The Gift of Life

    Most couples demonstrate their love on February 14 with flowers or chocolates. But these four men and women have offered the ultimate loving gesture—the gift of life. Each sacrifice has enabled their loved ones to live full and active lives again after serious illness.

    I'D Do THE SAME FORHER

    Michele Johnson, 53, has been married to Gay, 57, for 26 years.

    With her husband suffering from a congenital(先天性的)kidney condition, in 2013 Michele  gave him one of him. Gay said: “I needed to be hooked up to a dialysis(透析)machine. I had no quality of life at all. However, I felt great as soon as I woke up after the operation. I told her I'd do the same for her.”

    I LOVE BRENDA TO BITS

    Brenda Green, 62, met her husband Keith, 63, when she was 24 and they married five years later. When Brenda was told five years ago she needed a kidney transplant, she cried. I Ⅱ give you mine.” Keith said without hesitation. “Brenda is my wife and I love her to bits.”

    MY WIFE'S MY HERO

    Stephen Heavyside, 61, and wife Patricia, 62, have been married for 40 years. Stephen said: “I was diagnosed with adult polycystic kidney disease five years ago. Patricia took good care of me and donated a kidney. This has brought us even closer.”

    He said “Patricia's gift changed my life. She is my hero.”

    DECISION WAS EASY

    Anna Stevens, 48, and husband Gary, 53, of Watford, Herts, have been wed for 23 years. Anna donated a kidney to her husband. She said of the transplant: “It was the easiest decision I've ever made.” Gary said. “There's only two words that I can use to describe her:  My angel.”

Does your school have any problems with discipline? What happens when students step out of line? Here are some examples of bad behaviour:

    Playing truant(missing school without permission from parents).

    Stealing, smoking, hitting, swearing(说脏话), running, kissing.

    Cheating in exams.

    Calling a teacher or another pupil bad names.

    Not doing homework.

    Not listening or not paying attention in lessons.

    Wearing unsuitable clothes.

Here are some of the ways that UK school children can be punished:

Exclusion: a pupil is asked to leave the school and not come back. The pupil has to find a new school or a different method of education.

Suspension: a pupil cannot enter the building or attend lessons until the school has a meeting about their situation. Suspension can last from one to 45 days. The pupil is usually given work to do at home with a special teacher.

Detention: a pupil is asked to stay after school and work for 30—60 minutes before they Can leave.

Lines: a pupil has to write a sentence many times(e.g.100 or more)on a sheet of paper, e, g, “I must not shout in class”.

    Freya MacDonald, a 15-year-old pupil from Scotland, made the news when she refused to accept her school's punishment. Her family says that she was given 11 detentions for trivial things in class and coming into school through a fire door.

Freya says that repeated detentions disrupted her fight to an education under Scottish law and made it difficult for her to learn. She refused to return until the school respected her civil rights. She wants the headmaster and her teachers to sign a letter to promise this. Hundreds of schools in Scotland were told not to use detention as a punishment because of her legal action.

Many UK schools now give parents a home-school contract, explaining their discipline and rules. Parents must sign this document to agree that they accept the school's rules and discipline and that they are responsible for their child's behaviour.

    Today, we are constantly bombarded with media reports about research on the right diet to follow to help us maintain a healthy lifestyle or lose weight—but it's hard to know which one to pick and, once chosen, it's harder still to stick to it. And now there's another choice to get our teeth into.

    A flexitarian(弹性素食者)diet involves eating plant—based foods and only occasionally eating meat and fish. This eating style allows you to supplement some ingredients that you wouldn't get in a stricter vegan(素食主义者)diet—another trend growing in popularity. And like veganism, flexitarianism isn't about eating carefully to help you lose a few pounds—it's something people choose for ethical reasons, to help the planet. And a study into the global food system and how it affects the climate, has found that eating mainly plant-based foods is one of three key steps towards a sustainable future for all by 2050.

    This research found that food waste will need to be halved and farming practices will also have to improve to achieve this. But without a single solution, a combined approach is needed. Dr Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford was one of the lead authors of the report. He told the BBC “We really found that a combination of measures would be needed to stay within environmental limits and those include changes towards healthier more plant—based diets.”

    But whereas vegans think it's wrong for animals to be killed for food, flexitarians believe eating meat once in a while is acceptable. And Dr Springmann agrees—as long as we “treat it as a luxury, it's probably OK but you shouldn't have more than one serving of red meat, which includes beef and pork, per week.” And here's another fact to digest: If we moved to this type of diet, the study found that greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture would be cut by more than half.

    Developed by researchers and designers specializing in typography(印刷术)and behavioral science, Sans Forgetica is a new font(字体)designed to help readers better remember the information they read by forcing them to spend a bit more time on each word.

    The design of Sans Forgetica is based on a font called Albion, but with substantial  modifications(修改)to reduce familiarity and attain its goal of engaging the brain more and helping the reader retain(保留) more information. It was developed by scientists at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, who believe it could help students studying for exams.

    “We believe this is the first time that specific principles of design theory have been combined with specific principles of psychology theory in order to create a font, ”Behavioral economist Jo Peryman told DW.

