阅读理解 知识点题库

阅读理解

    LEGO began as one man's small business. But today, it is the second largest toy company in the world. The LEGO company sells small, brightly colored plastic bricks (积木). People can buy LEGO bricks in over 90 countries.

    Ole Kirk Kristiansen from Denmark began his own business in 1932. He made products (产品) from wood including colorful wooden toys. Kristiansen's young son, Godtfred, worked with him. Their business helped them make a lot of money.

    By 1934, the Kristiansens named their company LEGO, which came from two Danish words, "leg" and "godt", meaning "play well". The LEGO company grew slowly. But it continued to create excellent wooden toys.

    By 1947, the LEGO company began using a new material (材料) to make their toys — plastic. One of the toys they sold was called the Automatic Binding Brick. A person could put the bricks together to build something. But the bricks did not hold together easily. Still, they were a popular toy.

    A few years later, in 1954, Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen had a big idea. He wanted all of the LEGO bricks to fit together. Finally, four years later, in 1958, the LEGO company found their answer. They invented the first modern style LEGO brick, which was similar to the Automatic Binding Brick but each piece would fit with any other piece.

    Since that time, any toy that the LEGO company created would fit with any other toy they created. Today, LEGO is not only the second largest toy maker in the world, but also making its products a great way for children to learn creative building skills.

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    For the 17 years my life was very happy. Then the first sad thing happened. My mother became very ill, and soon she knew that she was dying. Just before she died, she asked Elizabeth and me to go to her room. She held our hands and said, "Victor and Elizabeth, my children, I'm very happy because you love each other, and because one day you'll get married. Everyone in the family loves you, Elizabeth. Will you take my place in the family, my dear? I can die happy if you look after them when I have gone."

    My mother died and we were very sad, because we loved her dearly. Elizabeth was brave and helped us; her sweet smile gave us some happiness in the unhappy days after my mother's death. The time came for me to go to university. I didn't want to leave my sad family, but we all knew that I should go. It was hard to leave, too, because the parents of my good friend Henry would not let him go to university with me. So I had gone alone.

    On my first day at university I met my teacher, Professor Waldman, who was one of the greatest scientists in the world. He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the university. He ended his talk by saying, "Some of you will become the greatest scientists of tomorrow. You must study hard and discover everything that you can. This is why God made you intelligent—to help other people."

    After the professor's talk, I thought very carefully. I remembered the storm when I was 15; I remembered how the lightning had destroyed the tree. From then on, I wanted to use electricity to help people, and I wanted to discover the secrets of life. I decided to work on these two things.

    I started to work the next day. I worked very hard and soon Professor Waldman and I realized that I could learn to be a very good scientist.

    The professor helped me very much, and other important scientists who were his friends helped me, too. I was interested in my work and I did not take one day's holiday during the next two years, I did not go home, and my letters to my family were very short.

    After two years, I had discovered many things and I built a scientific machine that was the best in the university. My machine would help me answer the most important question of all. How does life begin? Is it possible to put life into dead things? To answer these questions about life I had to learn first about death. I had to watch bodies from the moment when they died and the warm life left them. In the hospital and in the university, I watched the dying and the dead. Day after day, month after month, I followed death, so it was a dark and terrible time.

    I built a tall mast about 150 meters high, which is higher than the tallest building in the city, to catch lightning and send the electricity down to my machine in the lab. I believed I could use that electricity to give life to things that were dead.

    Then one day, the answer came to me. Suddenly I was sure that I knew the secret of life.

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    Life satisfaction is the way persons evaluate their lives and how they feel about their directions and options for the future. It's a measure of well-being and may be evaluated in terms of mood, satisfaction with relations with others and with achieved goals and self-concepts to cope with daily life. It's having a favorable attitude towards one's life as a whole rather than just an evaluation of current feelings. Life satisfaction has been measured in relation to economy, education, experiences, and residence, as well as many other topics.

