1 . I had always loved music and dreamed of being a musician, travelling to different countries, meeting lots of people and doing something I loved to earn my money. _______, my parents had a farm and I didn’t want to do that — I wanted to do something _______. However, I had always been shy and too nervous to try playing _______in public.

I had been playing the _______ since I was ten years old, but the idea of playing in front of other people was very _______.

I started one day, _______ a local youth club advertised a talent show — anybody who could play an instrument or sing could put his name down to be in concert. I _______ myself up.

When the day of the show came, I was so _______ that I couldn’t eat. _______ was the first time I had played in front of other people and I felt ________ unsure of myself. I had no idea whether I was ________ good and was worried that no one would like me.

When my turn came, I played my favorite tune and I even started to ________! I could not hear what I sounded like, but to my surprise, I eventually forgot about all the people in the audience and started to enjoy myself. When the song ended, everyone clapped and some people________!

After the show a man ________ up to me to say how much he enjoyed my ________. He said that he had a rock band, and they needed to ________ a guitar player. He asked me to come along the next day to have a try. This successful trial turned my dream into ________. In the following days, we ________ around a lot, playing in concerts in lots of places around the world. Sometimes we would enter competitions and once we went on TV.

We really enjoyed ourselves and life was like a big long holiday. As we became more successful, we had to work harder and practice more and eventually I became ________ of travelling so much. But now, nearly fifty years later, I look back on those carefree days of my ________ as among the best moments of my life.

4 . Scientists are developing unmanned planes—called drones—what can collect weather information from the atmosphere.

Weather experts say their weather forecasts would be more accurate if they had information from many parts of the atmosphere. They already place satellites, drones and balloons at different altitudes (高度). And they use radar (雷达) and collect information from equipment on towers. But that information only helps experts predict weather conditions for the next few days. It does not help predict changes in the next few hours. This is very important where sudden, violent storms happen.

So scientists at Oklahoma State University are developing new drones to collect information from more parts of the Earth’s atmosphere. This will help forecasters improve predictions about local weather conditions.

Jamey Jacob is an aerospace engineer and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Oklahoma State University. He and other scientists at the university are developing small drones that do not cost a lot of money but can fly for hours, collecting information from many atmospheric levels.” Oklahoma is a really good example, because even though we’re already a very weather-dynamic (动态天气的) state, Oklahoma only has two balloon launches a day—one at dawn and one at dusk—from a single location in the state, and that’s where all the weather forecasting information comes from. So that data is really sparse, and it’s difficult for weather experts to get a very good idea about how that weather is changing from these very limited number of data points.”

Phillip Chilson, a professor of meteorology (气象的) at Oklahoma State University, says the drone program should give researchers a low-cost way of understanding storms better, and improve computer-based forecasting. The drone can measure atmospheric conditions, send live video to forecasters, and help search for people hurt in storms. “Our real goal is to try to develop systems. I don’t want to say they will replace weather balloons but there may be that possibility. Researchers still have a lot of work to do before the drones are ready. That includes making sure the drones know how to stay away from other planes.”

An American musician, singer and songwriter Bruce Springsteen is one of the world’s most popular artists, with a career that covers 40 years. He is known for his poetic songs that deal with social and political issues, as well as personal subjects. His energetic live performances are also famous.

Springsteen’s childhood in a New Jersey working class family was a major influence on his music. He has never been shy about writing about the social and political issues. These issues were included in his album called Darkness on the Edge of Town. His music grew even darker in the 1982 album Nebraska. Those songs showed people pushed to the edge of poverty and criminal activity. Thirteen years later Springsteen released The Ghost of Tom Joad. The album was a direct discussion of issues like immigration, hunger and poverty. Then in 2012, in the album Wrecking Ball, Springsteen found people to blame for some of those social problems.

Springsteen also wrote about personal relationships. Brilliant Disguise is from the 1987 album Tunnel of Love. It’s basically a couple who are putting on disguises for each other because they don’t reveal their true selves.

