My name is Clara. I still remember that chilly December day,sitting in science class. I'd finished a worksheet early and picked up a TIME for Kids magazine. A piece of news caught my eye: NASA was holding an essay contest to name its Mars rover(火星探测器). Before I even knew anything else about it,a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind, Curiosity.

    I couldn't want for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay.That afternoon, I raced home, sat down at the computer, and typed until my fingers ached. “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind...”

    Five months later, my mon received a phone call, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.

    On August 5,2012, at 10:31 p.m, the rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars,and I was honored to have a front-row seat in NASA.

    Curiosity is such an important part of who I am.I have always been fascinated by the stars,the planets,the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl,my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours.She'd tell me stories and point out the stars,Grandma lived in China,thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas,but the stars kept us together even when we were apart.They were always there, yet there was so much I didn't know about them.That's what I love so much about space.

    People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mares.My answer is simple because we're curious.We human beings do not just hole up in one place.We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what's over the hill and beyond the horizon.

    If you think your woman would never lie to you, guess again. From little 1 lies to the more serious variety, most women will hold back the 2 at some point in a relationship. Her motivation 3 lying can stem (起源于) from wanting to protect your feelings or, sure enough, to save her own butt (抵触).

    One day, when a seamstress（女裁缝师）was sewing 4 sitting close to a river, her thimble（顶针）fell into the river. When she cried out, the Lord 5 and asked, ‘My dear child, why are you crying?' The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the water and 6 she needed it to help her husband in making a living for their family. The Lord dipped his hand into the water and 7 a golden thimble set with sapphires(蓝宝石).

    “Is this your thimble?” the Lord asked. The seamstress replied, ‘No.'The Lord again dipped into the river. He 8 a silver thimble.

    “Is this your thimble?” the Lord asked. Again, the seamstress replied, “No.”

    The Lord 9 down again and came up with a leather thimble.

    “Is this your thimble?” the Lord asked. The seamstress replied, “Yes.” The Lord was pleased with the woman's 10 and gave her all three thimbles to keep, and the seamstress went home, much 11 .

    Some years later, the seamstress was walking with her husband along the 12, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. 13 she cried out, the Lord appeared and asked her, “Why are you crying?”“Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!”

    The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney. “Is this your husband?”the Lord asked.

    “Yes” cried the seamstress. The Lord was 14. “You lied!” ”That is a(n) 15 !” The seamstress replied, ‘Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a 16. You see, if I had said ‘no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt. Then if I said ‘no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said “yes,” you would have given me 17. Lord, I'm not in the best of health and 18 be able to take care of all three husbands, 19 THAT'S why I said “yes” to George Clooney.'

    And so the Lord let her keep him.

    The 20 of this story is: Whenever a woman lies, it's for a good and honorable reason, and in the best interest of others.

—It couldn't be worse. We were held up on the expressway for three hours. On the way back, we found the car got a f tyre, and the spare was, too.

    Swedish businessman Nile Bergqvist is delighted his new hotel, the world's first igloo(冰屋) hotel.

    (build) in an small town, it has been attracting lots of visitors but soon the fun will be over. In two weeks' time Bergqvist's ice creation (be) nothing more than a pool of water. “We don't see it as a big problem, ”he says. “We just look forward to (replace)it. ”

    Bergqvist built his first igloo in 1991 for an art exhibition. It was successful that he designed the present one, measures roughly 200 square meters. Six workmen spent more than eight weeks piling 1,000 tons of snow onto a (wood) base；when the snow froze, the base was removed.

After their stay, all visitors receive a survival certificate recording their success. With no windows, nowhere to hang clothes and temperatures 0℃, it may seem more like a survival test a relaxing hotel break. “It's great fun,” Bergqvist explains, “As well as a good start in survival training.''

    The (popular)of the igloo is beyond doubt：it is now attracting tourists from all over the world. At least 800 people have stayed at the igloo this season even though there are only 10 rooms.

注意：1.两方面的理由至少要有两条；2．词数：150左右。

    In 1970, a cyclone(旋风) hit the southern coast of Bangladesh(孟加拉国). So severe and deadly were its effects that it's1listed as the world's worst-ever reported natural disaster. The2had a big impact on two Swedish men from Mission Aviation Fellowship(MAF). They traveled 3to Bangladesh for the purpose of seeing what they could do to4. They journeyed south by boat for several days, throughout the country's vast 5 network to reach the worst-affected area and began to envision(预想) MAF using an aircraft that would 6direct access to large areas of the country that were almost out of7.

    Throughout the 1980s, MAF Australia, along with other MAF groups, sent staff to8assistance and their patience and dedication 9since they built trust in the countries that had been 10.

    In 1997, MAF could11start a flight program within Bangladesh. At that time, besides transporting doctors to hospitals located in 12parts of the country, MAF also 13an on-call emergency medevac(前线急救直升机) service in Bangladesh.

    On November 15, 2007, Cyclone Sidr hit southern Bangladesh. MAF's14response and emergency procedures were seriously15as the office received over 200 phone calls in one day from aid agency personnel in urgent need of 16to and from the disaster zone. For the next two months, MAF17solidly, seven days a week. The float plane became known by18locals as “The Sea Angel(天使)”—the only aircraft in the country of its type having such a(n) 19.

