“The Mexican is familiar with death, jokes with it, sleeps with it and celebrates it,” wrote Mexican author Octavio Paz.
To celebrate death, people throughout Mexico celebrate the Day of the Dead on or around Nov. 1 each year. People wear makeup to celebrate the festival on that day.
Widely considered to be Mexico’s most important festival, the Day of the Dead is deeply rooted in the culture of the local Mexica.
The Mexica were the dominant local people in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
The celebration is based on a Mexican legend ( 传 说 ) that says after death, souls can only communicate with their still-living families in the first days of November. One can see how these days would be quite important for the Mexican people.
Now the tradition has become a modern festival .
“It’s a celebration with many years of history, to which local people have incorporated(融合) new religious elements, such as the gathering of offerings,” said Octavio Murillo, director at the National Institute of Local People in Mexico.
On this special day, people around Mexico decorate their homes, streets and relatives’ graves with flowers, candles and colorful skulls. At the same time, they set up altars ( 祭坛) on which they place the personal belongings of the dead to welcome them home.
In recent years, this festival has become a global symbol of Mexican culture , especially after the movie Coco《寻梦环游记》 hit big screens in 2017.
“We are all afraid of death, and in Mexico, it is part of a celebration, a ritual of color. It’s amazing. ” said Alejandra Diaz, a 30-year-old traveller. She took a week-long trip from Colombia to Mexico City just to take part in the festivities.
1.What do we know about the Day of the Dead?
A.It dates back to the 15th century.
B.It is related to a Mexica legend.
C.It honors those who died for Mexico.
D.It is a traditional Christian festival in Mexico.
2.What is the main idea of Paragraphs 6 to 8?
A.The origins of the Day of the Dead.
B.Traditional ways of celebrating the Day of the Dead.
C.How the Day of the Dead is recently celebrated in Mexico.
D.Why the Day of the Dead is important for Mexican people.
3.Why is the movie Coco mentioned in the text?
A.To show that we should not be afraid of death.
B.To prove that the Day of the Dead has become a modern festival.
C.To present the influence of Mexican culture on modern movies.
D.To tell the readers that the festival stands for Mexican culture.
Emilia Dobek’s interest in space and the universe started in third grade when she and her father watched a blooded moon — a total lunar eclipse (月食) — outside their Skokie house. “It was just really cool how the universe can change and how something like that happens,” Dobek said.
Now a seventh grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Generation Beyond Challenge by designing a space station for traveling to Mars.
Dobek competed by handing in a two-minute video where she presented her design.
“My design will not only ensure the safety of the astronauts (宇航员) but also make sure their comfort is out of this world,” she says in her video.
Dobek’s design calls for building the Mars Storage Station to store plentiful supplies. In the video, Dobek explains how her spacecraft (宇宙飞船) — the Adventure — will land in a space station. Dobek’s design includes physical activity for the astronauts. Astronauts can choose their exercise machine and virtual (虚拟的) reality environment. So astronauts will be able to watch downloaded shows and even see places on Earth such as their home.
Dobek said she began her project by performing her research and then she constructed the design over three weeks to a month, working on it whenever she could including on weekends.
When Andrea Smeeton, her teacher, saw the video and her design before they were sent, she said she had a feeling she could win. “I don’t know why but maybe it was the excitement and the detail in the project,” Smeeton said. “I have taught for a long time and many of my students are gifted but this project was just very creative and it gave hope to a space program.”
Dobek and her parents traveled to Washington D. C. in April where they learned Dobek had won. When she texted her teacher the happy results, Smeeton admitted that she cried.
“I want to tell other kids to follow their dreams,” Dobek said. “Whatever they want to do, they should kind of just push for it. They should always try their best. ”
1.What change did Dobek show after watching the lunar eclipse?
A.She determined to be a scientist. B.She took to working with her father.
C.She was interested in the universe. D.She gave up wanting to be an astronaut.
2.What can be learned about Dobik’s design?
A.It replaced the role of the Adventurer.
B.It enabled astronauts to connect with their family.
C.It ensured the safety of the supplies in the spacecraft.
