On August 4th, two men and two women were hit by lightning while visiting Washington’s Lafayette Square, just north of the White House. All four people were taken to the hospital quickly. Three of them later died.

Take lightning storms seriously. If you’re outdoors, it is important to know how to keep away from lightning.

When thunder roars (咆哮), go indoors. Quickly go into a room such as a shopping center, home, or office.

Are you in an open area? Make sure that you’re not at the highest point, especially when you’re in an open area. Look for buildings not in high places, at the same time, being careful not to get caught in water.

Are you in a car? If you’re in your car during a lightning storm, close your windows and keep an eye out. Stop the car when you can’t see the road.

Are you around water? Keep away from water and don’t swim or row a boat if a storm is nearby. If you’re on the water, leave it quickly.

________ Don’t take shelter (遮蔽) under a tree that is isolated or the tallest nearby.

Keep away from flash floods (骤发洪水). Lightning storms can be followed by heavy rain that could lead to flash floods. Be careful when you’re looking for a shelter in a low place.

Don’t touch metal items and other special things. These things, such as bikes, power lines, and golf clubs, can conduct electricity.

Welcome to the world! Your mom and I are so excited to see who you will become.

When your sister was born, we wrote a letter about the world we hoped she grows up in and now you will grow up in a world with better education, ________, stronger communities, and greater equality. We wrote that with all the advances in science and technology, your generation should live much better lives than ours, and we have a responsibility to do our part to make that happen. Even though headlines often focus on what’s wrong, we still believe these positive trends will win out. We’re optimists (乐观主义者) about your generation and the future.

But rather than write about growing up, we want to talk about childhood. The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s important to make time to go outside and play.

You will be busy when you’re older, so I hope you take time to smell all the flowers and put all the leaves you want in your bucket now. I hope you read your favorite books so many times and hope you start inventing your own stories. I hope you ride the carousel (旋转木马) until you’ve tamed (驯服) every color horse. I hope you run as many laps around our living room and yard as you want. And then I hope you take a lot of naps. I hope you’re a great sleeper. And I hope even in your dreams you can feel how much we love you. Childhood is magical. You only get to be a child once, so don’t spend it worrying too much about the future. You’ve got us for that, and we’ll do everything we possibly can to make sure the world is a better place for you and all children in your generation. Niu Niu, we love you so much and were so excited to go on this adventure with you. We wish you a life of joy, love and the same hope you give us.

Love,   

Mom and Dad

The conflict (冲突) between Russia and Ukraine (乌克兰) itself may be a questionable topic, yet it is the people who suffer the most. More than 4 million Ukrainians had fled from their homeland one month after it began. It was the biggest migration (移民) wave since World War Ⅱ.

I wanted to help by being a volunteer. However, it was difficult because I don’t speak Russian or Ukrainian. Luckily, after searching on the Internet, I was finally able to sign up to volunteer in a modern gallery called Svetova.

The gallery is owned by an overseas Chinese in Prague, Czech Republic, and had over 40 volunteers to provide 24/7 aid to the Ukrainian refugees(难民). During a two-week intensive (集中的) aid program, the gallery provided a place to live and food for up to five people for free and also served as a safe and interesting space for children, where English classes, games and other fun activities were organized.

Due to my busy school and work schedule, I was only able to volunteer there twice. But, besides the owner and his family, I was the first Chinese volunteer. My role was to help the refugees fill out registration (登记) papers. Sometimes, it was difficult with the language barrier, but there were translators to help.

I was so impressed by one Ukrainian mother and her two kids, who still had such kind smiles and bright eyes, although they must have experienced all the awful things. Some other people may not be able to easily understand their feelings, but I really valued this chance to be with those people in need, doing what I could. Because we are all humans, we should come together in difficult times.

In the past few years, scientists have shown that bees have some surprising math skills. Now, new research shows that bees can even be trained to tell the difference between odd and even numbers (奇数和偶数).     31    

To train the bees, scientists in Australia hung up cards with an odd or even number of shapes (like triangles or circles). The cards represented the number 1 through 10. Under each card was a small tray (盘) with a liquid.     32     If it chose the wrong card, it got a sour liquid.

The researchers trained one group of bees to choose odd numbers.     33     They kept training the bees until they got it right 80% of the time.

    34     They had the bees choose between cards with 11 and 12 shapes on them. The bees had never seen these numbers in their training. Even so, they were able to correctly choose the odd or even number 70% of the time.

