1 . Artificial cloud technology could soon be used in the fight against environmental damage. Researchers in Australia have used machines to spray salt water into the air, and noted that the reflective qualities of these artificial clouds helped protect the Great Barrier Reef from sun bleaching (漂白).

The so-called cloud brightening project works by thickening existing clouds and reducing sunlight exposure to protect the reef. No artificial chemicals make it into the clouds in the sky. When water droplets steam, they leave only small salt crystals that float up into the atmosphere. This provides a larger surface area for water vapor to be liquids around them, forming thicker clouds.

The past two years have seen uncommon forest fires and droughts triggered by the climate change emergency, meaning that widespread use of this technique may become more commonplace if carbon emissions are not checked.

Drones, unmanned flying vehicles, have also entered the cloud controlling picture, used in the United Arab Emirates, a country desperately in need of more rainfall, to deliver electrical shocks to clouds in order to facilitate rainfall. Zapping (击打) clouds to produce a positive or negative charge within clouds can cause water droplets to form together. The greater the charge, the larger the droplets, which is vital for ensuring that as much rain as possible reaches the surface before steam gives off all the hard-won moisture (水分).

Even if one waves aside climate change, global waterfall shortages are still an increasing concern, given the planet’s booming population. More people means more mouths to feed, and the demand for water in agriculture for animals and crops further increases urgency for cloud controlling technology. An increase in rain also leads to positive economic growth in many countries, as large harvests stabilize financial systems and living standards in all climates.

Increasingly, scientists are looking to our skies in providing solutions to protect our environment. Cloud controlling technologies have promise. However, for this field of science to become practical economically, more research needs to be done in making this process a practicable option in protecting our environment.

4 . Cimabue, the greatest painter of a Middle Ages in Italy, was surprised one day after his lunch break to discover that a fly had seated itself under the nose of a character that he had been working on. He swatted (重拍) at the fly, but it did not move. He reached out to touch the insect, only to find it was only wet paint. Turning around, he saw that his apprentice (学徒), Giotto, was laughing. Giotto had painted the fly when Cimabue was away, and it looked so real that Cimabue had been completely fooled.

Giotto di Bondone was born into a poor family in a village. Legend has it that one day, when Cimabue was wandering around the countryside, he spotted a young shepherd boy drawing pictures of his sheep, which were so vivid that Cimabue immediately asked him to come to Florence and learn how to paint. That was how Giotto’s story began in Florence, where the young student flourished under Cimabue s instruction and soon surpassed his master in skill.

At that time, people in paintings didn’t look real, and the symbolism of art was difficult for viewers to connect with it. Innovation (创新) was not stressed, so art had remained the same for hundreds of years.

However, Giotto thought art should be something more connected with people in a more realistic way. His masterpieces included the forty major frescoes (壁画) for the Arena Chapel. Adopting many techniques that were uncommon then, he painted people the way he saw them, instead of the overly tall and boxy people that other artists painted. He created three-dimensional space by using perspective, something that had not been done since Roman times.

In addition to painting, Giotto wrote poetry and drew architectural plans. When Giotto was in his sixties, he painted the Ognissanti Madomma, another famous work of art. He continued working until the age of seventy. The ideas Giotto brought to painting throughout his life revolutionized the art world and made him one of the greatest painters ever.

5 . Lewis B. Smedes once said, “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” For years Tom Anderson’s life was withered up (枯萎) by the memory of his ________in an adventure that ________ the death of one of his classmates. He and his wife________ after six years of marriage. Then the news about Tom changed. His wife Betty came back; he ________a fine position.

One day he told me what had changed his life, “I used to think nothing could ________what I had done. The thought of my ________would stop me in the middle of a smile. It put a ________between my wife and me. Then I had an ________visit from the person I dreaded (恐惧) most to see—the mother of the college classmate who died. ‘Unless you forgive, you cannot love.’ She said, ‘And without love, life has no ________.’ She paused, and then said________. ‘You are the one person who hasn’t forgiven Tom Anderson.’ I found there in her eyes ________ to be the person I might have been if her boy had lived. For the first time in my life I felt ________ to love and be loved.”

Forgiveness is truly the________grace (慈悲), through which we gain the freedom to learn from experience. But forgiving our shortcomings doesn’t mean ________ that they exist. On the contrary, it means facing them ________.

Music is one of the most    1    (power) things in my life. Listening to music can help to motivate me in trying time. When younger, I    2    (have) no great love for music as I do now. I mainly listened to the music    3    my parents were playing. Whether I was in the car, the house,    4    anywhere else, there was sure to be some Beatles, or Buddy Holly constantly playing in the background. Now as I am older, I enjoy it for the reason that it allows me to remember my childhood.

I believe music has the power    5    (express) all sorts of emotions. The song “A Little Bit Longer” Jonas Brothers is    6    an emotional and inspiring song that when hear it, I always come close to    7    (drop) down tears, especially when I watch it being played live. The effect (that music can have    8    our emotions is great, as it can bring people to floods of tears or bursts of    9    (laugh).

I believe music affects people in many ways. To me, music is    10    (extreme) important in my life.

9 . Learning a second language is tough at any age. Now, in a new study, scientist have found out the exact age after which your chances of reaching fluency（流利）in a second language seem to plummet:10.

The study published in the journal Cognition, found that it's "nearly impossible" for language learners to reach native-level（母语水平）fluency if they start learning a second language after age 10. "It turns out you're still learning fast," says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne. "It's just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old," People who start a few years after age 10 may still become quite good at a language, the authors say, but they are unlikely to become fluent.

Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children's brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they're better able to adapt and respond to new information. Kids may also be more willing to try new things than adults are. Their comparatively new understanding of their native language may also be advantageous.

These findings may seem discouraging, but it was inspiring for scientists to learn that the key period for fluent language learning might be longer than previously thought. Some scientists believed that the window begins to close shortly after birth, while others made it longer to very early childhood. Compared with those judgments-age 17 or 18 —when language learning ability start to drop off—seems relatively old.

For this study, the researchers created an online test promising to guess people's native language and home country based on their responses to English grammar questions. Almost 670,000 people took it, giving the researchers huge amounts of data from English speakers of many ages and backgrounds. Examining the responses and grammar mistakes allowed them to made unusually exact judgments about language learning.

Every morning, I will go to school with lunch bags that contained a sandwich, fruit, and dessert.

Then, one day, much to my surprise, there was no dessert in my lunch! What could have happened to it? Did Mom forget to make or buy it? Oh, well, I thought. It's only one time, so it's no big deal. But, for the next few days, my lunch contained no dessert! So one day, after school, as soon as I got home, I asked," Mom! Why haven't you been putting a dessert in my school lunches?" Mom answered, "Why, Eugene. I have been including a dessert in your lunch. If you're not getting them, then who is?"

So then we thought of my activities, and what I did with my lunch each day. As soon as I arrived at school I always put my lunch in the classroom closet（储物间）along with all of the other lunches. And that brought us to Carl---the bad boy of the third-grade classroom. The teacher didn't like him in class and would send him to the closet, where he would spend most of each day.

Carl lived in a group faster home（集体寄养之家）.He was loud and somewhat of a thief; he would take just about anything that wasn't fastened down, so he wasn't welcome at school. Mom and I concluded that with nothing else to do Carl was probably going through the lunches and eating what he liked.