When I was about five years old, I was living with my parents in New York. It was the 1980s and one day I sat in front of my favourite lunchbox. This one held my huge collection of crayons (蜡笔). Like most children, I was curious and I wanted to “discover” what was inside my crayons. So I broke them in two. I was rather disappointed to find nothing but more crayon inside of them. Growing up, I saw my television taken apart to see the parts inside. In fact, my childhood interest in the building blocks (构成要素) of things led me to pursue a career in engineering.
I realized that inside all of the human-made things in the world around us are fundamental building blocks. Without them our complex machinery wouldn’t exist.
It is this idea that inspired my book, one in which I have selected what I believe to be the seven core elements that form the basis of the modern world: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet (磁铁), the lens, the pump (泵) and string. Together they have a vast range of innovations. They have created and changed our technology and our history, society, communication, transportation, arts and culture.
I-selected these seven objects during the first 2020 lockdown. Trapped at home, I let my mind wander freely while looking around at my possessions dismantling them to see what lay inside each of them. For example, the speaker on my phone through which I could hear the voices of my family and friends relied on a magnet. Even as I thought about larger and more complex objects-skyscrapers, tunnels, satellites and so on, I came back to the same seven basic innovations.
Look around yourself and ask questions about what you see: reignite (重新燃起) that childhood curiosity. Hopefully, this will inspire you to investigate the increasingly complicated world of engineering, and is something which will lead you to form a better understanding of the building blocks of our world.
1. Why did the author share his childhood experience in the beginning?A.To explain how his hobby formed. | B.To introduce the topic of this passage. |
C.To refresh his happy memory when young. | D.To advise readers to follow his example. |
A.They didn’t come along until 2020. |
B.They set people free during the lockdown. |
C.They were only applied in our daily items. |
D.They are the necessary and crucial parts of machinery. |
A.Separating things into small parts. |
B.Observing things with certain tools. |
C.Creating something new with building blocks. |
D.Finding new ways of communication with a new device. |
A.Perseverance leads to victory. | B.Failure is the mother of success. |
C.Small things matter in our daily life. | D.Engineering dream should start young. |
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【推荐1】Family love is one of the most valuable gifts in life and one that you cannot buy anywhere. Whether you have a close relationship with your family depends on you.
You’ve probably heard the song lyric, “A house is not a home, when there is no one there to hold you tight”. What changes a house into a home is true love. Love strengthens the connection, while anger tears it apart.
Give Freedom
It doesn’t matter whatever position you have in a family; you need to give freedom to the other members of it.
Learn to Forgive
There will always be differences in personalities and preferences between family members. Because of these differences, disagreements happen. And it’s unwise to react straight away, to jump to conclusions and start an argument.
This gives you a better understanding and the ability to forgive more easily.
Look for Solutions
Family life is not a battlefield. Do not focus on problems; instead focus on the solutions. Although we are all expected to be responsible for our actions, it still feels more comfortable for some to put the blame on others.
A.No one likes to be ruled all the time. |
B.Stop the blame game, and look for solutions. |
C.Increase Your Love. |
D.When disagreements happen, put yourself in the other person's shoes. |
E.Here are four ways for you to become closer to your family. |
F.In a close relationship there will definitely be a lot of arguments, disharmony and disagreements. |
G.Spending some time with family members is one of the factors that can strengthen our family connections. |
【推荐2】“We regret to inform you...” These are the words that every writer is afraid of receiving. When the response from a publisher comes back, the writers’ hearts drop. You may have spent years giving up your weekends to write your work, yet still this is often not enough. Everyone knows that success rarely happens overnight, but perhaps not many know that a lot of highly successful writers have been rejected before.
Take for example J. K. Rowling. Rowling had spent years surviving on little money, spending all her time writing. When she finally finished her first book, she received comments from publishers along the lines of “too difficult for children”. However, she kept going. “I wasn’t going to give up until every single publisher turned me down,” she later posted. After a total of twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and as we know, Harry Potter became a global success, with over 400 million books sold and translated into more than seventy different languages.
