This is What’s Trending Today.

Francie Lubbe of South Africa awoke one morning during her safari trip to an impressive sight. Two female lions were licking（舔）the outside of her tent！The lions were licking small drops of water left over from a rain storm.

Lubbe quickly began taking video of the wild animals. She posted the video on Facebook this week. People from around the world commented about how calm she and her friend in the tent remained when they saw the lions so close. People were also impressed that they decided to take a video.

Lubbe was camping in a tent at a national park on the northern border of South Africa near Botswana. The lions are the most famous creatures in the national park. They are called Kalahari lions. They get their name for their home-the Kalahari Desert. It covers parts of South Africa , Botswana and Namibia. Female Kalahari lions weigh about 150 kilograms.

Lubbe responded to the many comments about her video. She called the experience “very special”, She said the cloth door of her tent was open, but the lions did not enter.

Along with the 36-second video, she posted photos to her Facebook page of the lions exploring her camp. There are images of the lions looking into the tent from outside, and looking at a barbecue grill where campers cook.

People around the world reacted to the video on Facebook.

A netizen named Miller, wrote: “Shocking experience, but I think I would have wetted myself！”

Facebook user Mariana, said that her mother saw the lion video. Her mother then warmed her to not go camping anymore, even though New Jersey is very, very far away from the Kalahari Desert.

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

What would you have done if you woke up to see lions licking your tent？ We want to know. Write to us in the Comments section and on our www.hxen.com

1.What’s Trending Today most probably is ______.

A.an adventure film B.a science fiction

C.an academic magazine D.a radio program

2.What did Lubbe do when she found the lions？

A.She took a video of them at once. B.She opened the tent door to meet them.

C.She broadcast them live on Facebook. D.She closed the cloth door of her tent.

3.What can we learn about the lions from the passage？

A.They came up to Lubbe and asked for help.

B.They weigh about 125 kilograms.

C.They were frightened out of entering the tent.

D.They didn’t hurt Lubbe and her friend.

4.What does the underlined part “have wetted myself” in the 8th Paragraph most probably mean？

A.be terribly frightened B.keep calm

C.feel very cold D.be overjoyed

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer is a Dutch painter of the 17th century. Vermeer’s paintings are realistic pictures of scenes from everyday life. Not many of Vermeer’s paintings still exist. When one was put on sale in London in 2004, someone paid ￡16,000,000 for it, so you can see Vermeer is an artist who is valued very highly.

One of Vermeer’s most beautiful and well-known paintings is the Girl with a Pearl Earring. It shows a pretty young woman with blue cloth around her head and a large, shining pearl earring. We do not know much about Vermeer’s life, and the English writer Tracy Chevalier decided to think of a story to explain who the girl is in this painting. She gave the book the same name as the painting. Chevalier imagines that the girl in the painting works for the Vermeer family. Her name is Griet.

She comes from a poor family and does the cleaning and housework. Some of Vermeer’s family are nice to her, but others are not. The Vermeer family needs him to sell paintings to live. Vermeer works all day in his studio. He does not like anyone else to go into it, but Griet can go in to clean it. A rich man who often buys Vermeer’s paintings thinks Griet is beautiful and suggests Vermeer paint her. This makes trouble for the girl because Vermeer’s wife is unhappy that Vermeer allows Griet in his studio and paints her, and not his wife. She wants to send Griet away but the wife’s mother stops her, as she wants Vermeer to work and earn money.

Griet becomes interested in Vermeer’s work and more friendly with the artist. He asks her to make special colours for him and she spends more time in the studio.

Vermeer is not happy with the painting. Something is wrong-he cannot finish it. Then he remembers his wife’s lovely pearl earring. He asks his mother-in-law（岳母）for it and she gives it to him as she wants the painting finished and sold. When the wife is out, Griet wears the pearl earring and Vermeer paints it. When the painting is nearly finished, the wife sees it and is very angry that this girl she hates has had her earring. Griet loses her job and is sent away, but the butcher’s son loves her and takes care of her. In the end, they marry and lead a happy life.

This is Chevalier’s explanation of the famous painting and the expression on the girl’s face. The book has been made into a film with the same name. Do you think the story matches the picture？

1.Vermeer’s paintings are expensive because ______.

A.there are not many in the world B.they are very large

C.they show everyday life D.they are based on true stories

2.Griet is allowed into Vermeer’s studio because ______.

A.she needs to clean B.she needs to paint

C.Vermeer likes her D.she works as a student painter

3.According to the passage, we know that Vermeer’s mother-in-law ______.

