Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes
When you make a mistake, big or small, cherish(珍视) it like it's the most precious thing in the world, because in some ways, it is.
Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, get mad at ourselves.
And that's only natural: most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, that we should try to avoid mistakes. We've been scolded when we make mistakes at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.
Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow. If you think about it that way, mistakes should be cherished and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world: they make learning possible; they make growth and improvement possible.
By trial and error-trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes-we have figured out how to make electric light, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to fly.
Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, make works of genius possible.
Think about how we learn: we don't just consume information about something and instantly know it or know how to do it. You don't just read about painting, or writing, or computer programming, or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away. Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from observing usually...then you construct a model in your mind...then you test it out by trying it in the real world...then you make mistakes...then you revise the model based on the results of your real-world experimentation and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you've pretty much learned how to do something. That's how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Mistakes are how we learn to do something new, because if you succeed in something, it's probably something you already knew how to do. You haven't really grown much from that success---at most it's the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey was made up of mistakes, if it's a good journey.
So if you value learning, if you value growing and improving, then you should value mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world of brilliance possible.
1.Why do most of us feel bad about making mistakes?
A. Because mistakes make us suffer a lot.
B. Because it's a natural part in our life.
C. Because we've been taught so from a young age.
D. Because mistakes have ruined many people's careers.
2.According to the passage, what is the right attitude to mistakes?
A. We should try to avoid making mistakes.
B. We should owe great inventions mainly to mistakes.
C. We should treat mistakes as good chances to learn.
D. We should make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction.
3.The underlined word "toddler" in Paragraph 6 probably means __________.
A. a small child learning to walk
B. a kindergarten child learning to draw
C. a primary school pupil learning to read
D. a school teenager learning to write
4.We can learn from the passage that __________.
A. most of us can really grow from success
B. growing and improving are based on mistakes
C. we learn to make mistakes by trial and error
D. we read about something and know how to do it right away
A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
1.The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.
A. they had no model in their mind
B. they did not have sufficient time
C. they had no ready-made components
D. they could not assemble the components
2.It can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly __________.
A. consists of a flight device and a control system
B. can just fly in limited areas at the present time
C. can collect information from many sources
D. has been put into wide application
3.Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
A. The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.
B. Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.
C. There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.
D. Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. Father of Robotic Fly
B. Inspiration from Engineering Science
C. Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect
D. Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study
“Can’t hold a candle to” is a popular expression．When there wasn’t electricity, someone would have a servant light his way by holding a candle．The expression meant that the person who cannot hold a candle to you is not fit even to be your servant．Now，it means such a person cannot compare or compete．
Another expression is“hold your tongue．”It means to be still and not talk．“Hold your tongue”is not something you would tell a friend．But a parent or teacher might use the expression to quiet a noisy child．
“Hold out”is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news．It means to refuse to play or work．Professional football and baseball players“hold out” if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth．
The expression“hold up” has several different meanings．One is a robbery．A man with a gun may say,“This is a hold up．Give me your money．”Another meaning is to delay．A driver who was held up by heavy traffic might be late for work．Another meaning is for a story to be considered true after an investigation．A story can hold up if it is proved true．
“Hold on”is another expression，which means wait or stop．As you leave for school，your brother may say,“Hold on，you forgot your book．” It is used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone．
Our final expression is“hold the line．”That means to keep a problem or situation from getting worse—to hold steady．For example，the president may say he will“hold the line on taxes．”He means there will be no increase in taxes．
1.The expression“can’t hold a candle to”can be used when ____________．
A. some footballers refuse to play a game
B. someone else is wanted on the phone
C. someone is not qualified for a position
D. someone was delayed by heavy traffic
2.The tune of the phrase“hold your tongue”is probably a little ___________．
A. amusing B. polite C. unfriendly D. offensive
3.If some teachers“hold out”，they probably __________．
A. change their attitude B. refuse to work
C. make a compromise D. show their devotion
4.Which of the following sentences can convey positive meanings?
A. I was late as I was held up by a hold up．
B. Hold on! You have to pay the bill，sir．
C. You can’t even hold a candle to Michael．
D. I promise to hold the line on house prices．
When I decided to quit my job as a wedding photographer, I was in my late twenties, fresh from my divorce from Bob who had left me empty and confused. I decided to leave the US and travel. I had no savings, plus more than $5,000 in debt. What I did have were two sponsored tasks as a travel photographer- and with that along, I thought, it would be easy.
My first experience was a road trip from Toronto to Las Vegas, paid for by a car delivery service. Other trips followed and then I started a travel blog (博客). It was intended to be my calling card for assignment travel photography. Yet even with my blog and past experience, email after email I sent to publications, trying to get work, went unanswered. When they did get in touch, editors told me that I had no chance of making a career with travel photography. While I struggled to get on the path that I wanted, and as I expanded my blog to help get me there, I found myself wearing the hat of a full-time blogger.
Luckily, I got in at the right time. It was 2010，and the travel industry was just starting to turn its attention to bloggers. As I never could have predicted, my blogging-not my photography-did take me around the world successfully. At first，I thought it was for personal reasons, but I realized later that it was for free marketing for my blogging.
Within two years, I was being asked to speak at travel blogging conferences, which helped me to raise a network of friends around the world. Even more meaningful, however, was when I saw that my travels were also helping other people. My blog and social media followers saw that I chased my dreams and told me over and over again how they needed that kind of example, which was absent in their lives elsewhere.
1.After the author quit her job, she decided to ______.
A. divorce her husband
B. be a wedding photographer
C. pay off all her debt
D. go travelling abroad
2.What can we learn about the author from the 2nd paragraph?
A. She paid money to a car delivery agency for a road trip.
B. She realized her dream of becoming a travel photographer.
C. She got a job as an editor in a publishing house.
D. She finally became a professional blogger unintentionally.
3.The author believed her success mainly resulted from ______.
A. her personal reasons
B. her photographing skills
C. free marketing for blogging
D. booming of travel industry
书面表达
假定你是李华，你所在的学校将要举办一场春节庆祝活动。你和你的同学邀请在你校的美国交换生Tom参加。请你写一封信给Tom，要点如下：
1. 活动内容；
2. 邀请Tom一起表演一个中西合璧的节目；
3. 活动时间：2015年农历12月30日晚7：00-10：00
4. 活动地点：学校学术报告厅。
5.
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语已经为你写好。
Dear Tom,
You have told me that you are very interested in how we Chinese celebrate our traditional festivals.____________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
We are looking forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely
Li Hua
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（不多于3个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
There is a wonderful story about Jimmy Durante, one of great singers. 1. （ask）to be a part of a show for some old World WarⅡsoldiers, he told them he was very busy and he could afford only a few minutes, 2. he would come if they wouldn’t mind his singing one short song and immediately leaving for his next appointment. Of course, the show’s director agreed 3. (happy).
But when Jimmy got on stage, something surprising happened. He went through 4. short song and then stayed. The applause grew louder and louder and he kept 5. (stay). Pretty soon, he had been on stage 6. fifteen, twenty, and then thirty minutes. One of his 7. (assist) behind the stage stopped him and said, “I thought you had to go after a few minutes. What happened?”
Jimmy answered, “I did have to go, but I can show you the reason why I stayed. You can see for 8. (you) if you look at the front row.” In the front row were two men, both of 9. had lost an arm in the war. One had lost his right arm and the other had lost his left. Together, they were able to clap, and that was exactly what they 10. (do) , loudly and cheerfully.
