1 . When you walk along a street in a big city in the United States, you may see clocks in most stores. Radio announcers give the correct time during the day. People there think that it is important to know the time. Most Americans have watches. They want to do certain things at certain times. They do not want to be late. Not all people all over the world value time. Suppose you visit a certain country in South America. You would find that people living there do not like to rush. If you had an appointment (约会) with someone, he would probably be late. He would not care for arriving on time. In some countries in South America, even the radio programs may not begin right on time, nor do the radio announcers think it important to announce the right time. Many people regard a clock as a machine. It seems to them that a person who does everything on time is controlled (控制) by a machine. They do not want a clock or any machine to have that much power over their lives.

Li Ying often forgets something, and her classmates call her “Miss Forgetful”. One day, her mother asked her buy something and gives her a shopping list. When she got to the shop, she bought all the things on the lists. Then it was time to pay to them, but she forgot to take money with her, that was left on the dining table at home. So she has had to go back to fetch the money. When she finally went back to a shop again, she paid money but forgot to take that she had bought. Lucky, the shop owner called him back in time.

4 . My husband had just bought a new washing machine for me. I decided to_______ it the very day, and I washed a lot of things. Everything worked _______, but I couldn’t find_______ of my husband’s socks though I had looked _______ for it.

The next morning, I got ready for_______ as usual. When the bell rang, the students came in. I greeted them and told them _______ we were going to do _______.

When I turned _______ to write on the blackboard, the class burst out _______. They laughed and laughed. They laughed so much, in fact, that I was ________ the headmaster would be in to see all this.

I asked the class to ________, but the ________ I talked, the more they laughed. So I thought I had better pay ________ attention to them and continue to write on the blackboard. When I did this, they laughed even more.

Before long, the teacher who had the room next to ________came to see the reason ________ all the students were laughing . When he came in, he started ________, too.

“Good Heavens!” I said. “Will ________ please tell me what is so ________?”

“Oh, God,” said the teacher, “you have a brown________stuck to the back of your shirt.”

So that’s ________ I found my husband’s missing sock.

“Oh, well,” I said to the class, “let’s just say you have had an unforgettable lesson on static electricity (静电).”

Dr Yuan Longping is a agricultural pioneer in China.He graduates from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953.Since then he has devoted himself to find ways to grow more rice.The rice farmers are now producing twice as larger harvests as before by using the kind of rice he bred.But he is not satisfied with his work.Although now he leads a rich life,but he still insists on his work to develop his rice.I think his work is real important to the world.Because of he hard work,the production of food been improved.Thanks for Yuan Longping’s research,we have more tools in the battle to rid the world of hungry.

9 . Art and science may seem like opposite things. One means the creative flow of ideas, and the other means cold, hard data-some people believe. In fact, the two have much in common. Now, a study finds art can help students remember better what they have learned in the science class.

Mariale Hardiman, an education specialist at Johns Hopkins University, noticed that students who used art in the classroom listened more carefully. They might ask more questions. They might volunteer more ideas. What’s more, students seemed to remember more of what they had been taught when their science lessons had involved(涉及) art. To prove that, Hardiman teamed up with some researchers and six local schools.

In the experiment, the researchers worked with teachers in 16 fifth-grade classrooms. They provided traditional science lessons and art-focused ones. In a traditional science class, for example, students might read aloud from a book. In the art-focused one, they might sing the information instead.

The team randomly assigned(随机分配) each of the 350 students to either a traditional science classroom or an art-focused one. Students then learned science using that way for the whole unit-about three weeks. When they changed to a new topic, they also changed to the other type of class. This way, each student had both an art-focused class and a traditional one. Every unit was taught in both ways, to different groups of students. This enabled the researchers to see how students did in both types of classes.

The team found that students who started off in a traditional class performed better after they moved into an art-focused class. But those who started off in an art-focused class did well even when they went back to a traditional science class. These students appeared to use some of the art techniques(技巧) after going back to a traditional class. Classroom teachers reported that many students continued to sing the songs that they learned after finishing the unit. “The more we hear something, the more we retain it,” Hardiman says. “It suggests that the arts may help students apply creative ways of learning on their own.”

Yesterday I met a young student, that came from the USA, in the Palace Museum. It was first time that I had met a foreigner, so I went to greet him with English. He told me that he was a college student traveling in China and he likes China very much. I offered to show him around to the museum. He was impressing by the Chinese culture and busy taking photo all the time. He said he hadn’t seen such beauty buildings before. After that, we went boating and had a good time together. I was very glad to having the chance to share our culture with a foreigner and practice his spoken English as well.