A.wants the painting for herself B.wants Vermeer to make money

C.likes Griet very much D.hates her daughter

4.The ending of the story is ______.

A.happy B.sad C.uncertain D.negative

The Music of Ray Charles

Master of many styles

Ray Charles, a black singer and pianist, was born in 1930 in Georgia, USA. His relaxed style combined jazz, blues, pop and a type of black music called soul, which comes from the traditional music sung by slaves in the south of the USA. By the time Ray Charles died in 2004, he had won 12 Grammy Awards and performed at 10,000 concerts around the world. Many musicians called him simply “the Genius”.

Childhood poverty

Ray Charles was born into a poor family, without a father. When he was 5 years old, his younger brother died； and around the same time, Charles started to lose his sight. By the age of 7 he was completely blind. He had already been learning the piano for a year, and when he went blind, his mother knew this would be the only way he would earn any money in the future. All his life, Charles remembered her saying: “Do it right, or don’t do it at all”.

Becoming a musician

Later he went to a school for blind and deaf children where the teachers also encouraged him to study music. Sadly, while he was still at school, his mother died. He left school and in the early 1950s Charles formed a group of players. He sang, played the saxophone and the piano and composed music.

Three classic tunes

He made many recordings which are still classics: Georgia on my Mind, I Can’t Stop Loving You, and Hit the Road, Jack are the three best-known songs. He recorded CDs with famous artists like Elton John. Others, such as The Beatles, thought his music was wonderful and said that the music they composed used many of his techniques.

The film of his life

In 2003 a film biography of his life was produced, called Ray. The part of Charles was played by a young actor and musician called Jamie Foxx. The film director brought Foxx to meet Charles. After they had been playing together for two hours, Charles, then aged 73, jumped up and said, “He’s the one……he can do it.” A year later Charles died aged 74. The film of his life has been as popular as his songs and means that the memory of Charles’ music will live on.

1.Ray Charles was a black American singer ______.

A.who sang many different styles of music B.who mostly sang jazz

C.who mostly sang pop music D.who mostly sang soul music

2.Ray Charles’ mother encouraged him to play music because ______.

A.it would help him get used to being blind

B.it was a good way for a blind person to earn money

C.his father was a musician as well

D.she knew she would die soon

3.Ray Charles thought that Jamie Foxx ______.

A.was a good musician

B.was an excellent director

C.was the wrong person to play him in the film

D.was the right person to play him in the film

假设你是中学生李华，你的美国朋友Greg参加了当地一个网上举办的中国古诗背诵比赛（Chinese ancient poetry recitation competition），并且获得了一等奖，他写了一封邮件向你报喜，现在，你回一封邮件，邮件主要内容包括：

1、向他道贺；

2、赞赏他的付出；

3、鼓励他继续进步。

要求：

1、适当增加细节，以使行文连贯、流畅。

2、词数：100字左右。

Dear Greg，

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely

Li Hua

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有5处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词；

删除：把多余的词用（\）划掉；

修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2.只允许修改5处，多者（从第6处起）不计分。

Li Ziqi, a Chinese girl living in small village with her grandma in Mianyang, seldom speaks to media. At 29, she is famous as her beautiful videos of country life, posted on Weibo and YouTube.

She tends to work in silence. Absorbed in the natural beauty of the countryside, she devotes herself to extreme traditional ways of cooking, planting and making clothes. Although Ms. Li is almost always alone, but she doesn’t seem lonely. She shows that every single bit of food come from hard work. Long processes of making food seem meaningful and worthwhile.

    It was very hot in New York City last July 4th.Three police officers ducked into a Whole Foods Market to get something________to drink. What they walked into was a heated human drama.

When the three officers，Louis，Esanidy and Michael，were inside，a store security guard________went up to them. He had been anxiously looking for________with a possible thief. The woman in question didn’t have the look of a career criminal. She was________frightened, eyes red and cheeks wet with________.

The officers________her bag on the counter. “All we saw was containers of food We saw________else,” Louis told CBS New York.

“I’m starving.” she explained________a low voice, wiping tears from her cheeks repeatedly.

Caught red-handed, the woman thought she would be pushed off to________for the crime.________, the officers had another idea. “We’ll pay for her food,” Michael told the surprised________.

They picked up the woman’s bag and _______her to a cashier, where each paid $10 for the bill.

All the woman could do was weep in________. Covering her face with a handkerchief and drying her eyes, she kept saying, “Thank you, thank you.”

