Whether yellow, red or white, the onion is a vegetable that you may not know well. The list of its uses in cooking is endless. People have used onions to add flavor (味道) to their foods for good for thousands of years. Besides onions’ great taste, they are very good for you. They have special chemicals that improve your ability to fight off sickness and you have fewer chances of getting a disease.
No matter how good onions are for you, it is difficult to cut an onion without your eyes filling with tears! When you cut into an onion, irritating (刺激性的) chemicals inside the onion will get into the air. They touch your whole eyes and cause pain. Your eyes make tears to wash away the chemicals and protect your eyes.
Luckily, cooks and scientists have discovered some ways to keep you from crying when you cut up onions:
● Cut the onion under running water. The water will wash away the chemicals before they can reach your eyes.● Use a fan to blow air over the onion as you cut it. The air will blow the chemicals away from your eyes.
● Put the onion in a fridge for an hour before cutting. This helps make the chemicals in the onion move slowly, so they may not ever reach your eyes.
If you try out these good ideas and still cry while cutting onions, don't worry. Scientists think if you cut more onions, your body will become more resilient to the onion’s chemicals. So the tears will not last long. If you think about how healthy onions are, you might even call those tears “happy tears”.
Onions | |
| | ·Foods will be more delicious if you add onions. ·Their chemicals can |
| Some facts about cutting onions | ·Cut the onion under ·Blow away the air over the onions by using fans. ·Put an onion in a fridge before cutting for an hour so that the chemicals will |
| The more onions you cut, the more resilient your body will be to the onions’ chemicals. | |
| Do you like eating onions? Why or why not? | |
相似题推荐
| A. Remember there is hope for everyone! B. Open your eyes and you are ready to go! C. Your mind goes blank! D. Be more silent! E. Well, don't do that! |
Public speaking is one of the top three fears among adults in both the UK and the US. Here are some suggestions that deal with some of the most common problems people experience with public speaking.
Invite the attention in
Do you hate that moment when you stand up in front of a group to speak and everybody looks at you? ___1_____. It's a sign that people are interested and want to hear what you have to say. Welcome those looks!
Beat the brain freeze
Have you ever been in the middle of speaking and suddenly……brain freeze! _____2___. It is possible that you forgot something for the moment. And you are holding your breath! All you need to do is to trust yourself, clear your mind, focus and breathe. The thoughts will come rushing back to your mind in no time. Phew!
Increase your confidence
Use this exercise to get in touch with the "naturally confident (自信的) you" inside. Close your eyes and remember a special time you felt really relaxed and confident. Imagine the feeling of relaxation rushing through your whole body. It will pass information to your brain that you are confident and happy. __ 3 ____
Whether you are someone who just wants to move from good to great with your speaking, or someone who feels too afraid to stand up and speak, the great news is that you can move forward, be relaxed, and turn into a great speaker. ___ 4 __
1. 阅读下面短文，从方框中所给的A-E五个选项中选择正确的选项（其中一项是多余选项）。2. Write down another suggestion on how to become a good speaker. (答案不多于5个单词)
Do you like ice cream? Maybe you always buy it at the store or from an ice cream shop, but did you know you can make your own ice cream at home?
First, gather your materials. You will need milk, sugar, ice, salt and vanilla (香草) for the ice cream. The other materials are two plastic bags.
One of the plastic bags should be larger than the other. You also need gloves or a towel to use later on!
In the small bag, mix I cup of milk, about 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Close the top tightly! Use your hands to mix and shake the bag. In the large bag, combine between 2-4 cups of ice and about 1/3 cup of salt.
Put the small bag into the large bag, making sure the small bag is still closed tightly. Close the large bag. Shake the bags for at least 5 minutes. Take a look at the small bag to see if it looks like ice cream, or if it’s still liquid. If it looks like ice cream, then you can take the small bag out of the large one, pour the ice cream into a bowl. Enjoy your treat! If it still looks thin, shake the bag for a few more minutes before enjoying.
When you feel successful at making vanilla ice cream, experiment with adding different materials to make your own delicious flavors (口味)!
1. People never buy ice cream at the store or from an ice cream shop, do they?
2. What materials do we need to make the ice cream?
3. How long do we need to shake the bags?
4. What is the passage mainly about?
5. Would you like to have a try of making ice cream at home? Why or why not?
【推荐3】Students these days often have a lot of worries. Sometimes they have problems with their schoolwork, and sometimes with their friends. What can they do about this? Some people believe the worst thing is to do nothing. Laura Mills, a teenager from London, agrees. “Problems and worries are normal in life,” says Laura. “But I think talking to someone helps a lot. Unless we talk to someone, we’ll certainly feel worse.”
