I felt very scared. I ran to my bed and pulled my blanket over my head. I started to shout for my parents but there was no reply. Then I remembered that they were at a fancy dress party.

I looked out of my blanket but it was too dark to see anything. Then I heard footsteps. They were getting louder and louder. I ran to my drawer to take out my camera and started to take pictures in the direction of the window. Soon the footsteps died off.

The grandfather clock struck. It was 12 midnight. I went back to my bed and tried to sleep. But I could not sleep. I felt too frightened. I sat up, and my mind was full of thoughts. Time passed --- finally, I fell asleep.

I woke up only after eight and decided to find out what it had been. I found some footprints outside my bedroom window. I measured them with a ruler and found them to be exactly the same size as my father's shoes. I then went to town to get the film developed. I didn't realize that I did not use the flash until I saw the black photos.

When I reached home, I told my father the whole incident and he started to laugh. I started laughing too when he told me that he had dressed up as an alien for the party. Today, I am still amused to think I was so afraid of my own father.

【推荐3】I’d gone snowboarding in France with my little brother, and what we lacked in skill we made up for in enthusiasm. That day, fresh snow had been falling, and we were in high spirits. We stopped near the top of an off-path section that went through forests. I let my brother disappear into the trees ahead, figuring I would soon catch up.

It was like hitting a solid wall. I began to pick up speed when I was suddenly thrown off balance. Just as I was regaining control, I ran into the trunk of a large tree.

The pain was instant. I knew immediately that my back was broken and quickly realized the situation could get very serious. Nobody would be coming past. There was no phone signal. It was snowing and cold. If I waited, I would probably be rescued eventually. But the chance of freezing to death before that happened was too high for me to risk staying put.

I tried to stand but fell down and almost blacked out with pain. I managed to get the board off from my feet and moved it under my stomach so I was lying on it. I faced down the mountain and used the board to slowly drag and slide my body down the steep, tree-lined slope.

It took about two hours before a skier found me and I got help. The mountain rescue team came, with my brother arriving shortly afterwards. I couldn’t feel my hands or my toes from the cold, but the relief at knowing I was safe was immense (极大的).

A helicopter took me to hospital. I had broken one of my backbones, so I had an operation where the doctors inserted plates. The constant pain was agonizing, but it wasn’t as bad as seeing the pain and worry I put my family through.

The recovery road was tough, but I was lucky. Gradually, I was able to walk, then swim, then cycle and then run. I haven’t been back to the slopes yet, but it might happen someday — I will, however, be sticking to the paths.

【推荐1】A Student Profile

Name: Kristin Lacey

Hometown: Merced, California, USA

School & College: Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GRS) at MIT

Major: English literature

Favorite book: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Favorite class: British Literature with Professor Anna Henchman

Favorite place to study on campus: Athan’s in Washington Square or Cafenation in Brighton Center

Favorite restaurant in Boston: Sweet Checks

Extra-curricular (课外的) activities: President of the Graduate Student Association; leading the Graduate Student English Literature Group; Volunteering at Gifford Homeless Cat Center in Brighton.

Study experience: I studied for four years and earned my undergraduate degree in English in 2020 at California State University, Fresno. I was the first in my family to attend graduate school and college.

When I graduate, I hope to teach literature at a local college and help the other first-generation college students to get higher education. It’s important to give a helping hand to those who need it.

Advice to other first-generation college students:

I know that being first-generation graduate means always pushing against your background and stepping out of your comfort zone. And it is important to take as many lectures as possible and be open-minded to good advice from your teachers, while know the line between helpful and bad recommendations. Be outgoing with your friends and build your support network by asking for help when you need it and giving help in return.

【推荐3】Your values are your beliefs about what's right and wrong and what's important in life.     1    Also, they can be learned through watching your family and hearing their discussions about things they're interested in.

    2       When you know your values and make choices that are in agreement with them, life suddenly becomes easier. After all, discovering your values can make important decisions, like accepting job or making a big change, much easier.   it's necessary to find out our personal values. To achieve this, you can   start with what you already know about yourself.       3     For example, if it's morally important for you to arrive at your workplace in time and focus on your work, it'll be true that being an honest and efficient employee is a value you carry.

What's more, your own experiences will be your best tool in realizing what's valuable to you.     4     Why were you so pleased? Think about when you were proud of yourself and why you felt that pride. Besides, don't be afraid to look ahead: what values do you want to to your friends?     5       

Once you've determined what your values are, it's important to look to them every day and live by them to create your best life.

【推荐1】If a human can get an artificial limb, why not an animal? Easier said than done however, as while there is a tremendous amount of ongoing research for human artificial limbs, there is hardly any for animals.

But Dr Tapesh Mathur, a vet living in Jaipur, did not want to wait around anymore. He is credited with making the “Krishna Limb”, India’s first artificial limb for animals. Tapesh has been designing artificial limbs for animals since 2015 and to date, has helped 90 animals adapt to using an artificial limb.

From design to production, Tapesh does all the work by himself at his home-workshop. He provides the artificial limbs for free. Tapesh said, “I could not bear to see their (the cattle’s) pain in shelters. These animals could not voice their anxiety as humans can, but they felt the pain all the same. They waited helplessly for food or for someone to clean them. And I kept thinking if we can help humans walk again, why can’t something similar be done for these animals? Thus I began my research.”

Tapesh designed his first artificial limb for a two-year-old cow named Krishna, who learnt to walk using the limb. Producing these artificial limbs wasn’t an easy task initially, and Tapesh required raw material, which was expensive. Polypropylene, which is used for manufacturing artificial limbs, is only supplied in large quantities by suppliers, and Tapesh had to source it from Mumbai using his own savings.

