I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic (疫情). She was born in August and her name is Aida.
Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly, She had showed me how to knit (编织) a scarf.
I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn (线) since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.
There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.
Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging time, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.
It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, “Mum, it is freezing outside!” Then, he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me by saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great art project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.
注意：1.续写词数应为150词左右；
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语己为你写好。
Paragraph 1: I wrapped the scarf around David’s neck.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2: Later that day David came back saying Jane also deserved a scarf.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In DeAnza Community College, 15 minutes’ drive from the university Trevor Wallace studied in, his beloved grandmother had worked there. When she was alive, she was a respected learning disabilities specialist and instructor. In recognition of her work, her co-workers dedicated a large, cement angel fountain with a plaque (匾) saying Heart’s Garden: In Memory of Marilyn Rosenthal. That was in 1999.
Trevor knew well that the fountain meant a lot to his mom, Sarene. She was only 36 when her mom died. At the sight of anything to do with her mother, she would tell stories or anecdotes related, especially the fountain. Though she cherished it, living six hours away, she didn’t have the opportunity to visit it regularly.
As time went on, the fountain was hidden under trees, falling into disrepair----the statue’s bowl at its base broken; cement benches nearby damaged; the water pump blocked with leaves and the surrounding area littered with dead leaves and trash, etc.
Finally, in 2013, it was once repaired by one of the school gatekeepers, who thought she was popular with colleagues and students when she was alive. After knowing the repair, Sarene and Trevor took the 300-mile trip to visit it. On a quiet afternoon, they posed for a photo together. Sarene recalled, “We sat watching the fountain for a while. The water welled over then it went into the bowls. It was so peaceful.”
Flash forward to 2015. When deciding what to give his mom for Mother’s Day, the fountain came to mind. Trevor called Sarene that Sunday to wish her a happy Mother’s Day and told her to expect a surprise. Then he drove to DeAnza with his camera, tripod, and two sponges.
When he arrived, the fountain was covered with leaves and piled with dirt, in worse shape than he had expected. Motivated by memories of his late grandmother, whom he called “Bubby”, he set up his camera on the tripod, checked the lighting and took a before shot. Then his hand-scrubbing (手工擦洗) work began.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
There was one problem—the fountain’s water was turned off.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When she opened the photos attached in the three emails, she burst into tears.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________| A．Those who wish to be a leader. |
| B．Those who are warm and inviting. |
| C．Those who have trouble socializing. |
| D．Those who judge people by first impressions. |
| A．Because it means time is important. |
| B．Because it reflects that you value them. |
| C．Because it allows you to get ready early. |
| D．Because it applies to various business situations. |
| A．By communicating with people in public. |
| B．By talking with anyone around you in life. |
| C．By trying to stop talking every time you use them. |
| D．By practicing with these words at home one at a time. |
1. 感谢投稿；
2. 出版目的；
3. 邀请阅读。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
参考词汇: Beautiful China: A Collection of Student Contributions《美丽中国：学生作品集》
Dear readers,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Editor-in-Chief
In the first grade in senior high school, I was extremely shy, I had friends, but it just wasn’t in my personality to be very outgoing, even when I knew someone. I was afraid I would do or say something wrong, so usually I just smiled and listened to other people’s conversations.
I did well in school and I loved to write. However, I would escape into my writing, where I could be myself and never had to worry about what other people thought of me. In my stories, I was never shy, I often imagined that I was the main character in the story. My teacher, Mrs. Sather, always encouraged me to write more and be myself. She told our class to go after our dreams and dig in with great efforts. I thoughts he was one of the first people to see my inner strength.
One day, she showed us a play she had written and announccd that our class was going to perform it. “I’ll begin to choose all the performers tomorrow” she said, “I need someone who is not afraid to be onstage in front of a lot of people to play the lead part of Dorothy. Anybody wants to try?” A few excited hands shot up -mine, of course, was not one of them and Mrs. Sather smiled. “We’ll talk more about it later,” she said. Then the bell rang and my classmates slowly left the classroom.
“I will never do that,” I thought. But after rereading the play, I was deeply attracted by the story and couldn’t help imagining myself to be the main character Dorothy. There seemed to be a new person inside me, a much more daring, outgoing person who had been hidden all along, just waiting for the opportunity to appear. However, I still felt shy and could never picture myself acting in a play in front of two hundred people. Having struggled for a few minutes, I still did not know how to make the decision.
注意：1.续写词数应为 150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
When I was packing my schoolbag, Mrs Sather asked me to go to her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
One week later, it was time for me to perform on the stage.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Years ago, back in the middle 2010s, I moved to a hillside house and drove down to work every morning at about eight o’clock and came home at around five thirty. Each time I drove by, I would see a young boy at about age 15 and a large dog walking along the road. When cars would pass him on the other side, he made eye contact and waved with a toothy smile. I saw him almost every day, walking along the road and waving at cars. Amazing?
