At first, the grains of rice that Ingo Potrykus held in his fingers did not seem at all
For more than a decade Potrykus had
At that point, he tackled an even greater challenge. The golden grains
The debate began the moment genetically engineered crops (GM crops) were first sold in the 1990s, and it has
The hostility is
The benefits did seem small
Many people
| A．typical | B．special | C．local | D．white |
| A．dreamed of | B．come in handy | C．been reminded of | D．broken up |
| A．attempt at | B．effort to | C．resistance to | D．majority of |
| A．But | B．And | C．While | D．Since |
| A．surprise | B．obstacle | C．norm | D．opposition |
| A．achieved | B．stressed | C．overlooked | D．contained |
| A．was caught in | B．was alive with | C．be conscious of | D．was honored by |
| A．announced | B．maintained | C．escalated | D．applied |
| A．brilliant | B．understandable | C．discharged | D．rewarding |
| A．introduced | B．reminded | C．respected | D．overlooked |
| A．toss and turn | B．give and take | C．produce and sell | D．demand and supply |
| A．until | B．after | C．although | D．when |
| A．feature | B．mark | C．build | D．benefit |
| A．worried about | B．ashamed of | C．filled with | D．admired for |
| A．terror | B．misery | C．starvation | D．crisis |
Last December, Alvin Bamburg, 66, was deep in the woods in Grand Cane, Louisiana, when something caught his eye. As Alvin approached, he saw that the object was a broken balloon. Attached was a piece of paper decorated with sparkly star stickers. It was a child’s Christmas wish list.
“Dear Santa,” the handwritten note read. “My name is Luna. I am four years old. I live in Liberal, Kansas. This year I have been nice. I would like candy, Spider-Man ball, Frozen doll, puppy, My Little Pony. With love, Luna.”
Alvin’s heart hammered in his chest. Ever since he was a child, he had dreamed of this very scene. He believed this was his childhood wish coming true. And he knew he was going to make Luna’s wish come true too. He just wasn’t sure how.
Liberal is more than 650 miles from Grand Cane. But Alvin’s wife was not held back by the distance. As a passionate Facebook user, she had seen people find all sorts of connections through the site and thought it might help her husband find Luna.
Alvin posted a photo of the balloon and the Christmas list on his Facebook page, asking for help locating the sender. At first, he wasn’t confident it would work. But as he saw the number of people sharing his post creep into the hundreds, his hope grew into expectation.
Meanwhile, Leticia Flores, the mother of four-year old Luna had no idea that such an effort was underway. It had been a hard year for Leticia and her girl. As Covid-19 spread, the family felt lonely, scared and isolated. On a particularly tough day last December, Leticia came up with the idea of having the girl send a letter to Santa by balloon.
One day in early January, Leticia noticed that a friend had been calling her all morning. When Leticia finally called her back, the friend blurted, “Someone found Luna’s balloon.”
At her friend’s urging, she logged on to Facebook and saw Alvin’s post.
Still, there was one wish on the list that couldn’t go in the box: A puppy.
On the day the tornado hit, there was no indication severe weather was on its way—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first warning my husband, Jimmy and I got came around 9 p.m., from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the banister(楼梯扶手) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of practical stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling.
We got close to the staircase landing only to hear the loud ripping（撕裂） sound of our garage door coming off. The back wall of the house followed suit and tore off into the darkness outside.
By the time I reached the closet, the tornado had been over us for about a minute. Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I held Jimmy’s arm tightly as the tornado sucked the door open—we never did get it fully shut—and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and head were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out the back of the house and into the bay.
“Hold on! Hold on!” he yelled. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to. All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”
1．What does the underlined word coverage mean?| A．damage | B．reports |
| C．arrival | D．delay |
| A．Because she was too eager to help her husband to feel it. |
| B．Because she was frozen in amazement. |
| C．Because she was held entirely by the power of tornado. |
| D．Because she was frightened by the damage caused by the disaster. |
| A．scared, surprised but calm | B．surprised, terrified but determined |
| C．astonished, confused and moved | D．amazed, determined and grateful |
My great-grandmother Eileen is fierce, loyal and strong and a bit of a legend in her lifetime, which now stretches to 92 years. We’re not allowed to call her Gran, because it makes her feel old.
That summer, I lost my job and felt hopeless. One day, I visited her. She picked up a box. “There you go,” she said. “You are good at these things, aren’t you?” It was a new phone. Her current mobile was ancient. I was surprised it still worked.
“Yes, ”I said. “That’s why I ask you. Young people know more about such things than us oldies. You can take it home and get it all set up,” she went on. “Then, when you bring it back, you can show me how to use it, such as surfing the Internet, sending e-mails and so on.” She smiled so sweetly that I felt a surge of love for her.
I grabbed the box. Setting up the phone would be easy. It was teaching her how to use it that may prove challenging. The following day I headed back to my great-grandmother’s with the phone.
“Here’s your phone. All ready to use.” For the next hour, I was busy setting up her passcode and fingerprint recognition, which she said was like something out of James Bond.
She chose a picture for her screen and it was all going so well until I tried to show her how to swipe（滑动屏幕）. “Swipe?” she asked. She was 92, I reminded myself. This had been tiring for her.
She pressed at the up arrow and got angry when nothing happened. When I finally got her to swipe, she didn’t put the right amount of pressure on and the menu slipped away. After what seemed like hours, she threw the phone on the sofa. “Take it away!” she howled. “I want my old phone back!”
I picked up the phone and was about to leave to give her time to cool down when I realized I didn’t want to go home when she was angry and upset.
“Come on, Eileen. One more try.” I said.
Seeing this, I was not feeling hopeless any more.