Another example about persistence was the three sisters from Victorian England. At that time women were not encouraged to become writers. As a famous writer wrote to one of them: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be.” However, the sisters didn’t stop trying. Their response was to write a book of poems under male names. Even when the book sold only two copies, the sisters still didn’t give up. They started writing novels, and today Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey are regarded as classics of world literature.
So, it seems that talent alone isn’t enough to ensure success. While a lot of hard work and a touch of luck play a part, persistence is the key. Keep trying and eventually you will read the words “We are delighted to inform you...”
1. What can we learn from J. K. Rowling’s experience with publishers?A.Rejections from publishers are always fair. |
B.Keep going even if you face lots of rejections. |
C.Writers should give up after a few rejections. |
D.Success comes overnight if you’re talented enough. |
A.They stopped writing for a short time. |
B.They became poets instead of novelists. |
C.They followed social rules and quit writing. |
D.They used male pen names for their writing. |
A.Successful Female Writers |
B.Life Is Hard for Female Writers |
C.Never Give Up on Your Dreams |
D.Talent Alone Can Ensure Success |
【推荐3】Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably accomplish what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.
My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren’t written until the final threat.
I’ve been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master’s degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a “vo-tech” student (技校学生). They’re called “motorheads” by the rest of the student body.
When a secretary in my office first called him “motorhead”, I was shocked. “Hey, he’s a good kid,” I wanted to say. “And smart, really.”
I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don’t often make school honor rolls (光荣榜).
But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don’t have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. ”Hey, I can fix it," said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.
My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts (零件) from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The cost was $25 instead of $800.
Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.
These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.
I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most importantly, I have learned that fathers don’t need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.
My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.
1. What used to be the author’s hope for his son?A.To avoid becoming his clone. | B.To resemble him in appearance. |
C.To develop in a different direction. | D.To reach the author’s unachieved goals. |
A.He believed that his son had the ability to fix it. |
B.He believed that it would save him much time. |
C.He believed that it wouldn’t cause him any more loss. |
D.He believed that other motorheads would come to help. |
A.tidy and hard-working | B.cheerful and smart |
C.lazy but bright | D.relaxed but rude |
A.It is unwise to expect your child to follow your path. |
B.It is important for one to make the honor roll. |
C.Architects play a more important role than builders. |
D.Motorheads have greater ability than office workers. |
【推荐1】Last week I did something that scared me. I stood in front of nearly 200 financial planners and I talked to them about why financial blogs are a good thing. I'm a confident writer. I've been doing this long enough that I know my strength and my limitations. I'm less confident as a speaker. I don't have time to pause to collect my thoughts. I'm not able to edit. I'm afraid of being trapped in a corner without being able to talk my way out. Basically, I'm scared to speak.
It would be easy to simply refuse the chances that come my way. When somebody asks me to speak in front of a group, I could say "no". When radio and television stations call for an interview, I could say "no". But for the past two years, I've been following my own policy to say "yes" to new chances.
To say "yes" is to live in fear. My goal is to continually improve myself to become better than I am today. One way to do that is to do the things that scare me, to take them on as challenges, and to learn from them—even if I fail.
In mid-November, a local station asked me to appear on live television. "I realize it's short notice," the producer wrote, "but we'd love to have you on the show if you're available tonight." I was frightened. I thought about recent taped television interviews that I had hated. I was afraid of what might happen.
But I also thought about the things that had gone right. I thought of how my speaking skills had improved over the past year. And then I thought of the book I was reading, a book that I had bought for $1.29 at the local store. The Magic of Thinking Big was a huge bestseller during the 1960s. Written by Dr. David Schwartz, a professor at Georgia State University, the book contains dozens of practical tips on how to take risks to achieve big goals. Schwartz argues that nobody will believe in you until you believe in yourself.
So when the television producer asked if I wanted to appear on his show, I thought big. "Sure," I said. "I'll do it." I acted confidently, but on the inside I was frightened. What I needed was techniques to build up my confidence and to overcome my fear.
