Central Power and Light

Graduating from high school? Looking for a job? We have a bright future for you!

We're Central Power and Light. For more than fifty years, we have been providing the energy you need every day. We keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. Without us, your CD Players, televisions, radios and computers wouldn't work. In fact, without us, you might have trouble reading these words because we are responsible for things as basic as the lights in your homes and classrooms.

We're quite a business. However, as important as electric and gas power are to our customers we're more than just a public-service company. We're also a good neighbor, working hard to help keep our environment as clean as we possibly can while still keeping our carbon footprint low.

It takes many people with a wide variety of skills and interests to keep a company like ours in business. That's why we have more than one hundred job openings in several areas. Do any of these sound right for you?

mechanic trainee

word processor

safety inspector trainee

driver

security guard

customer service representative

accountant

We are always looking for new talent, and we offer a host of benefits.

competitive salaries

pension plan

insurance

company social events

medical coverage

pleasant working conditions

continuing training classes

convenient location

If you would like to talk with one of our employment consultants, we invite you to our job fair being held the week of May 3 — May 7. Just drop in. You will be glad.

It is believed that human story begins in Africa and ends about 200,000 years later with their seven billion descendants (后代) spread across the Earth, living in peace or at war, their faces lit by campfires and computer screens.

In between is an exciting tale of survival, movement, isolation, and conquest, most of it occurring before recorded history. Who were those first modern people in Africa? What routes did they take when they left their home continent 60,000 years ago to expand into Europe and Asia? When and how did humans reach the Americas? For decades, the only proof was found in a small number of scattered bones and artifacts that our ancestors left behind on their journeys. In the past 20 years, however, DNA technologies have allowed scientists to find a record of ancient human migrations in the DNA of living people.

"Every drop of human blood contains a history book written in the language of our genes," says population geneticist Spencer Wells. The human genetic code, or genome, is 99.9 percent identical throughout the world. But while the bulk of our DNA is the same, what's left is responsible for our individual differences — in eye color or disease risk, for example. On very rare occasions, a small change, called a mutation, can occur, which is then passed down to all of that person's descendants. Generations later, finding that same mutation in two people's DNA indicates that they share the same ancestor. By comparing mutations in many different populations, scientists can trace their ancestral connections.

These ancient mutations are easiest to track in two places: in DNA that is passed from mother to child (called mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA for short), and in DNA that travels from father to son (known as the Y chromosome, the part of DNA that determines a child will be a boy). By comparing the mtDNA and Y chromosomes (染色体) of people from various populations, geneticists can get a rough idea of where and when those groups separated in the great migrations around the planet.

The 90-minute long game involves two goals, black and white checkered balls, goalkeeper, and no hand use. This sport, of course, is soccer or football, as the majority of the rest of the world says. It's confusing that some countries call this sport "football" while Americans and Canadians say "soccer", but apparently the British are mostly to blame.

The name confusion is actually thanks to British universities in the early 1800s who tried standardizing various sports games that had different rules and regulations to differentiate between them, according to a paper by Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports economics at the University of Michigan.

Rugby, formerly known as "rugby football" or "rugger", is a translation of "football" where you can use your hands. Soccer, originally "association football" or "asoccer", is the traditional translation of "football" where people don't use their hands. People in England started shortening the names by dropping the "association" part of the phrase as well as the "a" in "asoccer", per Szymanski's paper. If your head hurts from thinking about this, prepare to have your mind blown by these things you probably never thought about — until just now.

Now comes the complexity: in 1869, Rutgers and Princeton colleges held the first traditional, recorded, football game using a unique combination of rules from both rugby and soccer, creating what we know as "American football" and what other countries refer to as "gridiron". Thanks to the popularity of American football, soccer players in America keep to "soccer" to help differentiate themselves, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

If the name "soccer" stuck in Britain, and if Americans came up with a better one for American football, there would be much less confusion. So why did the "football" short kind of "association football" become more popular than "soccer" in England anyway? Originally, American influence on Britain during World War II made "soccer" the popular term in England before the 1980s, The Atlantic reports. Once the sport became more popular in the United States around that time, the British stopped using "soccer". Szymanski's paper claims it could be thanks to American and British news organizations pushing either term in each country.

In an effort to fight the "throw-away culture" and promote reuse and repair, the city of Berlin has taken the unique step of opening its own secondhand department store.

This isn't your grandma's thrift shop (旧货商店). It resells perfectly good items that would otherwise be thrown away. A pun on the German words for "department store" and "conserving house", B-Wa(h)renhaus sells a wide variety of products. Far from simply selling old items, the electronic goods have been fixed by expert technicians and come with a year's guarantee. And, to reach more secondhand shoppers, the store was set up right in the middle of the famous Karstadt department store.

With the success of its initial six-month trial run, the city plans to open four more similar operations in other parts of Berlin. By 2030, it hopes to have at least one location in each of Berlin's 12 districts. Since 2008, city policies and educational campaigns have reduced average annual household waste by about 25 pounds per resident. It also recycles about 49% of its mineral construction waste. Currently, the city estimates that 8% of abandoned electronic goods and 6% of huge items thrown away can actually be reused. The goal is to expand the market for these items beyond the usual bargain hunters and eco-conscious consumers.

"Three years ago, we started collecting all kinds of used goods," city spokesperson Dorothee Winden said. "There are lots of things that are well-preserved and functioning but aren't being used anymore. The goal is to give these things a new life with somebody who can use them." The store also includes an education center to encourage more sustainable lifestyles — and also gave an award to a project that recycles school uniforms, so that parents don't have to buy new ones every year.

If you recently closed on a new house, you probably started house hunting in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, hosting a housewarming in 2021 is probably going to be harder to pull off. To help, we've cooked up a few ideas of how to hold a pandemic-era housewarming party.

