A professor I have worked pretty closely with has been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. It has been devastating(悲惨的) for his family and heartbreaking for his students.
What made him extraordinary was not only that he was a rising star. He had only recently collected the highest honors for young researchers at the White House. We truly admire him—as someone put it, ‘He always has a smile and a kind word for everyone.” It is very hard to find someone who is extremely intelligent should be so nice a human being.
I decided that we needed him to know our attitude and also how we are all praying for his recovery. I bought him a simple card which read, ‘Healing thoughts and wishes coming your way.” I met all the students he worked closely with and got them to sign on it. Each student in his laboratory signed and also added a message. ‘We love you so much”, ‘We miss you! We need you back here—recover soon”… These were some of the messages that were written. Most of the students were really glad we were doing this and said it was a very good idea to give it to him.
He is still undergoing intense treatment, and along with his family is trying his best to stay optimistic and hopeful. I didn’t see a trace of self-pity or sadness when I met him last week. Instead, he paid attention to every word of my presentation and asked me several questions related to my work. I was amazed at how much he gave his 100% on that day in spite of being in pain because of chemotherapy( 化疗)，he did not know if he even had another month to live. “I am trying to focus on staying positive, hoping to be back this summer,” he said.
Needless to say, I saw an expression of joy and hope on his face as he opened the card. He said he was truly touched to see the messages from the students he worked closely with.
There is one thing I learnt from last week: It is so important to tell people how much they mean to us and what an inspiration they are before it becomes too late. My professor, in spite of being too sick to teach classes, has managed to continue being a great teacher, introducing his last valuable message to us.The professor was admired because _______.
| A．he was very intelligent | B．he had won many honors |
| C．he had noble personalities | D．he was very determined |
What do the underlined words “our attitude” in paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Our worry about his health. | B．Our pray for his health. |
| C．Our admiration for him. | D．Our pity for him. |
When the writer visited the professor at hospital, what surprised him was that the professor ________.
| A．was suffering form great pain | B．was still very confident |
| C．didn’t know he would die soon | D．still cared for others |
Of the following statements, the writer may agree that _________.
| A．the professor loves his job very much |
| B．few students supported the writer’s decision at first |
| C．the professor will go back to teach this summer |
| D．the professor often feels sorry for himself |
According to the last paragraph, what did the author learn?
| A．One should remain optimistic all the time. |
| B．It is important to let people know about their importance. |
| C．Teachers should have a positive influence on their students. |
| D．It is never too late to make a right decision. |
What did your school smell like? Was it noisy or peaceful? It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that smells and sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity．
Bridget Shield has been conducting studies and advising people on the effects of all sorts of noises, such as traffic and sirens, as well as noise made by the children themselves． "Everything points to a harmful impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,” says Shield．
Shield says the sound of “babble” －the chatter of other children, is particularly distracting in the classroom．。People are very distracted by speech-particularly if it is understandable, but you’re not involved in it．” This phenomenon is also known as the irrelevant speech effect, she says, adding that “it’s a very common finding in open-plan offices as well．’’
In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low． Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity． Ravi Mehta suggests there maybe some benefit to playing music or other sounds in an art class or other situations where creativity is the key．
Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class． Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in their tasks, the so-called Mozart effect． While the evidence actually suggests it’s a guess to say classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well, says Ravi Mehta," If you like the music or you like the sound-even listening to a Stephen King novel-then you did better． It didn’t matter about the music,“ he says．
However, it’s worth considering that music is not always helpful while you’re trying to work． Trying to perform a task which involves serial recall - for instance, doing mental mathematics-will be distracted by sounds with audio variation, says Ravi Mehta． Songs with lyrics, on the other hand, are more likely to interfere（干扰）with tasks that involve languages-such as reading comprehension．
This isn’t the only sense being related to affecting learning．The second paragraph implies that _________.
| A．general noise also has a harmful effect． |
| B．students are sensitive to noise． |
| C．some children need special sounds to do tasks． |
| D．children aren't affected by their own noise． |
The irrelevant speech effect refers to the fact that _________.
| A．you don’t understand what others are talking |
| B．you are interrupted by the chatting of others |
| C．you are unwilling to chat with other people |
| D．you find what others are talking irrelevant to you |
Everyone has done experiments in high school laboratories, but have you ever thought about designing a satellite to explore space?
On Nov. 19, a team of students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the US awed peers and even scientists by successfully launching a satellite.
The first satellite designed and built by high school students was sent up into space along with a record-setting. 28 other small ones on a rocket were sent from a NASA center in Virginia, CNN reported. It took the students seven years to build.
The students call their tiny satellite TJ3Sat, which is named after their school. It is just 10x10x12 centimeters and weighs only 0.89 kilograms, according to Orbital Sciences, a company which developed the rocket and supported the students’ project. It can be controlled with a smartphone.
Like most satellites, TJ3Sat can send and receive data. The small spacecraft is equipped with a voice synthesizer (合成器), which can switch text to voice and transmit those sounds back to Earth over radio waves, said Orbital officials. In this case, anyone can give it a try via the project’s website (school website) by submitting (提交) a text. The texts that get approved will be sent to the satellite, changed to voice and then broadcast back to Earth via radio waves.
“I can say ‘Go Colonials’ on our ground station and when it is on the other side of the world, in India, someone can hear ‘Go Colonials’over the radio,” the team explains on the website.
The satellite will stay in space for at least three months.
School principal Evan Glazer told The Washington Post that the project started in 2006 as an activity in the spare time. Later it became a research project for a select group of seniors.
At a time when American students are busy with SATs, the launch of the satellite shows what diligent teenagers can achieve when allowed to pursue their own curiosities, Glazer said.