    Life satisfaction can reflect experiences that have influenced a person in, a positive way. These experiences have the ability to motivate people to pursue and reach their goals. As a matter of fact, in these experiences there are two kinds of emotions that may positively influence how people understand their life. Hope and optimism both consist of emotional processes that are usually directed towards the reaching of goals. People who have higher life satisfaction are always full of hope for a better future; additionally, optimism is linked to higher life satisfaction, while pessimism is related to symptoms in depression.

    The psychologist, Yuval Palgi, studied the old-old-people who were primarily in their nineties. This subject group was found to have thought highly of their past and present, but they thought lower of their future. A large factor that was talked about in life satisfaction was intelligence. The experiments talk of how life satisfaction grows as people become older because they become wiser and more knowledgeable, so they begin to see that life will be better as they grow older and understand the important things in life more. But when they step into their nineties, future becomes a luxury to them.

    According to Seligman, the happier people are, the less they are focused on the negative. Happier people also have a greater tendency to like other people, which promotes a happier environment, which then correlates to a higher level of the persons' satisfaction with their life.

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    Experts say that food is one of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. The reason is the rising demand for meat. Animal farming is responsible for 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas methane emissions. While cows are the worse contributors, pigs, sheep, donkeys and other animals play a part as well.

    Animal farming also causes land to become damaged, water to be polluted and forests to get destroyed. That is why experts are advocating substituting some of the beef, chicken, or pork with ordinary insects!

    Insects, which grow into adults within a matter of months, if not weeks, are ready for consumption much faster than domestic animals. They also require much less room, use less water and food, and produce far less greenhouse gas than animals.

    Of the 1.1 million insect species worldwide, scientists have identified 1.700 as eatable. Among them are ants, grasshoppers, grubs, and earthworms. Just like animals, each insect has a different taste. Tree worms taste just like pork, and grubs are similar to smoked meat.

    While eating insects might be a new concept for Western people, over 2 billion people worldwide consume insets as a regular part of their diet. Besides being delicious, insets are high in protein, have very few calories, and are free of the saturated fat. So eat insects, both your body and Mother Earth will thank you for it!

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    I'm an immigrant (移民) from China, and I found that in Quebec I had to learn French, which was a totally strange language to me. After waiting for half a month, I received a letter from my school, St-Luc, and began learning French in a welcome class, which is a class for new immigrants. Even though French was rather hard for me to speak and to understand, I began my secondary five studies the next year.

    The first few days were terrible, especially the first class of the first day. Although I had been in St-Luc for one year, I still didn't know much about the school. The first problem that I had was finding my classroom. Luckily, I met a girl who was in my French class and my chemistry class.

    After the bell rang, the teacher, Mme. Zarif, began her class. First, she introduced herself to everyone and then gave us the course outline (纲要) for the entire year. During her class, everyone laughed many times. Although I could only understand a little bit, I could tell that she was very funny.

    At the end of her speech, to make sure that we didn't forget what we had learned in secondary four, Mme. Zarif gave us a paper with many symbols of elements (元素) on it and asked us to write their names in French. I was shocked (吃惊的) when I received the paper. Honestly, the only symbol I knew was O. After having stared at the paper for a few minutes, I gave up and raised my hand. The teacher came, and I told her that I didn't know anything.

    "You have forgotten everything already?" she said in a surprised tone. "No," I answered, "I have never learned them in French before. I am from the welcome class." "Oh," the teacher said with a look of understanding. "Come here after school. I will teach them to you."

    I agreed. Finally, I handed in the paper with only one answer on it. On the whole, my first day of secondary five was a little embarrassing but, at the same time, interesting.

阅读下列短文，从每道题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

2019 Oscars Academy Award Nominees (提名) for Best Picture

Black Panther

Type: Adventure

Running Time: 134 min.

Release Date: February 16, 2018

Current rank: ★★★★

Director: Ryan Coogler

Actors: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan

With his father having died in Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa is the new ruler of the advanced kingdom of Wakanda. As the king, whenever a challenger for the crown announces his intentions, he must give up his powers and take them on in a physical challenge.

The Favorite

Type: Drama

Running Time: 120 min.

