I always come across random acts of kindness in my life. Many years ago, I was _______Costa Rica when I found myself in an _______situation: my credit cards and bank cards went out of _________ abroad, and I only had $5 to my ________.
I had no way to get money. I didn’t know anybody in this country. I only knew basic Spanish, and besides the cash the only ________I had was a return ticket to my country in almost two ________. Back then, there was no such thing as mobile phones, and________email was very limited. To find help, I decided to go to the countryside . With the only coins I had, I _________the bus terminal(终点站）and found a village, which ________almost the exact amount. About 4 hours later, I arrived at Santa Rosa Abajo at midnight.
I knocked door to door,________in my very poor Spanish that I was a foreigner travelling in Costa Rica with no money but I ________to stay here for over ten days. I begged them for a __________－such as cooking , cleaning and looking after their kids, anything like that. Everybody _________, “oh my, but so poor are we that we have no _______ food or space. Maybe you can try the next ________.” And they’d point me to another house.
________, I arrived at a Chinese restaurant. The owner of the restaurant was very _________. She gave me food and called the Red Cross to come to ________me. With the help of the Red Cross , I spent my_________days in Costa Rica.
This is one of the best trips I’ve ever had, because I realized that when you’re in a position to be able to _________, it actually makes you feel happy.
1.A. circling B. entering C. visiting D. considering
2.A. absurd B. impossible C. ordinary D. awkward
3.A. date B. use C. range D. control
4.A. name B. delight C. wonder D. advantage
5.A. necessity B. memory C. impression D. possession
6.A. months B. weeks C. days D. hours
7.A. again B. thus C. yet D. even
8.A. looked for B. stayed at C. headed to D. thought of
9.A. cost B. saved C. earned D. created
10.A. reminding B. explaining C. apologizing D. informing
11.A. needed B. agreed C. failed D. hesitated
12.A. conversation B. meal C. room D. job
13.A. accepted B. nodded C. replied D. withdrew
14.A. prepared B. wasted C. extra D. cheap
15.A. family B. chance C. time D. restaurant
16.A. Normally B. Naturally C. Finally D. Directly
17.A. generous B. sensible C. wealthy D. outstanding
18.A. comfort B. rescue C. interview D. encourage
19.A. frightening B. training C. exciting D. remaining
20.A. help B. receive C. succeed D. travel
After a long day at work, coming home is a breath of fresh air. Home is a comfortable place to sit back and relax. 1. Below are a number of things we can do to create a healthy home environment that will help to ease the workday stress and promote our physical and mental health.
Cleaning the house regularly is the first thing we should do. It may seem like a tiring thing to clean but there is a reason for doing so. We can remove dust by cleaning the house. Leaving layers of dust everywhere means that there is a build-up of dust. And where do these layers of dust go?2.
Making sure the rooms are full of sunlight is also important. We may not realize it but sunlight is an important part of our growth. We all know that sunlight promotes better working conditions. 3. Think about using a Parans system where sunlight does not reach. This technology gathers the sunlight by using solar panels. It can send out sunlight wherever we are.
4. Going green will help to remove toxins(毒素）in the air. They also give off oxygen, which can lower stress and improve our moods.
Along the lines of being green, it can also be vital to think about what things we are bringing into the house. Try to avoid specific plastics that are harmful to health. 5. They may contain poisonous chemicals that can be breathed in, or simple absorbed through the skin.
A. Into our lungs.
B. However, is it as healthy as it can be?
C. Is our home as comfortable as it used to be?
D. It is also a good idea to add more plants in our house.
E. The same thing applies to things like carpets and paint.
F. Besides, it can reduce both stress and high blood pressure.
G. It is acknowledges that a greener lifestyle is linked to better health.
On average, Americans spend about 10 hours a day in front of a computer or other electronic devices and less than 30 minutes a day outdoors. That is a claim made by David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah. In his 2017 TED Talk , Strayer explained that all this time spent with technology is making our brains tired.