She wasn’t the only one moved by this act of kindness. “It was a very beautiful,________moment,” says Paul Bozynowski, a customer at the store. He was so taken by what he’d witnessed that he________a photo on Twitter for all to see and got many likes.

1.A.cold B.soft C.hot D.tasty

2.A.sadly B.immediately C.secretly D.carefully

3.A.time B.trouble C.order D.help

4.A.obviously B.finally C.actually D.slowly

5.A.smiles B.tears C.drinks D.sweat

6.A.looked after B.looked out C.looked up D.looked into

7.A.everything B.something C.nothing D.anything

8.A.with B.over C.through D.in

9.A.school B.prison C.street D.store

10.A.However B.Therefore C.Moreover D.Otherwise

11.A.shopkeeper B.woman C.reporter D.guard

12.A.pushed B.walked C.lifted D.invited

13.A.gratitude B.shame C.sadness D.disappointment

14.A.encouraging B.challenging C.touching D.satisfying

15.A.took B.posted C.drew D.painted

How I Handle My Attention

Recently, I started to feel pressed. Having to work two different jobs, plus writing and working on personal projects is difficult.1.I would wake up earlier. I would separate my day into 3-4 different pieces and try to fill them with various projects until I realized that it just doesn’t work. Why? Because time management is not as important as attention management.

I learned a few things:

Focusing on a task is returning to it every 48 hours.2.

There is a cap of two different tasks that you can do within a single day. I learned that it’s not the work that exhausted me the most, but the switching between different types of work.

3.And personal projects should be taken care of on my own time (e.g.,on weekends and holidays).

The more creative a task is, the earlier you should work on it. I am a morning person, so I try to write before breakfast.

4.Just telling yourself to do a specific activity five minutes longer than usual can help create stillness, and it leads to high-quality focus.

Attention is a rare resource. It’s only the deep focus, the “deep work”, as Cal Newport calls it, that leads to high-quality results and productivity.5.You’ll thank yourself later.

A.Stillness breeds focus.

B.Workweek should be for work.

C.Devote 2020 to mastering this vital skill.

D.If it takes longer, it’s not in the “focus zone”

E.Stay quiet, and I found myself deeply focused.

F.What matters today is where we focus our mental energy.

G.So I started to apply the old time-management techniques to myself.

    We all use different ways to remember ideas, facts and things we need to store. Remembering is an extremely important part of our learning experience. Information process, storage and recall（回顾）encourage purposeful learning.

But the brain doesn’t store everything we want or need for future use. It makes choices and tends to remember information that forms a memorable pattern. Things you learned recently can be particularly difficult to remember because they haven’t taken root in your mind.

“Forgetting allows us to remember what is really important to our survival. We forget much of what we read, watch, and think directly every day.” writes John Medina in his book, Brain Rules.

How do you avoid losing 90%of what you’ve learned? An inspiring writer and speaker Zig Ziglar once said：“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”

Repetition has been a remembering skill for ages. When you hear or read something once，you don’t really learn it-at least not well enough to store the new information for long. The right kind of repetition can do wonders for your memory. People learn or remember better by repeating things or getting exposed to information many times. Others repeat particular steps or processes deliberately a number of times or even years to become better at certain skills.

Daniel Coyle explains in his book, The Little Book of Talent：“...closing the book and writing a summary, even short ones, forces you to figure out the key points, process and organize those ideas so they make sense, and write them on the page. When you pick it back up weeks later, reread all of your notes or highlights to strengthen the ideas even further.”

People learn by repeating things. Better learning is a repetition process. Every time we repetitively access something we already know, we increase the memory’s stored value.

1.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A.The brain tends to store 90% of the things we learn.

B.The fresher the information is, the easier to remember.

C.Thinking is more important than remembering in study.

D.The brain tends to choose and keep what it thinks important.

2.How does the writer prove his opinion?

A.By giving examples. B.By listing numbers.

C.By borrowing words of experts. D.By providing scientific finding.

3.What does Daniel Coyle want to say in his book？

A.You can’t pay too much attention to repetition.

B.Summarizing is a very effective learning tool.

C.Forgetting forces human brain to make choices.

D.Regular repetition helps to form good habits.

4.What may be the purpose of the last paragraph？

A.To summarize and stress his opinion. B.To ask the readers to use the skills to learn.

C.To introduce his opinion and attract readers. D.To tell readers to increase the value of memory.