The scientists still don’t understand what methods the bees used to get the correct answer.

    35     One reason is that the scientists believe that studying bee brains might help us learn how to build better and faster computers. After all, a bee’s brain is about 86, 000 times smaller than a human brain. How does it do with such complicated (复杂的) ideas?

There is no doubt that water is one of the most important resources (资源) for man. It is the source of all life. But in fact, we’re facing serious water problem.

Problems

Although water covers 71 percent of earth’s surface, we can only use a very small part of it. It’s about 3 percent and it’s in lakes, rivers and underground. Today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply (供应) close to home, according to the United Nations.

Themes

To remind people of the importance of water, the UN first set WORLD WATER DAY in 1993. It is celebrated on March 22 each year. Every year has a theme.

Solutions

In fact, many governments and organizations have already taken actions to offer good solutions. In some countries, people have their own solutions for saving water and reusing waste-water.

Actions

As students, we should try our best to fight against the problem of water waste. What we can do is to support charities, take part in the World Water Day events, be careful with how we use water in our own lives, and so on.

42. It’s one of the world’s ______ /’tʃi:pɪst/ and most helpful medicines.

50. School education offers chances for ______ /’pɜː(r)sənl/ development to help us realize our dreams.

Mary Lennox, from India, was sent to live with her uncle in a big manor (庄园) in England after her parents died.

When she was alone, Mary felt lonelier than ever. She went out of the house and ran around the garden ten times. Ben Weatherstaff, a gardener,     51     (work) in it.

“Spring is coming, ” he said to Mary. “I can smell it in the air. Soon there     52     (be) spring flowers. ”

At this moment, the robin (知更鸟) flew toward them and landed at Mary’s feet.

“He     53     (remember) me, ” she said.

“He knows everything that happens here, ” Ben said. “Only he knows what’s happening in the garden that has no door into it. No one else     54     (be) inside it for ten years. ”

Ben walked away     55     (continue) his work. Mary bent down and began     56     (talk) to the robin. She felt happier than she had ever felt.

The robin trusted her and did not fly away. It began pecking at the ground,     57     (look) for a worm (虫子) to eat. Mary looked closely at the ground. She saw something that looked like metal. She picked it up. It was dirty and rusty. She cleaned it and saw that it was a key.

“It’s been in the ground for many years, ” she thought. “I wonder if it is the key to the garden. If it is, then I must     58     ( find) the door. ”

Mary skipped around the garden. The robin followed her. Mary stopped skipping and     59     (speak) to the robin.

“He showed me where to find the key, ” she thought. “Can you show me where the door is? ”

The robin sat on the top of the garden wall. It began to sing. The wall     60     (cover) with ivy. Mary pulled at a piece of the ivy. It came away from the wall. Behind the wall was a door. Mary put the key in the lock of the door and turned it. The door opened. Only seconds later. Mary was inside the secret garden.

64. 如果他们齐心协力，一定会赢得这场足球比赛。

__________________________________________

The folk art form, kuaiban, which has a long history, can be performed by a group or a single person. With one or two pairs of bamboo clappers—a kind of traditional Chinese musical instrument.       66     , the performers tell stories in the local dialect (方言). These stories are usually folk tales or about social life.

Recently, Liu Jiming and Wan Yifu made and shared three short videos by using kuaiban which were viewed about 4 million times.     67     Liu and Wan have gained more than 1 million followers on the Internet. They’ve created many new works to raise people’s awareness. Some of their works are about     68     of drunken driving and food safety. They also write stories to show respect to people who make contributions, such as traffic policemen.

According to Liu and Wan, people can understand kuatban pieces without difficulty. The stories told in kuaiban pieces     69     people’s daily lives. Therefore, they consider that it is a fun way to introduce the Chinese folk culture     70     kuaiban. And what matters to them is that both young people and old people begin to know the charm (魅力) of the art form, kuaiban, which may not be paid much attention to,     71     other traditional art forms.

Folk art forms, like xiangsheng, pingshu and kuaiban, share something     72    . These traditional art forms show     73     of traditional Chinese culture so they should be known by more people and get to more areas.     74    , through the Internet, new performers who go on sharing kuaiban pieces, like Liu and Wan are playing an active role.     75     these Chinese folk art forms will be alive with the times.

76. 古今中外的杰出人物数不胜数，如伟大的文学家、政治家、科学家、军事家、艺术家等等。请你介绍一位你最喜欢的杰出人物。

There are countless great figures from ancient till now.

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