Using an electronic device to answer emails, listen to the news and look at Facebook puts a lot of pressure on the front of the brain, which, Strayer explains, is important for critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making.
So it is important to give the brain a rest. And being in nature, Strayer claims , helps get a tired brain away from too much technology. More than 15,000 campers from around the world attended an international camping festival in September. That is when friends and family take time off and escape to nature for several days. They take walks, climb, explore, swim, sleep, eat and play. Camping may be just what a tired brain needs.
Take Carl for example. He lives in West Virginia and enjoys camping. He says that staying outdoors makes him feel at ease. It also prepares him for the work he must do. Kate Somers is another example who also lives in West Virginia. She says she enjoys camping with her husband and two children. She calls it a “regenerative” experience.
At the University of Utah, David Strayer has studied both short-term and long-term exposure to nature. He found that spending short amounts of time in nature without technology does calm the brain and helps it to remember better. However, he found it is the long-term contact with nature that does the most good. He and his research team found spending three days in nature without any technology is enough time for the brain to fully relax and reset itself.
1.What is David Strayer’s opinion?
A. Americans dislike outdoor activities.
B. Electronic equipment should be quitted.
C. New technologies are a double-edged sword.
D. Electronic equipment brings great convenience.
2.Why does Strayer insist we go outdoors?
A. To refresh our brain B. To try another lifestyle
C. To make better decisions. D. To play with our family and friends
3.What does the underlined word “regenerative” mean?
A. Exhausting B. Ridiculous
C. Relevant. D. Reborn
4.Which is the proper title for the passage?
A. How to Use New Technologies. B. Good Rest Develops Good Memory.
C. Being in Nature Is Good for the Brain. D. Electronic Equipment Harms the Brain.
A study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important . These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion (万亿) connections in the brain of a three-year-old child.
Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at distinguishing different sound patterns. Her researchers produced images of the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example, one order was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern “A-B-B". Another order was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern “A-B-C”. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the “A-B-B” pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive to where it occurred in the order.
Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the building block of words and grammar. “Position is key to language," she says. “If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference: ‘John caught the bear.’ is very different from ‘The bear caught John.’ ”
Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books,the Internet, or smartphones－no matter how educational－doesn’t appear to be enough for children’s brain development. They carried out a study of nine-month-old American babies. They expected the first group who’d watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought face-to-face with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies －regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio－learned nothing.
1.What makes connections in a baby’s brain?
A. Having a higher IQ. B. The connection with other babies.
C. The baby’s early age. D. Experiencing new information.
2.What did Judit Gervain and her team find in the experiment?
A. Word order is relevant to meaning. B. Babies identify different sound patterns.
C. A certain brain region processes language. D. Babies can well understand different words.
3.What does the underlined sentence mean in Paragraph 3?
A. Words have different sounds.
B. Grammar is important in learning languages
C. Different orders have different meanings.
D. Different languages have different grammar.
4.What is the main conclusion from the study led by Patricia Kuhl?
A. Babies shouldn’t watch a lot of television.
B. Social communication improves babies’ brain development.
C. Listening to different languages helps to develop babies’ brain
D. Foreign languages are beneficial to babies’ brain development
Judy Wright and her husband decided to move closer to their son, Chris, who lived in Georgia. About a month after the move, Judy fell ill, suffering from her ongoing (不间断的) battle against Parkinson disease.
Her condition worsened rapidly and she required medical care at home. The family hired a nursing aid who canceled at the last minute. Instead, a woman named TunDe Hector showed up in her place.
One day, TunDe shared a story with Judy and her family. She remembered a particularly difficult day in 2014, when a stranger had helped her with a kind gesture. She had run out of gas, and with only $5 in her pocket, was walking to a gas station. A man saw her walking and turned his car around. He paid for her gas and gave her all the cash left in his wallet. Upon hearing the story, Judy’s son, Chris, took off his hat and said ,“That was me!” He was the stranger that had helped TunDe on that difficult day.
