Wonder Plates
A unique, personalized gift!
Wonder Plates offers you a unique gift opportunity-a personalized ceramic（陶瓷的）plate！ Each plate contains a special message from you to your best friend or loved one. All you have to do is follow these three steps:
Step 1
On an A4 sheet of paper write a personal message. Write it exactly as you want it to appear on the plate. We recommend a typewritten printout. The message should not be more than 50 words.
Step 2
Select one of our 10 plate color options and a design from one of our 12 design patterns.
Step 3
Sign the attached form, enclose your personal message, and send these to us together with your payment. Please send only money orders or cheques. Do not send cash.
Charges
The charge for a standard-sized plate is $ 20 regardless of the color you choose. A fixed charge of $100 per plate for the design and printing of the message is also payable. For orders of two to four plates, customers may get a 15% discount. For orders of five to ten plates, the cost of per plate is reduced to $12 and the design and printing of the message is just $75 per plate.
Delivery
Once we receive your order and payment, your plate（s） will be sent via regular mail. Delivery can be expected within 14 business days. If you require a faster delivery time, please fill in the Urgent Form and send an additional $30（guaranteed 3-day delivery）. We guarantee your satisfaction, but if for some reason you are not satisfied with our product or service, please fill in the Consumer Feedback Form and send it to our Customer Service department. Alternatively, you may call one of our friendly Customer Service Officers at 122523.
Female figure skaters aren't really expected to be able to do triple axels（三周半跳）. Especially not older ones—in the Olympics, that means older than 20. Mirai Nagasu did both, nailing the jump in competition at 24 during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She was the first American woman to land a triple axel in the Olympic Games-and only the third woman to do it.
Nagasu's been pursuing her own path since she was just 5. "My parents used to take me golfing（打高尔夫球）every day because that was the career they wanted me to have, "she wrote. "They took me ice skating one day because we couldn't go golfing due to the rain, and after that, I kept asking to be taken to go skating. " Her ambition paid off eventually, beginning with a host of Four Continents and ISU World Junior Championship medals and ending with two World Championship and two Olympic appearances each.
Unlike other popular athletes who've traded childhood for training, Nagasu had to attend public school by day and help her parents in their restaurant by night. "They really taught me to work for what I want, " she said. That lesson was put to the test in 2014, when despite taking third place at the U. S. Figure Skating Championships, Nagasu was passed over for the Olympic team in favor of fourth-place finisher Ashley Wagner. Some athletes might have taken off their skates for good at that point. Instead, Nagasu got a new coach and learned the triple axel. After two years under his instruction, she displayed her new skill in the U. S. National Championships. By the time she tried it on Olympic ice in 2018, she'd perfected it. Nagasu performed the difficult three-and-a-half jump, helping her team win a bronze medal（铜牌） in the end.
Commercial aviation（航空）alone contributes around three percent of total global carbon emissions（排放）. But the industry is actively looking for green solutions in the form of sustainable aviation fuel （SAF）. In a study released this week, a team of researchers from the U. S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory （NREL） details a method of transforming food waste into SAF that can be used in existing engines. Making SAF is a more complicated process-it's got to be very similar to the petrol-based aviation fuel we use today in commercial flights.
The researchers use volatile fatty acids（挥发性脂肪酸）（VFAs） from smelly food waste and transform it into simple paraffin molecules（石蜡分子）that can be used in fuel and really aren't all that chemically different from traditional emissions-heavy fuels. There are other renewable biofuels that have been made from biomass（生物质）, specifically oil and fat from vegetables and animals, but using the ever-mounting pile of food waste to fuel flights broadens those possibilities.
Derek Vardon, a senior research engineer at NREL, says major companies are eager to get involved in SAF because some sustainable solutions, such as battery-operated commercial flights, just aren't possible yet with current battery technology. A battery-powered plane would be too heavy to fly long distances-"So using SAF that works in the same way as the fuel we have is a simpler way to trade out traditional emissions-heavy fuels. " Vardon also says that "because the wet waste would normally go to a landfill and break down to release greenhouse gases, the process of making and using SAF could actually have a negative carbon footprint when it is dramatically used. "
A major question as the researchers move forward with this type of research is if it is possible to run an airplane engine on fully renewable biofuel. Rolls-Royce recently did a test on one of their engines with 100 percent SAF and it worked. "This fuel is not crazy and we can solve these problems, " Vardon says.
Free school meals are back in the news. Footballer Marcus Rashford's petition（请愿书）to extend free school meals provision into the school holidays has collected 1. 1 million signatures, causing the government to reverse （cancel officially） policy. It has restarted the debate over free school meals, fuelled, most recently, by figures forecasting that if the government ends as planned the current £20 top-up（附加款）, another 200, 000 children will slip into poverty（陷入贫困）. This is in addition to the 550, 000 children already living in poverty previous to COVID-19. The roots of the current school meals system lie in the mid-19th century. In Manchester, independent charities as well as official bodies started to provide free meals for undernourished children in the 1870s. When education became a must in the following decades, the extent of the issue became apparent. Proponentsof feeding starving children pointed out that it was due to government order that children were in school, not working and contributing to the family food budget（预算）, so the government should pay.
