The Notre Dame (巴黎圣母院) Fire

It feels as though the very heart of France and the soul of Europe have been broken. The fire of Notre Dame in Paris     1     Monday evening was an act of blind and terrible destruction,     2     (cause) great emotional pains to us all. We all share France’s terrible loss.

The fire struck     3     (quick) and uncontrollably. It gathered force with huge power. Much of the roof and the central building caught fire. After     4     hour or so, the Paris firefighters were able     5     (get) part of the fire under some degree of control and to protect other     6     (part) of the building that may survive. As night     7     (fall), the great west towers still stood against the sky, proud but hurt.

The Notre Dame is the symbol of the French capital and of France itself. It is world famous not simply as a Parisian building but through the     8     (write) of Victor Hugo,     9     made the building itself come alive in his novel Hunchback of Notre Dame.

We believe the Dame will rise again in time. This terrible fire is not an event that should     10     (forget) or quickly ignored. We stand with France in its hour of heartbreak. We will never, ever, turn away.

2 . In the dictionary of Jessica Cox, a woman aged 36 from Tucson, Arizona, there seems to be no such words——can’t or impossible. How does that _______?

Jessica was born without _______ but that has only _______ her doing one thing: using the word “can’t”. While she _______ prosthetic limbs (义肢) as a child, she finally gave them up and used her feet to _______ everyday tasks. “Prosthetic limbs can never _______ the tactile (触觉的) ability of flesh and bone——but my feet have that ability,” she said.

She has lived with her _______ since birth with no explanation of why she was born _______ what most of us _______ as essential (基本的) parts, she has been proving that she can do ________ people with arms can do, ________ what most people are proud of. With her feet, she can eat with chopsticks, type on a keyboard, play the piano and even surf on the sea. To our ________, she became the first armless black belt in the American Tae Kwon Do Assocaition. But what ________ people most is that in 2008, she became the first ________ to fly a plane with her feet, ________ her a Guinness World Record.

Now Jessica and her husband are working together touring the world as Jessica gives encouraging speeches. “I wanted to ________ others not to let fear stand ________ of their opportunities.”

So, next time you are ________ to tell yourself, “I can’t possibly …”, remember this ________   woman and change the vocabulary in your ________.

3 . Disney World, Not To Be Missed!

Are you still looking for an amusement park to enjoy yourself? Then, Disney World is your best choice! Disney World has four theme parks. A single-day ticket to any of these four theme parks is $67 for adults and $56 for young children above three years. You’ll surely have a fantastic and memorable experience!

Magic Kingdom

This is the original Disney park from which the entire Disney World has expanded. Once you get here, you can pose for pictures with the Disney characters at the entrance. But if you want to save time, go straight to the Main Street. The children would almost certainly desire to see the Dumbo and Winnie.

Epcot

Epcot is divided into two sections: World Showcase and Future World. Future World is all about futuristic rides and high-tech attractions like Test Track and Turtle Talk with Crush. World Showcase, which lies along a lake, shows international styles from different parts of the globe, including Germany, Canada, Mexico, China and a lot more.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

If you’re an animal lover, you’ll really like the Animal Kingdom. The newest addition to this part of Disney World is the Expedition Everest ride plus the Finding Nemo stage show. It’s very best to come here in the morning when animals are more active.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

You will discover plenty of huge attractions inside this movie park. Indiana Jones, Playhouse Disney Live, Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, and also the Lights, Motors, Actions Extreme Stunt show are just few of what you need to watch out for. It is also the very best spot for taking pictures with Disney characters.

4 . Life has gone mostly online for many people around the world. With more people going online during the COVID-19 pandemic, global Internet traffic has become a big problem. Between January and late March, many major cities experienced an increase in Internet traffic.

Video meetings, online classrooms and stay-at-home entertainment have become a daily routine. This increase in traffic is testing the Internet’s strength. In March, major phone networks in the UK experienced mass outages (断供). People were not able to take calls, receive texts or use mobile data.

In the US, major telecommunications companies like AT&T said traffic was up 21 percent month over month. Video streaming services like You Tube, Netflix and Facebook have cut their picture qualities and download speeds. This is being done to reduce network traffic jams.

China has seen an Internet traffic increase of around 50 percent compared to the end of 2019. The country’s network speeds went down sharply in early February. However, they returned to normal soon afterwards and have been working well. This is due to China’s work in building network infrastructure (基础设施), especially 5G technology. By the end of February, 164,000 5G base stations had been built nationwide. This has given Chinese networks the power to handle increased traffic.

“If there were no such development in the Internet network field, people could hardly enjoy such a colorful life at home. Online working and teaching could never be realized so smoothly,” said Wen Kun, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

What is the difference between a good athlete and a great one?

A sports psychologist suggests there are three things that all great athletes have on common. First, they were not afraid to compete other people. Second, great athletes are those which are positive about them and their abilities. Great athletes know that how to deal with stress. They are unable to cut out things in daily life that adds to their stress, such as unhealthy food or bad friendships. Finally, great athletes have the mental strength to focus on which is the most important.

Great athletes set a example to us not only in how to play sports well but also in how to live well.

8 . Did you know that creating a product that fails terribly could get you featured in a museum? Hundreds of failed products and inventions are getting attention and appreciation in the Museum of Failure in Hollywood.

It is the brainchild of Samuel West, a Swedish psychologist who created it to change the way people think about failure. “Failure is necessary for any kind of progress,” West said. It had a traveling exhibition in Shanghai in 2019 with over 100 “failed” products from big-name companies such as Nokia, Apple and Coca-Cola. “I really hope you see that these well-known brands that everybody respects screw up too,” West told the New York Times.

West's opinion isn't new. The famed physicist Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” This idea has even been embraced by big companies in Silicon Valley. A common slogan is “Fail fast, fail often.” “The best companies are those that encourage failure, embrace out-of-the-box thinking, and allow employees to make mistakes and see what happens,” wrote Simon Custo of Forbes.

But some people are skeptical of this so-called “culture of failure”. They are worried that if failure becomes “a badge (徽章) of honor”, it may even be seen as “uncool” when someone tries to reduce the risk of failure. This may lead to carelessness and lack of effort. “Sometimes people hide behind failure, when they could have prevented,” wrote Anna Issac of The Telegraph.

So it's important that people set apart the 2 kinds of failure: the kind that shows laziness or incompetence and the kind that takes you forward. The key is whether you've learned something from your mistakes.