When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it’s far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to come up with some better ideas to help them.
I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers（便携式电脑）for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer, which can run without electricity. He decided to invent this computer after he visited a school in Cambodia.
The laptop which Mr. Negroponte has designed is a little different from the normal laptop computers you can buy in the shops. One difference is that it will be covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won’t be damaged easily. As an electricity supply can be a problem in developing countries, the computer also has a special handle（把手）so that children can wind（摇）the computer up to give it extra power when needed.
These special laptop computers will cost less than 100 US dollars and Mr. Negroponte wants to build as many as 15 million machines in the first year of production. The idea is that these computers will help the children’s education as they will be able to access the Internet. These computers might not help the people in developing countries immediately, but by improving children’s education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.
Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and, probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals（目标）at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to “kill two birds with one stone”, and that is always a good thing.
1 : Some new and better ways to help developing countries
| Traditional way |
Giving money to help them meet the most important basic 2 such as food and medicine. |
||
| New ideas |
Making cheap laptop computers for children there |
3 |
Nicholas Negroponte |
| Reason |
His 4 to a school in Cambodia |
||
| Features |
1. Being covered in rubber 2. Running 5 electricity 3. Being able to access the Internet |
||
| 6 |
Less than $100 |
||
| Purposes |
1. To help 7 children 2. To help people solve problems |
||
| 8 old mobile phones for reuse |
9 |
Throwing away old mobile phones easily creates waste, which does ___10 to the environment. |
|
| Goals to achieve |
We’ll reduce the waste; meantime, we will help others. |
Everybody gets stressed from time to time. Different people feel stress in different ways. You can try taking these five steps the next time to overcome stress:
Step one: get support. When you need help, reach out to the people who care about you. Talk to a trusted adult, such as a parent, or a coach. And don't forget about your friends. They might be worried about the same test or have had similar problems.
Step two: don't freak out(崩溃)! Notice your feelings, and name them — for example, "I am so angry!" And say or think about why you feel that way. Find a way to calm down and get past the upset feelings and find a way to express them. Do breathing exercises, listen to music, or do whatever helps you shift to a better mood.
Step three: don't take it out on yourself. Sometimes when kids are stressed and upset they take it out on themselves. You should be kind to yourself and ask for the helping hand or pat on the back that you need — and deserve — to get you through the tough situation you're facing.
Step four: try to solve the problem. After you're calm and you have support from adults and friends, it's time to get down to business. You need to figure out what the problem is. Even if you can't solve all of it, maybe you can begin by solving a piece of it.
Step five: be positive --- most stress is temporary. It may not seem like it when you're in the middle of a stressful situation, but stress does go away, often when you figure out the problem and start working on solving it.
These five steps aren't magic, and you might have to do some steps more than once, but they do work.
| Title: Five Steps |
|
| Get others’ support |
Turning to people who Talking to a |
| Don’t freak out |
Noticing your feelings, and Finding a way to express them Doing something to help you shift to |
| Don't yourself |
Being kind to yourself Asking for help and getting rid of facing |
| Find |
Getting down to business and problem is Solving it |
| Be positive |
Most stressful situation is temporary and will go away. |
第四部分：任务型阅读（共 10 小题，每小题 1 分，满分 10 分）
What happens when you take about 50 sixth-graders and send them to a nature camp with no access to computers, tablets and mobile phones? A new study suggests that after just five days their ability to understand nonverbal social cues improves.
Nonverbal social cues are the emotional information we pick up from people around us that is not communicated through words. It includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice and body posture.
As children spend more time corresponding with their friends via text rather than talking to them face to face, the researchers wondered whether they were losing the ability to read these important cues.
"The idea for this study came from looking at the way my older child and her friends' older siblings were communicating," said Yalda Uhls, "I've been at parties where the kids are all hanging out, but instead of looking at each other, they are staring at their phones."
Uhls, who is the lead author of the study, wanted to see what would happen if a group of children had to spend an extended period of time communicating completely device-free. She found a public school that sends its sixth-grade class to a wilderness camp near Big Bear for five days. At the camp, the students have no access to electronics.
When the class of about 50 children arrived at the camp, they were asked to take two tests to measure their ability to read nonverbal social cues. In the first, the kids were asked to assess the emotions portrayed in 48 photos of people making faces. In the second test, they watched a video with the sound turned off, and then made a judgment about the emotional state of the actor.
