A
Douglas Florian teaches readers about bees in a new book of poems called UnBEElievables. In his latest book, each poem is paired with a colorful image that illustrates(图解) a different type of bee and its role in the group. Every page is full of fun and interesting facts about these social insects.
TFK: When you brainstorm for a story, which comes first: the images or the poems?
FLORIAN: Usually the poems come first. For a book of 21 poems, for example, I'll actually write about 50 poems first. Although I sometimes have images in my mind to go along with the words, I have to choose which ones I want to include in the book.
TFK: Many of your books, including UnBEElievables, are about insects and animals. How did these become your favorite subjects?
FLORIAN: There is so much humor in the animal world. People have a lot of knowledge about animals and ideas about animals that are fun to explore in writing. Animals are just so interesting. When I research, I find out so many new and amazing facts. The poem is often half written by the time I have done with my research.
TFK: Why did you choose bees as the subject of your latest book?
FLORIAN: I saw recently in the news that many bees are dying out. Scientists believe this to be caused by various diseases. I wanted to create awareness and learn more about bees after hearing this. So many of the fruits and vegetables we eat are dependent on pollination(授粉) by honeybees. If bees disappear, so will much of our food.
TFK: Do you have a favorite bee?
FLORIAN: One of my favorites is the poem and painting about the worker bees. I wanted the painting to be very playful and light. These bees have to work all day, and it's kind of like a factory. And even though these bees have to work very hard, they manage to smile.
Dear Sir,
I am writing to express my concern about the plans to build a motorway near our village.
Haldersham is one of the loveliest villages in England. It is peaceful and quiet, and it is situated in a very attractive valley. There are also several beautiful countryside walks in the surroundings, with a view of many rare trees and plants.
Most of the people who live in Haldersham have moved here from other places, often from London and other big cities. They have bought houses here to live in a place far away from the noise and the stress of the big city. They paid a lot of money for their houses, but they knew they would get a high quality of life for it.
If the planned motorway is built, life in Haldersham will change greatly. There will be a lot of noise around us, and nobody will want to go on the walks. House prices will certainly go down, because nobody will want to buy houses in a place close to a motorway. Haldersham will become an ugly place.
I don't think any of the people living in this beautiful village want that, and we all believe exposure to noise pollution can have a direct influence on our health. So, let's all tell the politicians who support the motorway plans what we think about them!
Yours faithfully,
Hilary Riley
Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake
With the Mid-Autumn Festival coming, the time for crabs is around the corner! Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake in China are believed to be the best freshwater crabs.
“They are delicious, because the bottom of Yangcheng Lake is hard and the crabs grow strong by walking on such a hard surface,” said one sales manager in Suzhou.
Li Lei, a crab lover from Beijing, said “It's very delicious! But there are too many fake Yangcheng Lake Dazha Crabs”.
“Maybe the crabs from other regions can appear to be glistening green back, white belly after people wash them, but the golden fine hair on crab claws is still a point of pride and is exclusive to Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake,” said the manager.
The best time for enjoying them is during September and October of Chinese lunar calendar. “When the season for crabs arrives, the Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake are flown to various cities so that people's appetites can be satisfied,” said the sales manager. “They are really expensive here, sometimes more than 320RMB/500g, 10% of my salary!” said Li Lei.
Dazha Crabs are usually steamed or boiled for within 20 minutes before they come on the dinner table. They are often enjoyed with vinegar mixed with minced ginger to add flavor and get rid of the cold. People who are particular about how they eat crabs also need to have high-grade Shaoxing rice wine to warm their stomachs.
There is much work required to eat crabs. So much shell!Most people use both hands and teeth while eating Dazha Crabs. “The eating way is not graceful or elegant,” said Huck. “However, some professionals of eating crabs can use tools to take all the meat out of the crab without damaging a single bite and the crab can be restored to its original shape if the empty shells are pieced together!” said Han Mei, another Dazha crab lover.
It was Monday. Mrs Smith's dog was hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
Considering that there was no better way. Mrs Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it: “give my dog half a pound of meat.” then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently: “take this to the butcher (person whose job is selling meat) and he's going to give you your lunch today.”
Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's. It gave the paper to the butcher. The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to. The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once.
At noon, the dog came to the shop again. It gave the butcher a piece of paper again. After reading it, he gave it half a pound of meat once more.
The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon and as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth. This time, the butcher did not take a look at the paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers (people who buy sth. from a shop).
But, the dog came again at four o'clock, and the same thing happened once again. To the butcher's more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper. The butcher felt a bit puzzled. He said to himself, “This is a small dog. Why does Mrs Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!
Many years ago three soldiers, hungry and tired of battle, came upon a small village. The villagers, suffering a bad harvest and the many years of war, quickly hid what little they had to eat and met the three in the village square, shaking their heads and sighing, “Well, we are starving.” The soldiers communicated with each other quietly and then the first soldier turned to the villagers. “Your poor fields have left you nothing to share, so we will share what little we have: the secret of making soup from stones.”
