Yesterday a heat wave hit the town. “It’s too hot! Let’s go for a swim after we finish our chores (家务活) at home!” Joseph complained to his little brother, Loren. As the boys walked toward the Little Colorado River, they saw Sam and Frank, who ran to join them. “Swimming’s just what we need to cool off!” Sam said, kicking a rock.
“Sure it is,” Frank agreed. Then he looked at the field they were passing. There were many round watermelons in Farmer Davis’s patch (小块地). “Hey, Joseph” Frank said, “do you have the courage to climb over that fence and get us a ripe (成熟的) watermelon?”
“I don’t know. ” Joseph said.
Loren looked uncomfortable. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Come on,” Frank said, pushing Joseph toward the fence. “No one will ever know.”
Then Frank started to climb the wooden fence. Joseph felt bad but climbed the fence and jumped with Frank into the watermelon patch.
Joseph took the closest melon and raced back to the fence. The other boys laughed and took turns carrying the heavy melon as they ran to the river. Finally they broke open the watermelon. The sticky sweet juice was delicious! But Joseph regretted what they had done and wished he hadn’t taken the melon.
On the walk home, they finished off the last piece of the melon just as they passed the watermelon patch again. Joseph lowered his head quickly when he saw Farmer Davis in the field. He waved at the boys, who quickly threw the melon rinds (皮) to the side of the road. Davis looked upset as the boys hurried by. Joseph felt terrible. It was wrong to take the watermelon. He knew he had to tell Farmer Davis what they had done and ask for forgiveness (宽恕).
That evening Farmer Davis visited Joseph and Loren at their house. “One of my biggest watermelons went missing,” he said, “I was wondering if you boys happened to see anyone in my field as you passed by today.”
Joseph looked at his shoes and said in a low voice.
Farmer Davis thought for a minute.
The Student's Union
Mathew White, an environmental psychologist, is on a mission to give Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of illnesses common in the world. Experimental work has demonstrated various physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments: blood pressure drops, heart rate decreases, immune function improves, and the nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.
As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments. But before doctors can start advising their patients to head to the nearest park, there is an important outstanding question, says White: How much time in nature do you need to generate these apparent benefits? Most of the research that has linked health outcomes with exposure to the natural world didn’t use frequency or duration of park visits, but rather the amount of green space within a certain distance of a person’s home, White says. But “it’s not so much where you live; it’s whether you use it or not.”
So he collected data to estimate what dose（剂量） of nature was needed to show benefits to a person’s health. White’s group found the answer he was after: Spending at least two hours in nature per week was strongly correlated with self-reports of being in good health or having high wellbeing. “I was very surprised, to be honest,” says White, who had been expecting a much longer time. “We had no idea that such a clear threshold of time per week would emerge from the data.”
He was further surprised to learn that it didn’t seem to matter how many trips to a park people took, so long as they got in their two hours per week. It could be a long visit one day, a couple of hour-long trips, three visits of 40 minutes, or four half-hour excursions. He and his colleagues speculate that, if nature’s apparent health benefits are a result of being able to de-stress, then whatever pattern of green space exposure fits one’s schedule is probably the best way to achieve that goal.
Health-care recommendations for people to spend time in nature are probably years away, but the movement has begun. Several organizations around the world are working to promote awareness of nature’s contribution to health. Some researchers have used the term “a dose of nature” to evaluate the amount of exposure needed to gain benefits. “That was kind of the deliberate medicalization of the language around nature and health,” says White.
1．White’s research focused on_______.| A．required amount of green space |
| B．benefits from the exposure to nature |
| C．necessary time length of nature visits |
| D．physical responses to outdoor activities |
| A．Maximum time. | B．Minimum time. |
| C．Adequate time. | D．Average time. |
| A．is confident about his mission |
| B．is willing to cooperate with others |
| C．has persuaded others to accept his idea |
| D．has adopted the term for his research result |
| A．Respect for Nature | B．Nature as Medicine |
| C．Present from Nature | D．Mission in Nature |
Nowadays, I acknowledge that a revolution has occurred. That much has been
But I must acknowledge a
Time has changed, and the change has been
I miss the
| A．abandoned | B．delivered | C．gained | D．released |
| A．spot | B．scene | C．run | D．road |
| A．basically | B．precisely | C．briefly | D．randomly |
| A．discovery | B．pleasure | C．failure | D．loss |
| A．difficult | B．easy | C．comfortable | D．important |
| A．praise | B．greet | C．watch | D．respect |
| A．aimed to | B．happened to | C．tended to | D．required to |
| A．striking | B．challenging | C．touching | D．puzzling |
| A．leaving | B．visiting | C．expecting | D．boarding |
| A．seats | B．baggage | C．hands | D．windows |
| A．cigarette | B．smile | C．glance | D．gesture |
| A．book | B．newspaper | C．music | D．cellphone |
| A．polite | B．casual | C．frequent | D．cautious |
| A．exposed | B．chosen | C．doubted | D．preserved |
| A．helpful | B．typical | C．suitable | D．convenient |
| A．ship | B．train | C．plane | D．bus |
| A．replied | B．rejected | C．hesitated | D．nodded |
| A．Eventually | B．Immediately | C．Purposely | D．Secretly |
| A．responded | B．recognized | C．explained | D．suggested |
| A．meet | B．visit | C．drive | D．drop |
Before the age of the smartphone, photographers had to learn how to use high-tech cameras and photographic techniques. Today, with the huge range of camera apps on our smartphones, we’re all good amateur photographers, since the quality of smartphone images now nearly equals that of digital cameras.
The new ease of photography has given us a tremendous appetite for capturing the magical and the ordinary. We are obsessed with documenting everyday moments, whether it’s a shot of our breakfast, our cat or the cat’s breakfast. Even photo journalists are experimenting with mobile phones because their near invisibility makes it easier to capture unguarded moments.