Release Date: November 30, 2018

Current rank: ★★★

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Actors: Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz

In the early 18th century, with England and France at war, a fragile Queen Anne occupies the throne as her close friend Lady Sarah Churchill governs the country in her stead, while tending to Anne's ill health and changeable temper.

Green Book

Type: Drama

Running Time: 130 min.

Release Date: November 21, 2018

Current rank: ★★★★★

Director: Peter Farrelly

Actors: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali

Tony Lip, an uneducated Italian-American who's known for using his fists to get his way, is hired to drive world-class, famous pianist Don Shirley on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. They must rely on the "Negro Motorist Green Book" to guide them to the few settlements that were then safe for blacks.

A Star is Born

Type: Musical

Running Time: 135 min.

Release Date: October 5, 2018

Current rank: ★★★★

Direct: Bradley Cooper

Actors: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga

When country music star Jackson Maine stops at a bar for a drink after a concert, he's both entertained and attracted by young nightclub singer Ally. He discovers that she writes songs as well as being a talented singer, but hasn't had a break because of her looks.

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Summer school is something a kid will never forget. For some, it's a way to advance past their classmates. For most, summer school is a requirement in order to graduate with their classmates. I can remember being forced into taking a summer school course. It was not the school that forced me into this awkward situation; it was my mother.

I was a 16-year-old kid in a new school. My school did not offer summer courses so I had to take my course at an alternative school in the city. It was an experience I will never forget. I was not concerned with making friends. I was there to get credit (学分) for a course that I should have received credit for the previous semester. It was my doing that landed me in the situation and it was important that I understood this.

The fees were lowest but the experience was amazing. I enjoyed. I didn't miss the day. The course was from Monday to Friday for an entire month. I passed the course with an A. I was thrown into an awkward situation and actually enjoyed it. My friends didn't even know I took the course. Most of them were still sleeping by the time my course ended each day.

Awkward situations are so important for personal growth. This situation made me feel more independent. I made friends. I finally understood what sacrifice and hard work were all about. While attending college, I remembered how much I enjoyed summer school and I chose to take summer school in my first three years of college. Some kids get pushed too much but some don't get pushed enough. I was never pushed enough.

Enable your children to struggle for success. If your child needs summer school you explain to them why it's important. Some parents are surprised by the situation and may want to be more involved in their children's education. Follow through and follow up.

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Maybe ten-year-old Elizabeth put it best when she said to her father, "But, Dad, you can't be healthy if you're dead."

Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run, had forgotten to wear his safety belt—a mistake 75% of US population make every day. The big question is why.

There have been many myths about safety belt ever since their first appearance in cars some forty years ago. The following are three of the most common.

Myth the Number One: It's best to be "thrown clear" of a serious accident.

Truth: Sorry, but any accident serious enough to "throw you clear" is able going to be serious enough to give you a very bad landing. And chances are you'll have traveled through a windshield (挡风玻璃) or door to do it. Studies show that chances of dying after a car accident are twenty-five times in cases where people are "thrown clear".

Myth Number Two: Safety-bets "trap" people in cars that are burning or sinking in water.

Truth: Sorry again, but studies show that people knocked unconscious (昏迷的) due to not wearing safety belts have a greater chance of dying in these accidents. People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having a clear head to free themselves from such dangerous situation, not to be trapped in them.

Myth Number Three: Safety belts aren't needed at speeds of less than 30 miles per hour (mph).

Truth: When two cars traveling at 30 mph hit each other, an unbelted driver would meet the windshield with a force equal to diving headfirst into the ground from a height of 10 metres.

Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.

The first two years of Stuart Singer's retirement were pure play, killing time in the New York City by bike and visiting museums and art galleries.

"At some point, I realised I should do more than this," said Mr Singer, a former high school teacher.

Now Mr Singer, 74, and his wife Madine, 69, are involved in the Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme. Mr Singer volunteers with the Community Health Advocates Programme, which started in 2010. The programme helps consumers to know better about the health insurance coverage(医疗保险). And it helps them to find access to low-cost or free care. Mr Singer's main task is to answer phones for the Community Health Advocates' helpline.