Naturally the villagers were intrigued and soon a fire was built to the villager's greatest pot, and then the soldiers dropped in three smooth stones.
“Now this will be a fine soup,” said the second soldier, “but a handful of salt and some parsley (香芹) would make it wonderful!” Up jumped a villager, crying “What a piece of luck! I've just remembered where some has been left!”
And off she ran, returning with parsley. As the pot was boiling, the memory of the villagers improved: soon carrots, beef and cream had found their way into the great pot. They ate and danced and sang well into the night, thrilled about the feast and their new-found friends. In the morning the three soldiers awoke, finding all the villagers standing before them. At their feet lay a bag of the village's best bread and cheese. “You have given us the greatest gift.” said an elder, “and we shall never forget.” The third soldier turned to the crowd, and said, “There is no secret, but this is certain: people working together can accomplish great things.” At last the light dawned on villagers. Off the soldiers wandered, down the road.
Do you want to make a difference in your community? The Verizon App Challenge can get you started. The first step is to think of a problem in your community. The next step is to create an app that can solve the problem.
Group of five to seven students in middle school or high school, led by a teacher, can enter the contest. First, teams will compete on a local level. Teams that make it to the next round receive $ 5,000 for their schools. Finalists present their app ideas to judges in a live web conference. Next, the judges pick national winners. The top eight teams receive an additional $ 15,000 for their schools, and each team member receives a Samsung tablet. Plus, the winning teams get the chance to bring their app to life.
A group of six girls from Los Frenos, Texas won the second annual Verizon App Challenge. They came up with the Hello Navi app concept, short for “hello navigation”. The app was designed to help visually impaired (受损的) students navigate (导航) their school. Do you have an app idea that could help solve a local issue? The deadline to register (登记) is November 24. Find more information and register your team at verizonfoundation.org/appchallenge.
Here are some tips from the Verizon Foundation to get you started:
Get your team together for a brainstorming meeting. Write out all the ideas that conic to mind. Don't ignore challenges. Accept the idea that you can solve a problem that exists in your community. Ask family, friends and people in your community to share their thoughts about problems that they want to see solved.
Technology offers conveniences such as opening the garage door from your car or changing the television station without touching the TV.
Now one American company is offering its employees a new convenience: a microchip implanted in their hands. Employees who have these chips can do all kinds of things just by waving their hands.Three Square Market is offering to implant microchips in all of their employees for free.Each chip costs $300 and Three Square Market will pay for the chip.Employees can volunteer to have the chips implanted in their hands.About 50 out of 80 employees have chosen to do so.The president of the company,his wife and their children are also getting chips implanted in their hands.
The chip is about the size of a grain of rice.Implanting the chip only takes about a second and is said to hurt only very briefly.The chips go under the skin between the thumb and forefinger.With a chip in the hand,a person can enter the office building,buy food,sign into computers and more,simply by waving that hand near a scanner.The chips will he also used to identify employees.Employees who want convenience,but do not want to have a microchip implanted under their skin,can wear a wristband(腕带)or a ring with a chip instead.They can perform the same tasks with a wave of their hands as if they had an implanted chip.
Three Square Market is the first company in the United States to offer to implant chips in its employees.Epicenter,a company in Sweden,has been implanting chips in its employees for a while.
Three Square Market says the chip cannot track the employees.The company says scanners can read the chips only when they are within a few inches of them.“The chips protect against identity theft,similar to credit cards.”The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chips back in 2004,so they should be safe for humans,according to the company.
In the future,people with the chips may be able to do more with them,even outside the office.Todd Westby is Chief Executive Officer of Three Square Market.He says,“Eventually,this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport,public transit,all purchasing opportunities,etc.”
What can technology do to make your world better?Three young people are starting new businesses to answer that question.
Mateusz Mach
Eighteen-year-old Mateusz Mach was the youngest person in Poland to receive money from investors to expand his company.He started Five,a mobile messaging application,or app,for deaf people.The app lets deaf people create their own hand signs to communicate with friends.The app now has more than 10,000 deaf users.And Mach thinks there will be about 150,000 more deaf users in the U.S. next year.There are many different sign languages in various parts of the world.Mach will be working with the United Nations in New York.He says,"I love to create.And I think that the creation of things will be my passion to the end of my life."
William Zhou
William Zhou is the co-founder and leader of Chalk.com.The education software company helps teachers from the kindergarten level t0 12th grade,or the end of secondary school.Zhou was born in Beijing,China,grew up in the Canadian city of Vancouver and founded his first company when he was still in high school.Zhou sold the company when he was studying computer science at Canada's University of Waterloo.But he strongly wanted to make a change in education,From his dorm room,Zhou created Chalk.It is a group of programs that supports individual teaching and learning.Based in Canada,Chalk is now used in 20,000 schools by more than 100,000 users worldwide. Zhou says building startups is a difficult process because it could last years."It's only worth it if you find something you truly care about—something you're passionate about.Otherwise,you may just end up crashing."