In the past, magazines published unforgettable photos of important people and global events that captured our imaginations. These photos had the power to change public opinion and even the course of history. But if there are fewer memorable images today, it’s not because there are fewer good images. It’s because there are so many, and no one image gets to be special for long.
As people everywhere embrace photography and the media make use of citizen journalists, professional standards appear to be shifting. Before digital images, most people trusted photographs to accurately reflect reality. Today, images can be altered in ways the naked eye might never notice. Photojournalists are trained to accurately represent what they witness. Yet any image can be altered to create an “improved” picture of reality. The average viewer is left with no way to assess the accuracy of an image except through trust in a news organization or photographer.
The question of the accuracy of images gets even trickier when photojournalists start experimenting with camera apps-- like Hipstamatic or Instagram --- which encourage the use of filters （滤镜）. Images can be colored, brightened, faded, and scratched to make photographs more artistic, or to give them an antique look. Photographers using camera apps to cover wars and conflicts have created powerful images--- but also controversy. Critics worry that antique-looking photographs romanticize war, while distancing us from those who fight in them.
Yet photography has always been more subjective than we assume. Each picture is a result of a series of decisions-- where to stand, what lens to use, what to leave in and what to leave out of the frame. Does altering photographs with camera app filters make them less true? There’s something powerful and exciting about the experiment the digital age has forced upon us. These new tools make it easier to tell our own stories--- and they give others the power to do the same. Many members of the media get stuck on the same stories, focusing on elections, governments, wars, and disasters, and in the process, miss out on the less dramatic images of daily life that can be as revealing.
Who knows? Our obsession with documentation and constantly being connected could lead to a dramatic change in our way of being. Perhaps we are witnessing the development of a universal visual language, one that could change the way we relate to each other and the world. Of course, as with any language, there will be those who produce poetry and those who make shopping lists.
1．According to the author, there are fewer memorable photographs today because_________.| A．the quality of many images is still poor |
| B．there are so many good images these days |
| C．traditional media refuse to allow amateur photos |
| D．most images are not appealing to a global audience |
| A．indicate it’s a word cited from another source |
| B．stress that the picture of reality is greatly improved |
| C．draw audience attention to a word worth considering |
| D．show it’s arguable whether the picture is truly improved |
| A．The daily life pictures are very expressive themselves. |
| B．Photographs of the digital age are more subjective than before. |
| C．Photos altered by filters of camera apps are too subjective to be true. |
| D．Many members of the media value daily life images over major social events. |
| A．Camera Apps Bury Authenticity |
| B．Photography Redefined: A Visual Language |
| C．Smartphone: Killer of Professional Photography |
| D．The Shifting Standards of Professional Photography |
| A．which price | B．the price of which |
| C．its price | D．the price of whose |
I’m writing to invite you to join us in the “Chinese speech contest for foreigners” to be held in our school
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
A Chair for My Mother
My mother works as a waitress in the Blue Tile Diner. After school sometimes I go to meet her there. Then her boss Josephine gives me a job too. When I finish, Josephine says, “Good work, honey,” and pays me. And every time, I put half of my money into the jar (罐子).
It takes a long time to fill a jar this big. Every day when my mother comes home from work, I take down the jar. My mama empties all her change from tips for me to count. Then we push all of the coins into the jar.
Sometimes my mama is laughing when she comes home from work. Sometimes she’s so tired she falls asleep while I count the money. Some days she has lots of tips. Some days she has only a few. Then she looks worried. But each evening every single shiny coin goes into the jar.
We sit in the kitchen to count the tips. Usually Grandma sits with us too. Often she has money in her old wallet for us. Whenever she gets a good bargain (划算的交易) on tomatoes or bananas or something she buys, she puts by the savings and they go into the jar.
When we can’t get a single other coin into the jar, we are going to take out all the money and go and buy a chair. Yes, a chair. A wonderful, beautiful, fat, soft armchair for Mama and Grandma. When Mama comes home, her feet hurt. “There’s no good place for me to rest my feet,” she says. When Grandma wants to sit back and cut up potatoes, she has to get as comfortable as she can on a hard kitchen chair.
So that is how come Mama brought home the biggest jar she could find and all the coins started to go into the jar.
Now the jar is too heavy for me to lift down.
Finally we find the chair we are all dreaming of.
Notice
Community Service
Student Union
8 June 2023
Scientific discovery is popularly believed to result from the sheer genius of such intellectual stars as naturalist Charles Darwin and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. Our view of such unique contributions to science often
Consider one
What are we to make of this story? We propose that science is constantly
Plenty of other stories show that fresh advances can arise from error, misadventure, and also pure serendipity — a happy
| A．overlooks | B．enriches | C．questions | D．reflects |
| A．Aiming at | B．Longing for | C．Holding back | D．Setting aside |
| A．native | B．creative | C．subjective | D．sensitive |
| A．stressed | B．unrecognized | C．celebrated | D．respected |
| A．suspicious | B．concerned | C．wrong | D．guilty |
| A．tested | B．rejected | C．accepted | D．proposed |
| A．got rid of | B．made room for | C．jumped off from | D．put up with |
| A．struggling | B．reversing | C．evolving | D．shrinking |
| A．result from | B．contribute to | C．depart from | D．relate to |
| A．priorities | B．trials | C．advances | D．obstacles |
| A．If | B．Until | C．While | D．Unless |
| A．Responsibility | B．Prejudice | C．Dislike | D．Support |
| A．doubted | B．neglected | C．foreseen | D．exceeded |
| A．motivation | B．modification | C．dedication | D．publication |
| A．occasion | B．life | C．accident | D．ending |
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