandas are very clever. C. Pandas eat bamboo all day long except when they are sleeping or playing. D. The gene for their “umami taste receptors” became inactive. E. They fed on them until they went back down the mountain and started eating Bashania fargesii leaves again. F. Scientists have conducted many studies on pandas' eating habits. |
Are Bamboo-Eating Pandas Really Herbivores?
On the outside, giant pandas look like herbivores (食草动物). They spend nearly all of their waking hours eating bamboo. But on the inside, they're built like carnivores (食肉动物). About half of the calories they eat come from protein, according to a new study.
The ancestor of giant pandas were omnivorous(杂食的). They are both animals and plants, and had the digestive system and gut bacteria to metabolize(使发生新陈代谢)them. They had "umami taste receptors," to appreciate the flavors of meat.
However, about 2.4 million years ago, things began to change. Their jaw and teeth evolved to help them crush bamboo, and their wrist bone became capable of grasping the stalk(杆)of their favorite plant. Scientists think pandas switched to eating bamboo partly because they didn't have to fight with other animals to get it. Bamboo is high in fiber but has a low concentration of nutrients, so pandas have to eat 20 to 40 pounds of the plant every day just to get by.
David Raubenheimer, a nutritional ecologist at the University of Sydney, and his colleagues put GPS trackers on two giant pandas and followed their movement throughout the year. They discovered that the pandas followed the protein. At the start of the cycle, they ate Bashania fargesii leaves until they got the chance to feast on young shoots, which contained more protein.
The more the shoots grew, the more their protein was diluted(冲淡)by fiber. That caused the pandas to move to higher ground, where Fargesia qinlingensis grew. First, they ate the shoots, but these, too, went from being protein - rich to fiber-rich as they grew. The panda responded by switching to the leaves. The researchers found that about half of the calories the pandas ate were in the form of protein.
"They can know exactly where to go, and when to go, so they can get the most of the nutrients that their ecosystem can provide," said Silvia Pineda - Munoz, who was not involved in the study.
The work also shows that classifying an animals as herbivore or carnivore is more complex than one might sassume. "It's not whether you're eating plants but what of the plants you're eating," said Pineda - Munoz.
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Description 1 Gatsby, My neighbor ,was in his garden too. He was standing with his arms stretching out towards the water. I looked out to sea but I could only see a small green light. Perhaps it was the end of a dock（码头）. Description 2 "It's a pity it's so misty（多雾的）,"said Gatsby. "On a clear day I can see your house across the bay. At night there's a green light at the end of your dock. " Daisy put her am through his as they looked out. The green light had been his connection with Daisy. Now that she was here it had lost its significance. Description 3 I thought about Gatsby. I remembered the time when he had stretched out his arms to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. His dream probably seemed so close that he couldn't fail to get hold of it. He did not know that it was already behind him. |
Helen was five years old when she made the trip from her homeland to the United States of America with her mother, sister, and brother. Helen grew up hearing many terrible stories about people who were injured in the war. So as a child, Helen was eager to become a nurse to help those people. And indeed, she became one.
In early 1991, her operating room manager at the University of Virginia said, "Helen, I'd like you to take on a small project." "Okay," Helen agreed. "What's up?" Her manager replied, "Our nineteen operating rooms here are generating too much medical waste. Clean stuff that haven't been used. With your twenty years, working in the operating room, you have the knowledge and experience to figure out what to do with them all. "
So for a year, Helen collected clean medical supplies from all their operating rooms and donated them to missions (布道所). She researched the issue of medical waste. She was surprised to find that more than 2. 4 million tons of hospital waste is generated in the USA annually, with the operating rooms being the largest waste generators. "This is valuable waste, which can be utilized again rather than just being thrown away," she said.
Helen worked four ten-hour days in the operating room, and then spent countless hours networking with people on behalf of missions. Before she could say, "How did I get myself into this?" She had formed Medical Equipment Recovery of Clean Inventory (物品清单)(MERCI). For years, she sorted supplies after work, every day including weekends. Gradually MERCI had a steady stream of volunteers helping to sort, and the results were beyond their wildest imaginations. Since Helen started her "small project", MERCI has sorted more than 350 tons of medical supplies valued at ＄75 million, which have been sent all over the world and helped many people.
And now, Helen still leads a very busy life, but she thinks what she has been doing is meaningful.
Today, the first thing you see when you drive into the small town of McFarland, California, is a welcome poster. "Home of the State Champions, it says proudly. Written across the bottom are the names of the members of the running teams that have brought McFarland nine state championships over the past twenty years. Today, this little farming town is the "home of champions", but things weren't always like this.
It all began with a group of seven young men, who were McFarland High Schools first running team. They were called "cloud runners" because it looked like they were floating on a brown cloud of dust as they carved paths through the surrounding fields.