"There are lots of calls from different people who need medical care, but they can't get it because their insurance company won't pay for it," he said. "And you got to go through doctors, and get the papers filled out. But when you get it done, yeah, it feels good."

The helpline helps about 250 callers each week and has saved consumers $12.1 million since it began. Mr Singer comes in once a week, helping 10 callers every shift. In total, he estimates he has saved New Yorkers $443,000.

Despite the challenges, the work is a joy, not drudgery for Mr Singer, which inspired his wife to sign up for volunteer training after she retired in late 2014 as vice president of the Insurance Information Institute. It put her fear of retirement at ease.

Mrs Singer trained with the Advocacy, Counseling and Entitlement Services Project before being placed with the Actor's Fund, a national human services organization for performing arts and entertainment professionals founded in 1882. "It just seems so unfair that these people have trouble finding housing," said Mrs Singer. Since she started in early 2015, Mrs Singer has had more than 270 appointments with clients, from ticket takers to screenwriters to dancers. "Having someone help them really means a lot to them," Mrs Singer said.

Much of her work is helping clients who are applying for affordable housing sort through a variety of income sources they receive. "It keeps the mind going," Mrs Singer said. "It keeps the social life going, and I'm doing something."

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    Fantasy literature, a reading genre(类型) that was introduced from the Western world, has recently been developing rapidly in China. It is now popular among not only adult readers but also children.

    A forum(论坛会) was recently held in Beijing during which participants agreed that such development trend would have an increasingly strong effect on children's literature in China. Xu Dexia, director of China Children's Press and Publishing Group, believes fantasy fiction will continue to heat up in China this year though it is still in its beginning.

    Of the fantasy literature, science fiction is the most popular with children. 13-year-old Liu Wangding is a great fan of such books. He said," I like reading science fiction, and one of my favorite books is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Fantasy literature satisfies my curiosity, and I'm always interested in learning about science."

    A senior editor of children's literature at the People's Literature Publishing House, Feng Zhen, says it is good to see that fantasy literature becomes popular in China. Fantasy literature is purely imported from Western countries. Chinese authors took some time to get used to it before being able to produce such stories of their own. That is why there has been blank in the domestic market. With the Harry Potter storied introduced into China, such books quickly became popular in this country.

    "Even though Western fantasy literature is popular, Chinese children still have difficulty fully appreciating such stories simply because of different cultural backgrounds," Feng Zhen said." Therefore, Chinese writers have a huge role to play in helping develop this branch of literature for our young readers."

    Feng Zhen praised the success of Luoling's Magic, a best seller written by Chinese writer Chen Liuhuan. The book tells a 13-year-old alien girl growing up on Earth. The series has sold 1. 6 million copies since hitting the shelves.

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Some termite (白蚁) species have figured out how to enjoy the shelter of the huge complex nests that the insects build without contributing to their construction. They avoid the full anger of their builder hosts by being extremely easy-going.

Animals that live in the nests of another species without affecting them are known as inquilines. Inquiline termites are unique among termites in being unable to make their own nests. Instead, they live in the hallways built by another termite, Constrictotermes cyphergaster. Until now, it has been unclear how the two parties kept peaceful in such tight quarters because termites are typically very aggressive towards outsiders.

Helder Hugo at the University of Konstanz in Germany and his colleagues collected Constrictotermes cyphergaster's nests in the Brazilian Cerrado and brought them into the laboratory. They then placed host and tenant (房客) termites in either open or narrow areas and used video to track and record the ways in which the two species reacted to each other.

Right from the start, the inquiline' termites moved around less than their hosts and interacted little with them, even in the much narrower area. "Many times," says Hugo, "when two unrelated groups are put together in a limited space—such as an experimental area—the outcome is conflict with losses from both sides." But that didn't happen here. Despite attacks from host termites, the tenant termites were obedient. Hosts would bite or attack the inquilines with strong chemicals, but their targets never responded in the same way, choosing to flee. Some ignored the hosts completely.

"We did not expect that they would never fight back," says Hugo, noting that the inquilines are capable of protecting their own place with mouths. "By preventing conflict going worse, inquiline termites may considerably improve their chances of living together with their host termites peacefully."

