Last year in early summer, I was walking up the hill to my house when I saw two birds, each about 60 centimetres tall, standing on the path. They didn’t seem to _______ me until I was right in front of them and then they at once moved quickly into the bushes.

I was quite excited by the idea of two birds making a nest (巢) in my front yard, although I didn’t really expect them to _______ wild birds don’t usually nest so close.

A few weeks later, the birds _______ again. I found them crouching beside a tree off to the side of the path. As I moved nearer to them, I _______ that they would run away like they did last time. But instead they stuck out their heads and made a threatening (威胁的) croaking (呱呱叫) sound. It seemed to warn me not to go any _______.

I didn’t know why they were croaking at me until a short time later I made an amazing _______: they had two small baby birds.

As I moved quietly towards the birds, _______ not to make any sudden movements, they started their croaking again. They straightened their necks forward so they seemed _______ and more threatening. The mother carefully crouched down over the chicks, and _______ her babies well in her feathers.

I was watching them with ________ when I suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. The birds took this as a threat and the father raced towards me, ________ his wings to protect the mother and the chicks while making himself appear larger.

I was ________ to have surprised them and left quickly. I was amazed by their fearless actions. Their parental natural ability kicked in and made them so courageous. It is hard not to respect nature.

Sending astronauts to Mars is a big challenge. Astronauts will have to take everything they need, including food, air and water. The room inside the spaceship is too limited to hold many things. So packing a spaceship is a huge challenge for a trip to Mars.

Six astronauts on an eight-month trip to Mars will need at least 18,000 kilograms of water for drinking and washing. They’ll also need water to protect themselves from space rays which can pass right through spaceship walls and harm astronauts’ living cells. But a layer of water placed around the ship can stop the harm.

That’s a lot of water. And sending water into space is too expensive. It costs $33,000 to send one cup of water to Mars. The more you take, the more it costs. We have the technology to get to Mars, but the problem is that it’s too expensive.

But Flynn, an engineer at NASA, thinks he has a way of solving the problem. Instead of building a heavy spaceship and packing it full of stuff (物料), why not use the stuff as part of the spaceship?

Imagine a spaceship that blows up like a balloon. Inside, the walls have pockets like a big honeycomb (蜂巢). These hold lots of plastic bags filled with water, dried food and algae (水藻). All these make hard walls and great radiation (辐射) protection. And stopping radiation doesn’t influence the food or water itself—it’s safe to eat and drink. And what if the same water could be reused again and again? Flynn and his team call their packed-pocket idea Water Walls.

Making oxygen and taking away CO₂—the waste gas you breathe out—is another problem in space. “Water Walls will take away CO₂ the same way it’s done here on our Earth—with living plants,” Flynn says. Living plants take in CO₂ to make their food, and give off oxygen. “Plants are hard to grow in a spacecraft, so we use algae,” he says.

Algae are tiny plants that live in water. The algae will live in bags in the walls too, fed by human waste and sunlight, eating up CO₂ and making oxygen for the astronauts to breathe.

Flynn thinks his onboard recycling system has many advantages. He hopes it will help make flying to Mars a reality very soon.

When Singaporean Tong Weiqiang watched Hong Kong wuxia dramas more than 10 years ago, he was greatly impressed. He then pioneered a local movement to support hanfu, or traditional Chinese clothes, and started the Han Cultural Society of Singapore in 2012 to attract more fans. “Many people in our cultural society first learned about hanfu from these Chinese wuxia dramas,” he told China Daily.

In recent years, with the increased popularity of Chinese culture through dramas and online literature, wuxia-related content has started to regain popularity with viewers all over the world, including those in Southeast Asia, According to China Daily, Wuxiaworld, a web novel site started by Chinese-American Lai Jingping in 2014, attracts millions of page views per day from users in more than 100 countries.

One reason for its popularity is that wuxia works bring them fresh new experiences. The economies (经济) of many Southeast Asian countries are based on agriculture. As China Daily mentioned, what really interests them is the different lifestyles of wuxia heroes they have never experienced.

New thoughts and ideas in wuxia works also help it go a step further abroad. Unlike traditional wuxia, the modern form of wuxia which has gained popularity in Southeast Asia is a broader idea that includes xianxia and xuanhuan.