“It used to be that kids growing up wanted to be an astronaut,” Andrew Petro, program executive (主管) for small spacecraft technology at NASA, said in a statement. “I think we might be seeing kids saying what they want to do is build a spacecraft. The idea here is that they really can do that.”Which of the following statements about TJ3Sat is TRUE according to the article?
| A．It took a group of students about a decade to build the satellite. |
| B．Besides TJ3Sat, 28 other small satellites were built by the students. |
| C．TJ3Sat can receive text messages that the students send into space, which can be changed to voice messages and broadcast back to Earth. |
| D．TJ3Sat is expected to stay in orbit for the next year, sending out messages together with information about its position in space. |
According to the article, the launch of the satellite _______.
| A．is evidence of the advance of spacecraft technology |
| B．proves that hard-working teenagers can achieve a lot |
| C．shows the importance of extracurricular activities at school |
| D．has inspired many people to take an interest in space travel |
You may have seen a talking parrot on a TV show, in a movie, or even in someone’s home. The parrot has learned to copy sounds that people make. Birds are not the only animals that can copy the noises they hear. Dolphins, bats, and some apes also copy sounds. Now we can add elephants to this list of copycats.
Dr. Joyce Poole is a zoologist. She studies the sounds of elephants. While she was in Kenya, she would hear strange noises made by Mlaika after sunset. Mlaika was a 10-year-old African elephant.
Mlaika lived near a highway. Dr. Poole says, “I could not tell the difference between Mlaika’s call and the distant truck noise.” She and other scientists studied Mlaika’s sounds. It turned out that Mlaika was copying the sounds of the trucks driving by. Why would Mlaika copy trucks that she heard going by on the highway? Animals that are able to copy sounds may enjoy practicing new sounds. When they are kept outside of their natural environment, they may copy unusual sounds. That may be why an elephant would copy the sound of a truck.
“Mlaika was not the only copycat elephant,” Dr. Poole says. Calimero is a 23-year-old male African elephant. He spent 18 years with two female Asian elephants. Asian elephants make chirping sounds (sounds made by birds) to talk with one another. African elephants usually do not make chirping sounds. But Calimero now does. He is copying his Asian elephant friends. Dr. Poole says that elephants need to form bonds with their family and friends. She says, “They make sounds to communicate with each other. When they are separated, they use sounds to keep in contact.”
Parrots, dolphins, humans, and elephants show that being a copycat is one way that animals and people make new friends and keep old ones.According to the passage, what does Mlaika copy?
| A．The sound of people. | B．The sound of trucks. |
| C．The sound of Calimero. | D．The sound of birds. |
From paragraph 4, we can know________.
| A．how long it takes for an elephant to learn a new sound |
| B．why the African elephant can make chirping sounds |
| C．why the Asian elephants make noises after sunset |
| D．how Asian and African elephants are alike |
According to the passage, why do some animals like to be copycats?
| A．To keep in touch with nature. |
| B．To please people and other animals. |
| C．To make new friends and keep old ones. |
| D．To avoid the danger from the outside world. |
In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship’s captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.
Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee’s skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.
Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.
In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary’s feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson’s instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.
In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes’ graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.In paragraph1, the author shows how Henson became ________.
| A．a skilled seaman |
| B．a highly educated captain |
| C．employed in a restaurant |
| D．interested in helping others |
Paragraph 2 mainly tells us ________.
| A．how Matthew Henson met Robert Peary |
| B．why Matthew Henson went to the hat shop |
| C．why Matthew Henson stopped working on the Katie Hinds |
| D．how Robert Peary knew that Matthew Henson had sea experience |
On their trip to the North Pole, Henson and Peary could best be compared to ________.
| A．treasure hunters seeking big fortunes |
| B．generals seeking power over another country |
| C．soldiers going to war to fight for their freedom |
| D．fighters performing a task in an unknown land |
Rock Junket is The Original Rock n’ Roll Walking Tour of New York City. Rock Junket founder Bobby Pinn is an author, former rock radio personality, rock historian and he’s spent 17 years as a music executive (总监). Read the reviews, book the best and forget the rest!
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 Check availability and buy tickets online: |
| East Village Rock Tour - #1 seller - Monday thru Saturday Greenwich Village Rock Tour\ - Sunday Union Square Rock Tour - Tuesday and Thursday Beatles Tour Customized (定制的) Tours Advance purchase required as Tours sell out quickly Purchase by phone at (212) 290-3370 |
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| Group and Private Tours Available – for details click here or call (646) 515-7874 |
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Rock Junket Walking Tours are not only the perfect way to dig deep into New York’s rock scene but also learn about art, fashion, rock n’ roll clothing stores and great local bars and restaurants. The East Village Rock Tour is very popular as we demonstrate how the neighborhood went from poor to being the birthplace of punk rock. On The Greenwich Village Rock Tour we’ll look at the influence Bob Dylan had on the Village plus sites about Jimi Hendrix and The Animals. We cover lost of clubs also including Café Wha, Bitter End, and other. The Union Square Rock Tour details the immoral behavior of Max’ Kansas City, Webster Hall. Andy Warhol and his 2nd and 3rd Factory, a famous Clash album cover and much more. The Beatles Tour takes us through Midtown and Uptown as we explore the sites that gave birth to Beatlemania (披头士狂热). Our Customized Rock Tours have been booked and loved by schools, universities, writers, museum curators (馆长) and many others.If you want to join in the Rock Junket’s activities, you must ________.
| A．has a gift for music |
| B．read online reviews |
| C．wear rock n’ roll clothes |
| D．buy a ticket in advance |
Which of the following is most popular among student groups?
| A．The East Village Rock Tour |
| B．Greenwich Village Rock Tour |
| C．Customized Rock Tours |
| D．Union Square Rock Tour |
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