"Passiveness does not necessarily lead to defeat, but can be a very useful strategy, saving energy and resources," she adds. "Nature may not always be red in tooth and claw, and aggression is not any more successful a strategy than 'cowardice' (儒弱)."

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Young trees don't just grow; they develop a personality and learn more about their environment and how they should best behave in it. They also help each other out whenever there's trouble.

Personality, just as among people, varies among trees. Some are anxious, some bold. On the author's land, there are three oak trees growing close together. One of the oak trees always starts to shed its leaves two weeks earlier than the others. Since they all experience the same temperature, the same soil and the same length of day, such variables can't be the explanation. So what's happening? Well, this tree is simply more careful than the others. Whoever holds on to their leaves longer can do more photosynthesis(光合作用) and store more nutrients. However, the longer a tree keeps its leaves, the higher the risk of injury.

Not only do trees make their own decisions, they also learn from their mistakes. A tree, for example, keeping its leaves too long during one year will never make this mistake again. This leads to several other conclusions: trees must notice the temperature and the length of the day and be able to save their experiences somewhere. Obviously, trees don't have brains, but it is thought that in the sensitive tips of their roots they keep track of information and experiences.

But trees aren't only clever when it comes to caring for themselves. They also support each other whenever there's trouble by giving warnings and even taking care of sick and weak conspecifics with nutrients. For example, one time the author found a very old tree stump. Its insides had rotted a long time ago to topsoil. But the wood on the outside of the stump was still living. How was this possible? Well, the stump was nourished by its neighbors with nutrients from the root system, and had been for at least 400 years!

Why do trees do such a thing? It's simple: it's better together. Trees need the forest; it protects them from storms, provides the right microclimate and warns them of attacks.

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Could looking through trees be the view to a greener future? Trees replacing the clear glass in your windows is not a work of science fiction. It's happening now.

Forest Products Laboratory researcher Junyong Zhu together with colleagues from the University of Maryland and University of Colorado has developed a transparent wood material that may be the window of tomorrow. Researchers found that transparent wood has the potential to outperform glass currently used in construction in nearly every way.

While glass is the most common material used in window construction, it comes with quite a few bad consequences. Heat easily transfers through glass and amounts to higher energy bills when it escapes during cold weather and pours in when it's warm. Glass production used for construction also comes with a heavy carbon footprint. Manufacturing emissions alone are approximately 25,000 metric tons per year, without considering the heavy footprint of transporting the glass.

The innovation was developed using wood from the balsa tree, which is native to South and Central America. The team treated balsa wood to an oxidizing bath, where the wood is kept in a bleach solution at room temperature to remove the light-absorbing substance from the structure. The wood is then penetrated (注入) with a synthetic polymer called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), creating a product that is virtually transparent. So the transparent wood is created, which is far more durable and lighter than glass.

Switching to transparent wood could prove to be cost efficient as well. It is approximately five times more thermally efficient than glass, cutting energy costs. It is made from a sustainable, renewable resource with low carbon emissions.

With all of these potential benefits for consumers, manufacturing and the environment, the case for transparent wood couldn't be clearer.

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Wondering where to send your kids for summer camp his year? The 2021 Guide to Summer Camps in Northeast Ohio is for you!

Creative Arts Summer Camps

Return to creativity! Summer Camps &Class are available in Dance, Visual Arts, Music,

Theater, and Creative Arts Therapies.

Grab a mask and join us at Beck Center's Campus for in-person, socially distanced learning in a safe, clean environment. Artistic experiences are available for a wide range of ages and all abilities.

The Odyssey Program

We offer a variety of summer camps for students aged 13-18.

Live, eat, sleep, dream, and create films with the students and faculty of the School of Film & Media Arts at this three-week summer film camp that teaches storytelling, screenwriting, acting for the camera, directing, lighting, editing and much more in a fun environment.

Camp Your Way- In Person or At Home

Energize your kid's creativity and confidence with our new Camp Invention program, Recharge!

