A rat found a rattrap(捕鼠夹) in the house. Going back to the farmyard, the rat gave a warning: “There is a rattrap in the house, a rattrap in the house!” The chicken raised her head and said: “Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to(与...有关) you, but it is none of my business. I cannot be bothered with it.”

The rat turned to the pig and told him: “There is a rattrap in the house!” “I’m so sorry, Mr. Rat,” said the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it.”

The rat turned to the cow. She said, “Will the rattrap catch me and kill me? Haha!”

So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s rattrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient(配料).

His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them the farmer killed the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came for her funeral(葬礼) that the farmer had the cow killed to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rattrap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.

Many of us don’t pay much attention to the importance of eye care. It is said that if you take care of your body, then you can surely be healthy. That is why our eyes should be given a lot of care. Natural eye care should be put in a number one place.

There are several causes leading to poor eyesight like not enough food, genes and aging. Televisions, computers and reading are also the causes of having poor eyesight. If you happen to work in front of the computer, it is best to take a break every once in a while.

Something dirty can cause redness and they will make you feel uncomfortable. It is bad for your eyes, too. If this happens, the best way is to clean your eyes by using cold water. You must also try your best to protect your eyes from harmful things. For example, sunglasses are not just for fashion but they can also serve as a great way to protect your eyesight form UV rays.

Eating healthy foods will do good to your eyesight. Remember that vitamins A, C and E are good for eyes. Try to eat food groups that have these vitamins. And you should do eye exercises because exercise protects your eyesight, too. If a person exercises regularly(定期地) and eats the right kind of food, his eyes will stay in good condition for a long time.

All above are natural ways of eye care that help us keep healthy eyes. Being happy all the time can be helpful to a person’s eyesight, too. In a world, eye care is very important, no matter how old a person is.

Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was glad to see his new place and meet his friends.

My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and his family, but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him; as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt unhappy about him. He seemed not satisfied with me unless I got straight A’s and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as “successful” as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.

On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father’s friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We walked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son’s funny facial expressions. Gone was my father’s critical(挑剔的) air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?

The next day my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I’m at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I’m happy with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was.

I love my iPhone-It’s my little connection to the larger world that can go anywhere with me. I also love my computer, as it holds all of my writing and thoughts. Despite this love of technology, I know that there are times when I need to move away from these devices(设备) and truly communicate with others.

I teach a course called History Matters for a group of higher education managers. My goals for the class include a full discussion of historical themes and ideas. Because I want students to carefully study the material and exchange their ideas with each other in the classroom. I have a rule-no computers, iPads or phones. When students were told my rule in advance of the class, some of them were not happy.

Most students bet that my reasons for this rule include unpleasant experiences in the past with students misusing technology. There’s a bit of truth to that. Some students guess that I am anti-technology. There’s no truth in that at all. I love technology and try to keep up with it.

The real reason why I ask students to leave technology at the door is that I think there are few places in which we can have deep conversations and truly engage complex(复杂的) ideas. Interruptions by technology often break concentration and allow for too much dependence on outside information for ideas. I want students to dig deep within themselves for inspiration and ideas. I want them to push each other to think differently and make connections between the course, the material and the class discussion.

I’ve been teaching my history class in this way for many years and my students gradually realize that with deep conversation and challenge, they learn at a level that helps them keep the course material beyond the classroom.

I’m not saying that I won’t ever change my mind about technology use in my history class, but until I hear a really good reason for the change. I’m sticking to my plan. A few hours of technology-free dialogue is just too sweet to give up.

How to be a fit kid

Everyone wants to be fit. If you’re fit, your body works well, feels good, and can do all the things you want to do, like running around with your friends. If you want to be a fit kid, here are some rules you must follow.

    16     You may have a favorite food, but the best way is to eat differently. If you eat different foods, you will never feel tired. Taste new foods and old ones. Eat at least five kinds of fruits and vegetables a day---two fruits and three vegetables.

    17     When you feel full, you must stop eating. Eating too much can make you feel uncomfortable and get fat.

    18     Don’t spend much time watching TV and using a smart phone or a computer. No more than 2 hours a day on screen.

    19     As a kid, you may be quiet, but you should find some sports you like best. Not everyone loves baseball or soccer. Maybe you like running. But you must try to be active.

    20     It is much easier to reach your goals when you have your friends to share the pain and the gain. Create a schedule that you can both commit to and keep each other on track.

What is IQ anyway? When I was in the army, I _________ an IQ test that all soldiers took, and, against an average(平均) of 100, I scored 160.

I had an auto-repair man(汽车修理工), who, on these intelligence tests, couldn’t _________ have scored more than 80. Yet , when anything went wrong with my car I hurried to him---and he always _______ it.

Well, if my auto-repair man designs questions for some IQ tests, by every one of them I’d prove myself a _________ because in a world where I have to work with my _______, I’d do poorly.

Consider my auto-repair man again. He had a habit of telling _________. One time he said, “Doctor, a deaf-and-dumb man _______ some nails. Having entered a store, he put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering movements with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He_______ his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk_______ him some nails. He picked out the right size and left. Well, Doc, the __________ man who came in was blind. He wanted scissors.__________ do you suppose he asked for them?” I lifted my right hand and made scissoring movements with my first two fingers. He burst out laughing and said, “Why, you fool, he used his __________ and asked for them. I’ve been__________ that on all my customers today, but I knew __________ I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you are so god damned educated, Doc. I knew you couldn’t be very __________.” And I have an uneasy feeling that he had something there.

People often call the plastic bags “white pollution”. It becomes     36    (bad) invention for the humans because it is hard to break down. It     37    (report) that it takes 100-200 years to break them down    38    (complete). However, a 16-year-old high-school Canadian student called Daniel Byrd discovered that in one kind of mysterious single cell fungus may break down the plastic bag!

The idea of the invention came from his housework. He always helped his mother do the housework. Every time,     39     he opened the closet, the plastic bags would fly out. This makes him very     40    (angry). So he thought how to deal with these plastic bags. He knew the plastic bags were destroyed by the microorganism(微生物). So with his     41    (teach) help, he found that he     42    (put) the two germs(细菌) mixture up and that made the plastic bags break down quickly.

First, he made    43     experiment—he mixed some earth germs and plastic bags together. After 12 weeks, he found the plastic bags were broken down. Then, he made another experiment. In the     44    (nature) environment, these germs could work well. The experiment also showed that the plastic bags can be broken down in three months. And it only gave off some water and little carbon dioxide.

He wanted to go to college with the money he got     45     the invention. And now he got about thirty thousand dollars. Also he got a lot of reward from many universities.

56. 假定你是李华，一名杭州中学生，请回复你的美国笔友Jim的邮件。 词数：80-100词。

How are you? I hope everything is OK with you. I can’t wait to visit Hangzhou at Christmas! Mom asks me to bring back a gift from Hangzhou. So could you tell me a special product that Hangzhou is famous for? (It can be food, artwork or any other products.) Give me some information about it. For example, what is it made of/ from? How to produce it? Why do people like it? Thank you!