1 . A Welcome Gift

Dario and his mother loved their new apartment. The living room was large enough for their piano. That night, the two of them _______ side by side at the piano. They played jazz music to celebrate their new home. The loud _______ filled the room and made them feel very happy.

The next morning, _______, their happiness disappeared. Someone had left a _______ under their door during the night. One of their neighbors had written to complain about the sound of the piano. Dario’s mother asked the building superintendent(管理员) if he knew anything about it. But he said that they were all _______ people and he couldn’t imagine any of them had done that. Later that morning, Dario suggested that they write a letter to their _______ and apologize for their playing.

“Maybe we could go and _______ everyone in person.” his mother said.

“What if we invited them to come here for a _______ instead?” Dario asked.

They both loved the _______. Over the next few days, they sent out invitations and prepared desserts __________ their guests. They decorated the apartment with streamers(彩带) and party lights.

Finally, the day of the party __________. Some guests brought presents. Others brought flowers. Some even brought desserts to __________. One woman, Mrs. Gilbert, __________ Dario’s mother with a book of piano music by Chopin.

“I heard you playing the other night,” she said. “The sounds woke me out of bed. I __________ that you might play like this every night. So I wrote a short note. I hope you don’t think I disliked the playing.”

Dario’s mother smiled at Mrs. Gilbert. “I think maybe we __________ you an apology.” she said. “I didn’t __________ how late it was when we were playing. Maybe we should play some quieter music at night.”

“You play, you play!” Mrs. Gilbert said. “I like what you play! Just not so loud at night.” She pointed to the book she had given them. “These songs are not such __________ music.”

“These songs are beautiful music.” Dario’s mother said. “We will be __________ to play them in the evening.”

“And we won’t play so loud or late!” Dario said. He was already looking forward to __________ the new music. More than that, however, he was happy to see the big smile on his mother’s face. It gave him a feeling of __________ and made him feel that they were home at last.

3 . Studying longer does not necessarily mean studying better.    1     Below are some great ways of learning as much as you can without getting too stressed.

Find the right place to study.

The first thing you need to do is avoid distractions (分散注意力的事物) while studying.    2     You should keep away from television sets and phone calls. Get all of your study materials together, so you will not be interrupted in the middle of your session.

Break down the tasks into smaller parts.

When you have gotten everything ready, list the items you need to study, and arrange them across several hours or days, depending on how big your load is. As a general rule, assign (分配) at least one hour to each subject.     3     By doing this, you will be able to know more easily how long you need for each topic.

Schedule study breaks.

When you have listed all of your tasks and made a schedule, you should arrange study breaks.     4     This will give your eyes some time to rest, and yourself a chance to go to the bathroom or have some coffee. Scheduled breaks will reduce the need for you to interrupt yourself to the lowest level during the study session.

Put your tasks in order of importance.

    5     Just in case you run out of time to study, or if you think you do not have enough time to cover all topics, you should study in an order.

4 . During my junior year of college, I signed up for a volunteer leaching program in Costa Rica. I lived within an inspiringly colorful living quarter which was ______ into a female and male section, along with a kitchen, eating room and conference room. I taught at a school. It was located（位于）within a ______ and every day birds and butterflies flew throughout our school. It was ______ . We were ______ on Costa Rica’s school system, the country, the language and how to ______ a lesson. Additionally, we took part in ______ acclivities lo relax ourselves.

The experience was beneficial to my English writing ______ when I got back to college, I began writing. I wrote so much that a piece of my writing about that experience was ______ in Folio’s Literary Magazine. Because of that, I was more ______ to continue working abroad.

After ______ , I moved to China for a year and worked in schools to teach reading and writing. It was a life-changing ______ of my life. Not only did I ______ my experiences through a weekly blog, but I began a book. Culture differences ______ me and even consumed me in the beginning, but ______ I fell in love with the people, their schools and their history.

Upon ______ to my home, I became a teacher in Trenton, New Jersey. The moment I stepped into the classroom. I could empathize（感同身受）with my ______ . I truly feel volunteering in Costa Rica was where it all ______ and working in China enriched my leaching life. If I could do anything ______ , it might be volunteering or working abroad more before settling down.

The ______ I’ve made through volunteering and working abroad are an English major’s dream and I hope that every English major ______ the chance to study or work abroad.

5 . I had driven home to celebrate my 38th birthday with my mother. When I arrived, I found her _______ proudly at the kitchen table, a chocolate cake and two boxes wrapped orange ribbon (丝带) in front of her. “Happy birthday!” she said, _______ at the boxes. “Open them.”

As she knows me _______ than anyone, she’d gotten me exactly what I wanted—running clothes. I _______ her and thanked her and proceeded(接着) to eat the cake.

“Too many _______,” I said, not really caring.

“You’ll run them off tomorrow,” Mom said.

Many adult children with a parent suffering from _______ memory will tell you there was one day that _______ to them that their relationship with their mother or father would be forever changed.

For me that day _______ two weeks later, when I drove back for another short _______. I came upon exactly the same ________: my mom sitting at the kitchen table; a chocolate cake resting next to two ________ wrapped in curly ribbon. The ribbon was green this time. That was the only ________ “Happy birthday!” my mom said.

I was totally ________. “What’s going on?” I asked.

Mom smiled. “Can’t I celebrate my daughter’s birthday?”

