1 . The guy who tried to edit English

The English vocabulary is not only huge, but also full of words that mean practically(几乎) the same thing- Get, obtain, acquire. Shine, gleam, glow, sparkle.     1    

That was the thinking of a British writer named C. K. Ogden, who in the 1930s proposed (提议) a new form of English with a vocabulary of just 850 words. He called the project Basic English     2    

Ogden arrived at his 850-word list through experimentation, rephrasing texts over and over until he was satisfied. The words he finally included were not necessarily the shortest or most concrete.     3     Because any verbal idea could be expressed with a small number of “operators”---words like come, go, get, take, have, make, be, and do. Ogden argued that most verbs were unnecessary. In Basic English, “eat” is “have a meal” and “forget” is “go from memory”.

Winston Churchill was a fan of the concept as a way to get foreigners to speak English, and he encouraged the BBC to use it.     4     Roosevelt, who expressed mild interest, joked that Churchill's famous speech about offering his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” to his country wouldn't have been so exciting if he “had been able to offer the British people only blood, work, eye water, and face water, which I understand is the best that Basic English can do with five famous words.”

    5     Churchill didn't use it either. When seeking to express ourselves, we don't necessarily need fewer words; we need the right words. So it's to our benefit to have a large supply on hand.

2 . Why play sports? You might say “to get exercise” and you would be right. To have fun? That's true, too. But there's more.     1     According to the Women's Sports Foundation, girls who play sports get a lot more than just fit.

Girls who play sports do better in school. You might think that athletics will take up all your study time.     2     Exercise improves learning, memory, and concentration, which can give active girls an advantage in the classroom.

Girls who play sports learn teamwork and goal-setting skills.     3     When working with coaches, trainers , and teammates to win games and achieve goals, you're learning how to be successful. Those skills will serve you well at work and in family life.

Sports are good for a girl's health. In addition to being fit and keeping a healthy weight, girls who play sports are also less likely to smoke. And later in life, girls who exercise are less likely to get breast cancer or osteoporosis(骨质疏松症).

Playing sports improves self-confidence.     4     Why? It builds confidence when you know you can practice, improve, and achieve your goals. Sports are also a feel-good activity because they help girls get in shape, keep a healthy weight, and make new friends.

    5     Playing sports can reduce stress and help you feel a little happier. How? The brain chemicals leased during exercise improve a person's mood. Friends are another mood-lifter. And being in a team creates tight bonds between friends. It's good to know your teammates will support you-both on and off the field!

3 . It was New Year and the previous month had been like a frightening dream. Just at that time, my father left us which made me sad for quite a long time. What was worse, a ________ broke out in our house then, burning and destroying everything ________ within. We had nothing for a while, no clothes, no money and no place to stay in.

After the fire, we went to live with my grandma in her one—bedroom apartment and________ on her living room floor. Practically penniless, we had only the clothes on our backs.

No sooner had I remembered what day it was than I ________ that I didn't have anything to give my mother for New Year. We had ________ given each other something, even if it was just heart—shaped cookie she baked or paper card I made.

I stayed on the balcony(阳台) of the apartment feeling sad, for I ________ not being able to give my mother anything, especially at that time. She needed ________. As a matter of fact, she was as unhappy as me. Then I saw it. The most beautiful ________ I could have ever imagined. The brightly colored sun ________ lightly on top of some clouds made of unbelievable blues, browns and reds. The ________ combined in pleasant ways. Suddenly it clicked that was the perfect ________ for my mother.

I rushed downstairs, too excited to talk, and ________ mother out onto the balcony. The colors had filled the entire sky.

Mother was ________ but then happy. She told me in a breathless voice that no one had ever given her anything as ________, or as beautiful. She said she would take the light and colors of that sunset and ________ them in her heart forever.

5 . It is always said that China is the homeland of tea, which has a very long history of tea.     1     However, unlike the western custom of using a convenient teabag, Chinese go to a lot of effort and time to prepare good tea for their guests, using tea leaves, natural spring water and a special kettle etc. to create worldwide famous tea culture. Tea is not just a drinkable beverage(饮料), but also a taste of Chinese traditional culture and inheritance(继承) of spirit. Unsurprisingly, there are various tea leaves in China.     2    

➢Color

    3     Good green tea leaves have jade green with fresh vitality. Twisted pan green tea shows glossy gray green. If some of the tea leaves have dry, dark and brown colors, it means it is old tea. If the leaves have mixed, large contrast colors, it is believed that the tea is mixed with yellow leaves, old leaves and even old tea, which does not live up to the standard of good tea.

➢Flavor(味道)

New tea is extremely clear and transparent with strong aroma(芳香), while old tea is characterized by brown color and weak fragrance. Take green tea and black tea for example, new green tea tastes a little bitter first, and then the fresh sweet taste begins to surface gradually, leaving a long and memorable after taste in mouth.     4    

➢Place of origin

There is great gap of quality among various places of origin.     5     For example, it is well-known that Yunnan produces the best quality Pu'er tea and premium Oolong tea can be found within Fujian Province.

7 . Yesterday I cleared up my house and I mean really cleared up my house. The room that gave the most results was my husband's “office”. There I found: one right­footed shoe, size 10 (he lost the other one somewhere), a set of Star Wars videos and two small china cats someone gave me last birthday. I collected these “finds” and took them downstairs and logged (登录) on to www.eBay.com: the answer to all our rubbish.

What is eBay? It aims to provide a global trading platform (平台) where almost anyone can trade almost anything. The idea came from Pierre Omidyar. Born in Paris, Omidyar moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tufts University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started eBay as a kind of hobby, originally offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the site that he had to upgrade (升级) and he began collecting fees. Joined by a friend, Peter Skoll, and in 1998 by his dynamic CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great dot­com crashes of the late 1990s eBay went from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping sites on the Internet.

If you think about it, it's a perfect Internet idea. All you have to do is take an e­photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you're in business; the world is your market place.

Some of the more bizarre goods up for offer have been a piece of French bread, partially eaten by Justin Timberlake, advertising space on a man's head, and a pair of used false teeth.

One week later I am proud of having a clean and tidy home and 110 in cash. Someone even bought the shoe.

8 . In all the world's cultures, people sing, play instruments, and celebrate with music. It plays such an important role in our lives that all fields focus on its study, including one looking at the biology of music. Experts find that because of the way our brains process music, learning to play an instrument or just listening to music can have a wide range of benefits.   

Music education has received a lot of attention. Learning to play an instrument can help children improve math, science, and language skills. One study in Canada tracked children's IQ scores for nine months, discovering that children who studied music had the biggest test score improvements. The secret may lie in the way reading music and playing notes use several areas of the brain, increasing our ability to learn school subjects. For example, reading notes improves spatial (空间的) reasoning skills, which are helpful in solving math problems like fractions (分数).   

Music is also used for medical purposes, such as the treatment of diseases which affect memories. The secret lies in the way the brain processes music. One area near the forehead, the medial prefrontal cortex(脑前额叶外皮), connects music with memories stored in two other areas: the amygdale(杏仁核) and hippocampus(海马体). That's why an old song can remind you of something that happened years ago. For patients suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's, listening to music can help unlock buried memories by strengthening musical pathways to memories.   

With the evidence of music's benefits, it's no wonder some countries make music study a part of their education systems. People are recognizing that more than just a form of entertainment, music is also great for the brain.