    If fonts are too familiar, readers often glance over them without their brain creating may  memories of what was read. At the same time, if a font is too outlandish, the brain has to struggle too much to decipher(破译)it while neglecting the retention of information. According to its developers, “Sans Forgetica lies at a sweet spot where just enough obstacle has been added to create that memory retention.” Its modifications force readers to spend more time, but not too much time, reading each word, allowing the brain to engage in deeper cognitive processing.

    So does Sans Forgetica actually work? Does it help readers better remember the information they read? So far, studies have shown that it can make a difference, although not a significant one.

    One experiment had 96 participants recall word pairs presented in three different fonts. They remembered 69 percent of the word pairs written in Sans Forgetica, compared to 61 percent for the other fonts. In a different experiment, 303 students took a mock(模拟)multiple-choice exam, and whenever the text was presented in Sans Forgetica, they remembered 57 percent of the text, compared to only 50 percent of the surrounding text written in Arial font.

    So Sans Forgetica won't give you the memory of an elephant, but if you're the kind of person who believes every little bit helps, it might be worth a try.

    It could happen anywhere at any time.       Most people, at one time or another, have been on the receiving end of a random act of kindness. In a sometimes cold world where people can be so focused on what they're doing, a random act of kindness can make all the difference.

    They can be relatively insignificant. Hannah Bailey from London, for example, told the Metro newspaper about how she was given her fruit and vegetable shopping for free. The seller did her a kindness when it emerged she didn't have any change to pay.      

    The city of Naples has long had a tradition called' caffè sospeso'. When buying coffee, a person who has recently been lucky would purchase two cups but only drink one, leaving the second one anonymously(匿名), out of the goodness of their heart, for a poor person to claim for free.      

    However, in some cases, these little acts can be a matter of life and death. Take, for example, the unnamed commuter, who in June 2018 fell off a station platform onto an electric railway track in Toronto, Canada. A quick-thinking, hut even now unknown, bystander selflessly leapt down to pull him to safety.

    So, why do it?        The people never meet again. According to UK charity The Mental Health Foundation, acts like these can “give our lives new purpose, show us other perspectives on our own problems and even make us feel content.”

           Hold open a door for someone, deliver a compliment—even give up your seat on a bus. Help someone who is in need. It takes all kinds. It needn't be anything huge. One day, whether you need it or not, someone might help you in your hour of need.

A. So give it a try.

B. Be brave to face challenges.

C. Often, the acts aren't paid back.

D. She was happy about it all day.

E. She was in low spirits the whole day.

F. This tradition is now more common worldwide.

G. It's often unexpected, but almost never unappreciated.

    It was many years ago. I was a college 1 with a degree but no job. My substitute teaching work had dried up and I was getting 2. I had a family to feed and little money left.3, my oldest brother had been able to get me a4 at the local lumber mill where he worked. While I was 5 , my first day there was quite a blow to my ego(自尊).The job  6 barely above minimum wage. The work was hard and back breaking. It was full of 7 , lifting, and carrying heavy wood for eight hours a day. Splinters(木屑)were soon my best pals and every day I went home 8and exhausted.

    When winter arrived my gloves tore and my fingers split and 9 in the cold air. I found myself using more band aids(创可贴)and duct tape than I ever 10 I would just to keep my hands working. The turn over rate at the mill became so 11 that at the end of two years only four other people had 12 there longer than I had. Every morning I would 13myself out of bed and go to work knowing it was going to be another 14 day. I tried my best to keep my  15  up but many times during those years I found myself saying, “Why me, God? Why am I having to 16 this? Why has my life not turned out the 17 I dreamed it would?” I never got an 18 .

    It is only now many years later that I have a hint of 19 I had to go through those tough times. I think that it is the “Why Me?” times of our lives in which we 20 the most.

    China is famous for its bewildering and oftentimes confusing highway interchanges (立体交叉道), but the Qianchun interchange in        mountainous province of Guizhou is the only one        actually looks like a giant rollercoaster for cars and trucks.

           (Construct)on the Qianchun Interchange began in 2009, but the massive road knot was only completed last year. It         (consist)of 18 different ramps, in 8 directions, on five different layers, with the highest one        (stand)37 meters above ground. Like the nearby Huangjuewan Overpass, in Chongqing, this incredibly complex infrastructure project has been labelled a nightmare for        (motorist) trying to find their way around.

    People on social media pointed        that GPS systems would be confused by the five different layers of road, but officials claims that the directions and exits on the interchange are        (clear)marked and that even if you make mistakes, it's always easy to turn around. Still, just looking at this thing leaves me        (confuse).I can't imagine        having to find my way around it must be like.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：

1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

    I am writing to offer my sincere congratulation. You won the first prize in the Chinese Chess Network Challenge. As your friend, I just want you to know how gladly I am at your success.

    In last few years，you had shown great interest in Chinese chess. You keep on practicing them every day. Not only have you read much books about Chinese chess strategies, but also you have competed on all kinds of Chinese chess contests. Finally, you succeeded in win the online competition!

    I was so very happy that I couldn't go to sleep last night. I'm eager to play Chinese chess with you at the community club, which we'll enjoy ourselves.

1）推荐的书及理由；

2）说明邮寄方式及时间；

3）表达祝愿。

注意：1）词数150左右；

2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

参考词汇：古典classical