Reception was mixed. Then, as now, children refused foods they weren't used to. Diaries of the time talk of "little bags of mystery （sausages）". Some children were put off brassicas（芥菜类）for life. Finding the balance between cheap and good proved hard. The chief medical officer talked about the lack in calorie value and elements of a well-balanced diet which a needy child does not get at home, such as milk, cheese, eggs, green vegetables, fruit and meat. In 1980, the Tory government, desperate to cut costs, made provision largely optional and reversed nutritional standards. Over the next 15 years, convenience and cost became the most important.
Today, school meals provision is linked to benefits: in England around 17 per cent of children are entitled to free school meals. Provision is outsourced（外包）, leading to huge variation. In the last year, we've seen all of the age-old debates repeated once more. How do we decide who is entitled? How do we guarantee quality? Who decides what children eat? Who pays? Undernutrition does not just have physical effects, but also affects behavior and ability to learn. It has a lifelong impact. The arguments around free school meals seem never to end. But they are hugely important, and until poverty is ended, they will not and should not go away.
Does speaking on the phone make you nervous?
Speaking with people on the phone is becoming rare these days. Many people prefer to use email or messaging apps when they need to communicate with someone. Sometimes, though, making a phone call is unavoidable. This simple act can actually be an unpleasant experience for some people. If this sounds familiar to you, you might be one of them who suffer from telephobia-the fear of speaking on the phone.
Telephobia is a form of social anxiety, even people who feel perfectly comfortable in social situations may also experience telephobia. When speaking face to face, we give off lots of facial cues（暗示）that help each other follow the conversation.Very often the idea of speaking on the phone makes some people so frightened that they will freeze up or lose control of the conversation. However, there are things that they can do to ease this fear.
One thing that those with telephobia can do before making a call is smile.It won't get rid of the anxiety altogether, but it will take the edge off it. Similarly, imagining how the call will go before you make it can also help things go more smoothly.That will make you feel less nervous and may help you predict any possible problems.
Well, you don't always have to pick up the phone. There's nothing wrong with calling the person back later when you feel more comfortable. So the next time your phone starts ringing, remember-speaking on the phone doesn't have to make you nervous. The important thing is to be aware of your fear and take steps to deal with it.
A. This is not the case over the phone.
B. Their hearts may race at the very thought.
C. What are the basic rules of making phone calls?
D. Just run through a positive conversation in your head.
E. What should you do when you're faced with receiving a call?
F. It may sound silly, but smiling can help you feel more relaxed.
G. Remember to smile politely when you are introduced to someone.
There's a great example of the power of persistence（坚持）in the way Chinese bamboo grows. When farmers plant the seeds and 41 the soil day after day and year after year, they see no 42 results. Four years can go by before they see any 43 . But in the fifth year, a bud（芽）44 through the soil and it's said this particular type of bamboo can grow ninety feet in five weeks. This begs the question: Is the bamboo 45 to an overnight success doing all that growing in just five weeks, or does it take five years for the bamboo to reach this 46 ?
Of course, the bamboo is growing the whole time even though it's not47 to anyoneother than the 48 farmer. Over the first four years, the bamboo is busy developing a solid root system necessary to 49 its height and weight over a life time. But in the fifth year, all the earlier 50 becomes obvious as the bamboo actually grows before your eyes.51 , this story shows the power of persistence. The farmer's 52 attention is vital for the bamboo to grow ninety feet and achieve this great result.
As Angela Duckworth shares in Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, our natural talent gives us a（n）53 when it comes to achieving success. 54 , talent on itsown is not enough and we all know people who don't 55 their own potential. Rather, our effort 56 so much more than talent when it comes to achieving a goal. And like the bamboo farmer above, sometimes our effort needs to persist for a long time before we see any 57 .
58 sustained effort is easier when we are passionate（充满激情的）about what we do. When we 59 our work on a sense of purpose and meaning, we are better prepared to use the passion and the persistence to 60 the great results we are capable of achieving. How can you find meaning in your work?
Lichun, or the Start of Spring is the first of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese traditional lunar calendar,brings the atmosphere of a flourishing spring, and this year, coincided（相 巧合）with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, giving it the charm of starting competitive sports. The opening ceremony began with the countdown of the 24 solar terms. The first program （feature） dancers holding green props, which formed a picture of green grass. It symbolized not only the spring, but also（vital）. The program was followed by spring-themed fireworks show,（symbolize） the seeds of spring spreading all over the earth.
In Chinese language, the character "Li" means "start", while the season of spring（consider） as the beginning of a year. How important is Lichun for the Chinese people? An old Chinese saying gives the answer: "Make your whole year's plan in the spring and the whole day's plan in the morning. "
Many of the rituals or （celebrate） have been maintained for suchan important day, and taking a bite of the Spring or "Yaochun" is one of them. The spring pancake,a thin wrap and various kinds of vegetables as stuffings, is a（represent） food of the spring. The Chinese people believe that a bite of the pancake is a bite of spring. Along with a cup of "Chuncha" （the spring tea）, people （full）emerge them into the scent of the season.
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。
For book lover who always like to have a book on the go, audiobooks are perfect. Some books are big and heavier to carry around and some people may need more than one for a week's holiday. With a plenty of audiobooks download onto a digital device, people can choose a book wherever they are. When one was finished, moving straight on to the next. And they can also listen in a car or after they are cleaning their rooms. In addition, audiobooks can be great help to those who have difficult in reading words on a page. Besides, I think that audiobooks are a very good choice.