Laura once lost her wallet, and worried for days. She was afraid to tell her parents about it. She even walked three miles to school each day because she didn’t have any money. She just kept thinking, “If I tell my parents, they’ll be angry!” In the end, she talked to her parents and they were really understanding. Her dad said he sometimes made careless mistakes himself. They got her a new wallet and asked her to be more careful. “I will always remember to share my problems in the future!” Laura says.
Robert Hunt advises students about common problems. He feels the same way as Laura. “It is best not to run away from our problems. We should always try to solve them.” He thinks the first step is to find someone you trust to talk to. This person doesn’t need to be an expert like himself. Students often forget that their parents have more experience, and are always there to help them. In English, we say that sharing a problem is like cutting it in half. So you’re halfway to solving a problem just by talking to someone about it!
根据短文内容，回答下列问题
1. What does the writer talk about in the passage?
2. What is the worst thing to do if you have a problem?
3. What happened to Laura and how did she solve the problem at last?
4. Why can our parents give us good advice about our problems?
5. If you have a problem, what should you do according to (根据) Robert Hunt?
【推荐1】Beyond its influence on health, not getting enough sleep can lead to car accidents or other mistakes. Here are what sleep researchers have found about sleep.
How much sleep do we actually need?
It is known that all of us naturally need no less than eight hours of sleep per night. When we sleep below six hours per 24. We’re at an increased (增加的) risk of health problems. Some of us think we can make up any of those hours lost during the week on the weekends. Sadly there is no storage system (存储系统) for sleep in the brain.
Can we drink coffee instead of sleeping?
Coffee can keep us awake. Remember, too much coffee may throw off our sleep and energy cycles. So limit coffee and avoid caffeine for four to six hours before bedtime.
Does a sense of purpose connect to sleep quality?
A new research suggests a kind of strong connection between purpose in life and sleep. People who have a greater sense of purpose usually have better physical and mental health, which in turn explains their higher-quality sleep. Perhaps developing a sense of purpose in life could be as useful at improving sleep as the healthy habits above.
根据上面短文的内容填空。
1. Not getting enough sleep can
2. All of us need at least
3. We cannot
4. Don’t
5. Perhaps developing
We all love food. But when you can’t finish your meal, how do you feel? You might think that wasting a little bit of food isn’t a big deal.
But when a whole school started to save food in their cafeteria (食堂), there was a big change. At Hengyang No. 1 Middle School in Hunan province, students are told to take no more food than they need. “There used to be 100 kg of food waste (浪费) every day. But now, the amount (数量) of waste is down (下降了) by 75 percent,” said the cafeteria’s manager.
In China, people waste 35 million (百万) tons of food each year. That is enough to feed the entire country of South Korea (韩国) for a year.
Food waste is a big problem around the world. According to the United Nations (UN, 联合国), there are 820 million people living in hunger today. But every year, the world wastes 1.3 billion (十亿) tons (吨) of food. That’s one-third of all the food we have.
1. Do people waste 35 million tons of food each year in China,?2. How much food do students waste in No. 1 Middle School in Hunan province every day now?
3. According to the United Nations, how many people are there living in hunger today?
4. Do you think it’s necessary for us to save food (节约粮食) ? Why or why not ?
【推荐3】Humor
If you see humor as a certain form of entertainment (娱乐) that people are able to choose or not, you’re missing some of its biggest benefits: Humor makes average-looking (外表普通的) people look cute and uninteresting people seem entertaining. Studies show that a good sense of humor even makes you seem smarter.
Best of all, humor raises your energy, and that can have an effect on everything you do at school, at work, or in your personal life. The increase of energy will even make you more willing to exercise, and that will raise your total energy even more.
Humor also transports your mind away from your daily troubles. Humor lets you better understand life and sometimes helps you laugh at even the worst of your problems.
In my experience, most people think they have a sense of humor, and to some degree that’s true. But not all senses of humor are created the same as other people and therefore I thought it would be useful to include some humor tips for everyday life.
Not trying to be a joke teller.
You don’t have to be the joke teller in the group in order to show your sense of humor. You can be the one who directs the conversation to fun topics that are ripe (成熟的) for others to add humor. Every party needs a straight person. You’ll appear fun and funny by association (交往).
Effort counts a lot.
When it comes to in-person humor, effort is treated as a necessary part. When people see you trying to be funny, it frees them to try it themselves. So even if your own efforts at humor fall short, you might be freeing the long kept humor in others. People need to be allowed to be funny in social settings because there’s always a risk that comes with humor. For in-person humor, whether it is humorous or not isn’t as important as you might think. Your attitude and effort mean a lot.
