Since our twins began learning to walk, my wife and I have kept telling them that our sliding（推拉式的）glass door is just a window. The 1 is simple. If we admit it is a door, they'll want to 2. It will drive us crazy. It appears that the kids know the 3 though we have been continually telling them the other way.
I hate lying to kids. One day they'll wake up and 4 that everything they've always known about windows is a lie. I wonder if 5 should always tell the truth no matter what result it may lead to. I have a very strong fear that the lie we're telling will 6 our children. Windows and doors have important symbolic（象征性的）meanings. I'm telling them they can't open what they 7 know is a door. Later in 8 they may come to a door which could be a good chance. Instead of opening the door and taking the chance, they just 9 it and wonder, "What if it isn't a door?" That is, "What if it isn't a 10 chance?"
Maybe it's an unreasonable fear. But the bottom line is that I shouldn't lie to my kids. So when they come to other doors in life, they will just open them and walk through.
Once upon a time carrots were purple, there were no pineapples in Asia or lemons in America, and many people thought potatoes were poisonous. Many types of fruit and vegetable grew only in one place. So how did they spread all over the world?
Changing colors
Five thousand years ago, carrots only grew in Afghanistan and most were purple. Only a few were orange as they are today! Farmers in the Netherlands were looking for a fruit or vegetable to represent their king, William of Orange, and orange carrots were just what they were looking for. So they became the ancestors of all modern carrots.
At home in the mountains
Many plants only grow in certain places on Earth, often deep in the jungle. The home of potatoes is in the mountains of the Andes in South America. Bananas come from Papua New Guinea and lemons grow wild in China.
World travel
But once people realized that many of these plants were good to eat, they took them far from the places where they grew. Fruit, in particular, attracted thirsty travelers. Arab businessmen transported different fruits and vegetables around the world, such as oranges, which they took from Asia to distant countries such as Spain. The Spanish returned from South America with many new types of food, including chocolate, chili and corn.
And today…
Today, we are so used to our different types of food that we don't think about where they came from. But for each pineapple, potato or carrot we eat, there is a long history!
China's Spring Festival blockbuster（大片） "Hi, Mom" beat the 2017 American superhero film "Wonder Woman" at 5.39 billion yuan on Tuesday and made Chinese film director Jia Ling overtake Patty Jenkins to be the worlds highest-grossing female director for a single film.
The achievement was made 54 days after its release on February 12, the first day of Chinese New Year. "Hi, Mom" is currently the second highest-grossing film only after the 2017 action-adventure film "Wolf Warrior 2", according to China's movie-ticketing platform. They are the only two domestic-produced films among the top 100 grossing films worldwide.
"Hi, Mom" is the first film directed by Jia Ling, who is a comedian and actress. It stars Jia who was saddened by her mother Li Huanying's accidental death, magically transported back to 1981 to become a friend of her mother and tried her best to delight and planned a better life for her mother.
"Although the film has a strong individual mark, it causes many people's empathy," said professor Tian Huiqun at the School of Arts and Communication of Beijing Normal University. He added that it is hard to copy the film's success since Jia and the film itself cannot be reproduced.
The success of "Hi, Mom" also became a milestone to mark the growth of " She power" in the man-dominated film industry in the last ten years. However, some film critics say that the film's success is just because people are interested in women topics for the time being, and money goes to people's interest.
"Women creating films is still not an easy task," Dong Yige, assistant professor in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at University at Buffalo, "Why not use female audiences' power to push the women creation?"
China has just opened its FAST radio telescope to international scientists. It means scientists across the world can apply for using the telescope to do astronomical observations.
FAST is short for Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. Its construction was completed in September 2016 and it officially began operating in January 2020. Measuring 500 meters in diameter. FAST is the largest radio telescope in the world, surpassing the 305-meter telescope of the U.S. Arecibo Observatory. FAST is also believed to be the world's most sensitive single-dish radio telescope, and is 10 times more sensitive than the 100-meter Radio Telescope Effelsberg in Germany.
The major scientific task of the telescope is the observation of pulsars（脉冲星）. The study of pulsars can help to confirm the existence of gravitational radiation（引力辐射）and black holes, and help solve many other major questions in physics. Another major scientific goal of FAST is to search for life outside the Earth.
The telescope is located in a naturally deep and round karst depression（喀斯特洼）in southwest China's Guizhou Province. The first advantage of the selected site is the altitude. The average altitude of Guizhou is about 1,100 meters. Generally, the higher the altitude, the more it can observe. Secondly, the radio telescope needs to have a "big pan" to receive a better signal. The huge natural depression could reduce the difficulty of construction. Moreover, the selected site in Guizhou is far away from cities, and has a small population density, which reduces the interference caused by wireless devices such as TVs, mobile phones and radios from human activities.
