Yours,

Li Hua

4 . I've come to the conclusion that I'm rubbish at saying “No”. For example, last Sunday I was sitting at my desk alone, totally ____ in my own business, when a colleague of mine phoned and asked me to get involved in ____ with her. I found myself getting all caught up in her enthusiasm and didn't want to ____ her. So I said “Sure, why not？” and before the call had ____, I found myself agreeing, without giving any ____ whether it was worth doing.

We are both window­shoppers and ___ a whole day in the street. Actually, I hardly have any time to spare because I am very busy ____ my normal job - I've also got a book to write, a business to ____ and a family to look after. And then there are my other projects to ____ - my voluntary work and a couple of other interesting investments that I want to ____. I'm going to have to be more ruthless (无情的) and not just agree to ____ people ask me to get involved in. In other words, I'm going to have to get ____ at saying “No”.Usually I hate saying “No”, because having to disappoint someone usually ____ me. Now I realize ____ I haven't learned to say “No”, I've been feeling very ____.

We had better do what we think is right and what we are ______ to do. Sometimes it does not seem that bad to ______ others. If I focus on the things I ______ want to be involved in, I'll reach a much higher standard and do it quite ______. I'll be enthusiastic and motivated (有积极性) and do something that is good for everyone and everyone will be happy. It'll be a win-­win ______. What's not good about that？So sometimes, we have to say “No”.

5 . Mike was 11. As his birthday was coming up，he _____ his father to buy him a bike, so that he could go to school cycling and not by _____ or relying on his father to _____ him at school, which was _____ a mile away from his home.

On his _____ , seeing a set of books wrapped nicely in his father's hand, though _____ , he thanked his father. Mike's father was _____ as he didn't have enough money to buy a bike.

After a week，when Mike was walking home from school, he saw a boy riding a bike. Mike _____ that the bike was too small for the big boy. _____，the boy ran into a post and fell on the street. Mike rushed to him and ______ him who was his schoolmate Sam.

Mike helped him stand up and provided him with water. _____ Sam was riding the bike fast, his left leg and hands were ______ injured. Mike asked him to sit in a corner and took the bike and rushed to a ______ nearby.

An ambulance （救护车）came and carried Sam to hospital. He then rushed to Sam's home and ______ his parents about the accident.

Sam and his parents thanked Mike for the ______ help. Mike in turn said, “It was all ______ just because I rode Sam's bike. ” He added, “The bike is too small for Sam to ride and that's why he was _______” Mike met Sam every day in hospital until he ______.

Sam got a new bike and he came to know that Mike didn't have the ______ to own a bike. He gave his old bike to Mike and with his parents' ______, Mike accepted the gift.

6 . Millionaire Peter became blind because of an illness.The doctor told him that only by having a Cornea transplant surgery (眼角膜移植手术)could he_____ his sight.Peter offered a large amount of money for the cornea,but he didn't get any______ .

Because Peter was too______of his"wealth" and had done many unkind things,he had a bad ____.So as soon as donors(捐赠者)heard his name,all of them______.

At first Peter got angry easily because of his wealth,but later,he had no______but to wait quietly.

One day,Peter felt his way to the little______before the hospital.He raised his head to.enjoy the sunshine.______,he saw nothing but darkness.Just then,someone______him all of a sudden.Peter became______,so he cried,"Don't you have eyes?Don't you see who you hit?I'm millionaire Peter!"

The answer was from a ______,"Sorry,sir.Please forgive me! " Peter then said,"I can forgive you, but you must______with me!"The boy said yes.Peter nodded______and his face lit up with a smile.

Peter asked,"Is the scene here beautiful?"The boy began______ it,"How beautiful!The green grass, the blue sky,and the beautiful flowers everywhere....."

Peter began to______that boy as he was listening.______he became impatient,shouting toward the sky,"Oh,my God,the little boy is so______,nothing but a pair of eyes! Why do you give him light?”

At this moment,a lady interrupted Peter,"You are______!My son is too poor to have eyes.What he just described is what I told him! "______,Peter sat on the square,tears running down his face.

Since then,the city charity would ______a large amount of money every year.The donor was the very millionaire named Peter.

