Besides being fun, well-managed festivals and events offer a host of economic and social benefits to communities. 1. There are risks and costs related to the effort.
Festivals attract visitors and boost the economy. 2. On-site spending includes admission fees, parking fees, food, beverage and souvenir sales — and more. But off-site spending related to festivals brings income for communities, too. For example, visitors stop at local gas stations, souvenir shops, and restaurants — the list goes on. Festivals also provide free marketing and advertising for local businesses as visitors talk about their fun experiences when they go back home. If visitors post comments and photos about their experiences on Facebook or other social media, so much the better. The economic benefits of successful festivals affect local tourism and non-tourism-related businesses alike.
3. Planning and conducting festivals involves many members of the community, which produces a number of social benefits. “The best thing about being involved with festivals and events is the opportunity to help build a community, develop a sense of pride within a community, and engage a community,” says Chris Romano, a business consultant with Thrivent Financial Services. “Honestly, in my professional career, I’ve never found something outside a community festival that can do that to the same degree.” Experts agree that hometown pride is a critical factor in the development and improvement of any community. People with community pride are more likely to speak positively about their town to others and to volunteer with organizations and activities that support the common good.
Festivals will teach visitors new things. Whatever a festival’s theme, it’s bound to be instructional and visitors are bound to learn from it. Of course, education is another social benefit of festivals. 4. Learning is a big byproduct of the annual Lady Slipper Celebration in the northwestern Minnesota community of Blackduck. The community launched the celebration, named after the Minnesota state flower, to showcase and promote understanding of the area’s natural resources and Native American culture. This educational experience helped visitors connect to the area, who were pleased with their experience and planned to return to the area.
A.But hosting festivals also poses challenges.
B.Festivals may help to improve community pride.
C.Festivals play a significant role in developing relationships.
D.This is hands-on, experiential learning offered in the fun context of celebration.
E.They spend money, which boosts the local economy both on and off the festival site.
F.While a successful event raises a community’s fame, a less-than-successful effort does just the opposite.
An international team of scientists has discovered a stellar black hole in Earth’s “cosmic backyard” containing the mass of 70 suns.
It’s a black hole that forms after stars die, collapse, and explode. Researchers had long believed that the size limit was only 20 times the mass of our sun because as these stars die, they lose most of their mass through explosions that force matter and gas swept away by stellar winds.
This theory has now been toppled by LB-1, the newly discovered black hole. Located about 15,000 light years away, it has a mass 70 times greater than our sun, according to a press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“Black holes of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy (星系), according to most of the present models of stellar evolution,” said Liu Jifeng, head of the team that made the discovery.
“LB-1 is twice as massive as what we thought possible. Now theorists will have to take up the challenge of explaining its formation.”
Scientists are now scratching their heads at how LB-1 got so huge.
The team has proposed some theories. LB-1’s sheer size suggests that it “was not formed from the collapse of only one star,” the study said — instead, it could potentially be two smaller black holes orbiting each other.
Another possibility is that it formed from “fallback supernova (超行星).” This is when a supernova — the last stage of an exploding star — ejects (喷射) material during the explosion, which then falls back into the supernova, creating a black hole. This fallback formation is theoretically possible, but scientists have never been able to prove or observe it.
There are several types of black holes and stellar black holes like LB-1 are on the smaller side, according to NASA. Supermassive black holes are much bigger — they can be billions of times the mass of our sun.
Scientists believe supermassive black holes may have connection with the formation of galaxies, as they often exist at the center of the mass star stems but it is still not clear exactly how, or which form first.
1.According to scientists, what might account for the formation of LB-1?
A.The material ejected in the explosion of a supernova.
B.The smaller black holes moving around each other.
C.The evolution of the solar system.
D.The collapse of a certain star.
2.What does the word “toppled” in paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.Confirmed B.Strengthened. C.Overturned. D.Refused.
3.What is the purpose of writing this article?
A.To inform readers of the basic knowledge about black holes.
B.To share the recent development of the black hole discovery.
C.To show the importance of discovering black holes for science.
D.To report achievements scientists have made in black hole theory.
4.What might be the best title for the passage?
A.The Latest Discovery of Galaxies
B.Proposed Theories of Black Holes
C.The Possible Formation of the Black Holes
D.Biggest Stellar-mass Black Hole Discovered
Thirty-two cases of illegal hunting or trading wild animals have been uncovered involving 33 suspects since a crackdown against illegal wildlife trade was launched on April 10.
Beijing police seized 74 wild animals grouped in China into the first-grade and second-grade state protected animals, including African grey parrots and cockatoos, as well as nearly 50 wild birds and 21 pangolin scales.
On April 16, police in the capital city’s Chaoyang district caught two suspects, who were respectively identified as Liu and Wang, for buying wild animals, and recovered more than 40 wild birds, including one cockatoo and one African grey parrot, at their homes, the statement said, adding the two suspects have been detained (拘留).
In another case, a 35-year-old man surnamed Hu was also sentenced to imprisonment in Daxing district after he was found selling wild animals through QQ, a popular instant messaging tool in the country. He was caught on April 14.
The bureau highlighted the importance of protecting the wildlife, noting Chinese laws and a new decision adopted by the nation’s top legislature (立法机关) have also shown the country’s determination against illegal trade of wild animals.
