Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work, others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes，accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales (童话）
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained €10,000 with a cutting from the Braunschtveiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag； similar plain white anonymous (匿名）envelopes, each containing €10,000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelopes keep coming, and so far at least €190,000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper’s own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14-year-old boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschweiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of €500 inside , with a copy of the article. The name of the family was underlined.
"I was driving when I heard the news,” Claudia Neumann, the boy’s mother, told DerSpiegel magazine. “I had to park on the side of the road； I was speechless. ”
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchair-accessible .and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
“For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing," Mrs. Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske, the editor of the Braunschweiger Zeitung, said： “Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know. ” However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city’s hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.
1.The Braunschweiger Zeitung is the name of .
A.a church B.a bank C.a newspaper D.a magazine
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the donation to Tom?
A.The donation amounted to €190,000.
B.The donation was sent directly to his house.
C.The money will be used for his education.
D.His mother felt astonished at the donation.
3.It can be inferred from the passage that .
A.the donator is a rich old man
B.the donation will continue to come
C.the donation comes from the newspaper
D.the donator will soon be found out
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A.Money Is Raised by the Newspaper
B.Newspaper Distributes Money to
C.Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes
D.Robin Hood Returns to the City
A Book Review—The Snake-Stone by Berlie Doherty
The setting: Urban England (the cities), but also rural England (the countryside) including remote English villages.
The theme: The main theme is a teenage search of self-discovery, in this case the search for a mother from whom the hero was separated at an early age. Its other concerns are love, getting on with others, being persistent and courageous and trying to deal with doubts, troubles and worries. As the book moves to a close, James’ swimming coach says to him: “You are not like a kid obeying instructions any more. You are diving like a young man who knows where he is going.”
The characters: James is the hero of the story. He is a championship diver, and has a comfortable life with his foster parents (养父母). Yet he also has the qualities to take him on a long journey to find his birth mother. The other characters in The Snake-Stone, James’ parents, his diving instructor, best friend, the villagers, people he meets on his journey, are pictured realistically.
The turning point: The turning point in the story comes while James’ foster parents are away in London, and he wonders about the identity of his birth mother. The only clue he has is a fossil, “the snake stone” which she left behind along with a note on which she had written: “Take good care of Sammie.” It was written on a torn envelope with parts of an address still there.
The journey: Instead of going to London, James decides to find his birth mother. With help from his geography teacher, James sets out for the remote country village where his mother might be found. James has painful, challenging, but also humorous and happy travels. The mother he finally meets, Anne, has a minor yet powerful voice in the novel. He comes to understand why she left him at a stranger’s door fifteen years before. Although the meeting is not long, it leaves him with a feeling of completeness. As a journey of self-discovery, The Snake-Stone also provides its readers with a happy ending. Its hero says, on returning to his foster parents, “I was home.”
1.What is the main theme of the novel?
A.Life with foster parents. B.Life in the world of diving.
C.A journey of self-discovery. D.A travel around the country.
2.What do the coach’s words in Paragraph 2 suggest?
A.James is a successful diver. B.James is an independent young man.
C.James is an outgoing young man. D.James is a hopeful swimmer.
3.The snake stone in the novel is .
A.a stone with an address on it B.a fossil left by the foster parents
C.a gift from the swimming coach D.a clue left by the birth mother
假如你是李华，你在英国的笔友上周来信说自己性格内向，不善与人沟通相处。并为此苦恼不已，请你以此为话题给他写一封回信安慰他。
注意：1.词数100左右。
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
3.开头和结尾已经写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
I’m glad to have received the letter you sent me last week.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes to you !
Yours faithfully,
Li Hua
Escape from FoMO
Here’s a test you might enjoy: rate these situations on a number scale, ranging from 1 for mild discomfort to 7 for unbearable distress.
Situation 1: you’re visiting New York City and realize there’s no way you’ll be able to get to all the exhibits, see all the recommended plays or take in even part of the “musts”. How do you feel now? Something like 5?
Situation 2: you’re at dinner with friends, and you’ve all agreed to make it a strictly phone-free evening. But your smartphone won’t stop keeping Twitter and text alerts. Something is obviously up in your social network, but you can’t check. Even 7 wouldn’t match the stress you’re feeling now.
Welcome to FoMO (Fear of Missing Out), the latest mental disorder caused by social media connections sharing updates that leaves individuals feeling that they are missing out on something more exciting, important, or interesting going on somewhere else. It is an outcome of technological advancement and booming social information. According to a recent study, 56 per cent of those who use social networks suffer this.