During the care of Judy, the Wright family learned about TunDe’s family and her own dream. The nursing aid, TunDe hoped that one day she could become an OB-GYN nurse. Her tuition was past due (逾期) and she had a family to care for, but she was determined to achieve that goal for herself and her family.
Judy died on July 9,2017. Instead of flowers, her family asked mourners (悼念者) to donate to TunDe’s education, to assist her in paying for her nursing school. In less than a week, they raised more than $8,000 and presented her with the surprise check.
1.Why did Judy’s family choose TunDe in the end?
A. To help her with a kind gesture. B. To look after Judy in the hospital.
C. To replace another nursing aid. D. To give Judy the best medical care.
2.How might Chris feel when hearing TunDe’s story?
A. Thrilled B. Shocked
C. Puzzled D. Delighted
3.How did the Wright family help TunDe after Judy’s death?
A. They paid for her education. B. They helped care for her family.
C. They bought her a surprise present. D. They helped her realize her dream.
4.What does the whole story mainly tell us ?
A. Kindness comes full circle. B. Constant dropping wears stone.
C. The truth never fears investigation. D. Actions speak louder than words.
Hiking is a great way to get active and reduce stress while you are exploring the city. Visit our page to find some of the best free walking tours across New York City.
Greenbelt on the Go
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 10:00a.m.---11:30a.m.
Join us for relaxing walks through our parks. Enjoy the pretty views of them, as we point out a few of the distinct features that make each park special. The length of each hike will be determined by the pace of the group. Considering the environment, your foods are not allowed. Registration is required. To register, please email naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org before August 14.
Position: Greenbelt Nature Center in Blood Root Valley, 700 Rockland Avenue at Brielle Avenue Staten Island
Event Organizer: Staten Island Greenbelt Conservancy, Greenbelt Environmental Education Department
Phone Number: (718)351-3450
Contact Email: naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org
Adult Afternoon Hikes
Wednesday, October 10,2018 1:30p.m.---3:00p.m.
Get familiar with the Greenbelt and local parks by hiking with other adults! You’re encouraged to bring small meals and drinks for the break time.
Position: Greenbelt Nature Center in Blood Root Valley, 700 Rockland Avenue at Brielle Avenue Staten Island
Event Organizer: Staten Island Greenbelt Conservancy, Greenbelt Environmental Education Department
Phone Number: (718)351-3450
Contact Email: naturecenter@sigreenbelt.org
The South Pole at Wards Point
Thursday ,November 15,2018 7:00a.m.---7:00p.m.
The three miles of nearby natural shoreline are a sandy beach. Shells, rocks, and stones of every shape and size can be found here. Not to be missed are the park’s other attractions: four galleries, and five historic houses!
Position: Conference House Park Visitor Center in Conference House Park, 298 Satterlee Street ,Staten Island
Event Organizer: Conference House Park
Contact Email: john.kilcullen@parks .nyc.qov
Community Days at Conference House Park
Wednesda, September 19, 2018 12:00p.m.---2:00p.m.
Enjoy new gardens at the Visitor Center. Explore and help repair the three self-designed gardens: vegetable, native plant, and sculpture. Experience kids crafts, adult art programs, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Peking Opera and more in this lovely setting.
Position: Conference House Park, 298 Satterlee Street, Staten Island
Event Organizer: Conference House Park
Phone Number: (718)227-1463
Contact Email: john.kilcullen@parks .nyc.qov
1.Which walking tour may attract people interested in Chinese culture?
A. Greenbelt on the Go. B. Adult Afternoon Hikes.
C. The South Pole at Wards Point . D. Community Days at Conference House Park.
2.What do we know about Greenbelt on the Go?
A. The length of the hike is settled. B. Visitors need to register in advance.
C. People will visit three distinct parks. D. It takes place in Conference House Park.
3.What do the four walking tours have in common?
A. They all charged no fees. B. They are all open to adults.
C. They’re held by the same organizer. D. They require visitors to bring food.
