One day, a woman from The Express News called. She said she wanted to work on a(n)  (1)  on me. When she had finished    (2)   me for the article, she asked, “What are you planning to do next?”

Well, at the   (3)   , there was actually nothing I was planning on doing next, and what   (4)   out for us was, “I’m thinking about    (5)    the Guinness Book of World Records for Fastest-Talking Female.”

The newspaper article came out the next day, and the writer had    (6)   my final remarks(评论)about trying to break the World’s Fastest-Talking Female record. At about 5:00 that afternoon, I got a    (7)     from Larry King , asking me to go on the    (8)  . They would   (9)    me up at 8:00 — because they wanted me to do it that night!

I    (10)    the phone for a while, and then I called Guinness to find out   (11)    to break a fast-talking record. They told me I would have to recite something. I began   (12)  . I was both    (13)   and excited at the same time.

At 8:00, the car came. I practised the whole way there, and by the time I reached the     (14)    . I was tongue-tied. I asked the woman in charge, “What   (15)    I don’t break the record?”

“Larry doesn’t    (16)    if you break it or not,” she said. ” “He just cares that you try it on his show.” So I asked myself, “What’s the   (17)    that can happen? I’ll look like a fool on television!” A   (18)    thing, I told myself,   (19)    I could live through that. And what if I break the record?

So I decided just to give it my best shot, and I did. I broke the record, becoming the World’s Fastest-Talking Female   (20)    speaking 585 words in one minute!

One day, a woman from The Express News called. She said she wanted to work on a(n)  (1)  on me. When she had finished    (2)   me for the article, she asked, “What are you planning to do next?”

Well, at the   (3)   , there was actually nothing I was planning on doing next, and what   (4)   out for us was, “I’m thinking about    (5)    the Guinness Book of World Records for Fastest-Talking Female.”

The newspaper article came out the next day, and the writer had    (6)   my final remarks(评论)about trying to break the World’s Fastest-Talking Female record. At about 5:00 that afternoon, I got a    (7)     from Larry King , asking me to go on the    (8)  . They would   (9)    me up at 8:00 — because they wanted me to do it that night!

I    (10)    the phone for a while, and then I called Guinness to find out   (11)    to break a fast-talking record. They told me I would have to recite something. I began   (12)  . I was both    (13)   and excited at the same time.

At 8:00, the car came. I practised the whole way there, and by the time I reached the     (14)    . I was tongue-tied. I asked the woman in charge, “What   (15)    I don’t break the record?”

“Larry doesn’t    (16)    if you break it or not,” she said. ” “He just cares that you try it on his show.” So I asked myself, “What’s the   (17)    that can happen? I’ll look like a fool on television!” A   (18)    thing, I told myself,   (19)    I could live through that. And what if I break the record?

So I decided just to give it my best shot, and I did. I broke the record, becoming the World’s Fastest-Talking Female   (20)    speaking 585 words in one minute!

Maybe you don’t think animals have certain mental powers which human beings do not have. But the truth is that some of them have instincts, and besides this, I am sure they can feel certain things we humans cannot. A personal experience showed me this.

Some years ago, I had a dog named Howard. From the time when he was a puppy, he was timid, so we named him Howard, sounding like “coward”! He was especially afraid of thunderstorms. At the first flash of lightning or crash of thunder, he would run whining into his house and hide under a table.

I often went for a walk with Howard. Once, as we were walking along a road, it began to rain. I quickly ran to a bus stop for shelter. The bus stop had a roof supported by metal poles. Soon after I had got there, Howard caught my trousers in his teeth and tried to pull me away. At first I was puzzled and a little angry at his behavior. But I decided to humor him and walked away from the shelter into the rain and started to go home.
    When I was about two hundred metres from the shelter, there came a flash of lightning and soon after, there was thunder which nearly deafened me. Howard stopped walking and began whining. Thinking he was afraid, I bent to pick him up. As I straightened up, I glanced at the bus shelter we had just left. I was shocked to see that two of the poles were bent and the roof was lying on the ground, broken. The shelter had been struck by the bolt of lightning!