The basics: Safe

Anything that you do during the pandemic should follow some simple rules.

For example: wash your hands a lot, wear a mask in public and maintain social distancing of at least six feet from people.

That last one makes a housewarming party almost impossible. Please keep these safety measures in mind as you read on.

IDEA 1: Use the Zoom (云视频会议软件) call.

If we suggested having a housewarming party via Zoom one and a half years ago, our editors would have thought we were crazy.  Zoom is old-hat at this point, but we still sort of like Zoom calls. They gave us a chance to stay close with people we couldn't see in person.

This idea starts by creating a room-to-room video tour of your home, showing your new place and highlighting why you're so excited to be living there.

IDEA 2: Take it outside.

 But now is not the time to have a large gathering indoors. Just do it outside. If you have a yard, set up separate stations for barbecuing and for friends to keep at a safe distance. You could even have a local restaurant to cater it with takeout.

Lastly:

When the health risks are over, plan to hold a proper get-together, remembering that you were creative enough to find a way to celebrate the purchase of your new home during a global pandemic.

A. We get it.

B. You know the ones.

C. Today, not so much.

D. Recall it when possible.

E. The same can be true for your housewarming event.

F. For some, a party isn't a party unless it's a big one.

G. For entertainment, you can't get better at social distancing.

There are things which I am thinking about, son: I had been hard on you. I called out 1 when you threw your things on the floor. At breakfast, I found fault, too. You 2 things. You put your elbows on the table. You 3 butter too thick on your bread.

Do you remember that evening when I was 4 in my bedroom, how you came in timidly (羞怯地) with a sort of 5 look in your eyes? When I 6 up over my paper, impatient at the 7, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I asked. You said nothing, but 8 and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms 9 with an affection. And then you went back to your 10.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my 11 slipped from my hands and a terrible fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding  12. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I 13 too much from you. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, 14.

Tomorrow I will be a 15 daddy! I will suffer when you suffer and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when 16 words come. I have always been looking at you as a man. 17 as I see you now, son, lying asleep on your bed, one little 18 under your cheek, you are still a 19. Yesterday you were in your mother's arms, your head on her shoulder. I have 20 too much, too much.

Li Ziqi was born in 1990, a vlogger  enjoys a fan base of more than 21 million people on Sina Weibo and 7 million strong followers on YouTube. She (make) a name for herself in her videos that highlight a traditional Chinese way of life in the rural areas of Sichuan province in recent years. Her videos cover  wide variety of crafts  (relate) to traditional Chinese culture. From making paper and ink to  (weave) cloth, nothing seems impossible with Li's crafty hands as they work their magic to bring these things into existence.

But Li's most eye-catching, and mouth-watering craft is cooking. Scenes of her picking seasonal ingredients from her own garden and sometimes in the mountains nearby and turning them  inviting dishes on her wood-fired wok can often (see) in her videos. Li emphasizes the seasons in her cooking, as China's  (tradition) 24 Solar Terms also do, and makes food suitable for the particular climate.

All this is done against a natural background of the four seasons beautiful enough to be featured in films.

Watching her videos, it is difficult not  (appreciate) their beauty and hold back that sense of nostalgia and longing for home. But it is even  (hard) to resist the temptation to take a bite of her carefully cooked dishes.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧）, 并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处, 多者（从第11处起）不计分。

Terry Fox, is born in 1958, studied physical education in university. At 19, his right leg was fitted with a artificial leg due to bone cancer. In 1980, he decided to run the "Marathon of Hope" across Canada, hoped to let people know about the suffering of cancer patients and to raise money for cancer research. On April 12, he start his run in Newfoundland. It was a difficult run, and he was very determined and kept running. Soon people were gathering along his route to cheer her on and to give money to his cause. The media began to report on his progresses. Terry had covered 5,373 kilometers before he had to stop because the spread of cancer. He dead in 1981, which great saddened the nation.

I walked home with my little brother every day the same way, past an old factory. Mom always told us to walk together and never to talk to strange men. One day, that walk home changed forever. As my brother and I passed the factory, I heard an old man's voice. "Hey there, children." I turned and saw a very old man standing there with a sweet smile on his face.

I was already hot from walking and carrying my heavy backpack, but I told him we were not allowed to talk to strangers. "Oh, I understand. And your mom's right. My name is Bobby. Now run along," he said as he disappeared behind the gate of the factory.

I went home and reported to my mom what had happened. My mother told me that I was right not to talk to strangers, so I tried avoiding this stranger for the following few days, but it was impossible. Other streets were not as safe to walk on, and every time we passed the factory, a familiar voice would say, "Hello there, children."

Then one day, my family was taking a walk around the neighborhood. We were just about to pass the factory when I noticed the gate was open. I silently prayed that Bobby would appear and prove once and for all that he was a "good" stranger. And there he was.

He smiled as he approached my parents, and greeted them warmly. The genuine smile and surprise on my parents' faces were all I needed to see.

They spoke for a few minutes and then, walking home, they said Bobby was a veteran(退伍军人)without a family but loved kids and that it would be safe for us to visit Bobby after school.

My brother and I would stop to visit Bobby after school every day after that. He would invite us into his tiny office to talk about my schoolwork, my friends, and sports.

It wasn't long before I started getting a few friends to walk home with me just to meet Bobby. Before long, a group of about fourteen kids went daily to visit Bobby and received our sodas and gum. Thinking back, I now realize that Bobby bought all those treats just for us… and there were a lot of us to treat!

We visited Bobby every day after school for about three years!

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

My mother finally decided it was time to do something nice for Bobby.

Paragraph 2:

When Bobby died on a cold February afternoon, on the coffin (棺材) were three items he loved best: