In eighth grade, I had a friend, Peter. He was an amazing sports star. Unluckily, I never seemed to be any good at sports. But Peter was my best friend, and when he joined a team, I did, too. Or at least I1.
Peter was a starter for the JV field hockey team. He was a natural, so he picked up the sport 2.I, on the other hand, couldn't seem to hold the stick comfortably. Then Peter spent more and more time with the other boys like him and I was beginning to be left behind.
Deciding to3our friendship, I asked my mom to buy me my own hockey stick so 1 could practise at home. Peter looked at my4, and I could tell that he was thinking it was a waste of money.
I was5by his reaction (反应), and again I felt the distance (距离) between us. If I was going to keep Peter as a friend, I thought, I simply had to be good at this sport. Somehow, I had to learn how to throw and catch the ball and be6on the playing field.
So I practised and practised. I often felt like there was no hope, but I kept at it.
Then, one day, something happened. I7off with Steve，who had become my partner since Peter had quickly proven to be too good to play with me. That day, when Steve sent me his first throw, I caught it. Then I caught his next throw, and the next. The stick was actually feeling good in my hands.
I still don't know what exactly happened that day, but I will always be thankful for it. By the end of the season, I was8for the JV team. I scored 12 goals that year. My success on the field gave me confidence that I really needed. And Steve turned out to be a great friend.
Summer Book Reviews
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A. Title: Drawing Outdoors What is the book about? It's about some students who spend the day drawing outdoors with their teacher. |
Via: Young, readers would enjoy this book. You can feel friendship and the pictures about gardens are beautiful. Bill: This book is great for everyone. It teaches us that even if you are small, you can be a leader Lucy: Kids would love this story. The boy's experiences show it's important to spend time with family and remember their history. |
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B. Title: Lily Leads the Way What is the book about? Lily wants to go out to see big ships on the lake. But she's too small to get there by herself. In the end, Lily succeeds and learns that size does not make a leader. |
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C. Title: Mommy's Hometown What is the book about? A young boy loves to hear his mom's stories about her hometown. But when they get there, everything has changed. Still, the boy experiences the happiness of his mom's childhood memories |
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D. Title: Celia Planted a Garden What is the book about? Celia plants a garden on a small island. When she moves away, she misses her friends and the flowers. So she plants another garden to bring them close. |
Pyramid Surprise
Nellie and I were born only a few days apart, so every year we plan a birthday party together. This year, our birthday theme was "Discover the Pyramids".
"What about inviting Mary?" Nellie asked.
Mary was a loner, and hadn't made many friends, but she was better at math than anyone else in class.
"Hmm, she wears the same old trousers every day. How could she even afford a party dress?"
After school the next day, Nellie handed me a box. "What's that?" I asked.
"My birthday gift from my aunt. I thought it would be nice to give this to Mary, "Nellie said.
I opened the box. Inside was a gift certificate (礼品券) for our favourite clothing store.
"Wow," I gasped. We both knew how many cute clothes that would buy.
"So, are we going to just hand it to her?"
"How embarrassing(尴尬的) that would be!" Nellie answered.
She was right. Mary would be totally embarrassed if we gave her money for clothes.
"What if we ask our teacher … "
"Wait a second. I have an idea." Nellie said.
"What? What?"
"I'm not going to tell you!"
On the day of our party, Mary arrived, with—no surprise—the very old brown trousers.
We sang, danced and ate biscuits." And now for the big prize game, "Nellie said. Big prize? My mouth dropped. This was not in the plan.
"The big prize game is like this: Tom and Sam were building pyramids ... If their pyramids had to be 60 feet high, who would finish first?"
A math game. Of course! Nellie winked (眨眼示意)at me. No one was surprised when Mary came up with the answer before anyone else and walked off with the box.
The next week, Mary wore a new pair of trousers, and even a new dress. The whole time she had a big smile on her face.
And so did we.
No matter where you look outdoors, spring seems to bring with it lots of wildflowers, which provides us with nice colors and sweet smells.
Joel Sartore, a photographer and an environmentalist, has made a point of planting native (本地的) wildflowers at home and at his office. He also encourages his neighbours to start their own gardens of native plants. Why? Wildflowers need our help. In the U.S., Great Plains alone, over 33 million acres of wildflowers and grasslands have been lost since 2009, according to WWF.
You've probably heard that wildflowers support insects like butterflies and bees, which play a huge role in pollinating crops (庄稼授粉) that we depend on for food. That's just one of many ways wildflowers and other native plants are important to our earth. Native flowers are part of a living network. They lock carbon(碳)within soil, an important part of mitigating (减缓) changes in weather. They store water and nutrients, which are good for forests. And, of course, they look beautiful, making them an attraction in any places.
"If we hope to encourage children to grow up fighting to save the planet, wildflowers are a perfect fit; they get kids thinking about nature with a sense of wonder," Sartore says. "These places serve as outdoor classrooms, plus they clean our air, soil, and water."
But what can we do? You don't have to be an eager gardener or have lots of land to put your effort into. If you live in a city, you can just plant flowers in a window box or on your rooftop.
Another way to get involved beyond your own space at home is to find out how public green spaces near you are managed. You can also volunteer at a local nature center, or community garden that is planting native plants. If you aren't sure what types of plants are native to your area, ask at a nearby garden center or search online.
"I believe that people want to help make the planet a better place, but they just don't know where to start," Sartore says. "Planting wildflowers and other plants is a great way."
It's a feeling you've almost experienced before—the fear of waiting for an exam to start. You worry about whether you've prepared well, and about the possible failure. Gerardo Ramirez and Sian Beilock have found that students do better in exams if they spend ten minutes writing about their worries.
At first, Ramirez and Beilock tested their solution in the lab. They asked 20 college students to take two math tests. Before the first test, the students were simply told to do their best. Before the second test, each student was assigned (分配) a partner who had already finished and improved on their original score. If the student could do the same, both partners would get money. If not, neither would get anything.
Before they started the second test, half of the students sat quietly and the other half wrote openly about their feelings on the coming exam. Ramirez and Beilock found that although both groups scored similar marks in the first relaxed test, the writing group did much better at the second test. Their scores improved; rising by an extra 5%. And the students who sat quietly actually did worse; their marks were 12% lower.
But was it the act of writing itself that did the trick? To answer that, Ramirez and Beilock ran the experiment again in a real setting. This time, they worked with 51 ninth-grade students. Six weeks before the final biology exam, they asked the students how anxious (焦虑的) they were. When the final hour arrived, the students were asked for a 10-minute writing exercise. Half of them had to write about their thoughts on the coming exam, while the other half had to write about an unrelated topic. Only then did they sit the exam.
Their final scores showed that if the students wrote about unrelated topics, their scores were lower. If they wrote about their worries, their anxieties had no effect on their marks. And when Ramirez divided the students into two groups according to how anxious they were, only the high group benefited from the exercise.
Ramirez and Beilock's study has obvious practical effect. They've found a simple way of helping the anxious students to perform at their true level. They've also shown that the key to control our anxieties is not to push them aside, but to face them.
Why Is Tai Ji the Perfect Exercise?
While it is easy to tell people to make exercise part of their daily routine, it is not so easy to tell them what to do. Some people like to run or climb mountains, but if you care for your body with less hurt, Tai Ji is the perfect exercise. Its goal is to improve strength and balance.
There are several styles of Tai Ji, but most of them start with a set of controlled movements. There are many good how-to books to get you started, or you can choose from classes offered at health clubs. Either way, you can move at your own pace.
Practitioners praise Tai Ji's benefits, but what has attracted the attention of Western scientists lately is what Tai Ji does for the body. In many ways, researchers are just catching up millions of people in China and Chinatowns around the rest of the world, who have already known about Tai Ji. Scientists at the Oregon Research Institute reported that Tai Ji offers the greatest benefit to older people who are healthy but relatively inactive. Studies have shown that practising Tai Ji regularly helps reduce(减少) falls among healthy old people. The next step, from a scientific point of view, is to decide whether Tai Ji can help those who are already weak.
It can take a few months for the effects of Tai Ji to kick in, but when they do they can act as a gateway to a new lifestyle. "Once people start feeling better, they often become more active in their daily life," says Dr. Karim Khan, a sports scientist at the University of British Columbia.
Any form of exercise, of course, can do only so much. "For older people, Tai Ji will not be the end-all," says William Haskell, an expert at Stanford University. "But a good way is to practise Tai Ji plus walking. "Younger people probably need more challenges, but they can benefit from Tai Ji to reduce stress."
The best thing about Tai Ji is that people enjoy it, so they can stick with it long enough to get some benefits. It helps when something that's good for you is also fun.
题目①
榜样的力量是无穷的。
假如你是李华，你所在的国际学校打算在其公众号上做校园榜样人物的系列推送， 现就 "Role Models in Our School(校园榜样)" 这一话题在校内搜集素材。请你用英语给公众号投稿，推荐一位校园榜样人物，对其作简要介绍，并说明推荐理由。
提示词语： kind, hardworking, difficulty, help, keep
提示问题：●Who do you think can be our school role model? Please introduce him or her.
● Why do you think so?
I'm Li Hua, from Class 1, Grade 9.
I hope my idea can be taken. Thanks!
题目②
每个人一生中会有很多想做的事，为父母、为朋友、为学校、为自己……
某英文报社以 "One thing I would like to do for " 为话题开展征文活动，请你 用英语写篇短文给报社投稿，首先请补全题目，如 "my parents, my friend, my school, myself" 等，然后分享一件你想做的事，你准备怎么做，以及你为什么要做。
提示词语： cook, the Internet, prepare, step, thanks
提示问题：● What would you like to do?
● How will you do it?
● Why would you like to do it?
One thing I would like to do for
There are many things we want to do in our lives.