At the end of the five-day camp, the students were asked to take the tests again. The researchers report that over the five days the kids went from making an average of 14.02 errors on the face-recognition test at the beginning of their camp stay to 9.41 errors by the end. For the video component, they went from getting an average of 26% of the emotional states correct to getting 31% correct.
"Honestly, we were pretty surprised that just five days would have that effect," said Uhls. "But we think this is good news because if indeed lack of face-to-face time is changing people's ability to understand emotion, our results suggest you can disconnect for five days and get better."
Uhls said the results of their study suggest that it is important for kids to spend time away from screens, but it doesn't necessarily suggest that all screen time is bad." The main thing I hope people take away from this is that it is really important for children to have time for face-to-face socializing," said Uhls. "I love media, my kids are media-savvy, but it is really important to have a balance."
Flying out of an airport in the United States is not always easy. You will need to complete the ticketing process, baggage check, and security clearance procedures before boarding the plane.
If you are flying on an international flight, you'd better arrive two hours before your plane is scheduled to leave. You might need more time in a busy airport in a large city. If you are traveling on a domestic (国内的) flight, you may only need to arrive at the airport 90 minutes before your plane takes off.
Every airport in the States is now moving its ticketing procedure to electronic ticketing device. By using a ticketing machine, you have the chance to choose a seat you like on the plane. If you use it to check-in your bags, you will only have to talk to the ticketing agent when you turn in your luggage to be tagged (加标签). At the same time a real person will be nearby to help you if you need it.
After you have checked in, you will have to pass through airport security. Have your ID card or passport and boarding pass ready to show the security officer when entering the security checkpoint line. Airport security is getting tight in the States today. You're not allowed to travel with any prohibited things like knifes or fireworks.
After the security staff has checked your travel documents, you shall put all of your belongings through a scanning machine and then walk through a metal detector (探测器) or a full body scanner. You need to take off your coat, belt, and sometimes your shoes to go through one of these scanners. Be sure not to have any metal in your pockets. If you do not understand a question you are asked at a security checkpoint, ask the person to repeat their question until you are able to respond with an accurate answer.
| Title |
|
| Time of |
■ Arrive two hours before ■ Arrive 90 minutes before your plane |
| Check-in |
■ Choose your seat on a ticketing machine. ■ Get the ticketing agent ■ |
| Airport security |
■ ■ ■ Be sure not to take any metal with you when ■ Respond |
Chinese parents are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the US or Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes that will give them a head start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy computers for their sons or daughters.
However, what most parents fail to see is that the best education they can give to their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children’s skills vary, skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence.
The reasons are that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills: they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.
Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and a lot of confidence. These activities are not only teaching a child to work, but rather to think, and to use his mind. And that is more important.
Romanticism (浪漫主义) was a literary, artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. And it reached its peak from 1800 to 1840.
Romanticism urged people to look at nature and surroundings from a scientific point of view. It was also a rebellion against scientific rationalization (合理化 ) of nature. It permitted a person's imagination and freedom in art. The concept of romanticism was present in all the major art forms, like literature, the visual arts and music.
Friedrich Schlegel, a German philosopher, writer and critic, used the term “Romantic” for the first time to name a new school of literature which arose in opposition to “Classicism”. Though the concept of Romanticism was identified much earlier, critics believe that Romanticism in English literature dates from the Lyrical Ballads. The romantics were very interested in mystery, ambition and adventure.
In the visual arts, the term Romanticism refers to a trend that appeared in the 19th century, which was characterized by opposition to the classical forms and its rules. Romanticism in the visual arts focused more on the spiritual and emotional representation of nostalgia（怀旧）. Romantics used objects, like wild trees, moonlight, and so on, to convey their ideas and concepts.
In music, Romanticism was characterized by the freedom of forms and an emphasis on the emotions. It was German composers who used romanticism widely and developed this concept. Many famous composers worked in smaller forms of music that had flexible structure; for instance, ballads, solo piano music, and so on.
Romanticism influenced the literature and arts of the 18th and 19th century. The popularity of this movement declined gradually with passing time, but it has a significant place in the history of literature and art development.
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