On a rainy day, I saw him, along with his dog, sitting at the roadside. I stopped my car and got out to ask what had happened to him. “Nothing. I just want to take a break,” the boy responded. I then asked if he could need a ride. The young boy, Kevin, said, “I’m not really going anywhere, just walking, thank you anyway, sir.” I used to enjoy walking in the countryside myself, so I thought it wasn’t too odd. “In case of some emergency, or if you ever need a ride or help,” I told Kevin, “flag me down and I’ll do whatever I can.” Kevin thanked me and went on his way. Over the following days, each time we met, I would stop for a while and have a quick talk with Kevin, and his sweet dog Randy.
One afternoon, I suddenly felt a voice inside my mind: “Go back home now!” There was still one hour for work. But I asked for an early leave and drove back faster than usual. Again, I saw Kevin walking along the road. But this time he didn’t have his usual smile and was pacing rather than walking. When he saw my car, he violently flagged me down. As I got closer, I could see he was crying. “What’s wrong, Kevin?” I asked.
注意: 1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
“We were just walking but Randy somehow dropped,” Kevin said in tears.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
As I drove to the animal hospital, Kevin sat in the back and kept talking to the dog.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
7 . Fortunately, the days of being spread on thick baby oil and lying in the sun to get you skin yellowish-brown—or more likely burnt—are long over. Many sunscreens work by filtering (过滤) the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays to keep them from reaching skin cells and causing the DNA damage that can lead to wrinkles and skin cancer. But in recent years, the safety of some of those filtering chemical ingredients, particularly oxybenzone (氧苯铜), has been in question.
A 2019 study published in JAMA found evidence that oxybenzone is absorbed into the bloodstream, leading to concerns about whether it might affect functions of our body. Oxybenzone has also been detected in breast milk for newborn babies. Because of concerns about higher intake in children, doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics advise against sunscreen with oxybenzone for kids.
The Environmental Working Group, an activist organization that monitors chemical safety, has called for a ban, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers sunscreens with oxybenzone safe. “It’s uncertain,” says Deborah S. Sarnoff, president of the U.S. Skin Cancer Foundation. “Just because you’re absorbing the chemical doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.” Further study is required.
But oxybenzone is a risk to coral reefs. Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands have banned the sale of sunscreens with oxybenzone. In a 2022 study published in Science, researchers found that some certain sea plants, when exposed to sunlight, turn oxybenzone into energy or something needed in a way that damages and kills corals.
Some companies have been trying to stop using oxybenzone gradually in stages, and many big brands offer oxybenzone-free options. For anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding, or simply looking to avoid these chemical filters, Dr. Sarnoff recommends mineral sunscreens, which contain mainly physical barriers.
1. What is the advantage of sunscreen?| A．It gets your skin yellowish-brown. | B．It stops wrinkles and skin cancer. |
| C．It keeps UV rays from harming you. | D．It prevents skin cells from DNA damage. |
| A．They don’t want children to absorb more oxybenzone. |
| B．They don’t want oxybenzone to hurt babies’ functions. |
| C．They know oxybenzone can affect children’s bloodstream. |
| D．They know oxybenzone has been found in newborn babies. |
| A．Coral reefs in Hawaii were damaged or killed by sunscreens. |
| B．More research is needed to prove the danger of oxybenzone. |
| C．Some organizations have already banned the use of sunscreens. |
| D．Mineral sunscreens are much safer than those with oxybenzone. |
| A．The findings about sunscreens with oxybenzone. |
| B．Questions on safe use of oxybenzone raised by doctors. |
| C．Discussion on safety of oxybenzone between organizations. |
| D．Effects of sunscreens on humans and plants in recent studies. |
AI技术日新月异，有些职业比如翻译可能将被人工智能翻译软件所替代。因此，你认为未来还有学习外语的需要吗？为什么？请写一篇短文说明你的观点。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The problem of robocalls has become so bad that we refuse to pick up calls from numbers we don’t know. Nearly half of the calls we receive are scams (欺诈). We’ve realized the severity of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it’s too little. By the time these “solutions” become widely available, scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it’s not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you’re hearing is actually real.
That’s because there are many powerful voice manipulation (处理) technologies to be available. A company showed a new voice technology able to produce a convincing human-sounding voice able to speak to a receptionist and book a reservation without detection.
These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data disclosure of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother’s name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they’re able to cheat the targeted people. This means, for example, that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you with a voice sounding exactly like your bank teller’s, misleading you to “confirm” your address and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.
We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications — using apps like WeChat and Alipay, which can be tied to your identity.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Even Very Young Children Can Be Depressed
If you doubted it, I would introduce you to Susan, who came to my office and talked constantly about her “bad feeling”. Susan
Susan was six years old and
The risk for depression does tend to increase as we grow older. Depression in young children is rare but real. Rene Spitz, a
Approximately 1% of preschoolers experience depression; they often have great difficulty expressing their feelings, because not all of their language skills
Although a diagnosis of clinical depression is rare in preschool children, there are times when it is appropriate. In most cases, the child who