A

It is a reply to a letter written by Zhai Mingjun, a 16-year-old girl in the class. The two astronauts thank the student for her concerns and wish the class luck in their future studies.
“I’m so happy that the two space men replied with a few encouraging words,” said Zhai. Her letter was one of the 10 winning letters taken into space by Fei and Nie, who have succeeded in traveling space in the Sixth Shenzhou Spaceship. Zhai wrote the letter as if she were a younger sister of the astronauts.“As the single child in my family, I always hoped that I would have an elder brother that I could be proud of,” Zhai said.“I thought that the astronauts would be lonely during such a long space trip. I hoped they would feel happy and warm when reading my letter.” Many of Zhai’s classmates also wrote their words of encouragement and admiration to the astronauts. “The letter to the astronauts made us believe that we can also be part of the manned space programme,” said Zhao Dongxu.
    All the students have high expectations for China’s future space programme. “I heard that Snoopy is the mascot (吉祥物) for US astronauts. I hope I can design a mascot for our heroes,” said Liu Mengjie, 16. “A physics class taught by astronauts in outer space would be very interesting. I want to be the astronaut who teaches students about zero gravity with my head upside down in the spaceship,” said Han Yinan.

Many students think that the manned space program is still far away from them. But they feel proud that ordinary students could participate in such a great scientific achievement and hope there will be more possibilities to take part.

I wish there would be a way to describe China in simple terms but that’s impossible. For the most part Chinese people are friendly, easy-going and optimistic. They are curious and unusually patient and they are also the hardest-working people I have ever met.

In China, family is everything. In my English classes when the students were asked what they would do if they only had a few hours to live, most students told me how they would spend their last few hours with their families and parents. Many times the subjects in the classes center on families and friends. I teach many students a year, talking to them freely.

The cost of living here is very low compared with that of the US. The city of Xiang Fan I live in isn’t large and I live better. Non-imported(非出口的) foods are very cheap, so are clothing and articles of everyday use. The cost of public transportation is very low, too. Chinese value education. However, it is reported that many children can’t afford the expenses of schooling and are forced to leave school in some poor areas in China. But they organized Project Hope many years ago. It creates conditions for the poor children to go back to school. In my opinion, Project Hope is of great importance to the development of the rural education.

When we read news of China in the west, rarely, if ever, will we see anything mentioned of the positive changes China has gone through. While it is true that economic miracles have not reached many areas of China, but we also have the same problems.

When I am asked which country I consider better, China or the US, my answer has always been the same, “We are not worse or better than each other, we are only different.

Is a mouse that can speak acceptable? How about a dog with human hands or feet? Scientists, the people who know how to make such things happen, are now thinking about whether such experiments are morally right or not.

   On Nov. 10, Britain’s Academy of Medical Sciences launched a study on the use of animals with human materials in scientific research. The work is expected to take at least a year, but its leaders hope it will lead to guidelines for scientists in Britain and around the world on how far they can go mixing human genes into animals in search of ways to fight human diseases.

“Do these constructs (构想) challenge our idea of what it is to be human?” asked Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University and chair of a 14-member group looking into the issue. “It is important that we consider these questions now so that appropriate boundaries are recognized.”     

  Using human material in animals is not new. Scientists have already created monkeys that have a human form of the Huntingdon’s gene so they can study how the disease develops; and mice with livers (肝) made from human cells are being used to study the effects of new drugs.

  However, scientists say the technology to put ever greater amounts of human genetic material into animals is spreading quickly around the world --- raising the possibility that some scientists in some places may want to go further than is morally acceptable.

     Last year in Britain there was a lively debate over new laws allowing the creation of human-animal embryos (胚胎) for experiments. On one side of the debate were religious groups, who claimed that such science interferes with nature. Opposing them were scientists who pointed out that such experiments were vital to research cures for diseases.

  The experts will publish reports after the end of the study, in which they will give definitions (定义) for animal embryos with human genes or cells, look at safety and animal welfare issues, and consider the right legal framework to work within. 

Johnathan, a six-year-old from Milton Keynes, will share the stage with a host of famous people, after winning an award for bravely fighting against his illness.

He was   (1)   from hundreds of nominations (提名) across the UK to win the Inspirational Child in 2013 WellChild Awards, which celebrate the  (2)  of children facing serious illnesses and honour the effort of professionals who go the extra mile to  (3)  sick children and their families.

Johnathan was nominated by Helen Braggins — a nurse specialist who looks after children — for his   (4)   in the face of a very serious illness. The future remains uncertain   (5)   a high-risk operation offers him some hope.

Brave Johnathan has had long periods in   (6)  with serious infections (感染) and   (7)   has to deal with weak sight, but he has   (8)   people with his bravery. When an infection prevented him eating for five months, Johnathan decided to become a chef and learn to   (9)   . Helen said: “Johnathan has an amazing ability to turn a   (10)   situation into a new experience. He is a truly   (11)   young man.”

With hundreds of nominations received from across the country, the job of choosing   (12)   in all WellChild Award categories (类别) is given to judges. The judges   (13)  leading health professionals and others with an interest in children’s   (14)   , as well as children and young people who face  (15)  illnesses.