They weren't a very good team. But the turning point came one hot summer afternoon when the young men were doing hill practice. As there were no hills in McFarland, their coach, Jim White, made them run up and down large piles of nut shells covered in white plastic sheets.
"Enough!" one of the young men cried. The sound of breaking shells could be heard as he beat his fists on the sheet. The plastic tore and a river of nut shells poured out. "Do you know what these are, Mr. White? They're almond shells. Do you know where they come from? My family has been working on farms picking almonds for forty years.
You and your family, living in your big comfortable home, eat these without giving a single thought to where they came from. And now you are making us run on them! I've had enough!"
"We're losers, Mr. White, not winners," another young man continued his face wet with tears and sweat. "Nothing has changed here for forty years and nothing's ever going to change! Running is for rich kids in private schools in the big city, not for us poor farm boys. We can't even afford real shoes for running. We're 'pickers'. I'm going home!"
Something in Jim White's heart changed that day. He went into the fields and worked with the 'pickers'. He bought running shoes for the boys. He spent evenings having dinner with the boys' families. His wife baked and sold cookies to raise money. One small act of kindness led to another. Other families began to take notice, and slowly, the entire town came to support Mr. White as he helped these young men change from farm workers to champions.
Face up to Reality
Calls to stop the use of face recognition technology are growing louder, but it is already too late. Given its widespread use by tech companies and the police, a permanent roll back is impossible.
The European Commission is considering temporarily banning the use of the technology in public spaces, giving politicians in Europe time to develop measures to reduce the potential risks of face recognition systems. Some US cities, such as San Francisco, have already implemented bans.
Public areas make up a small proportion of the physical spaces we inhabit. What about the many that are privately owned, such as shops, schools and museums, in which face recognition is steadily being rolled out, sometimes without our knowledge?
Most of us now associate face recognition with CCTV cameras（闭路电视摄像机）. Facebook, for example, runs face recognition on users' photos to automatically identify them in other images on the site, which has been functioning for years. Russian search engine Yandex has a smart search function that, given one image of a face, can find pictures online of the same person even in different poses and lighting conditions.
Other concerns relate to the fact that the technology is imperfect. An independent analysis of a face recognition trial by London's Metropolitan Police found that 81 per cent of matches the system flagged to a watch list of suspects were incorrect.
So what is the possible solution? When we consider both the rate at which the technology is developing and its widespread use nowadays, it is crystal-clear that a ban on its use in public spaces would be too little, too late.
A set of effective rules on when and how it can be used needs to be decided quickly. Face recognition technology is here to stay; implementing a temporary ban would be the regulatory equivalent of burying our faces in the sand.
A. This applies to face recognition, as is often the case.
B. As a matter of fact, it is advancing in the online field, too.
C. What face recognition needs is strict and urgent regulation.
D. But the prohibitions are so limited that they are hardly bans at all.
E. And it's even less accurate for some minorities, which risks worsening racial issues.
F. Companies cannot let market make a final decision on the future of new technology.
Mobile Translators
Not that long ago, portable(便携的) translation devices were only commonplace in works of science fiction. Travelers who headed to foreign countries took dictionaries or phrasebooks with them. But now people can access instant translation services almost anywhere they go.
Online translations are free, and when you use translation apps like Google Translate or iTranslate, sometimes you don't even have to look things up! Just point your phone's camera at some text, and a translation instantly appears. If you want to translate something being said aloud, just turn on your phone's microphone. Some apps even have a conversation mode where you take turns speaking with someone in a different language.
Translation apps make foreign travel much easier than before. They are valuable when it comes to communicating with taxi drivers or hotel staff who don't speak your language. But these apps are far from perfect. Sometimes a translation makes no sense, and you can only guess what it mainly means. Other times, you might not know that the translation has failed until you try it on a native speaker.
Although these apps are not perfect, you'll still feel surprised when considering what's happening underneath the app's surface. You might not appreciate how advanced modern translation systems are! Translators use machine learning to compare millions of examples of human translated texts. That information helps the program reproduce more natural sounding translations based on real-world examples. People can flag incorrect or unhelpful translations and suggest better ones. This input is then used to make future translations better.
With programs like Google Translate, it can be hard to get good translations for single words because most words have multiple meanings. It's better to try short sentences that provide context instead. But make the sentence straightforward. Anything too complicated or idiomatic will likely produce unusual results.
As people continue to use translation services, translations will improve. One day you might not have to worry about a poor translation causing an embarrassing misunderstanding. But used wisely, they are still excellent aids for exploring and understanding the world around you.
Mobile translators use machine to process words, so the author worries about the efficient application of the translators in the future.