So far, FAST has identified over 300 pulsars. Experts predict that the number could reach 1,000 in five years and that the telescope could locate and identify the first pulsar outside the galaxy.
WeChat groups between parents and teachers were supposed to be an easy communication channel. Some parents said they've even been asked to help their children clean the classroom and help with food service in the school canteen.
In the group, they have to answer questions and requests from parents at any time. One teacher Mr Liu said that he felt "afraid" of WeChat because there were always a lot of unread messages from parents.
Local authorities and educational institutions（机构）have come up with possible solutions. On Nov 11, Liaoning province banned teachers from asking parents to grade their students' homework. Taiyuan and Beijing also issued similar rules forbidding teachers to ask parents to help with homework.
This move has been welcomed by parents and teachers alike. A 35-year-old father agreed that teachers, parents and school need to make some changes. Teachers are already overworked and don't want to spend their free time being bothered by parents. A high school biology teacher held that parents should make sure their kids finish their homework on time and that's enough.
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A. However, he added that parents still need to join in some school activities with their kids. B. However, many said that some teachers are transferring（转移）their work to the parents. C. After the work is done, group chats related to school homework will have to disappear. D. WeChat groups have increased the worries of parents and teachers. E. In fact, many teachers are not happy with the chat groups either. F. Every coin has two sides. |
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Angela wants to go out with her younger sister in the evening. They both love learning about wildlife and would like to take part in an organized activity. Victory would like to go with his friends to listen to several different kinds of music. They also want to be able to buy something to eat. Betty and her twin sister are interested in art and would like to make something which they can take home as a gift of their day. They also want a nice place to eat their packed lunch. Mike wants to spend the day with a couple of friends. They all enjoy water sports and the open air and are also keen on history. Molly and her friend are enjoying a school project on the environment and are keen to discover more about this topic. They want to go somewhere where they can spend the day and also get some lunch. |
A. Waspbrook Park Have fun finding out how you can help save the Earth. Learn from the experts who will give a talk about everything from water saving to energy efficiency. Everything sold in the park's restaurant is made from ingredients from the local area. 10:00 AM -6:00 PM. B. Silverbank Island Travel by boat to an open-air concert in a beautiful island. Hear some of the biggest artists from the rock, pop and jazz worlds. There will be stalls offering kinds of international foods. It'll be a truly amazing evening C. Downland Park Discover the different types of birds and animals that come out in the evening in the park. Special games are offered to help you find out about these creatures. Hot drinks and tasty snacks will be provided. Don't forget to wear comfortable boots! 8:00 PM-10:00 PM. D. The Collins Centre In the morning you can visit the centre's large collection of 20 century advertising posters, then spend the afternoon designing your own poster and take it home. You can have a picnic in the centre's gardens while listening to rap songs from local musicians. E. Oakwood Manor Do you like Brazilian music? Then come along to the all-day "Samba" workshop at Oakwood Manor. You'll learn to play some cool sounds on the drums, and practise some great dances. A traditional Brazilian lunch is included in the price. F. Westsea Castle There are lots of things to do in and around the castle during special activity days. Spend half the day sailing and then, after a picnic, go mountain biking. In the evening you can watch a battle for the castle and discover what life was like for a soldier here a thousand years ago. |
My husband and I bought a house when we were in our （fifty）. One of the reasons we bought it was that it was so （attract）. It had a big Japanese red pine, which looked beautiful in our front yard. For 20 years, it was a beauty to all the people passed by. Raccoons climbed its trunk and squirrels played in its branches. It shaded the bright sun over my small garden of roses and bushes that I'd planted for bees.
Early last year, a heavy snowfall hit our city. While we （enjoy）a quiet Saturday morning, the house shook and we heard a loud crash. The tree had fallen, taking out most of the （bush）in our yard. So we called forestry workers, who cut off its trunk and branches and took the wood away. After a week, the yard was still a （messy）, with wood shavings and holes everywhere.
In March, I bought a few new bush and rose seedlings （replace）those that I thought hadn't lived. But May, plenty of new flowers were growing in the yard! As the sun shone down, the flowers were able to grow and attract bees. My old bushes grew back and were healthier than ever before! Our yard turned into beautiful garden. And this summer, one year later, all of the plants are three times （big）than they were before.
Life might be hard for you at the moment, but you never know what the future holds. It might just be much brighter.