Campers in grades K-6 will work with friends in hands-on, open-ended STEM challenges. They'll take apart a microphone to explore its inner workings, build and test a device to launch rubber ducks!

Click here to request a virtual appointment.

Roosevelt Firebird

At Camp Roosevelt Firebird we create a caring and fun-filled community every summer. We are committed to diversity, inclusion, equity (公平)and opportunities for all kids; and the make-up of our community reflects this. And we see our campers becoming leaders, taking action and making the world a better place.

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Marie Tharp, who was born in Michigan in 1920, produced one of the world's first maps of the ocean floor. As a female, Tharp never thought she could do soil surveying like her father. Women during her time were prevented from working in the scientific field. Jobs for young women were limited in options to: secretary, bookkeeper, nurse, school teacher or librarian.

During World War II, since many of the men were off fighting, there was opportunity for women to fill certain job roles. She earned her Master's degree in Geology in 1944, and another Bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1948. After receiving her degree, she worked as a research assistant (助理) at the Lamont Geological Laboratory in Columbia University. While there, she Bruce Heezen, who she would work together with for the next 30 years.

Before the 1950s, little was known about the layout of the ocean floor. Tharp and Heezen became part of a research project to map it. However, women at that time were not allowed on boats. So Heezen went out and collected the initial data, which was sent to Tharp back at home. Working with only pens and rulers, she drew the details of the ocean floor using longitude (经度) by latitude degree (纬度). It was a technical process, but Tharp got the task done. The first published map of the North Atlantic ocean was in 1957. It revealed that the ocean floor was not flat, but covered with features like canyons, ridges, and mountains just like on land. In 1977, Tharp completed a full world's ocean map titled The World Ocean Floor.

Marie Tharp is greatly recognized as a pioneer in a field dominated by men. Although more through maps of the ocean floor exist today, the impact of Tharp and her mapping of the ocean floor is still with us. Her work helped bring to life the unknown ocean world, and helped prove important information about our earth's development.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

Kids' Birthday Party Places in Queens

Find a place to hold your child's next birthday party. Plan your child's birthday party at one of these kid-friendly places in Queens. View our list online. Check the boxes and submit ( 提 交 ) the form below to connect with these businesses.

BEE YOU ART STUDIO

Telephone: 718-926-9728

Email: beeyouartstudio@gmail.com

Bee You Art Studio is a bright and fun studio ( 工作室) that offers birthday parties for ages 4 and older. The whole studio is yours for two hours. Parties include a step-by-step painting of your choice. We offer drawing paper, plates, brushes and paints. We can hold up to 30 people.

MUSIC TOGETHER® WITH MUSIC AND ME

Telephone: 718-229-0033

Email: info@musictogetherwithmusicandmecom

We provide special musical birthday party experiences for first through sixth birthdays. Families and friends celebrate a birthday child's day in a way in which everyone shares in the fun. Call us and we will hold your child's musical birthday party according to your needs. We can come to your  space.

SOCCER KIDS NYC

Telephone: 917-655-5437 Email: info@soccerkidsnyc.com

We bring the party to you! We offer a fun, high-energy birthday party that children are able to take part in actively, and have a“moment ( 时 刻 ) to shine”. It includes party favor, and 60 minutes for $199 for up to 10 children, extra children are $15 each.

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY ZOOS

Telephone: 1-800-433-4149 Email: wcszoos@gmail.com

Make your wildlife lover's birthday an unforgettable experience with a party at our WCS zoos! Parties include park admission (入园), a private party room, special animal guests, visits to our exhibits (展览), and hands-on activities to make your party animal's birthday a truly unforgettable experience!

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Below is an introduction to iPhone 12, which may help you know more about the latest phone and enjoy a better experience of purchase in our store.

Outlook

Featuring the same 6. 1-inch display size as the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR before it, iPhone 12 is making the transition from an LCD screen to OLED. With flat aluminum(铝) sides for an overall look, it more closely matches the iPad Pro and iPad Air. Aside from the flat sides, iPhone 12 still largely resembles the iPhone 11. Around back, it has two cameras housed in a glass circle, which makes for a nice contrast with the rest of the smooth back panel. To avoid being broken or cracked when dropped, iPhone 12 is covered with what Apple describes as a "ceramic(陶瓷) shield".

