Off the Beaten Cart Path

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    Parents

    The most popular magazine for parents who want to raise smart and loving children. It has child development guidance, advice on your child's health and safety, and the best way to encourage your child's learning.

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    Best Weekend Projects

    The projects are chosen from 80 special ideas to create an unusual living space. They are practical, as well as creative. They will improve your home and yard and can be made on weekends. And the most important of all, they are easy to follow.

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    Whenever we see a button on a doorbell or on a remote, we may press it. This is true in most cases. But some buttons are actually fake(假的), like the "close" button on an elevator.

    Many people are in the habit of pressing the "close" button because they don't have the patience to wait for the elevator doors to shut. But according to experts, the buttons are a complete trick—the doors will not close any faster however hard you press.

    It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, making sure that all elevators stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only firefighters and maintenance workers(维修工) can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys. But to normal elevator riders, the buttons aren't completely useless.

    According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control. Experts have showed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don't live up to their names. Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer-controlled traffic signals were introduced.

    But psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little "white lies". They still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

    That habit is here to stay, John Kounios, a psychology professor at Drexel University in the US, told The New York Times. "After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not try the chance?"

    Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new “species” of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name — phubbers（低头族）.

    Recently, a cartoon created by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities bury themselves in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie（自拍照）in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction of the world.

    Although the ending sounds overstated, the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. “Constantly bending your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck,” Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. “the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.

    But that's not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.

    It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.

    Counterfeit(假的) medicines are a widespread problem in developing countries. Like other counterfeits, they look like real products. But counterfeit drugs may contain too little or none of the active ingredients of the real thing.

    People do not get the medicine they need. And in some cases, counterfeits cause death. Twenty children in Bangladesh died last year after being given acetaminophen(对乙酰氨基酚).The medications contained ingredients that looked, smelled and tasted like the real thing. The medicine was produced by a local drug company that used a dangerous substitute to save money.

The problem of counterfeit medicines is especially serious in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The WHO estimates that up to thirty percent of medicines on sale in many of those countries are counterfeit. The problem is less widespread among industrialized countries. The WHO says counterfeits make up less than one percent of the illegal drug market in countries like the United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

    But the agency also says as much as fifty percent of the medicine sold on the Internet is counterfeit.

    Much is being done to fight counterfeit drugs. Several companies are developing ways to make counterfeits easier to identify. And there are existing methods, like a machine that can quickly identify chemicals in pills to confirm if the pills are real. Other ideas include things like special tracking codes for drug packages. People could send a text message with the code and get a message back, which proves that what they bought is listed in a database. Some drug makers and other companies put three-dimensional images called holograms(全息图)on their products as a security device.

How to improve vocabulary fast

    Your vocabulary refers to the words in a language you are familiar with. We should learn some ways to expand it.

    Read every day.       . Choose reading material that is slightly above your level and keep a dictionary with you to look up words you do not know.      . If you do not meet with an unfamiliar word in your daily reading, use your dictionary to search for one.

    Learn the correct definition and pronunciation for each new word. Pronunciation is as important as definition because in order to add a word to your active vocabulary, you must be able to use it in speech.

    Elaborate (详尽阐述) on the meaning of the word. If you have just learned the word “stubborn”, think about the neighbour who will not lend you his car.       

    Use your new word in speech and in writing. E-mail your sister about how your cat is stubborn about sleeping on your pillow.       . But the more you use it, the more fluent you will become in its use. Soon it will be a regular part of your active vocabulary.

    Tell everyone you are trying to increase your vocabulary. Encourage them to ask you what your latest word is.       

    The more you explain the meaning of a word to someone, the more likely you are to remember it.

A. The vocabulary can be increased.

B. Find a new word every day.

C. Or let them ask for the definition of a new word you have used.

D. The more often you read, the faster your vocabulary can grow.

E. The first time you use a new word in speech it may seem strange.

F. Imagine him shaking his head, and think of him as “stubborn in his refusal”.

G. Your vocabulary contains the words you understand.

    One day, a lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands. Her mum came in and 1 asked her little daughter with a smile, "My sweetie, could you give your mum one of your two apples?" The girl looked2at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick 3 on one apple, and then quickly on the other.

    The mum felt the smile on her face 4. She tried hard not to show her 5. Then the little girl handed one of her 6 apples to her mum, and said, "Mummy, here you are. This is the 7one."

    No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always8judgment. Give others the privilege to 9 themselves. What you see may not be the 10. Never conclude for others, which is why we should never only 11the surface and judge others without understanding them 12.

    Those who like to pay the bill, do so not because they are loaded, but because they value 13 above money.

    Those who 14first after a fight, do so not because they are wrong but because they value the people around them.

    Those who often text you, do so not because they have 15 better to do but because you are in their heart. One day, all of us will get 16 from each other; we will miss our conversations of everything & nothing; we will miss the 17 that we had. Days will pass by, months, years,18 this contact becomes rare — One day our children will see our 19 and ask "Who are these people?" And we will smile with invisible tears because a heart is touched with a strong word and you will say, "20 was them that I had the best days of my life with."

    People have all turned to sad music to make themselves feel better at some point in their lives,

          why does the music with double or even triple(三倍) sadness help drag people out of low spirits?

    A new study throws light on what's going on inside people's brains when they match their music to their feelings, and it looks as if sad music can be enjoyable, rather than      (simple) depressing. Music of this sort can arouse positive memories in people's life, thus       (lift)their mood.

    Psychologist Adrian North from Curtin University in Australia says there      (existence) two groups of possible explanations for why people enjoy listening to sad music like this——one from social psychology, and the other from cognitive neuroscience(神经学).

          terms of social psychology, one idea about this is that people will feel      (good) about themselves if they focus on someone who's doing even worse. Everything's going to be okay, because this person is having       even worse day than they are.

    Another idea from social psychology is that people like to listen to the very music        shows their present life circumstances, because this kind of music makes them feel they are understood. With their emotions       (share), they definitely get a certain amount of comfort.

    So, the       (conclude) again—sad music does cheer people up, and it works far better than happy music, in most cases.

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(＼)划掉。

修改：在错的词下画一横线，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've learned from the newspaper my company is looking for a clerk. I'm very interesting in the job and I'd like to apply for at the position.

    First of all, allow me introduce myself. I have just graduated from senior high school and take the College Entrance Examination. I want to find an part - time job in the summer. I'm 18 years old and have a good knowledge of English. In fact, I won the first prize in the English speech competition hold in our school last year. Beside, I'm quite easy - going and therefore very popular among my classmate.

    I sincere hope you can give me a chance. I'm looking forward to your early reply.

内容要点：1）多读书，勤记笔记；

2）养成练书写和写日记的习惯；

3）自拟一项其他方面的倡议内容。

注意：词数100左右。

参考词汇：汉字 Chinese character