The Chinese Criminal Law clarifies that those illegally hunting, buying, selling or transporting wild animals on the state protection list, endangered animals or the wildlife-related products will face an imprisonment of more than 10 years and fines if their behaviors are identified as “extremely serious”.
On Feb 24, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislative body, also passed the decision that clearly states all wildlife on the protection list of the existing Wild Animal Protect Law or other laws, and all wild animals, including those artificially bred and farmed, are not permitted to be hunted or traded.
With the strict crackdown campaign against illegal trade of wild animals on the go in Beijing, the whole nation is attaching great importance to wild life protection.
1.The author mentions the cases at the very beginning of the passage to ______ .
A.explain the new laws on wildlife protection
B.show the present situation of wildlife extinction
C.highlight the problem of illegal trade of wild animals
D.introduce Beijing’s campaign against illegal wildlife trade
2.What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?
A.The number of wild animals is decreasing sharply.
B.Hunting and trading wildlife has become a nationwide concern.
C.Effective actions have been taken to prevent wildlife from illegal trade.
D.The strong action to stop trading illegal wild animals has a long way to go.
3.According to the Chinese Criminal Law, ______ .
A.serious actions of trading wild animals will face fierce punishment
B.people risk heavy fines but no imprisonment for trade of wildlife
C.the trade of wildlife-related products will receive no punishment
D.those who hunt illegally may face 10 years of imprisonment
4.Which best describes the author’s tone in the passage?
A.Determined. B.Hopeful. C.Unconcerned. D.Doubtful.
Jane Goodall was born in Bournemouth, England, on April 3, 1934. As a child, she had a natural love for the outdoors and animals. When Jane was about eight she read the Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle series and, in love with Africa, dreamed of traveling to work with the animals.
Finally, at age 23, she left for Nairobi, Kenya. There, Jane met famed Dr. Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey, who offered her a job at the local natural history museum. She worked there for a time before Leakey decided to send her to the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in Tanzania to study wild chimpanzees. He felt her strong interest in animals and nature, and her knowledge as well as high energy made her a great candidate to study the chimpanzees.
In December 1958, Jane returned home to England and Leakey began to make arrangements for the expedition (考察), securing the appropriate permissions from the government and raising funds. In May 1960, Jane learned that Leakey had gained funding from the Wilkie Brothers Foundation.
Jane arrived by boat at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika with her mother. The early weeks at Gombe were challenging. Jane developed a fever that delayed the start of her work. Finally, an older chimpanzee named David Greybeard, began to allow Jane to watch him. As a high ranking male of the chimpanzee community, his acceptance meant other group members also allowed Jane to observe. It was David Greybeard whom Jane first witnessed using tools. Excited, she telegraphed Dr. Leakey about her observation. He wrote back, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ and ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
Jane continued to work in the field and, with Leakey’s help, began her doctoral program without an undergraduate degree in 1962. At Cambridge University, she found herself at odds with senior scientists over the methods she used — how she had named the chimpanzees rather than using the more common numbering system, and for suggesting that the chimps have emotions and personalities. She further upset those in power at the university when she wrote her first book, My Friends, the Wild Chimpanzees, aimed at the general public rather than an academic audience. The book was wildly popular, and her academic peers were outraged. Dr. Jane Goodall earned her Ph.D. on February 9, 1966, and continued to work at Gombe for the next twenty years.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that ______ .
A.Jane was the first to discover chimpanzees use tools
B.a journey to Kenya rooted Jane’s deep love for animals
C.Dr. Leakey easily raised funds from the Wilkie Brothers Foundation
D.Jane’s work at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve went along smoothly
2.What is the academic peers’ attitude towards Jane’s first book?
A.Extremely puzzled. B.Genuinely pleased.
C.Really angry. D.Truly sensitive.
3.What does the underlined sentence imply in paragraph 5?
A.Jane’s study of chimpanzees received no support from scientists.
B.Jane’s method inspired more scientists to make further discoveries.
C.Jane’s achievements quickly attracted attention from senior scientists.
D.Senior scientists disagreed with Jane’s method in observing chimpanzees.
4.What message is mainly conveyed in the passage?
A.Passion and hard work can make a difference in scientific research.
B.Cooperation is the key to making significant discoveries.
C.Challenging senior scientists is a must in gaining fame.
D.High energy counts in achieving great success.
你校校报英语专栏正在征稿。请你以’I am Very Grateful to My Mom’ 为题，用英语写一篇短文投稿。内容包括以下要点:
1. 简单描述你的母亲；
2. 母亲常为你做的事情(两点)；
3. 你的感概。
注意:
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
I am Very Grateful to My Mom
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除:把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉。
修改:在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Last year, on National Day, my parents and I went to Qingdao appreciate the beautiful seaside scenery. It was the first time that they had been to Qingdao, so we had prepared for it a week before. In midnight, we went on a bus and arrived at Qingdao Bus Station six hours late. Near the station we buy a map to refer to it. First, we went to the attractive seaside and took some photo there. We enjoyed ourselves, walking on the beach and swim in the sea. After lunch, we decided to climb Lao Mount. Although we were tiring when we reached the top, we felt happy. What a enjoyable trip!