Some people-and I was one of them-believe that humorous complaints about the little problems of life make humor, and sometimes that is true. However, the problem comes when you start doing too much complaint-based humor. One funny observation (观察) about problems in your life can be funny, but five is just complaining, no matter how smart you think you are.
1. What will make you more willing to exercise according to the passage?2. Are all senses of humor created the same as other people in the writer’s experience?
3. How can you show your sense of humor in the group?
4. Why do people need to be allowed to be funny in social settings?
5. What is the passage mainly about?
Spring is the season when plants start to grow freely from the ground. In China, wild spring greens are very popular as healthy food. They are common (常见的) in many dishes. Chinese toon shoots (香椿芽)
Toon shoots are usually the best just before Guyu, the sixth of the 24 solar terms (节气). Guyu means that spring is about to end. This is when the leaves are the most tender (嫩的). Because of the strong taste of the leaves, they are often cooked with eggs, sometimes with tofu. Indian aster (马兰头/马拦头)
Its Chinese name means to make a horse turn its head. It is said that its tender taste could make a horse stop moving on. Perhaps because of the name, the green has become a goodbye gift, cooked when one wants to wish a friend a safe journey. The vegetable is usually boiled in water, cut and mixed with tofu and sesame (芝麻) oil. Shepherd’s purse (荠菜)
Shepherd’s purse grows early in spring. It has an unusual smell and tastes a little bitter (苦的) and sweet. We often use it in dumplings. It has other uses, too. For example, in Chinese medicine (药), people use it to improve eyesight. |
1. When do plants start growing freely from the ground?
2. What are toon shoots often cooked with?
3. Why has Indian aster become a goodbye gift in China?
4. In Chinese medicine, what do people use Shepherd’s purse to do?
5. What do you think of the wild spring greens above?
【推荐2】National Sports Day in India is on August 29 every year. This is a day to remember Dhyan Chand, a field hockey (曲棍球) player from India. Many people think of him as the best field hockey player of all time. August 29 was his birthday.
Dhyan Chand was born in 1905. At the age of 16, he began to play field hockey. In 1926, he joined the national team. Two years later, the Indian men’s field hockey team won the gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics. He also helped the team win two more Olympic gold medals in 1932 and 1936.
Dhyan Chand played for the national team till 1948. Later, he began to teach young field hockey players. Chand was really a great man in Indian history. He helped his country to be strong in field hockey for many years.
On National Sports Day, there are a lot of friendly games between different sports teams across the country. Many schools in India have the sports meeting that day. Schools hope that students can do more sports in their free time.
Task I: Finish the chart according to the article. Fill in each blank with no more than 3 words.
请根据以上短文内容填空, 每空不超过 3个单词。
National Sports Day in India | |
When | On August 29 |
Why they Celebrate the day | To 1. Something about Chand: ★born on 2. ★began to play field hockey at the age of 16 ★helped the team win 3. ★became a field hockey 4. |
How to Celebrate the day | ★By having 5. ★By holding sports meetings in schools |
6. What do many people think of Dhyan Chand?
7. How many years did Chand play for the national team?
8. What’s your favorite sport? Why do you like it? Explain your reason(s) in about 20 words.
【推荐3】Labor（劳动）education has been made a part of compulsory（义务的）education. Students will have at least one course every week on basic household（家庭的） skills such as cleaning and cooking. Should cooking be taught at schools? The topic causes heated public discussions.
Li Mei, a student in Beijing
We have little time to develop our interests because we have to spend most of the time studying. A household skill class can give us chances to experience life and help us discover different interests. I hope we could be given the choices to take whatever courses we like.
Mrs. Chen, a housewife in Hubei
Schools should have cooking classes. Children will be taught about their food and how to cook properly. Many parents don’t have the professional knowledge. A household class would provide the knowledge and training that parents are unable to give their children.
Mr. Wang, a teacher in Shandong
By learning basic skills like cooking and cleaning, children can learn how to take care of themselves. Parents won’t always help their children with every problem they’ll meet in their life. It is necessary for children to know how to master these important skills as early as possible.
Wu Lei, an engineer in Shanghai
I learned some basic cooking skills from my mother. But most of them were learned after I graduated from university, from books and online short videos. I hope these cooking classes will really make students realize that labor is important and valuable.
1. Do the four people agree to teach basic household skills at school?2. What’s Li Mei’s problem?
3. Who thinks students should learn how to cook properly?
4. How can children learn to take care of themselves?
5. What does Wu Lei think of labor?