5.Which do you think is the best title of the passage？

A.How the Brain Works B.Reading for More

C.Fighting Against Forgetting D.Repeat to Remember

    A UPS (United Parcel Service) driver Ryan Arens was making his rounds near a pond in Bozeman, Montana, when he heard a sound. “Like a cry for help,” he told the Dodo. It was December 2019, and about 15 feet from the frozen banks was the source of that cry-a struggling dog with half of its body underwater, trying to stick to a thin layer of ice. How she got there no one knows, but an elderly man was already on the scene, determined to save her. He’d entered the pond in a rowboat and was trying hard to cut the ice with a rock to create a path to the dog. It was slowly going, and Arens,44, thought he stood a better chance.

“Animals are my weakness,” he told the Great Falls Tribune, explaining why he took off his clothes without hesitation, even though the temperature was in the 30s, and took over the rowboat.

His heart beating wildly, Arens slid closer to the dog and used the other man’s rock to smash away at the ice. He gave one too strong hit and slipped off the boat, falling into 16 feet of icy water.

He resurfaced in time to see the dog going under. Using nervous energy to keep warm, he swam about five feet toward her, took hold of her collar, and pulled her to the ice. He then lifted the dog into the boat and slid it back to the shore, where anxious bystanders carried the dog to the home of the elderly man, a retired animal doctor. Once in the house himself, Arens jumped into a warm shower with the dog until they both felt warm. A few more minutes in the pond，the doctor told Arens, and she would have likely suffered cardiac arrest(心脏骤停).

The next day, Arens was back working in the same neighborhood when the dog’s owner came over to thank him for saving Sadie. “Would you like to meet her?” he asked. He opened the door to his pickup, and immediately out raced Sadie. She went straight to Arens, leaping on him and bathing him in wet kisses. “That special delivery”，says Arens, “was the highlight of my UPS career.”

1.What happened to the dog?

A.It lost its way home. B.It was caught in an accident.

C.It fell into a pond. D.It was trapped in a truck.

2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 tell us?

A.He can’t help helping animals in trouble B.Dogs are too weak to stand the cold.

C.He is good at raising weak animals. D.He is too weak to save the dog.

3.What was the weather like when it happened?

A.Warm B.Cold C.Cool D.Hot.

4.Who saved the dog in the end?

A.The animal doctor. B.Ryan Arens

C.A bystander. D.A reporter.

5.What can we conclude from the end of the story?

A.Sadie went to live with the person who saved her.

B.The dog owner was not a responsible master.

C.Dogs should be kept indoors in cold weather.

D.Arens was proud of what he had done.

    Staying-at-home proves to be effective in slowing the spread of the virus, but loneliness can be tough for many. Luckily, in the age of social media, we are never truly alone. And with the extra time spent indoors, artists are stepping up to help us all with the following clubs.

Drawing from Distance by Sarah Beth Morgan

Let’s shine some light during this trying time and encourage social distancing! I’m starting this tomorrow myself -but from what I offer, take whatever you please. No rules! Just have fun!

Stayathome Art Club by Carson Ellis

Hello! I’ll be posting art homework here every weekday morning when I can. They’ll be designed for kids and grownups alike. Here is your first homework: Draw a picture of yourself from the shoulders up. You can follow some useful examples. If you want to share or see other people’s self-picture, use these hashtags: #Stayathomeartclub# QACselfportrait

30-Day indoor Art by Danielle Krysa

One month of avoiding crowds? I’m in! I challenge you to use this time inside to make one piece every day from now until mid April. Please join me in playing around with some painting ideas that have been rolling around in my head but haven’t found their way onto paper yet. Stay at home, make art, save someone’s life.

DIY from Illustoria Magazine

We have been so inspired to see our community come together to provide easy art projects for families during this stay-at-home-time! DIY is actually a fantastic way to spark your imagination without breaking a sweat. A video every day will teach you how to DIY something.

1.What do we know about Sarah Beth Morgan?

A.She is a strict artist. B.She aims at training more artists.

C.She prefers to work at home office. D.She will provide a wide range of choices.

2.What are you expected to do if you join Stayathome Art Club?

A.Hand in homework every day. B.Share other people’s pictures.

C.Draw a picture of yourself. D.Show up in person occasionally.

3.What does “spark” in the last paragraph probably mean?

A.set off B.set down C.set aside D.set about

4.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A.All the artists are in support of the stay-at-home policy.

B.Carson Ellis asks the members to draw a picture of her.

C.Danielle Krysa invites artists to put her ideas on paper.

D.People in a community will come their DIYs.

5.What do these online art clubs intend to do?

A.To provide chances for people to learn arts.

B.To advertise their clubs to attract more members.

C.To help people stay creative and connected while at home.

D.To help people learn more skills to enrich their lives in their spare time.