Camera

The iPhone  12 has a  12-megapixel f/1. 6 main camera—the fastest aperture(光圈) in any iPhone yet. The low-light performance has improved, and its advancements in computational photography to maximize detail and dynamic range has also been achieved. The front camera on the iPhone 12 is gaining Night Mode, as well.

Processor

iPhone 12 is powered by the company's new A14 Bionic processor, which is the first smartphone chip built on a 5nm process, leading to improved performance and efficiency. It's claimed that the processor is up to 50 percent faster than the leading chips in Android smartphones.

Wireless charging

To improve wireless charging on the iPhone  12, it contains a "MagSafe" system with built-in magnets to guarantee that the iPhone 12 properly lines up with the MagSafe accessories (配件).

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Covid-19 has brought a great deal of trouble for all of us since March 2020.  During this time, mobile phones have been the solution for the boredom and restlessness caused from staying indoors. The most downloaded apps on play store 2020 are：

TikTok

TikTok was the most downloaded app. With over 111. 9 million downloads, TikTok has seen a huge growth in 2020, twice more than what it got in 2019. 20% of its total downloads were from India and around 9. 3% of the total downloads were in the US.

Zoom

Zoom was the second most installed app in the overall downloads category. With nearly 94. 6 million installs, Zoom is the most used app for online meetings and virtual classrooms. 17% of its downloads were in the US and India. Offices and educational institutes were shut down and to continue working and studying from home, people relied heavily on Zoom for video conferencing and calling.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp ranked third in overall downloads with more than 100 million downloads.  It is one of the most popular and widely used chat applications; WhatsApp also supports communication between international phone networks.

Facebook

It ranked fourth in the overall downloaded list. Facebook is the world's most popular social networking application. Facebook builds technologies that give people the power to connect with friends and family, find communities and grow businesses.

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Shakespeare's Birthplace and Exhibition of Shakespeare's World

Welcome to the world-famous house where William Shakespeare was born in l564 and where he grew up .The property (房产) remained in the ownership of Shakespeare's family until 1806 .The House has welcomed visitors travelling from all over the world for over 250 years.

◆Enter through the Visitors' Centre and see the highly-praised exhibition Shakespeare's World, a lively and full introduction to the life and work of Shakespeare.

◆Stand in the rooms where Shakespeare grew up.

◆Discover examples of furniture and needlework from

Shakespeare's period.

◆Enjoy the traditional English garden, planted with trees and flower mentioned in the poet's works.

The Birthplace is within easy walking distance of all the car parks shown on the map; nearest is Windsor Street (3 minutes' Walk).

The House may present difficulties but the Visitors' Centre, its exhibition, and the garden are accessible (可进入的)to wheelchair users.

The Shakespeare Coffee House (opposite the Birthplace).

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Children may learn new words better when they learn them in the context of other words they are just learning - according to a new research from the University of East Anglia.

Researchers investigated how 18-24-month-olds learn new words - in the context of words they already know well and those they don't. The findings help explain how children learn new words and suggest a new way that parents and carers could help boost language development.

Previous research suggests that when children hear a word they do not know and see an object they have never seen in the context of some objects that they can already name, such as a toy or a ball, they guess that the new word refers to the new thing.

Dr. Larissa Samuelson from the university wanted to know if the strength of a child's knowledge of familiar things - how well they know what "cars" or "balls" are, for example - mattered for learning new words and remembering them. They asked 82 children to take part in the study and carry out two experiments among them. And then they got some really surprising findings.

"We had expected that a stronger knowledge of familiar words would be better for learning new words, but we found the opposite was true. " Dr Samuelson said. "This new study suggests another way we might be able to help boost children's ability to remember new word-object links - by teaching them in the context of other things that they are just learning. "

It seems counterintuitive, but it is perhaps because the less well-known items don't compete with the new words as much. If they learn new words in the context of playing with well-known items such as a ball or book, they don't process the new word as much.