“Hot potato” is a children’s game similar to musical chairs (抢座位游戏), in which participants sit in a circle and pass a potato or any other object to others around the circle as quickly as possible.1. This game is popular for entertaining large groups of kids at parties, school, or other events that include children.
“Hot potato” was originally played. with a real potato.2. No single version is the right way to play. Changes can be made to suit nearly any theme and any situation.
The game of “hot potato” is easy to play with large groups of kids outdoors.
3. It’s common for physical education teachers to play this game with smaller children, using a ball in order to help children improve their catching skills.
4. Variations, also called passing the potato or passing the pumpkin (南瓜), are great school party ideas. You can easily create a themed version of the game for Halloween. Have children sit in a circle indoors and hand one child a small pumpkin. The teacher can play Halloween music, but he or she should not look at the circle of kids.
You can create similar versions for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving Day, or a birthday party.5. It is highly suggested that all players receive a small prize for playing, such as a piece of candy, and the winner can be provided with a slightly larger prize.
A. Above all, laughter is the goal.
B. Players can even stand up if space permits.
C. Hot potato isn’t limited to outdoors by any means.
D. In fact, hot potato can be adapted to any children’s party.
E. But today there are many other versions of hot potato.
F. Of course, that person singing or calling should not watch the game.
G. The aim of the game is not to be the one holding the potato when music stops.
The idea of being able to walk on water has long interested humans greatly. Sadly, biological facts prevent us ever accomplishing such a thing without artificial aid---we simply weigh too much, and all our mass pushes down through our relatively small feet, resulting in a lot of pressure that makes us sink.
However, several types of animals can walk on water. One of the most interesting is the common basilisk Basilicus basilicus, a lizard (蜥蜴)native to Central and South America. It can run across water for a distance of several meters, avoiding getting wet by rapidly hitting the water’s surface with its feet. The lizard will take as many as 20 steps per second to keep moving forward. For humans to do this, we，d need huge feet that we could bring up to our ears in order to create adequate w hitting. ’’
But fortunately there is an alternative : cornflour. By adding enough of this common thickening agent to water (and it does take a lot), you can create a “non-Newtonian” liquid that doesn’t behave like normal water. Now, if the surface of the water is hit hard enough, particles(粒子）in the water group together for a moment to make the surface hard. Move quickly enough and put enough force into each step, and you really can walk across the surface of an adequately thick Liquid of cornflour.
Fun though all this may sound, it’s still rather messy and better read about in theory than carried out in practice. If you must do it, then keep the water wings handy in case you start to sink--and take a shower afterward!
1.Walking on water hasn’t become a reality mainly because humans______.
A.are not interested in it
B.have biological limitations
C.have not invented proper tools
D.are afraid to make an attempt
2.What do we know about Basilicus basilicus from the passage?
A.It is light enough to walk on water.
B.Its huge feet enable it to stay above water.
C.It can run across water at a certain speed.
D.Its unique skin keeps it from getting wet in water.
3.What is the function of the cornflour according to the passage?
A.To create a thick liquid.
B.To turn the water into solid.
C.To help the liquid behave normally.
D.To enable the water to move rapidly.
4.What is the author’s attitude toward the idea of humans’ walking on water?
A.It is risky but beneficial.
B.It is interesting and worth trying.
C.It is crazy and cannot become a reality.
D.It is impractical though theoretically possible.
Several years ago, Waze Mobile co-founder Ehud Shabtai received a special gift from his girlfriend: a GPS device. The expensive gift was supposed to be helpful. But straight out of the box, it was already out of date.
Shabtai, a coding enthusiast, had an immediate action to reinvent it. Shabtai’s idea is to build an app. With monthly 80 million active users globally and nearly 400,000 superusers who function much like Wikipedia volunteer editors (editing maps rather than words), Waze Mobile caught people’s eyes as a revolutionary approach to navigation (导航). Waze’s value mainly lies in its high rate of user involvement. Unlike traditional navigation apps that simply show directions, Waze asks its users to report accidents and other road conditions in real time, so other users can avoid the traffic by using another route.
The goal behind Waze’s approach is a great one: not just avoid the traffic jam, but end it altogether. Waze is finding new ways to put its loyal and active user base to use to make that dream a reality, including a plan to make carpooling (拼车) cool.
To be sure, traffic jams are troubling people all over the world. Waze has been quietly ahead of the game for some time. In 2013, when Waze was just a small digital-mapping business with limited resources, it had something other competitors didn’t: richer GPS guidance thanks to its stream of live traffic reports from users. These users were the basis of Shabtai’s plan to improve his GPS device constantly: the app could be perpetually updated by users, anywhere and anytime.