Hailing from Sweden, “plogging” is a fitness craze that sees participants pick up plastic litter while jogging adding a virtuous, environmentally driven element to the sport. Plogging appears to have started around 2016, but is now going global, due to increasing awareness and
The appeal of plogging is its
Running and good causes have always gone
Anything that’s getting people out in nature and connecting
We need to keep momentum high and the pressure up, and empower people through
The plastic Patrol app allows users to
Plogging isn’t the first fitness trend to combine running with a good cause, Here are some of our favourites:
Good Gym
Its idea is simple: go for a run, visit an elderly person, have a chat and some tea, and run back.
Guide Running
Guide runners volunteer their time to helping blind people get
Start-up Stuart Delivery and the Church Housing Trust collaborated last year in bringing clothing and healthy food to the homeless. Deliveries are mostly made by bike, so those who deliver keep fit while helping rough sleepers(无家可归者).
1．| A．satisfaction | B．hesitation | C．fear | D．control |
| A．complexity | B．simplicity | C．instrument | D．expense |
| A．substance | B．responsibility | C．value | D．weight |
| A．one on one | B．head to toe | C．hand in hand | D．on and off |
| A．positively | B．neutrally | C．objectively | D．fairly |
| A．accuse | B．rid | C．assure | D．rob |
| A．shift | B．interest | C．aid | D．delight |
| A．motives | B．performances | C．exercises | D．initiatives |
| A．eliminate | B．map | C．seek | D．degrade |
| A．leading | B．devoting | C．ending | D．uploading |
| A．Disappointment | B．Tiredness | C．Sickness | D．Loneliness |
| A．therefore | B．moreover | C．however | D．instead |
| A．excited | B．ready | C．active | D．smart |
| A．visually | B．audibly | C．visibly | D．sensibly |
| A．Running | B．Plogging | C．Driving | D．Cycling |
Did you ever have to say “no” to somebody? Such as a classmate who asks to go to lunch with you? New research suggests that, at least socially, a rejection (拒绝) should not include an apology. In other words, saying you are sorry does not make the person being rejected feel any better. In fact, it might make the rejected person feel worse. That is surprising. Many people consider it to be good manners to say they are sorry when they turn down a request.
Gili Freedman is doing some related research at Dartmouth College. For her research, she asked over 1,000 people to respond to different examples of social rejection. In one example, the researchers asked people for their reaction (反应）after a person named Taylor asked to join a co-worker who went out to lunch every Friday. And Taylor was told “no”. But in some cases, the person rejecting Taylor offered an apology. In other cases, the people doing the rejection did not say they were sorry. People were asked how they would feel if they were being turned down, just as Taylor was. Most said they would be more hurt by a rejection with an apology than a rejection without an apology.
Freedman said the reason is that apologies make people feel like they need to say that the rejection was okay— even when they felt like it was not okay. Rejection without an apology lets them express their feelings of disappointment, hurt or anger more easily. Freedman also said that an apology often makes the person doing the rejection feel better—even as it makes the person being rejected feel worse.
Her research deals only with social communication. A business situation might be very different. “If a manager rejects a job interviewee or a boss must tell an employee that he or she is being fired from a job,” Freedman said, “reactions to apologies may be different.”
1．Why do people say they are sorry when they express rejection?| A．Because they think it is more polite. |
| B．Because they think it helps them express their dislike better. |
| C．Because they think apologies are the basis of communication. |
| D．Because they think it sounds more comfortable for the listener. |
| A．rejected others without an apology |
| B．offered an apology when rejecting others |
| C．would be more hurt by a rejection with an apology |
| D．were asked to answer the question in different situations |
| A．It makes the rejection more acceptable. |
| B．It makes a good impression on the listener. |
| C．It makes the communication more pleasant. |
| D．It makes the person doing the rejecting feel better. |
| A．The effect of an apology during a rejection. |
| B．Gili Freedman’s research on business situations. |
| C．A rejection with an apology in a business situation. |
| D．The difference between a social situation and a business one. |
My parents love the saying “If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" so much that they even bought a pillow with those words on it. But I was recently in a situation where I was SO ready to give up.
It started last week when my friend Ollie and I were helping his grandmother Mary to carry boxes from her garage to her car for the homeless shelter rummage sale (义卖).
At the sight of a big old trunk (行李箱)，we asked Mary what was inside. But she told us that as she had lost the key, she had to find a master locksmith to figure it out. "Let me have a try!" said Ollie. “I bet I can open that lock in two minutes flat! Maybe there's a treasure inside, like gold or diamonds or an ancient map!"
Mary smiled. "I'll tell you what. If you two treasure hunters can open this trunk, you can have it, along with whatever is inside."
Ollie got a tool kit and we set out to open the lock. But he definitely lost that bet. Those two minutes turned into two hours, with no luck at all. We had tried every tool in the kit, but the lock wouldn't move slightly.
“It's no use." Ollie sighed. "I guess we have to give up."
“But we can't give up!" I said. "What about 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"?"
Ollie shook his head. "Unless you know a magical key fairy, we're never getting this unlocked."
Just then, my little brother Tex showed up. He showed great interest in the trunk. "It looks like an upside-down boat! Can I turn it over and pretend I'm sailing in the ocean?"
"Sure," Ollie replied. "It's no good for anything else."
“Ahoy!" Tex said, climbing on top after Ollie and I turned it over. “I’m the captain!” He giggled as he jumped up and down. And right then, a screw (螺丝) from a hinge (铰链) came loose and rolled to the floor.
“That's it! I know how to open it!" said Ollie.
Oh! There were only lots of shoes in the trunk!
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
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