Director of WellChild Awards, Linda Partridge, said: “It is a great  (16)  to choose winners from the many amazing nominations we  (17)  from all over the country. All the judges are   (18)   by the bravery of the children, the stories of selfless care and   (19)   of the doctors, nurses and teachers. They made a great   (20)  to the lives of sick children. Johnathan truly deserves to be the winner of the award.”

In the clinic, I asked if Michael could be retested, so the specialist tested him again. To my    (1)  , it was the same score.

       Later that evening, I    (2)  told Frank what I had learned that day. After talking it over, we agreed that we knew our    (3)  much better than an IQ test. We    (4)  that Michael’s score must have been a  

   (5)  and we should treat him    (6)  as usual.

       We moved to Indiana in 1962, and Michael studied at Concordia High School in the same year. He got    (7)  grades in the school, especially    (8)  biology and chemistry, which was a great comfort.

       Michael    (9)  Indiana University in 1965 as a pre-medical student, soon afterwards, his teachers permitted him to take more courses than    (10)   . In 1968, he was accepted by the School of Medicine, Yale University.

       On graduation day in 1972, Frank and I    (11)  the ceremony at Yale. After the ceremony, we told Michael about the    (12)  IQ score he got when he was six. Since that day, Michael sometimes would look at us and say    (13)  , “My dear mom and dad never told me that I couldn’t be a doctor, not until after I graduated from medical school!” It is his special way of thanking us for the    (14)  we had in him.

       Interestingly, Michael then    (15)  another IQ test. We went to the same clinic where he had    (16)  

the test eighteen years before. This time Michael scored 126, an increase of 36 points. A result like that was supposed to be    (17)  .

       Children often do as    (18)  as what adults, particularly parents and teachers,    (19)  of them. That is, tell a child he is “    (20)  ”, and he may play the role of a foolish child.

I used to believe in the American Dream, which meant a job, a mortgage (按揭), credit cards, success, I wanted it and worked toward it like everyone else, all of us   46   chasing the same thing.

One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell   47  . I found myself homeless and alone. I had my truck and $56. I   48   the countryside for some place I could rent for the   49   possible amount. I came upon a shabby house four miles up a winding mountain road   50   the Potomac River in West Virginia. It was  51  , full of broken glass and rubbish. I found the owner, rented it, and   52   a corner to camp in.

The locals knew nothing about me,   53   slowly, they started teaching me the   44   of  being a neighbor. They dropped off blankets, candles, and tools, and began   55   around to chat. They started to teach me a belief in a   56   American Dream — not the one of individual achievement but of   57  .

What I had believe in, all those things I thought were   58   for a civilized life, were nonexistent in this place.   59   on the mountain, my most valuable passions were my   60   with my neighbors.

Four years later, I moved back into   61  . I saw many people were having a really hard time,   62   their jobs and homes. I managed to rent a big enough house to   63   a handful of people. There are four of us now in the house, but over time I’ve had nine people come in and move on to other places. We’d all be in   64    if we hadn’t handed together.

The American Dream I believe in now is a shared one. It’s not so much about what I can get for myself; it’s about   65   we can all get by together.

I am an eleven­year­old primary school boy and all of my teachers complained about my unreadable handwriting．So I started taking my laptop to school and using it instead of paper，books and    (1)  ．At first I thought I was in heaven．Writing essays had become so   (2)  ．Copying notes took seconds．I don’t have to worry about spelling   (3)   and whether I have    (4)    to carry my textbooks．I was always organized，as I could not leave my books at home anymore as they were   (5)    in my machine，so you would think that it was  (6)  as a learning tool．

Unfortunately，soon I completely   (7)   all my ability to write，which is very limiting when still at school．My spelling became worse as I no longer had to think about it  (8)   the computer’s auto corrector．However，this wasn’t what   (9)  me the most．It was the fact that I was no longer learning what I used to in class．The simple act of writing something down was a way of learning for me，and a laptop could never   (10)   that．Exams started to become  (11)  as I no longer knew all the words and phrases，because I    (12)   wasn’t learning it just by typing it down．Also each lesson was at least five minutes shorter because of the time needed to  (13)  at the beginning of the class and pack away at the end of lessons．Finding and learning notes in your computer is also less    (14)  ．Furthermore，a computer does not have the same  (15)    of use as paper，as paper doesn’t have to be fully   (16)  ．Finally I couldn’t focus on my class  (17)   I had the whole Internet at my fingertips．So during lessons I would often search the Internet and have  (18)  ．

As you can see，the   (19)  are far more than the benefits．  (20)  I stopped taking my computer to lessons．Now I perform better at school．