— Thank you so much.

—To Dalian. We'll stay there for a week.

— I         chess with my grandpa.

—After school in the afternoon.

    During my second year at the city college. I was told that the education department was offering a "free" course (课程) called Thinking Chess for three credits (学分). I jumped at the idea of taking the class because, after all, who doesn't want to 1 a few dollars? More than that, I'd always wanted to learn chess. And, even if I weren't excited enough about free credits, news about our instructor was appealing enough to me. He was an international grandmaster (大师), which 2 I would be learning from one of the game's best. I could hardly wait to him.

    The instructor Ashley was kind and smart, a former graduate returning to teach, and this meet was no game for him. He meant business. In his introduction, he made it job real that our credits would be hard—earned. In order to 3the class, we had to write a paper on how we plan to 4 what we would learn in class to our future professions and, finally to our lives. I managed to get an A in that 5 and learned life lessons that have served me well beyond the 6.

    Ten years after my chess class with Ashley, I'm still putting to use what he 7 me: The most important 8 that you learn when you play chess is how to make good 9. On every single move you have to analyze (分析) a situation, process what your opponent (对手) is doing and evaluate (评估) the best move from among all your choices, these words still ring true today in my 10 as a journalist.

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An Unforgettable Day

    I had mixed feelings today, nervous, worried, happy, excited...My heart went down when Miss Chen, our head teacher, said that Matthew and Beth, two students from England, would spend three months with us! I was worried that I had to speak English so much! But at the end of the school day, I was happier than I thought because the morning with them today was more enjoyable than I expected.

    Today is the most unforgettable first day I have had! Matthew is fantastic! His English is clearer and easier to listen to than I thought. The other English student, Beth, is the most helpful girl I've ever met. There were lots of things to do on the first day. Beth offered to help Miss Chen put up all the notices. Of course, some of the credit (功劳) should also go to ME because I translated (翻译) some of the notices for her. Miss Chen praised us!

    We finished all the preparations 10 minutes earlier than expected, then Beth and I talked for a while. Matthew sang several English songs and did some stand-up comedy at the party. We all praised him. When the bell rang to end the first school day, none of us wanted to leave.

    When I went back home, I had a little headache. I have probably spoken more English today than the whole of last year.

    It was really a happy day! I hope our friendship can continue, even after they go back to England!

    In 1883, an imaginative engineer named John Roebling decided to build a spectacular (壮观的) bridge connecting New York with Long Island. However, bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was a pipe dream. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

    But Roebling refused to listen to them. He thought about the bridge day and night and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. After much discussion and persuasion he convinced (说服) his son Washington, who was a promising engineer himself, that the bridge in fact could be built.

    Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be done. With great excitement, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

    The project started well, but several months after it began, a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was so seriously injured that he was never able to walk, talk or even move again.

    "We told them so", "Crazy men and their crazy dreams", "It's foolish to chase (追求) wild visions", the critics said and most thought the project should be ended since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge can be built. In spite of his handicap Washington still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

    Washington's wife tried to inspire and pass on her husband's enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay in his hospital room, an idea suddenly hit him. All he could do was to move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this finger and tapping (轻叩) it on his wife's arm, he slowly developed a code (代码) to communicate with her. Then he used this way to tell his wife what the engineers should do. It seemed crazy but the project was under way again. For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed.

    Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute (致敬) to the great success of one man's spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances (境遇).

    It's common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting seems to look back at observers (观察者), following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

    A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle (角度) that's 15.4 degrees off to the observer's right—well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, "She's not looking at you." This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person's gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the "Mona Lisa effect (效应)". That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person's gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

    This is important for human interaction with on screen characters. If you want someone off to the right side of a room to feel that a person on—screen is looking at him or her, you don't cut the gaze of the character to that side—surprisingly, doing so would make an observer feel like the character isn't looking at anyone in the room at all. Instead, you keep the gaze straight ahead.

    Horstmann and his co—author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial—intelligence avatars (虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the "Mona Lisa" and realized she wasn't looking at him.

    To make sure it wasn't just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the "Mona Lisa" on a computer screen. They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected (横切) Mona Lisa's gaze. To calculate (估测) the angle of Mona Lisa's gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that the woman in the "Mona Lisa" portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

    So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn't sure. It's possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first created the term "Mona Lisa effect" just thought it was a cool name.

    When an animal helps another animal, it usually gets something valuable (有价值的) in return. For a long time, many scientists thought that only people could act generously (慷慨地) just because it feels good.

    However, a new study in Germany suggests that chimpanzees (an animal like a large monkey without a tail) also do good things for no real reason. And so do children who are as young as 18 months of age. Maybe it is because humans and chimpanzees share an ancestor about 6 million years ago.

    People and chimpanzees appear to develop such features without any other training, says Warneken, a scientist in Germany.

    Warneken and his partners worked on adult chimpanzees that live on an island in the African country of Uganda. They also worked with 18—month—old children in Germany. The researchers performed three experiments on the adult chimpanzees and two experiments on the kids. In the first animal experiment, a person tried to reach his arm into a cage to get a stick, but he couldn't reach it. A chimpanzee was in the cage, and it could reach the stick if it wanted to.

    Thirty-six chimpanzees took part in this experiment one by one, and no chimpanzee saw what the other chimpanzees had done. Even though the animals hadn't met the person before, they usually took the stick and gave it to the person. What's more, they did this whether or not the person gave them bananas as a reward (奖励).

    In a similar experiment, 36 children acted in a similar way. They helped the person reach the stick, whether or not they were given toys for their help.

    Researchers did other experiments on chimpanzees and babies. No rewards were given in either experiment. And still, both the chimpanzees and children went out of their way to help.

题目①

假如你是李华，9月10日你们班级将要组织教师节相关庆祝活动。请用英语写一封电子邮件，告诉交换生Peter具体活动时间、地点，你们将做什么，以及他需要做什么准备。

提示词语：Teacher's Day, show respect, greeting card, thank—you letter

提示问题：● When and where will you celebrate Teacher's Day?

● What are you going to do?

● What do you advise Peter to prepare for it?

题目②

初三第一学期末同学们将参加中考英语听说测试。请用英语写一篇短文，简要介绍刚刚度过的暑假里你是怎样加强听说训练的，还有哪些不足，以及新学期打算如何提高听说成绩。

提示词语：English Listening and Speaking Test, pronunciation, enlarge vocabulary, improve listening/ speaking skills

提示问题：● What did you do to practice your listening and speaking in the summer vacation?

● What are you poor in?

● How are you going to improve your listening and speaking in the new term?