Springsteen’s album company was thinking of terminating business with him after poor sales of his first two albums. But then Born to Run hit the stores and airwaves in 1975. It saved Springsteen’s career. The lyrics leave us the idea that maybe we never can actually get free from our pasts, from our home towns, and the like, but we have to give it a shot, and take our chance. It cost a lot of money to produce. Had it failed, we might not be talking about Bruce Springsteen today.

But we are talking about him, and listening to him. The musician’s ability to stay true to himself and to express the concerns of ordinary people is what has made him a living legend(传奇人物).

7 . Every day, hundreds of thousands of us visit coffee shops. While we drink our coffee, we may connect our smart phone to the shop’s Wi-Fi network, and keep in touch with friends via services such as Facebook.

As well as socializing, we may use the time and free access to a wireless connection to get on top of our finances. Transferring money from your account to others’ accounts is nothing more than a few taps on your screen.

But what coffee drinkers do not realize is that lurking (潜伏) among their fellow coffee-lovers are bank robbers.

Unbeknown to you, this modern form of bank robber is silently collecting all your private data. The only sign of his thievery is perhaps a little smile as your bank log-in details appear on his screen.

You’ll only realize when you later go to a cash machine to withdraw(提取)some money, and discover that every penny in your account has been cleared out.

The more common method for thieves is to use your smart phone’s Wi-Fi connection. They rely on the fact that most of us are not careful about the security of networks we connect to.

For example, when you are in a coffee shop, your smart phone will present you with a list of available Wi-Fi networks that you can use to connect your phone to the Internet. Most of these networks are run by legitimate(合法的) companies, but sometimes they are actually created by a thief sitting nearby with little more than a laptop.

These networks are often given names, such as “Free Public Wi-Fi”, which deceive smart phone users into logging in. On the surface, everything seems normal, and you will be able to connect just as you are with a legitimate Wi-Fi service.

However, because you have connected to a network controlled by a thief, he can monitor (监视) everything you do, enabling him to collect passwords and log-in details about your bank account. In fact, the process is so simple that thieves can steal thousands of pounds in just a few hours while sitting in their local Starbucks.

8 . Hawks(鹰) and other raptors(猛禽) are impressive predators, and many of these species are adapted for fast, quiet flight to help them attack their prey(猎物). After all, raptors make their living by flying down to take small animals off the ground. While a hawk clearly couldn’t lift a full-grown dog, it might seem reasonable that raptors could lift a small dog, cat or possibly even a human child. Is that a reasonable concern, or just a flight of fancy?

There are urban legends about hawks stealing 12-pound pets, and some taking away kids, but these are based on wrong descriptions of how much weight these raptors can lift. Hawks and owls, for instance, can’t fly away with prey that outweighs them. And given the light weight of even big raptors like red-tailed hawks and great-horned owls —which average about 2 pounds and 3 pounds separately, — they’re unable to take away most adult dogs and cats, not to mention human children.

Some larger red-tailed hawks may be able to carry prey weighing 5 pounds,which could include not just puppies and kittens but also some adult cats and dogs from small kinds. Great-horned owls also focus on small mammals and birds, but they have the most diverse diet of any North American raptor, including larger animals like skunks, ducks and even other raptors. They don’t create a serious threat to pets overall, although they have been known to attack house cats and chickens left outside overnight.

While most pets and kids are probably safe from raptors, it still might be wise to take a few precautions, depending on the situation.

One of the most effective precautions is to watch over your pets when they’re outdoors, which is generally wise anyway, for their safety as well as that of your neighbors and local wildlife. Some pet owners try to drive raptors away, using reflective tape and so on. Some of these might work, at least for a while, but they can’t replace human supervision. If raptors fly down at your pet, an umbrella could help prevent off some species, while a flashlight can reportedly discourage owls after dark.

The presence of wild raptors suggests you live in a healthy ecosystem, and if you can bear to share space with them, there’s a good chance they’ll repay you for your tolerance. Instead of hunting pets, for example, many raptors are far more likely to hunt pests like rats.