2.可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯;

3.开头和结尾已给出,但不计入总词数。

Thanks for listening!

8 . Antarctica(南极洲)’s melting ice, which has caused global sea levels to rise by at least 13.8 millimeters over the past 40 years, was thought to primarily come from the unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet(WAIS). Now, scientists have found that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS)—considered largely unaffected by climate change—may also be melting at an unexpectedly rapid speed.

The WAIS, whose base is below sea level, has long been considered the most likely to break down. Besides gravity, a deep current of warm water slips beneath the sheet, melting it from below until it becomes a floating shelf at risk of breaking away. In contrast, extreme cold and a base mostly above sea level are thought to keep the EAIS relatively safe from warm waters.

But as greenhouse gases warm much of the planet, driving stronger polar winds, some scientists think warm water carried by a circular current will start to invade East Antarctica’s once unassailable ice. A cooperation of more than 60 scientists last year, published in Nature, estimated that the EAIS actually added about 5 billion tons of ice each year from 1992 to 2017.

Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues combined 40 years of satellite imagery and climate modeling and found that overall Antarctica now sends six times more ice into the sea each year than it did in 1979, with the majority coming from West Antarctica. But East Antarctica was responsible for more than 30% of Antarctica’s contribution to the 13.8-millimeter sea level rise over the past 40 years. “The more we look at this system the more we realize this is fragile,” Rignot says. “Once these glaciers become unstable there is no red button to press to stop it.”

Rignot hopes the study brings greater attention to a part of Antarctica that has traditionally been understudied. Helen Fricker, a glaciologist (冰川学家) in California, agrees. “We need to monitor the entire Antarctica and we just can’t do that without international cooperation.”

9 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.

What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s awkward and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.

Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t

even exist if it weren’t for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease(润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. ＂Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,＂ he explains. ＂The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.＂

In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction(互动) with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. ＂It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,＂ says Dunn. ＂But interactions with peripheral(边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also.＂

Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. ＂Small talk is the basis of good manners,＂ he says.

10 . Imagine a town with crosswalks but no pedestrians, cars and trucks but no drivers. Welcome to Mcity, a fake “city” built by researchers who are testing out the driverless cars of the future.

The controlled test environment, which opened today (July 20, 2015) at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, covers 32 acres (the size of about 24 football fields) and contains all the trappings of a real suburb or small city. There is an entire network of roads lined with sidewalks, streetlights, stop signs and traffic signals. There’s even a “downtown” area complete with fake buildings and outdoor dining areas.

The idea behind Mcity is simple: test out new driverless car innovations in a human-free environment before these technologies are unleashed in the real world.

"Mcity is a safe, controlled, and realistic environment where we are going to figure out how the incredible potential of connected and automated vehicles can be realized quickly, efficiently and safely," Peter Sweatman, director of the Mobility Transformation Center at U-M, said in a statement.

The roads of Mcity are built to stand up to “rigorous, repeatable” testing, according to MTC officials. While Mcity drivers don't have to compete with real pedestrians, there will be one mechanical foot-traveler (a robot-like machine named Sebastian) that steps out into traffic to see whether the automated cars can hit the brakes in time. The fake city also features a traffic circle, a bridge, a tunnel, some unpaved roads, and even a four-lane highway with entrance and exit ramps, according to a report by Bloomberg Business.

In addition to evaluating fully automated, or driverless cars, the researchers also hope to test out so-called connected vehicles within Mcity’s limits. Connected cars can either communicate with one another (vehicle-to-vehicle control, or V2V) or with pieces of equipment, such as traffic lights, that are located near roadways (vehicle-to-infrastructure control, or V2I).

Even the smallest details of Mcity have been planned out in advance to copy the conditions that connected and automated vehicles could face in the real world. For example, there are street signs covered up with graffiti, and faded yellow and white lane markings line the streets.

Mcity is just one part of a much larger project that MTC and its partner organizations are establishing in an effort to get a whole fleet of connected and driverless cars on the road in Ann Arbor by 2021. In addition to the fake city, MTC is also continuing to launch connected and semi-autonomous(半自动) cars on real roadways. Eventually, the University of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Transportation said they hope to put 20,000 connected cars on the roads of southern Michigan.