In a faraway place, there was a village. The village was1in potatoes than anywhere else in the country. At the end of every growing season,2potatoes were dug out of the ground, and readied for market, In each home, men and women would3divide the potatoes into three groups: large, medium and small.
One year, there was a young man4received his share of the potatoes. As the other villagers5, he walked around the village laughing and talking.6villagers thought he was lazy, and they worried that this man would never get7potatoes ready in time. When it was time for the villagers8to market, they were greatly surprised to find that the man's potatoes9perfectly into three groups.
After10the man how he did it, they understood he was not lazy,11very clever. He had put all his potatoes in a cart and pulled it along the village's rough dirt road. As the cart moved up and down over the road, the potatoes moved12. The small potatoes moved to the bottom, the large potatoes rose to the top and the medium potatoes rested13the middle.
Life14like this too. The rough roads we travel along can also15us.
Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without him, the world might still be in the dark at night. However, the electric light was not his only invention. He also invented 1,200 other important things. Nearly every two weeks, he created something new.
Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He attended school for only three months. His mother taught him at home, but he was mostly self-educated. He started trying out his new ideas at a very young age.
When he was 12 years old, he got his first job. He became a newsboy on a train. He did experiments on the train in his spare time. Unluckily, his first work experience didn't end well. He was fired (解雇) when he accidentally (偶然地) set fire to the floor of the train, Then Edison worked as a telegraph operator (电报员)
for five years, but he continued to spend much of his time creating things until the vote recorder (投票计数器) , his first invention, came in1868.
Thomas Edison was nearly deaf in one ear and it was also hard for him to hear in the other, but he never minded. Because of this, he could have more time for work. He always worked 16 out of every 24 hours. Sometimes his wife had to remind him to eat and sleep.
Thomas Edison died at the age of 84. He left many inventions that greatly improved the quality of life all over the world.
Pole lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, "I'm going to fly to New York next week because I've got some work there." "Where are you going to stay?" his wife asked. "I don't know yet," Pole answered. "Please send me your address there in a telegram (电报)," his wife said. "All right," Pole answered.
He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the centre of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.
In the evening he didn't have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out t nine o' clock and said, "Now I'm going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner."
He found a taxi and the driver asked, "Where do you want to go?" But Pole didn't remember the name and address of his hotel.
"Which hotel are my things in?" he said. "And what am I going to do tonight?" But the driver of the taxi did not know. So pole got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, "Please send me my address at this post office."
Everyone wants to be healthy and happy. While focusing on a healthy lifestyle by exercising and eating right is great for your body, balanced living means protecting your mental and emotional health too. And stress reduction needs to be at the top of your to-do list.
Balanced Living: Making a promise
Balanced living means considering all aspects of your life: relationships, work, fitness and health, and emotional well-being.
We all get troubled with work and family responsibilities from time to time, but making time for yourself is necessary. All batteries get run-down, even yours. So recharge (补充能量) your body physically and mentally and make a promise to enjoy some "your time" every day.
Balanced Living; Boosting (促进) Happiness and Creativity
Being happy gives you a better outlook on life, so you re more prepared to deal with your tasks. If not, you cannot enjoy life and can have a bad impact on your health. Make time to take care of yourself and be creative about the things you enjoy to help with stress reduction.
Balanced Living; Enjoying Exercise for Good Health
Exercise isn't something you should force yourself to do, or you won't be likely to stick with. Do something that you like and look forward to doing, instead of another that you do not like.
Balanced Living: Making Time to Eat Right
The right diet will keep your body healthy, give you energy and boost your spirits. Healthy food can be delicious, and it's fun learning new recipes (菜谱) and healthy combinations. Also, healthy cooking doesn't have to be time—consuming (费时的).
I come from a large family. My parents both have many brothers and sisters. When I was a boy, during late July, my family would hold a reunion (聚会) every year. Usually more than 50 family members would attend the party.
The reunion would take place in a large public park in the late afternoon because it wasn't too hot at that time. Each family would bring their own food to eat. Usually each family had a special dish that would be shared. Some families would bring potato salad while others would bring a dessert or self-made special drinks. There was always more than enough food.
Almost everyone would play games. Younger people played softball, football, volleyball and so on. However, Uncle Sam always taught Cousin Chris and me to play badminton. Chris and I went to the same school and we kept beating other players and won several state games. The older family members would sit under a tree and watch the games or just sit around and talk. Everyone enjoyed himself/ herself because it was a good chance to catch up on what his/her relatives were doing that year.
Those family reunions are the best memories I have of my childhood. Today it seems that everyone is too busy to hold or attend family reunions. Now, no matter how nostalgic I feel about those family reunions, those memories remain very clear in my mind.
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go on because of play the piano give up cut off |
Liu Wei is very famous in China because he can with his toes.
One day when Liu Wei was only 10 years old, he played a game with some friends. He lost both his arms electricity.
Liu Wei was very sad when both his arms after the accident, But soon he had to make a choice.
"For people like me, there were only two choices. One was to all the dreams, which would cause a quick death. The other was to work hard without arms to live an excellent life," says Liu wei.
Liu Wei's dream was to be a pianist. He learned to play the piano with his toes. And teaching himself to play the piano with his toes was very hard. Many times he wanted to give up, but his parents encouraging him and he wanted to make his parents proud.
Maybe you cannot believe that Liu Wei is able to play well only with his toes The audience were deeply moved and very excited when they watched his performance.
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A. In Australia, they kill up to 65 people a year. B. Broome is a town in the north of Western Australia. C. Another dangerous animal in Western Australia is the saltwater crocodile. D. At weekends I often go fishing or swimming with my friends or my parents. E. Suddenly, at 3 o'clock in the morning, we felt something pulling on our tent. |
Jellyfish and Crocodiles (水母和鳄鱼)
Hi, my name's Ben. My family, Mum, Dad and I, live in Broome in Western Australia. Western Australia is about 80 times larger than Italy, but only 1.5 million people live there.
It has a population of about 12,000. It's right on the coast and is known for its famous Cable Beach, which is 20 km long.
We live in the town in a house with a large garden. We drive to Cable Beach and look for a quiet place to swim or to fish. We don't go swimming from October to March because there may be box jellyfish in the water. The box jellyfish is one of the most dangerous jellyfish.
If you are attacked by one, the best thing to do is to pour vinegar (醋) over the area of your body where you are hurt. That's why we always take a bottle of vinegar with us.
A year ago I went camping in the bush with my friend Bill and his dad. We wanted to do some fishing and set up camp about 20 metres from a river. Bill's father told us to get up and we quickly got out of the tent and ran to the car, which was only 10 metres away.
Bill's dad started the car and turned on the headlights. In the light, we could see a big crocodile pulling the tent into the river!