Waze Carpool is going straight to the heart of traffic jams, trying to get more drivers off the road and into carpooling. The app has already connected tens of thousands of drivers willing to share information, and that trend could be the answer to a traffic-free future.
1.What did Shabtai do when he found his girlfriend’s gift out of date?
A.He improved it. B.He took it apart.
C.He put it away. D.He used it away.
2.What makes Waze Mobile different from traditional navigation apps?
A.It has the most users. B.It can show directions.
C.Most users help edit its words. D.It reports road conditions in real time.
3.What does the underline word “perpetually” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Slowly. B.Carefully.
C.Greatly. D.Continually.
4.What is mainly talked about in the text?
A.The rise of Waze Carpool. B.An advanced navigation app.
C.The development of GPS. D.The challenge Waze Mobile faces.
When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay, once the home of a watercolorist named Marian McNay. She had requested the community to tum it into a museum upon her death. On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum. She asked, "Do you have the address? ""No, but I'll recognize it, there was a picture in the magazine. "
"Oh, stop. There it is!"
The museum was free. We entered, excited. A group of people sitting in the hall stopped talking and stared at us.
"May I help you?" a man asked. "No," I said. "We're fine." Tour guides got on my nerves. What if they talked a long time about a painting you weren't that interested in? Sally had gone upstairs. The people in the hall seemed very nosy(爱窥探的), keeping their eyes on me with curiosity. What was their problem? I saw some nice sculptures in one room. Suddenly I sensed a man standing behind me. "Where do you think you are?" he asked. I turned sharply. "The McNay Art Museum!" He smiled, shaking his head. "Sorry, the McNay is on New Braunfels Street." "What's this place?" I asked, still confused. "Well, it's our home." My heart jolted(震颤). I raced to the staircase and called out, "Sally! Come down immediately! "
"There's some really good stuff( 艺术作品）up there." She stepped down, looking confused. I pushed her toward the front door, waving at the family, saying, "Sorry, please forgive us, you have a really nice place." Outside, when I told Sally what happened, she covered her mouth, laughing. She couldn't believe how long they let us look around without saying anything.
The real McNay was splendid, but we felt nervous the whole time we were there. Van Gogh, Picasso. This time, we stayed together, in case anything else unusual happened.
Thirty years later, a woman approached me in a public place. "Excuse me, did you ever enter a residence, long ago, thinking it was the McNay Museum?"
"Yes. But how do you know? We never told anyone. "
"That was my home. I was a teenager sitting in the hall. Before you came over, I never realized what a beautiful place I lived in. I never felt lucky before. You thought it was a museum. My feelings about my home changed after that. I've always wanted to thank you."
1.What do we know about Marian McNay?
A.She was a journalist. B.She was a painter.
C.She was a museum director. D.She was a community leader.
2.Why did the author refuse the help from the man in the house?
A.She disliked people who were nosy.
B.She felt nervous when talking to strangers.
C.She mistook him for a tour guide.
D.She knew more about art than the man.
3.How did the author feel about being stared at by the people in the hall?
A.Puzzled. B.Concerned.
C.Frightened. D.Delighted.
4.What could we learn from the last paragraph?
A.People should have good taste to enjoy life.
B.People should spend more time with their family.
C.People tend to be blind to the beauty around them.
D.People tend to educate teenagers at a museum.
The National Gallery
Description:
The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a diverse collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance.
Layout:
The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th-to15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.
The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronese.
The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer.
The East Wing houses 18th-to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.
Opening Hours:
The Gallery is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm (Fridays 10 am to 9 pm) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.
Getting There:
Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk).
1.In which century’s collection can you see religious paintings?
A.The 20th B.The 17th
C.The 18th D.The 13th
2.Where are Leonardo da Vinci’s works shown?
A.In the East Wing. B.In the main West Wing.
C.In the Sainsbury Wing. D.In the North Wing.
3.Which underground station is closest to the National Gallery?
A.Charing Cross. B.Leicester Square.
C.Embankment. D.Piccadilly Circus.
假定你是李华，新华中学学生，你校即将举行本年度足球赛决赛。请写封邮件邀请在校 访问的学生Charlie —*同观看，内容包括：
1 .比赛时间、地点；
2. 参赛队伍介绍；
3. 表达期待。
注意：1. 词数100左右；开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Charlie,
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Yours,
Li Hua