George Mtemaharji
George Mtemahanji was born in the African country of Tanzania and moved with his family to Italy in 2002, where he attended the Technical Institute of Alfredo Ferrari in Maranello.There he learned about renewable energy and began thinking that solar energy would be easier to use in Africa than in Europe.After graduation,he returned to Tanzania in 2014 to start his own solar energy company—Sun Sweet Solar—in partnership with his friend Manuel Rolando.He explains that he could not understand why,in a place with bright sunshine,"more than 90 percent of people had no access to electricity.So when I returned to Italy I spoke with Manuel on the huge electricity demand in Tanzania and to the possibility to open a business there."Sun Sweet Solar found early success in rural areas of Tanzania.Since then,the company has been expanding.He hopes to create jobs and help build his country in the process.He understands the process will take time."But I think we are on the right path."
Lying alongside mountains of smelly garbage under the South American sun, Cateura is a long way from the conservatories of Prague or Vienna. Yet the township, which grew out of Paraguay's largest dump(垃圾场), is gaining a reputation as a hothouse for musical talent and for its youth orchestra(管弦乐队) that plays instruments made from garbage. "The world sends us garbage. We send back music," says Favio Chavez, leader of the "Recycled Orchestra," during a recent visit by the group to Los Angeles. Orchestra members, poor children from Cateura, play violins fashioned from oven trays and guitars made from dessert dishes. The orchestra provides the youngsters an outlet and an escape, a chance to go beyond the mess of their slum(贫民窟) through the music of Mozart, and even Sinatra. "In the beginning, it was difficult to play," says the l0-year-old violinist Celeste Fleitas." But Favio helped me learn over time. From Favio, I have learned to be more responsible and value the things I have."
The destination for more than 1,500 tons of waste each day, the community has no safe drinking water and little access to electricity or sanitation(卫生设施). Illiteracy is severe, and the children of the township often fall into drugs, violence and crimes.
Favio Chavez, a musical talent, came to Cateura as an environmental technician in 2006 and started a youth music school. He knew shop-bought instruments were beyond the means of villagers whose sheds are worth less than a violin, so he approached a carpenter to make some out of waste from the dump.
The orchestra caught the eye of Paraguayan filmmaker Alejandra Amarilla. She uploaded a short piece of the orchestra to YouTube in 2012, hoping to secure crowdfunding for what would become Landfill Harmonic, a documentary released across the United States this month and promoting the youngsters on a tour of the world's music halls later on.
"The questions which our English teacher asked just now were really very confusing."
Safety and Security Procedures
Your safety and the security of your personal property are of the primary concern to those of us who welcome you as our guest. We urge you to take advantage of the following suggestions.
YOUR VEHICLE
Lock your vehicle and do not leave money or valuable items inside. We are not responsible for their loss.
TRAVELING
Be observant when sightseeing or traveling. Stay in well-lit and heavily traveled areas. Don't display large amounts of cash.
GUEST ROOM SECURITY
For additional security use the deadbolt (插锁) provided on your door and make sure the windows are locked. As an additional precaution (预防措施), please secure the secondary locks provided. Do not admit anyone to your room without first making identification. A one-way viewer is provided in your door to assist with identification. If there is any doubt about the person's identity, please contact the Front Desk.
SAFETY BOXES
Do not leave money or valuables in your room or vehicle. We provide free safety boxes for your use. Hotel is not responsible for items left in room valued over $200.
KEYS
Safeguard your key. Please do not leave it in the door. Do not give your key to others or leave it unattended. Please leave your key at the Front Desk when you check out.
REPORTING
Please report any suspicious activity, or safety concerns to management.
FIRE
Please familiarize yourself with the nearest fire exits. Report fire or smoke to the hotel operator. In the unlikely event of a fire, please move quickly and calmly to the nearest safe exit and leave the building. Avoid the use of elevator.
rough
A.艰难的 B.崎岖不平的 C.粗鲁的 D.粗糙的 E.汹涌的;风浪大的 |
He noticed a man enter the room.
① High school can be a difficult time. However, ② clubs and other activities can make it much easier. No matter how well you may fit in, joining clubs, sports, or other after-school activities will be good for you. Here is why.
Firstly, ③ after-school activities will help you develop your time-management skills. Because you have to plan ahead of time when to finish homework, achieve extracurricular ( 课外的) activities goals, and organise your social life, etc. Secondly, ④ they can also teach you how to work with other people. As you gain more experience, ⑤ you can take on more duties and even an important role. Becoming a club leader is a great way to help you stand out when you apply for a college. ⑥ In short, taking part in activities counts.
If you can't find any club that attracts you, don't worry. ⑦ You can start a new one! This will allow you to create something suitable for your interests, and a community of students who share the same interests.