    In 2009, “The Sea Angel” was sent again for rapid assistance20Cyclone Alla struck. Today, in Bangladesh, MAF makes over 750 flights and transports around 2,500 passengers annually.

    In the middle of a beautiful day, I was feeling lost, as if the world was crashing on me. didn't know which way to go, except to head out to the countryside. I went to the spot where I used to take my kids-when I still had kids. Now they had  1and were leaving.

I was sitting alone in my car when I saw a man in his seventies, whose problem appeared bigger than mine. He stood near the edge of the road,2a kite spindle(风筝线锭) in his hands. Apparently, lost in thought, he stared skyward. I 3my neck to see how successful he had been in 4 the clouds. Following his string with my eyes, I almost lost5 of the other end. Finally, the kite rested on what seemed to be the highest branch of the 6tree in the park.  Obviously,  that was his grandson's kite!  The kite was a replica (复制品) of a beautiful bald eagle, and its wings spread 70pen. Grandpa had only one 8to his problem: cut the string.

"You wanted it to fly as high as it could. Bill. didn't you?" "Yes, Grandpa,9 wanted to keep it forever. " "There just comes a time when the only thing you can do is to cut the string and let it go. Perhaps by doing that, when it flies very high like real eagles do, it will come back to us. " Grandpa said.

    I 10 how the old man cut the string to let fly the kite. As the two walked away, looked to the 11. There I saw my answer, too. Today I have to cut the final strings that kept my two boys 12my reach. Though I want to keep them forever, I have taught them to fly like an eagle. Maybe by doing this, when it's time to soar like real eagles do. one day they would come back to me.

    Most people know precious gemstones (宝石) by their appearances. An emerald flashes deep green, a ruby seems to hold a red fire inside, and a diamond shines like a star. It's more difficult to tell where the gem was mined, since a diamond from Australia or Arkansas may appear the same to one from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, recently, a team of scientists has found a way to identify a gemstone's origin.

    Beneath the surface of a gemstone, on the tiny level of atoms and molecules（分子）, lie clues (线索) to its origin. At this year's meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis, Catherine McManus reported on a technique that uses lasers (激光) to clarify these clues and identify a stone's homeland. McManus directs scientific research at Materialytics, in Killeen, Texas. The company is developing the technique. “With enough data, we could identify which country, which mining place, even the individual mine a gemstone comes from,” McManus told Science News.

    Some gemstones, including many diamonds, come from war-torn countries. Sales of those “blood minerals” may encourage violent civil wars where innocent people are injured or killed. In an effort to reduce the trade in blood minerals, the U.S. government passed law in July 2010 that requires companies that sell gemstones to determine the origins of their stones.

    To figure out where gemstones come from, McManus and her team focus a powerful laser on a small sample of the gemstone. The technique is called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. Just as heat can turn ice into water or water into steam, energy from the laser changes the state of matter of the stone. The laser changes a miniscule part of the gemstone into plasma, a gas state of matter in which tiny particles（微粒）called electrons separate from atoms.

    The plasma, which is superhot, produces a light pattern. (The science of analyzing this kind of light pattern is called spectroscopy.) Different elements produce different patterns, but McManus and her team say that gemstones from the same area produce similar patterns. Materialytics has already collected patterns from thousands of gemstones, including more than 200 from diamonds. They can compare the light pattern from an unknown gemstone to patterns they do know and look for a match. The light pattern acts like a signature, telling the researchers the origin of the gemstone.

    In a small test, the laser technique correctly identified the origins of 95 out of every 100 diamonds. For gemstones like emeralds and rubies, the technique proved successful for 98 out of every 100 stones. The scientists need to collect and analyze more samples, including those from war-torn countries, before the tool is ready for commercial use.

    Scientists like Barbara Dutrow, a mineralogist from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, find the technique exciting. “This is a basic new tool that could provide a better fingerprint of a material from a particular locality,” she told Science News.

注意：1．字数120左右；2．开头结尾已给出，不计人总词数。参考词汇：做秀一show不便一inconvenience

Dear Editor，

    Last week our class had a heated discussion on Earth Hour． 

— Yes. A taxi ____ at all necessary.

    A qualified doctor who rarely practiced but instead devoted his life to writing．He once said: “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my lover．” Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, was a great playwright and one of the masters of the modern short story．

    When Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, he started to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support his family．After he graduated, he wrote regularly for a local daily newspaper．

    As a writer he was extremely fast, often producing a short story in an hour or less．Chekhov's medical and science experience can be seen through the indifference (冷漠) many of his characters show to tragic events．In 1892, he became a full time writer and published some of his most memorable stories．

    Chekhov often wrote about the sufferings of life in small town Russia．Tragic events control his characters who are filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair．

    It is often said that nothing happens in Chekhov's stories and plays．He made up for this with his exciting technique for developing drama within his characters．Chekhov's work combined the calm attitude of a scientist and doctor with the sensitivity(敏感) of an artist．

    Some of Chekhov's works were translated into Chinese as early as the 1940s．One of his famous stories, The Man in a Shell, about a school teacher's extraordinarily orderly life, was selected as a text for Chinese senior students．