This was no ________. This was real life, and since my mother clearly only wanted to make me ________, I pushed aside my fear and fulfilled my role as the ________ daughter. I hugged her, thanked her and ________ the clothes... I did not mention to her that we’d done all this two ________ ago.

My house is her world now. My mother and I have the ________ conversation roughly 10 times a day. ________, I consider it a pleasure, because every minute is new for her.

7 . A new phone app uses shaking from smartphones to warn people about earthquakes. The new app is called MyShake, which is the work of four researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

Smartphones are equipped with accelerometers （加速器）.MyShake uses phone accelerometers to measure seismic （地震的）activity. It has been programmed to know the difference between normal activity and earthquake movement. The software developers say their app is right 93 percent of the time. A smartphone sends seismic information to the app developers. If the developers receive several warnings from one area it recognizes that an earthquake may be taking place or will take place soon. Using information sent from the app, the network then judges the location and strength of the quake in real time. MyShake can record 5. 0 earthquakes at distances of 10 kilometers or less.

MyShake uses very little power according to its developers. Only when seismic activity is sensed by the app does it become active and sends data to the network. The app works best when your phone is resting on a flat surface like a table.

The developers hope that MyShake can add to information collected by the US Geological Survey. That US agency has created the Earthquake Early Warning System also known as the EEW. The EEW has used sensors for measuring quakes in many areas. In places where no such equipment exists MyShake may be the only method of early quake detection（发现）. The app also shows ways to stay safer during an earthquake. The developers say it will become more effective as more people use it.

The developers say they hope to add a feature that will warn people about a possible tsunami（海啸）after an earthquake.

8 . High school students have a lot more power than they may realize.

Belscher _________ a dollar on the floor when having his English class. When the school day _________, Belscher walked back to the classroom. He could easily have _________ it, for the wrinkled (皱巴巴的) bill was still there. _________, he brought the old bill to his English teacher, —Mattison.

Mattison was a little _________ he’d turned; in the dollar, knowing a lot of people would have just kept it. She _________ that Belscher tape(d)it to the whiteboard, where she always puts _________ things.

A day or two later, the school shut down for Easter _________. Neither the teacher nor her student thought twice about the dollar. After school, a boy named Tom spotted the dollar on the whiteboard. “There was a _________ to it.” Tom says. He asked Mattison why it was there. She replied, “I don’t know.” Then Tom __________ a second dollar.

The __________ of the two dollar bills side by side triggered (触发) something in Mattison’s students. They started asking about the __________ of the money, to which Mattison always gave the __________ answer: She didn’t know.

However, the students, among themselves, decided and understood Mattison had some good __________ final plan and goal. So, they wanted to be part of whatever this was. They __________ their savings and the amount continue to grow. As for the __________ dollar, the person who lost it never came looking.

That left Mattison to make the best decision. She thought of her brother-in-law, Jack Hains, who had died of ALS, a __________ and deadly disease. His sister died of the same __________. Mattison asked the teens whether they __________ if they donated (捐赠) the money. Their answer was that they definitely didn’t. Then, they __________ peeled (剥开) the cash off the board and made the donation to the ALS Institute established to find a cure for the disease.

9 . On the island of New Zealand there is a grasshopper-like species of insect that is found nowhere else on earth. New Zealanders have given it the nickname weta which is a native Maori word meaning “god of bad looks”. It’s easy to see why anyone would call this insect a bad-looking bug. Most people feel disgusted at the sight of these bulky(笨重的)，slow-moving creatures.

Wetas are natural creatures; they come out of their caves and holes only after dark. A giant weta can grow to over three inches long and weigh as much as 1.5 ounces. Giant wetas can hop up to two feet at a time. Some of them live in trees and others live in caves. They are very long-lived for insects and some adult wetas can live as long as two years. Just like their cousins grasshoppers and crickets wetas are able to “sing” by rubbing their leg parts together or against their lower bodies.

Most people probably don’t feel sympathy for these endangered creatures but they do need protecting. The slow and clumsy wetas have been around on the island since the times of the dinosaurs and have evolved and survived in an environment where they had no enemies until rats came to the island with European immigrants. Since rats love to hunt and eat wetas the rat population on the island has grown into a real problem for many of the native species that are unaccustomed to its presence and poses a serious threat to the native weta population.

10 . Have you ever wondered why certain pop songs just make you feel so good? Researchers studying the question found that uncertainty and surprise give listeners the most pleasure. The study included 80,000 chords（和弦）in 745 pop songs between 1958 and 1991.

Each song was stripped of its melody（旋律）and lyrics（歌词）so that only chords were left and the results couldn^’t be misunderstood by other imaginations of the songs that listeners might have had.

They found two things. Listeners got great pleasure from unexpected chords when they knew what would happen. However, they still found it pleasant to hear familiar chords when they did not know what would follow.

Vincent Cheung, the lead researcher, said, "Pleasant songs are likely those which keep a good balance（平衡）between knowing what is going to happen next and surprising us with something we did not expect. Understanding how music starts our pleasure system in the brain could explain why listening to music might help us feel better when we are feeling blue.”

Cheung told CNN that pleasure in music is connected to expectation. The study before had looked into the effects of surprise on pleasure, but his team's study also paid attention to the uncertainty of listeners' expectations.