【推荐3】I can still remember the first lesson I had with my English teacher, Mrs. Smith. The ________ remains vivid (鲜活的) to this day.

With a friendly, enthusiastic face and a pile of English ________ in her hands, Mrs. Smith asked us if we all believed that we could be top English learners and speak English ________ like native speakers. Many of us didn’t believe it. Mrs. Smith looked at us with wide eyes and told us that she believed that anyone could be a top student. Then, she told the whole class that she would help us become top students if we had ________ and good methods.

After a while, she began to teach us her set of plans. First of all, she told us that we should be ________ pronunciation and intonation (语调). As we all know, reading English passages aloud is very important, but if you read word by word, it would sound very ________.

Mrs. Smith told us that we should ________ the words clearly and correctly. She told us not to ________ or swallow any vowel (元音). If there were foreigners around, we could pay attention to their ________ when they spoke. Their mouths would be opened wide to make the sound ________. Only when you read the sound correctly will it sound good. Mrs. Smith also told us to read a passage with a cadence (节奏) combining the ________ and falling tones.

Later, the teacher explained how to “accentuate (重读)” certain ________ words, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives. To make it clear, she offered some examples with two different pronunciations of a sentence to ________ strong emotions. In “Nice to meet you”, for example, we should ________ “meet” to show our happiness.

Toward the end of that class, Mrs. Smith also offered us some good ________ to learn English. We should actively ________ group activities because it can help develop our communicative abilities. More importantly, we should ________ listen to others, ________ others’ strengths, ________ weaknesses and imitate authentic English expressions and thinking patterns. With the help of such a kind and patient English teacher, I have faith that I will be a ________ learner. She is not only our teacher but also our good friend.

【推荐1】When I go to a new place, the first thing I like to do is walking around the streets to ________ the city. When I first arrived in Santiago, Chile, and took a walk around the city center, one of the first things I noticed was how many stray (无家可归的) ________ there were. The phrase “street dog” or “stray dog” is used to ________ a dog with no home, who lives on the streets.

On every comer there was a sleeping dog. At every traffic ________ there was a dog ________ to cross. By every shop there was a dog waiting for potential ________. At first I was ________ as I thought they might be ________ or unfriendly. However, I have been here for more than a year now and every stray dog I have seen has been passive (顺从的), quiet and friendly.

The dogs are ________ and welcomed here in Chile. I have never seen a street dog being mistreated. In fact, they are ________ given food and water by the public. Some people even ________ jackets for the dogs or ________ beds or kennels (狗舍) for them to sleep in.

The dogs do not have an easy life: they are often hungry, cold or injured. The government does not provide much ________ for these dogs.

Some people believe that the ________ is getting out of control and that it is ________ to have so many dogs on the streets. The dogs can sometimes cause ________ such as car accidents if they run into the road. There are around 2. 5 million stray dogs in Chile and the dog population is ________ faster than the human population. Many Chileans think that all the stray dogs should be sterilized (绝育的) so that they cannot ________. Others think that the stray dog population should be culled, that is, ________ the population by killing them.

The future of street dogs is ________ but for now it looks like they are here to stay with their population increasing year by year.

【推荐2】One Christmas Eve, our birder friend called us with a request. “Do you have room in your car for a (n) _______ snowy owl (雪鸮)? The hospital in Saskatoon will take it. It just needs a _______ there.” My family couldn’t have been more _______. A snowy owl? Of course! Isn’t Christmas about giving a hand to those _______?

He dropped off the bird in a cardboard box and _______ the box with a piece of cloth. After my husband gathered our children around, we _______. A few minutes later, our three-year-old daughter _______ in the back seat. Our two sons, 8 and 11, played together, _______ my husband drove and I, in the front, was bathed in Christmas peace.

Once or twice, our oldest son _______ this scene and said, “Dad, the owl’s sticking its head out”. “Don’t________.” my husband replied “It’ll be fine.” Not far from Saskatoon, my daughter in the back woke up crying I ________ and picked her up ________, my son shouted, “Dad, the owl’s out!” I was ________ to hear that and saw the owl knocking on the window with its head, in a desperate struggle for ________.

I bent over my daughter to ________ her as my husband pulled off the road. To our ________, the bird stopped struggling for some reason. My husband took the ________ to return the bird to its box then, he sat in the back seat to take care of the box. I took the ________ as our car was running toward the hospital. It was ________ for us to get there safe and sound. What a (n) ________ Christmas!

【推荐3】On February 7th 1997, some Japanese whale hunters caught 10 orcas (虎鲸) in a small bay near Taiji. The hunters were not interested in killing the orcas but rather in catching them for sale. Five of the orcas were sold and _________ off to different whale research centers in Japan; the other five were _________ back into the ocean.

The Japanese whale hunting soon became a hot news called “Taiji Five” and spread around the world quickly. People’s _________ poured into the Japanese authorities to make the whale research centers return wild whales to the ocean; in UN, protests against whale hunting _________ 52 countries to support the proposal. However, all these actions were _________ by Japan. Two of the whales died just a few months after being caught; a third died in 2004. Today, only two of the five caught whales still remain _________.