Now, Tapesh designs customisable artificial limbs for different animals. “We generally work with cows, horses, and dogs, but have started receiving applications for other animals as well. Recently, we got a request for a limb for a pet parrot. We are still working on the design.”

There are certain steps involved in designing. First, Tapesh takes the necessary measurements, based on which the artificial limb is shaped. The real challenge comes when Tapesh has to visit animals living in remote areas as his patients often cannot be brought to him. Once the artificial limb is ready, Tapesh has to visit the animal and attach it for free.

【推荐2】When I was six, Dad brought home a dog one day, who was called "Brownie". My brothers and I all loved Brownie and did different things with her. One of us would walk her, another would feed her, then there were baths, playing catch and many other games. Brownie, in return, loved each and every one of us. One thing that most touched my heart was that she would go to whoever was sick and just be with them. We always felt better when she was around.

One day, as I was getting her food, she chewed up(咬破)one of Dad's shoes, which had to be thrown away in the end. I knew Dad would be mad and I had to let her know what she did was wrong. When I looked at her and said, "Bad girl, "she looked down at the ground and then went and hid. I saw a tear in her eyes.

Brownie turned out to be more than just our family pet. She went everywhere with us. People would stop and ask if they could pet her. Of course she'd let anyone pet her. She was just the most lovable dog. There were many times when we' d be out walking and a small child would come over and pull on her hair. She never barked(吠) or tried to get away. Funny thing is she would smile. This frightened people because they thought she was showing her teeth. Far from the truth, she loved everyone. .

Now many years have passed since Brownie died of old age. I still miss the days when she was with us.

【推荐1】Idioms are one of the hardest parts of learning a language. For those of you who don't know, an idiom is a phrase which has a meaning, but the meaning is not clear from the words themselves. If you translate an idiom word for word, it sometimes makes no sense at all. They are like puzzles and even native speakers can get confused when someone uses a phrase that they've never heard of.

With that in mind, here are five common English idioms that you can use in a variety of Situations.

This might be something your teacher says to you if you score badly in an exam or if you misbehave in class. You can also use it to talk about people in general. For example, if your friend is being mean or nasty for no reason, then you can tell them that they need to get their act together.

This is a somewhat impolite way of telling someone that they are overreacting and that they need to relax. Only use this if you think the person you are speaking to is getting upset over something insignificant. If your friend tells you that their close relative has died, it is NOT the time to tell them to pull themselves together.

Yes, it's longer and more difficult to say than 'I'm sick', but if your English teacher asks you why you haven't done your homework, he or she is more likely to forgive you if you say that you were feeling under the weather. You may not have done your English homework, but your teacher might be impressed that you know how to make eloquent excuses in a foreign language.

I don't know why this means what it does, but sometimes you just have to accept that English people use weird phrases.

This is perhaps one of the most confusing yet well-known English idioms. If someone says this to you, do not take offence or think they are threatening you; they are just wishing you luck. It is most often used for people wishing success to actors and actresses before they perform on the stage, but it can be said in other situations, too.

All in all, learning a new language can be challenging. It's definitely not a piece of cake, especially when there are so many confusing idioms. However, with enough hard work and interest, you will succeed in no time. Break a leg!

【推荐2】Just picture your favorite Disney cartoon characters： Mickey Mouse， Minnie Mouse， Donald Duck， Goofy， Bugs Bunny， Pinocchio， etc． There's an extremely high chance that a whole host of Disney's most popular cartoon characters share a common fashion choice﹣they all wear a pair of white gloves． Although there are many surprising facts about Disney's most famous characters， putting gloves on animation（动画片）characters is actually a pretty reasonable move．

The creation of hand﹣drawn cartoons is a difficult and tiring process． It takes time and precision（精确度）to create the characters you know and love． At that time， animators wanted to make their job a touch faster with a few techniques． One of these techniques was using round edges（边）instead of angles（角）． So this also meant simplifying features， such as hands， to make the animation process quicker．

Still， in the age of black and white cartoons， separating characters' round﹣edged hands from their black bodies was hard． Gloves were an easy way to make their hands stand out． In fact， Walt Disney might have been the first to put gloves on his characters in The Opry House， starring Mickey Mouse． When animation moved away from black and white， Mickey and all of his friends still kept their signature white gloves．

Besides keeping the animation simple， Walt Disney told his biographer， Bob Thomas， that the gloves were also designed to anthropomorphize the mouse． "We didn't want him to have mouse hands because he was supposed to be more connected with people，" Disney told Thomas in 1957， according to The New York Times． "So we gave him gloves． Five fingers seemed like too much on such a little figure， so we took away one．" All this nostalgic Disney talk makes us want to go back and look at these 18 classic photos of Mickey Mouse．

【推荐3】London Underground

The world's first subway was built in London in 1863. At the time, the government was looking for a way to reduce traffic problems in the city of London. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people that it was almost impossible for horse carriages to get through. The city officials were interested in trying to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a cheap and convenient way that they could depend on to go to and from work, they would relocate their homes outside of the city. This would help ease(减轻) the pressure of too many people living in the poor parts of London. From these problems, the idea of the London Underground, the first subway system, was born.

The plans for building the Underground met with several problems and delays, but the fast track was finally opened in January 1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the fast underground track which was 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) long. About 30,000 people got on the subway the first day. Riders were treated to comfortable seats (standing up while the train was moving was not allowed), and pleasant decorations inside each of the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels with ash and soot(煤灰), as well as chemical gases. Fans had to be put in the tunnels later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems, riding in the Underground did catch on. It carried 9 million riders in its first year.