It is not uncommon that at night when you’ve sworn again to put the phone aside or turn off the computer, you cast one last glance at the screen on your way to bed in case you miss some titbit (趣闻)supplied by mere acquaintances or even strangers’ requesting your “friendship”.
We all know the studies showing that end-of-life regrets centre on what we didn’t do, rather than on what we did. If so, constantly watching others doing things that we are not is rich ground for a future of looking back in sorrow. Attractive online images—so charming from afar—make FoMO more destructive. Technology has become the major construct through which we define intimacy (亲密).You may look on in wonder as someone taps out an endless text message instead of actually talking to the person they’re with. Being connected to everyone, all the time, is a new human experience; we’re just not equipped to cope with it yet.
Researchers say our dependence on technology can be reduced if we manage to separate ourselves, even for short periods of time, from our gadgets. However, the problem can only be settled when we grasp that our brains and our humanity—not our technologies—enable this addiction. We cannot seek solutions without honestly asking ourselves why we are so afraid of missing out. Researchers find FoMO occurs mostly in people with unfulfilled psychological needs in fields such as love, respect and security. FoMO levels are highest in young people, in particular young men.
What, then, can we do about something so damaging to our quality of life? The best way to cope with FoMO is to recognize that, at our fast-paced life, we are sometimes bound to miss out. Instead of trying to maximize our benefits, we seek a merely “good enough” result. If you still doubt that“good enough” is the best cure for FoMO, the words of the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson might strike the right chord,“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”
Escape from FoMO
Main Points | Details |
Concept of FoMO | FoMO, constantly 1. our peace of mind, refers to the unease of feeling that we are not part of social connection. |
Examples of FoMO | • When having dinner with friends, we feel extremely depressed when 2. to check our social network. • Determined as we are to put aside phones, we can’t shift our (73) from them until we go to bed. |
3. behind FoMO | • Technology develops and social information explodes. • Images of online friends 4. more to us, compared to our real world friends. • Some of us attempt to feel5.A fulfilled on social network. |
Bad effects of FoMO | • We are constantly6. for things that we didn’t do. • Communicating with friends in the virtual world gives7. to the decline of important relationships with friends and family. |
Suggestions on avoiding FoMo | • Get (8. from the modern technology. • Recognize that missing out is part of our life. • Accept that9.can sometimes be “a blessing in disguise”. |
An old man in a faded yellow shirt sat in a windowless room on a raised concrete form. The only source of heat came from somewhere beneath the plastic mattress and the rough blanket the blank-faced police woman had handed him after taking his thumb prints. He heard voices and metallic clang as the cell door swung open.
At the front desk a tired looking policeman handed the old man back his belongings, his worn-out cap and the Seiko watch that had stopped working the day his beloved Evelyn left. The policeman dramatically held the blue plastic bag at an arm’s length to the old man who took it and made sure its contents were undamaged: the goat meat, palm oil, leaves and spices. He ignored the confused expression on the officer’s face and signed the document declaring he had been returned the possessions they had taken off him the night before.
No one spoke to him as he walked slowly towards the exit.
“Mr. Easy-nwa?” He stopped and prayed to the God who now took care of Evelyn to please take him far away from this unhappy place of expressionless faces, clipped accents and people who did not even attempt to pronounce his name right.
“Ezenwa,” He said and looked at a woman with tangerine lips, her name tag said Jessica Harlow, Social Services. “A bit far from home，she said as she drove fast and with confidence the way Evelyn used to. He wondered if she meant the 50 miles from Liverpool or the 50,000 miles from Enugu，a city in Nigeria. He did not bother replying as this woman had plenty to say about the weather, bad drivers, her daughter’s school play...
At last she drew up outside the block of flats where he lived.
“Got here in the end”，said she seriously, “Really Mr. Easy-nwa, if you keep getting lost, we will have to consider moving you into a home”.
“No need, I was not lost，he answered. He carefully rolled up the sleeves of the oversize bomber jacket he wore and turned on the tap to wash his hands, relieved the pipes were not frozen. In a clean pan he placed the chopped pieces of goat meat. The herbs and spices that had taken him three months to track down, the uziza seeds had taken him into the heart of Granby Market in Liverpool, his uchanwu leaves down a shady back alley in Manchester, and yesterday, among other food items, the finest goat meat from a Sierra Leonean Butcher in Birmingham. That had taken some time, so much he missed the last train and when the police found him shivering outside the locked up station, so cold he couldn’t answer loudly enough the pink-faced big copper who yelled in his face, “What’s your name sir?” spraying his face with spittle (吐沫）as he did so, leaving them with no choice but to search an exhausted, frozen old black man and finding him in possession of mysterious condiments (调味品）including a bag of dried bitter-leaf which could of course be mistaken for anything that resulted in him getting read his rights and charged with ...possession???