But there’s one thing that never changes-its core (核心) spirit. Mixing the Chinese characters “wu” and “xia”, these works always keep the spirit of the Chinese heroes fighting against social injustice (不公正) and beating bad people, noted the Interact Kungfu website.

“Although wuxia is a special part of Chinese culture, the core spirit of pursuing (追求) freedom and justice is generally accepted by people all over the world,” Lily Lee, president of You-Cloud which operates AppGrowing, told China Daily.

Scientists who study happiness have evidence (证据) to show that being kind to others can result in happiness. Acts as simple as buying a cup of coffee for someone can lift a person’s mood, for example. Everyday life is full of chances for such actions, yet people do not always make the most of them.

In studies, behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley and I examined a possible explanation: people who do kind acts underestimate (低估) how much the ones receiving kindness value their behavior.

In the experiments (实验), about 1, 000 people were asked to do some actions to make someone else feel good. We asked both the person performing (执行) the kind act and the one receiving it to answer some questions. The performers were asked to report their own experience and to guess how the receivers might feel. We wanted to understand how valuable people considered these acts to be, so both the performer and receiver had to rate (评分) how “big” the act seemed. In all cases, we compared the performer’s expectations of the receiver’s mood with the receiver’s actual (实际的) experience.

For one, both performers and receivers experienced more positive (积极的) moods. For another, the receivers felt much better than the kind performers expected. The receivers also rated these acts as “bigger” than the people performing them did.

At first, we studied acts of the kindness done for familiar people, such as friends, classmates or family. But we found that performers underestimated their positive influences on strangers as well. In one experiment, performers in a public park gave away hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day to people that just happened to be nearby. Again, the kind act brought more happiness than the performers expected.

These findings suggest that what might seem small could matter a great deal to the person we do it for. Considering these warm actions can improve our own mood and brighten the day of another person, why not choose kindness when we can?

Years ago, I interviewed a successful advertising man.     37     I never believed he could make it. About ten years later, however, I was surprised to see the man on TV, holding up his new book. He has published more than 100 best sellers.

His ability to see himself as a writer shows a concept (理念) known as “possible selves.” It describes how people picture their future life: what they may become, or want to become, or even fear to become.

    38     What you imagine can come true if you build a bridge from your “now” self to your possible self. But how do we build that bridge? Here are a few steps you can try.

First of all, just take action. If you’re dreaming of a certain job, attend a course, follow someone who does what you want to do and start by taking up that type of work as a hobby or a side job. You should tell yourself that these are the steps you can take to achieve that goal (目标).

A study of adults aged between 23 and 72 found that more than 70 percent of those who sent weekly progress to a friend completed their goals, twice the percentage of those who didn’t share written goals. So secondly, when you have a goal, share it.     39     That finding held true for all goals.

Finally, try looking toward people you know only by chance for advice, or those with whom you haven’t spoken in years. A lot of research has found that when you’re asking for valuable advice, people in your larger network are more likely (可能) to help you than those closest to you.     40    

You asked me about the Dragon Boat Festival. Now let me tell you something about it.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional Chinese festival we Chinese     41     (celebrate) for over 2, 000 years. It’s one of the three most important lunar festivals in China, along with the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival takes place on the     42     (twenty-two) of June this year.

Throughout the years, many stories have been told about the     43     (begin) of this festival. Among them,     44     (famous) one is about Qu Yuan, a well-known scholar in ancient China. He not only     45     (write) good poems but also gave suggestions to the king.     46     he devoted himself to his country, the king didn’t like him. This great person drowned (溺水) himself in the Miluo River on the 5th day of the 5th Chinese lunar month because his Chu State fell to Qin State. Local people tried to save him or find his body, but they didn’t     47     (success). Qu Yuan was later considered as     48     national hero. To remember him, every fifth day of the fifth lunar month, people beat drums and go boat racing on the river as they once did     49     (keep) fish away from his body.

Dragon boat racing is one of the most important customs Chinese people practice to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. This activity     50     (hold) widely in China’s southern and southeastern areas where there are lots of rivers and lakes.

Lots of love,

Wendy

57. 当前，有些学生忽视倾听的作用，针对该情况，请你根据要点提示，用英语写一篇短文向校英文报投稿，阐述倾听的重要性。

Listening carefully plays an important role in our life.

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