D.It aimed to make life in the Mars space station comfortable.
3.How did Smeeton feel about Dobek’s design after seeing it?
A.It was pretty amazing. B.It was a little disappointing.
C.It was less fun than she expected. D.It was as good as other students.
4.What kind of girl is Dobek?
A.Energetic and friendly. B.Productive and selfless.
C.Strong-willed and generous. D.Forward-thinking and inventive.
Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in brackets.
1.这场经济危机将席卷整个欧洲似乎是在所难免的。(sweep)
2.他父母所骄傲的是他用一种全新的方式演绎了整个角色。(pride)
3.虽然政府已经对公共场合吸烟下了禁令，但一些吸烟者还是甘愿冒着被罚款的危险。(ban n. / risk n.)
4.无论他跺脚，折断指挥棒，还是把乐谱撕得粉碎，指挥都无法从管弦乐队那得到要的效果。(tear)
5.正是因为表演特技需要天赋和技巧，才使得一些特技不得不留给专业特技演员。(It 强调句, leave)
Directions: 用动词的适当形式和恰当的冠词、连词、介词、代词或情态动词、形容词副词的比较级或最高级填空，使句子成立
Turning Pain into Music
After 1. (diagnose) with a severe pain disease, Jake Smith from Colorado leaned on music to cope.
The problem first started for Smith when he was a freshman in high school. He suffered a concussion(脑震荡)while playing basketball. The symptoms didn't seem to go away after several months.
Doctors discovered a small fracture(裂缝)in Smith's skull that was causing the pressure and the headaches. The teenager had surgery to repair it, but when he woke up, the problem was much worse. For months, he was in near constant pain. ''It was the first time in my life that I 2. (experience) a pain severe enough to actually understand why people would kill themselves because of the pain.'' Smith said.
Doctors eventually diagnosed him with Trigeminal Neuralgia(三叉神经痛), a disorder that causes severe pain in the face. T. N. , 3. it's also called, gets worse over time and is incurable. Doctors call it suicide disease because they think it’s 4. (painful) thing a human can experience. And they estimate that 25 percent of people who have this disease end up killing 5..
Facing this awful reality, Smith turned to something he'd known since he was five years old - playing the piano. When he was in too much pain to sleep, he would be in the basement on his keyboard playing all night long.
The keys wouldn’t take the pain away, but the notes would make it more bearable.
While dealing with the immense pain, the then-18-year-old wrote his first album, Loreto. He published all 17 songs on his website, free for all, aiming to offer some comfort to people also 6. (go) through pain.
The idea prompted Smith to start song dedications(为他人写歌). He would take request within online groups for people suffering from T. N. or other pain disorders and write 7. (personalize) melodies(旋律)for them. 8. his won suffering, he composed songs like ''Ad Defeats Despair, '' ''Maiji's Waterfall'' and ''Marsha's Snowy Mountain, '' sometimes based one person's requested peaceful place.
''A lot of people say that when I write them a song and they listen to it, their pain is a lessened ... So, I guess that's 9. I keep doing it. '' he said.
The 20-year-old has so far published over 100 songs on his website. His efforts 10. (help) people with T. N. have expanded to include other pain diseases, as well as cancer.
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there two more sentences than you need.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
When I was a kid, I felt anxious about the question, because I never had a good answer. Adults always seemed terribly disappointed that I wasn’t dreaming of becoming something grand or heroic, like a filmmaker or an astronaut.
In college, I finally realized that I didn’t want to be one thing. I wanted to do many things. So I found a workaround: I became an organizational psychologist. My job is to fix other people’s jobs. I get to experience them indirectly—I’ve gotten to explore how filmmakers blaze new trails(开创先河)and how astronauts build trust. 1.
My first complaint with the question is that it forces kids to define themselves in terms work. When you’re asked what you want to be when you grow up, it’s not socially acceptable say, “A father,” or, “A mother,” let alone, “A person of integrity(诚实正直)”. This might be of the reasons many parents say their most important value for their children is to car about others, yet their kids believe that top value is success. 2.
