Dealing with sleep-away Camp
I have never been away from home, at least not for more than three days, much less two whole weeks. When I got the chance to go to Journalism Camp, I was afraid. Of the 19 other students there, I Knew no one.
What if I had to go home during camp time because I wouldn't be able to get used to the new situation? What if my roommate and I don't get along? How do I even use a washing machine?
Well, after the first night, nearly all of my problems were solved. The students were amazing, and my roommate was perfect. She knew how to do crazy braids(辫子) with my long hair and she loved to listen to me talk loudly! I couldn't have asked for more.
The two weeks nearly flew by, and I learned to take responsibility for myself: washing clothes, cleaning and other things like that.
However, in the process I didn’t realize how tied I had become to the usual order of waking up early, running to get to the newsroom in time, and coming back to a large room full of friends who shared similar feelings as I did.
On the last day, I couldn’t get myself to turn in my room keys. It couldn't be over. I become emotionally tied really easily, so it was hard for me to pull away. I couldn't push away my tears. Leaving camp Just left me empty.
I wasn't having the “blues”, but I felt really sad about leaving. Returning home, I was in the state of disappointment for a few days. I kept to myself, sleeping through most of the day so I wouldn’t have time to look back.
I needed to get used to life at home again. This was my challenge. I was lucky to have the two-week experience, but I had to learn to accept that not all things last forever.
I could still keep in touch with my new friends while continuing on with the rest of my summer. I know I will go through the same experience when I leave high school after senior year. High school life will never return after graduation, but I can still keep in touch with my friends and look forward to other experiences I will have.
1.How did the writer feel when she got the chance to go to Journalism Camp?
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2.After the first night, what did the writer think of the students and her roommate?
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3.How long did the camp last?
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4.What was her challenge?
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5.What did the writer learn from the experience?
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Today in our P. E. class, we all had to play basketball. There are only 7 girls in our P.E. class, so the class is mostly boys. And because we’re girls, they don't really like us. We hate basketball, and they hate us. So we asked them if we could sit on the chairs and not play. They agreed and so we talked and laughed happily on the chairs.
Well, today, Just while all the girls were talking happily, the P. E. teacher came in. Angrily, he looked at all the boys running around with the basketball. Seeing that not a girl was playing, he looked at us. Shaking his head, he blew his whistle( 哨子). Everyone looked up. We were all surprised.
“Why aren't you playing?” he asked us.
“Well，they said that we didn’t have to play，Mr. Backus!” We quickly blamed(归咎于) the boys, afraid to get into trouble.
“What? They didn't want to play!” the boys didn't want to get into trouble, either. Mr. Backus told us to get up and made all of us run around the playground for 5 minutes. Later, he made us sit down and listen to him. The boys complained, but he made them listen anyway.
“Am I ever unfair to you?” he asked. We all shook our heads. It was true. Mr. Backus was the nicest P. E. teacher ever! He never shouted and complained. He was just nice. “Well, then I hope you are fair to me. I don t care whose fault(错误) it was. One person’s fault, the whole class’s fault. Understand?”
We nodded and waited. It was the only thing he ever asked us to do: to be fair. It was not much; it was not anything. So we listened on.
“This time I catch you not doing anything, you run for 5 minutes. Next time. you run for 10 minutes. It’s your choice. You could play games or run. I don’t really care, but I think you care. Remember, one person's fault: the whole class's fault. Got it?”
As we nodded again, he left. We could see him smile as he closed the door. Mr. Backus was just too nice. That was why we all liked him and he certainly loved us.
1.Do the girls in the class like basketball?
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2.What did the girls do in their P. E. class?
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3.How long did Mr. Backus ask the students to run?
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4.What did the students think of Mr. Backus?
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5.What did Mr. Backus want his students to learn from his lesson?
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People can’t see you when you’re speaking on the phone, but they can hear you. So, the way you speak is especially important. In fact, researchers have found that 80% of communication over the phone is through your tone（语气）of voice; and only 20% is from the words you use. Here are our top tips on how to speak over the phone.
1.Facial Expressions
Your facial expressions can influence your voice. For example, if you smile, your voice will sound warm and friendly, just the opposite, if you have an angry look on your face, it can make you sound unpleasant.
2.Volume（音量）
If you speak too loudly, you could sound angry. And if you speak too softly, it’ll be difficult to hear you. So, speak loudly enough to be heard clearly, but not so loud that you’re shouting.
3.Pace
The pace of your voice is how quickly you speak. And this can show how you feel. For example, an angry person might speak faster than normal. Or a downhearted person might speak very slowly. Try speaking a little more slowly than normal. This will make you sound confident, and it’ll make it easier for the other person to understand you.
4.Gestures（手势）
Gesturing can influence the tone of your voice. When you gesture, you bring more air into the lungs, which can make your voice sound warmer. Gestures are also useful to help you stress the right words or even find the words you need. The best thing about gesturing during a phone call is that no one can see what you’re doing, so you can gesture as wildly as you like!
5.Movement
If you’re feeling nervous, stand up and move around. It will reduce the nervousness in your body and help your voice to sound more confident.
6. Pauses（停顿）
Using pauses every now and then can help you to slow down. This will make you sound more confident and in control. Also, if you pause after giving some new information, it’ll give the other person time to understand it. At the same time, listen to how the other person uses pauses. They could tell you something about the speaker’s feeling. For example, when a speaker is really angry, he might use pauses and say, “I... am... so... angry...”
1.Can your facial expressions influence your voice?
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2.What is the pace of voice?
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3.What is the best thing about gestures during phone call?