This hunting of wild whales is just one of the many _________ to whales in our oceans today. Not only are the oceans full of chemical waste from our factories, but noise pollution from ships is _________ as a more serious danger to the life of whales and other sea creatures. _________ the chemical and noise pollution, there is a very real possibility that whale hunters may soon be able to legally begin their business again. In March 2009, the International Whaling Commission met to discuss the possibility of throwing out the whaling ban (禁令). Therefore, the greatest threat to whales’ safety is humans actually. If wild animals are not __________, the next species to go extinct is humans.

【推荐2】Blinking is the opening and closing of the eyelid (眼睑). Usually we blink once every four seconds during the_____ hours of every day. That is about 15 times per ____. So a person who sleeps 8 hours a day blinks about 14,400 times each day! And it all ___   automatically (无意识地).

The lids of our eyes ____ much like a car’s windscreen wipers, which are used to remove rain from a windscreen. However, they move very quickly so our eyesight is not damaged. So_____ do we blink, and why is blinking so ____?

For one thing, blinking helps ____ our eyes. As we know, eyelashes (睫毛) help ____ dust and other tiny things out. However, sometimes they still ____ the eye. Blinking helps remove them to keep the eyes from becoming ____. If you start blinking fiercely, it probably ____ you have something in your eyes.

Blinking ____ keeps the eyes lubricated (润滑). Our eyes have tiny tear glands (泪腺), which can keep the eyes wet. ____ our eyelids blink, the glands produce tears. A film of tears coats the eyes and prevents them from becoming too_____.

Have you ever had your picture taken and your eyes started to blink ____? That is because blinking also protects the eyes from strong ____. You may also ____ more when cutting fresh onions. The vegetable produces a gas that makes the eyes tear up and blink.

There are other reasons why we blink. Our eyes ____ blink more during times of worry than when we are calm. ____ we often blink less when we are doing a difficult task. Tiredness, disease, and injury to the eyes can also_____ how much we blink and how often.

【推荐2】My past students are starting to organize a scientific conference for my 60th birthday to be held about a year from now. Their gesture reminded me of Rabbi Hanina’s words: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues and the most from my students.”

We all started as students. Just as kids bump into things as they’re learning to _________ the world, many of us have scars from early encounters with our mentors._________ arise when those mentors attempt to establish their authority by trying to make us respect traditional thinking. Memories of these events should encourage us to do better as we_________ roles and mentor others later in life.

For example, the first advice I received from my postdoctoral mentor was to develop specialized skills and focus them on a _________ field, where I would establish myself as the world expert._________ , I decided not to follow this advice as soon as I recognized by drilling down narrowly, one often fails to make further progress. In these situations, the potential for a _________improves with a broader and more flexible perspective, which enables “out of the box” opportunities for drilling deeper around it.

Keeping this in mind, I encourage my students to think broadly and _________ about the most exciting problems in astronomy, such as: “What happened before the big bang?”; “What will happen in our distant cosmic future?”; “What is the nature of dark matter?”; or “When did life start in the universe?”

It is customary to consider a student’s raw potential as a stand-alone commodity whose value can be_________ through examinations. But my experience taught me that young scientists do not blossom into exceptional researchers _________ they are supported by encouraging words and inspiration; these ingredients are as __________ as nutrition and water are for seeds of flowers.__________ the initial belief in the potential of a student to become a successful scientist, this outcome may not come true.

As chair of the Harvard astronomy department for almost a decade, I witnessed many examples of students who were initially very slow to make progress but blossomed academically as soon as they selected a different advisor and a new topic for their Ph. D. A good mentor__________ the strengths of the mentee. As a result, a successful mentoring experience often reflects a good __________ between a fledgling(新手的) scientist and an advisor. They should both be congratulated for their shared academic DNA.

On the one hand, mentors get a kick from Oscar Wilde’s insight: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...” But on the other hand, they should allow students to break free from the __________ path with creativity. The rule of thumb is to give young scholars just enough space to explore freely and learn from their __________ without damaging the direction of their future careers. The learning curves could be steep; some of my 50 students over the past few decades started slow but eventually rose to the greatest heights. Patience is key.

【推荐3】The mind of a child is like a sponge (海绵), absorbing information from all available sources and rapidly learning human skills.

Researchers have now found that children are ________ with their energy. They only try hard and ________ effort when they know it will be beneficial. This means small children’s learning systems are more ________ than previously thought, as they do not just ________ adults’ examples or try at random.

An experiment was conducted on 96 young children to test how they ________ various problems. Researchers watched carefully to see how much ________ they devoted. The study revealed that if they fail at the first ________ and know success is impossible, they don’t waste much energy ________ for it. However, if they are aware a task can be ________ but it is difficult, they will persist (坚持) for longer, even if they fail. And children also only seek help if they ________ need it.

It was once ________ that children either try things at random or simply ________ what they see adults doing, but this research proves it to be untrue. ________, children combine all information available to make a ________ as to whether a task is worth persisting with. The research shows children combine their own ________ with their previous knowledge to decide when is best to try hard.

Experts say ________ is important and plays a role in learning and life outcomes like school ________ and emotional health. But it is not always a good idea to persist because effort is a ________ resource. Besides, making an effort requires ________ and energy. What truly ________ learning is knowing when to try and what the best way to try is.