1. Why is the author afraid of speaking in public?A.He is aware of his potential. | B.He has few chances to talk. |
C.He is not able to edit what he says. | D.He likes writing better. |
A.self-improving through challenges | B.hesitating before chances |
C.turning down the invitations | D.saying yes to fear |
A.it was inspiring | B.it was a bestseller |
C.its author was famous | D.its price was attractive |
【推荐2】Alex Elman runs a big business --- something hard to imagine after she lost her sight in her twenties. But Elman says that losing her sight helped her focus on finding success.
Elman’s father planted a hillside vineyard Massachusetts in 1981. It’s where Elman fled during the darkest period of her life. When she was 27 years old, she went blind due to complications from Juvenile diabetes (青少年糖尿病) 17 years ago. She recalled, “I hid in my home. I hid in the place, to me, that was the safest place in the world.”
Elman is now the founder of Alex Elman Wines, a growing collection of organic wines from all around the world: Chianti from Italy, Torrontes from Argentina. Elman doesn’t work alone. Her assistant, a guide dog named Hanley, is something of a wine taster, and quite a beggar. Hanley travels to all the wineries that Elman does, from South America to Europe.
At first, Elman resisted the idea of a seeing-eye dog. Now it’s hard to imagine her life, or her business, without him. She said, “When someone tells me something is organic and I don’t really believe it because I taste something funny on it, I’ll put it in front of his face and if he likes the wine, he’ll actually go in and sniff it. If it’s not right, he’ll turn his head away … He gets in the dirt with me. He scratches around. He makes sure that we see earthworms and butterflies. That’s how we know that the soil is actually organic, that there are no chemicals.”
Elman told CBS News she believes the loss of her vision was a gift. She said, “It allowed me to pay attention to what I thought was important and also to be able to teach people that the broken hang nail is not a big deal, you know what I mean? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t sweat the big stuff either.”
1. From Para. 2, we know that Elman ________.A.got through her hard days in the vineyard |
B.liked playing hide-and-seek during her childhood |
C.suffered from Juvenile diabetes from 27 years old |
D.lost her sight while helping with farm work in 1981 |
A.make Hanley drink it | B.turn to Hanley for advice |
C.order Hanley to head away | D.have another taste herself |
A.a nail which is of no use | B.a disadvantage you have in your life |
C.a person who is hard to deal with | D.a take that is not easy to accomplish |
A.there is no royal road to success |
B.a single tree does not make a forest |
C.the eye is blind if the mind is absent |
D.when life gives you lemons, make lemonade |
【推荐3】Everyone needs help sometimes. People depend on one another. That’s why communities have special people ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it.
For example, what would we do without a community fire station? If a home catches on fire, as the Jackson place did last week, it might be burned down and people get hurt… or worse. We’re so lucky to have firemen to come to save people and put out the fire safely. If the fire station hadn’t come so fast, the Jacksons might have lost everything.
And what about our local police who protect our families, our homes and valuable things? The police have helped so many families this past year, especially saving people and pets and protecting our houses and other things after the heavy rains.
Think about all the other service workers we have in this community. We have people who collect waste and rubbish and keep our community sanitary. We have road workers who put up and repair traffic signs and fix holes in the streets to protect not just us, but our cars! And where would this community be without the teachers in our school and the doctors, and nurses in our community hospitals?
Think again about what we eat every day; think again about what we wear every day. We cannot produce them, but we use them all the time. We get a lot from all these tireless workers who keep our community running. We need these people in the community. We depend on each other. Let’s support each other and help each other. Only in this way can we make our community a better place.
1. What happened to the Jacksons last week?A.Their pets were lost. | B.Their car was badly burnt. |
C.Their house caught on fire. | D.Their valuable things were stolen. |
A.Firemen. | B.Doctors. | C.Road workers. | D.Local police. |
A.Clean | B.Safe | C.Quiet | D.Busy |
A.Did the writer make us laugh? |
B.Did the writer want us to do something? |
C.Did the writer tell us about how to become a teacher? |
D.Did the writer teach us what to do when a fire breaks out? |