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4.What can people do to reduce their nervousness on the phone?
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5.What is the passage mainly about?
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Garbage（垃圾） Island
You can’t see it from the air. It’s almost impossible to see from a ship. But somewhere in the North Pacific is a huge island of garbage, just below the water surface.
What is the island made of?
The garbage island is not an island, but a collection of millions of plastic and other objects（物体）. The water movements of the Pacific Ocean bring the objects together and cause them to go around in a big circle.
Charles Moore found it in 1997 and named it “the Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.
Where does all the plastic come from?
Much of the garbage comes from everyday objects, such as shopping bags and water bottles. Some of these objects finally reach the ocean. Garbage from the western coast of North America takes about six years to reach it. Objects from East Asia take about a year. Other garbage comes from ships passing through the area.
Is the Garbage Patch dangerous?
The larger pieces of garbage are a problem for wildlife. For example, sea turtles（海龟） and seabirds often think the plastic is their food. They eat the plastic and die.
In addition, the plastic stops sunlight from reaching deeper water. Without sunlight, very small sea animals die. Then, there is less food for larger fish to eat.
What can we do to help stop it?
Cleaning up the island isn’t easy. But we can make people realize the problem. One environmentalist（环保主义者）， David de Rothschild, is sailing around the world on a boat made of plastic bottles to teach people about the problem of garbage in the sea.
Another idea is that we can recycle the plastic garbage. Environmental engineer Cesar Harada is building a robot that collects pieces of plastic. Harada hopes to use his robot in the Pacific. Harada also has a website for reporting environmental problems. He says, “I hope everybody can become an environmental activist.”
1.What is the garbage made of?
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2.How long does it take objects from East Asia to reach the island?
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3.Is the garbage island dangerous?
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4.Why is David de Rothschild sailing on a bottle boat?
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5.According to the writer, what can we do to help stop garbage island?
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Can you imagine a world without a writing system for your language? It may be hard to picture it now, but a man named Sequoyah lived in such a world. Sequoyah was a member of a native American tribe, the Cherokee. Cherokee people speak their own language, but for hundreds of years they did not have a system of writing. Without a writing system, the Cherokee had no newspapers or books before 1809.
Sequoyah was probably born around the year 1770 and lived with his mother in a small village in the mountains of Tennessee. When he grew up, he became a blacksmith. When he was doing business with those “English-speaking people”, he noticed that they used paper with marks to record their thoughts and ideas. Sequoyah called these pieces of paper with marks “talking leaves”. He began to wonder why people who spoke Cherokee did not have a way to write down their words.
In 1809, Sequoyah decided to give the Cherokee their own “talking leaves”. At first he tried to make a different symbol for every word in the Cherokee language. But in that case, there would be so many symbols and too hard for people to remember, so he decided to make a picture for each syllable (音节). After much hard work, Sequoyah invented 85 symbols. In order to see whether it would work, he helped his six-year-old daughter Ayoka learn each symbol and found she could learn to read and write very quickly. Sequoyah’s invention was a success!
Before long, Sequoyah’s writing system had spread far and wide. Cherokee people living in all different parts of the country learned to read and write. In 1825, Sequoyah’s system was made the official written language for Cherokee people. To this day, Cherokee speakers still use Sequoyah’s writing system. In some parts of the United States, you can see street signs and billboards written in both English and Cherokee. Sequoyah will always be remembered for his important contribution to Cherokee people.
1.Did the Cherokee have newspapers before 1809?
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2.What did Sequoyah call the pieces of paper with marks?
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3.How many symbols did Sequoyah invent in the Cherokee language?
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4.When was Sequoyah’s system made the official written language?
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5.Why will Sequoyah always be remembered?
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Albino Power
I was born an albino（白化病患者） in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1945. No one in my family had ever known what an albino was, what it meant to be an albino, what had to be done differently because I was an albino.
My parents and friends treated me just like they treated everybody else. They was just about the best thing they could have done. It gave me a leg up on trusting myself, so when troubles came along, I could deal with them.
Truly, my schoolbook photo always looked like a snowball with two pieces of coal for eyes. Like most albinos, I had terrible eyesight, but the fact that I could hardly see didn’t worry me all that much.
Kids laughed at me, calling me “Whitey”. People stared at me when I held reading material right at the tip of my nose so I could see it well enough to read. Even when I was eight or nine, movie theater workers started asking me to pay adult prices because I “looked older”.
The worst part for me was that because my eyesight was so bad that I couldn’t play sports very well. but I didn’t give up trying. I practiced playing basketball every day. And I studied harder.
Finally, I got better at school and loved it. By the time I got to college, I was double majoring（专业）, going to summer school and taking part in every kind of after-class activity I could find. I had learned to be proud of being an albino. I tried my best to make “albino” positive work. And I decided to make my living with my eyes—and in sports.
I couldn’t see well enough to play sports, but with a good and long-lasting education and the drive to do it, I could make a living involved in the area I loved. I’ve done it now for more than thirty years in print and in video, and now in cyberspace. People make jokes about how I’m the only “blind editor（编辑）” they know, but the jokes are friendly smiles now, and some of them are signs of respect. And I make jokes about being an albino. I have even developed an all-white routine, if you could call it that.
I was just a proud albino kid from the coal country of Pennsylvania. I now realize that being born an albino helped me to get over difficulties, become confident, and be proud of my personal achievements.
1.How did the writer’s parents and friends treat him?
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2.Why couldn’t the writer play sports very well?
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3.What was the writer doing by the time he got to college?
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4.What does the writer think of the “blind editor” jokes now?
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5.What does “Albino Power” mean to the writer?
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