The second problem is the implication that there is one calling(使命感) out the everyone. Although having a calling can be a source of joy, research shows that search one leaves students felling lost and confused. And even if you’re lucky enough to stum a calling, it might not be a viable(切实可行的) career. My colleagues and I have form callings often go unanswered: 3.
If you manage to overcome those obstacles, there is a third hurdle: Careers rarely your childhood dreams. In one study, looking for the ideal job left college seniors feeling more anxious, stressed, overwhelmed and depressed throughout the process satisfied with the outcome. 4. Sure, you might be a little less excited to take it, but on average you end up more productive and less likely to quit.
I’m all for encouraging youngsters to aim high and dream big. But take it who studies work for a living: those aspirations should be bigger than work . As they want to be leads them to claim a career identity they might never want invite them to think about what kind of person they want to be -- and about things they might want to do.
A.Many career passions don’t pay the bills, and many of us just don’t have the talent.
B.Extensive evidence shows that instead of painting a rosy picture of a job, you’re better off having a realistic preview of what it’s really like.
C.People who graduate from college during a recession(经济衰退) are more satisfied with their work three decades later.
D.I have become convinced that asking youngsters what they want to be does them harm.
E.When we define ourselves by our jobs, our worth depends on what we achieve.
F.Your job is not always going to fulfill you.
There are few more sobering online activities than entering data college-tuition calculators and gasping as the Web spits back a six-figure sum. But economists say families about to go into debt to fund four years of partying, as well as studying, can comfort themselves with the knowledge that college is an investment that, unlike many bank stocks, should yield huge dividends.
A 2008 study by two Harvard economists notes that the “labor-market premium to skill”— to the amount college graduates earned—decreased for much of the 20th century, but he come back with a vengeance since the 1980s. In 2005, the typical full-time year-round U. S. worker with a four-year college degree earned $50,900, 62% more than $31,500 earned by a worker with only a high-school diploma.
There’s no question that going to college is a smart economic choice. But a look at the strange variations in tuition reveals that the choice about which college to attend doesn’t come down merely to dollars and cents. Does going to Columbia University (tuition, room and board $49,260 in 2007-2008) yield a 40% greater return than attending the University of Colorado at Boulder as an out-of-state student ($35,542)? Probably not. does being an out-of-state student at the University of Colorado at Boulder yield twice the amount of income as being an in-state student ($17,380) there? Not likely.
No, in this consumerist age, most buyers aren’t evaluating college as an investment, but rather as a consumer product —like a car or clothes or a house. And with such purchases, price is only one of many crucial factors to consider.
As with automobiles, consumers in today’s college marketplace have vast choices, and people search for the one that gives them the most comfort and satisfaction in line with their budgets. This accounts for the willingness of people to pay more for different types of experiences (such as attending a private liberal - arts college or going to an out-of-state public school that has a great marine - biology program). And just as two auto purchasers might spend an equal amount of money on very different cars, college students (or, more accurately, their parents) often show a willingness to pay essentially the same price for vastly different products. So which is it? Is college an investment product like a stock or a consumer product like a car? In keeping with automotive world’s hottest consumer trend, maybe it’s best to characterize it as a hybrid; an expensive sunburned product that, over time, will pay rich dividends.
1.What’s the opinion of economists about going to college?
A.Huge amounts of money is being wasted on campus socializing.
B.It doesn’t pay to run into debt to receive a college education.
C.College education is rewarding in spite of the shocking costs.
D.Going to college doesn’t necessarily bring the expected returns.
2.The two Harvard economists note in their study that, for much of the 20th century. _______.
A.enrollment kept decreasing in virtually all American colleges and universities
B.the labor market preferred high-school to college graduates
C.competition for university admissions was far more fierce than today
D.the gap between the earnings of college and high-school graduates narrowed
3.Students who attend an in-state college or university can _______.
A.save more on tuition B.receive a better education
C.take more liberal-arts courses D.avoid traveling long distances
4.What is the chief consideration when students choose a college today?
A.Their employment prospects after graduation. B.A satisfying experience within their budgets .
C.Its facilities and learning environment. D.Its ranking among similar institutions.