He lifted the lid of the bubbling soup, the room was filled with the rich and spicy scent of his culinary (烹饪的）effort. He served two bowls, taking the chipped one and placing the other opposite where Evelyn would have sat. He would tell her about his adventure, it was their anniversary and this was the perfect pepper soup to celebrate.
Ken Onyia, UK (Nigeria) Commonwealth Sport Short Story Prize
1.Why was Mr. Ezenwa taken to the prison for a night?
A. He was too weak to move.
B. He couldn’t find his way back home.
C. He then had nowhere else to go.
D. He was suspected of possessing drugs.
2.When Mr. Ezenwa was to leave the prison, •
A. his thumb print was taken immediately
B. the policeman was confused about what he had
C. a social worker was assigned to drive him back home
D. the policeman was so kind as not to damage his belongings
3.What did Mr. Ezenwa do for his wedding anniversary?
A. He collected all sorts of valuables as presents.
B. He cooked native food as a surprise for his wife.
C. He prepared a special Nigerian pepper soup carefully.
D. He travelled a lot, attempting to get his wife back.
4.What words can be used to describe Mr. Ezenwa?
A. Hopeless and pessimistic..
B. Mysterious and troublesome.
C. Affectionate and persistent.
D. Energetic and sympathetic.
5.What theme does the author want to express through the story?
A. Racial prejudice.
B. Hard life of the elderly.
C. Struggle for freedom.
D. Preservation of tradition.
For centuries, medical pioneers have refined a variety of methods and medicines to treat sickness, injury, and disability, enabling people to live longer and healthier lives.
“A salamander (a small lizard-like animal) can grow back its leg. Why can't a human do the same?” asked Peruvian-born surgeon Dr. Anthony Atala in a recent interview. The question, a reference to work aiming to grow new limbs for wounded soldiers, captures the inventive spirit of regenerative medicine. This innovative field seeks to provide patients with replacement body parts. These parts are not made of steel; they are the real things --- living cells, tissue, and even organs.
Regenerative medicine is still mostly experimental, with clinical applications limited to procedures such as growing sheets of skin on burns and wounds. One of its most significant advances took place in 1999，when a research group at North Carolina’s Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine conducted a successful organ replacement with a laboratory-grown bladder. Since then, the team, led by Dr. Atala, has continued to generate a variety of other tissues and organs 一 from kidneys to ears.
The field of regenerative medicine builds on work conducted in the early twentieth century with the first successful transplants of donated human soft tissue and bone. However, donor organs are not always the best option. First of all, they are in short supply, and many people die while waiting for an available organ; in the United States alone, more than 100,000 people are waiting for organ transplants. Secondly, a patient’s body may ultimately reject the transplanted donor organ. An advantage of regenerative medicine is that the tissues are grown from a patient’s own cells and will not be rejected by the body’s immune system.
Today, several labs are working to create bioartificial body parts. Scientists at Columbia and Yale Universities have grown a jawbone and a lung. At the University of Minnesota, Doris Taylor has created a beating bioartificial rat heart. Dr. Atala’s medical team has reported long-term success with bioengineered bladders implanted into young patients with spina bifida (a birth defect that involves the incomplete development of the spinal cord). And at the University of Michigan, H. David Humes has created an artificial kidney.
So far, the kidney procedure has only been used successfully with sheep, but there is hope that one day similar kidney will be implantable in a human patient. The continuing research of scientists such as these may eventually make donor organs unnecessary and, as a result, significantly increase individuals'chances of survival.
1. In the latest field of regenerative medicine, what are replacement parts made of?
A. Cells, tissues and organs of one’s own.
B. Rejected cells, tissues and organs.
C. Donated cells, tissues and organs.
D. Cells, tissues and organs made of steel.
2.What have scientists experimented successfully on for a bioartificial kidney?
A. Patients. B. Rats. C. Soldiers. D. Sheep.
3.Why is generative medicine considered innovative?
A. It will strengthen the human body’s immune system.
B. It will provide patients with replacement soft tissues.
C. It will make patients live longer with bioartificial organs.
D. It will shorten the time patients waiting for a donated organ.
4.What is the writer’s attitude towards regenerative medicine?
A. Doubtful. B. Reserved. C. Positive. D. Negative.
