Watson entered Mr. Smith's office. The boss was a hard man. He fired people who didn't do well without giving them a second chance.

    “Watson, ” said Mr. Smith, “this past year your department hasn't earned money. We're going to drop that department. It's finished. I'm sorry, —but you'll have to go.” “But, sir—if I just had a little more time. For the moment I need the job to keep my son at Riverside School.”

    “What's that!” said the boss. “Riverside! I didn't know you had a boy there. That's an expensive school for a man with your salary.”

    “I know, sir. But he likes it there so much！He's a star athlete and the best boxer in the school. The boys call him Champ (冠军) there.”

    The boss sat perfectly still for a long time—a faraway (恍惚的) look in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he said, “We've got to close your department, Watson. But you'll take over a new job in another department. It means longer hours—maybe more pay. Now get out. You're here for life.”

    Watson got out, with surprise on his face. Then the boss took a letter from the top drawer of his desk. It was Herbie's last letter from Riverside School—written a few days before he died. He had read it over and over again with sick pain. The letter read:

    I can't say the boys here are any nicer to me than the others were. I guess it's the same everywhere when you're a cripple (跛脚的人).

    But don't worry about me, Dad. They've got a good chemistry department here. And there's one boy here who is really great. He's a track star and boxing champ and just tops in chemistry. The boys call him Champ. He made them stop throwing my books around. And he knocked a boy down who hit me. He is the best friend I ever had. Dad, when I grow up, I want to do something for Champ. Something big—that he won't even know about.

Your son

Herbie

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Many people believe that language belongs to human beings. However, cats have developed a language not for each other, but for the human beings who have them as pets.

    When communicating with each other, cats “talk” with a system of signals. Their tails, rather than any kind of “speech”, act as an important way to express themselves. They also touch each other to express s their feelings. With other cats, they will use their voices only to express pain. Unbelievable, all of that changes when a human walks into the room. Cats use many different kinds of vocal (声音的) expressions when they communicate with a person. Since these vocal expressions are not used to communicate with other cats, it seems that cats developed this “language” to communicate with their human owners.

    This fact is shown more clearly when watching rooms that have only one cat and those with several cats. An only cat is usually very vocal, since the only creature(动物)around with whom the cat can communicate is its owner. Cats with other cats, though, are much quieter. If they want to have a conversation, they only need go to other cats and communicate in their natural way.

    Since cats learned to meow(喵喵叫)for the only purpose of communicating with human owners should take the time to learn what their different meows mean. If an owner knows, to name just a few examples, which meow means the cat is hungry, which means the cat wants to be petted, and which means the cat wants to have a little “conversation”, the relationship between cat and owner will be closer.

    The Pope John XXIII Regional High School robotics team has brought about many crea-tions in its laboratories. Most of these creations have earned them prizes in their robotics leagues, articles in local media and praise from many people around the world. None of them, however, can equal to what they experienced during one of their most recent projects.

    The robotics team helped design and build an electrically during one of their most recent projects, girl during an event snonsored by the GoBabyGo program and Toyota. The goal of the disabled is to build an electncally opiated vehicle and meet the needs of a specific disabled child. After hearing about the program, the robotics team jumped on the opportunity.

    When they got to the hospital for the event，the team members joined forces with engi-neers from University of Delaware, Toyota employees and and doctors to help a girl named Jaleah.

    Using instructions provided on an iPad by GoBabyGo,they put together a plastic battery-oper-ated vehicle-one of 12 that were made at the event-that was bespoke to Jaleah. Her vehicle was a baby blue jeep that had designs from the hit Disney movie Frozen and was decorated with snowflakes (雪花)，butterflies and flowers.

    More importantly，the team rerouted the electrical system in the car so that Jaleah only needed to push a large button on the steering wheel to drive the car, giving her the freedom to move. In addition, they helped design special seating structure to keep Jaleah safely secured.

    When they completed the project, Jaleah and her parents' reactions took the PJ robotics members by surprise.“ It was really satisfying,” PJ junior Austin Fett said. “When she was riding it, she was having so much fun. It was a great feeling. ”

    While they are looking forward to their future projects and competitions in the FIRST Technology Challenge league, the robotics team will always remember the days they helped Jaleah become a mobile kid.

    “We made something that she will love and use forever,” PJ senior Keith Johnson said.

    You can relax if remembering everything isn't your strong suit. Recent research makes the case that being forgetful can be a strength—in fact, selective memory can even be a sign of stronger intelligence.

    Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything. But looking through years of recent memory data, researchers found that the neurobiology of forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember.

    Making intelligent decisions doesn't mean you need to have all the information at hand. It just means you need to hold onto the most valuable information. And that means clearing up space in your memory palace for the most up-to-date information on clients and situations. Our brains do this by creating new neurons(神经元）in our  hippocampus, which have the power to overwrite(重写)existing memories that are influencing our decision-making.

    If you want to increase the number of new neurons in our brain's learning region, try exercising. Some aerobic exercise like jogging, power walking and swimming has been found to increase the number of neurons making important connections in our brains.

    When we forget the names of certain clients or details about old jobs，the brain is making a choice that these details don't matter. Although too much forgetfulness can be a cause for concern, the occasional lost detail can be a sign of a perfectly healthy memory system. The researchers found that our brains facilitate decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on unimportant past details. Instead，the brain helps us remember the most important part of a conversation.

    We can get blamed for being absent-minded when we forget past events in perfect detail. These findings show us that total recall(记忆)can be overvalued. Our brains are working smarter when they aim to remember the right stories, not every story.

    Helen Keller was one of America's best-known women. She was admired for her courage and achievements although she couldn't see or hear. She was also known throughout the world for herself-sacrificing work to improve the condition of the blind, the deaf and the speechless. When she died on June 1, 1968, the newspaper Washington Post wrote: "Her life was truly one of the most remark able phenomena of our time and her death just short of the age of 88 leaves the whole world poorer."

    Helen Keller was born on June 27th, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. For the first 19 months of her life, she was a pretty and happy baby, normal in every way. Then a sudden illness destroyed her sight and her hearing. Because she could not hear sounds to imitate(模仿), she could not speak. Helen used to say that her real birthday was not June 27th, 1880, but March 3rd, 1887—the day when Anne Sullivan entered her life. It was Anne Sullivan who taught Helen to spell certain words by a special system, Braille, and even to talk.

    Anne Sullivan could not teach Helen Keller to speak until some other important things had been learned. The little girl had to learn to control her actions and feelings. She had to learn that she could not always do what she wanted to do. She had always been able to get what she wanted by using force. The teacher had to change such habits without breaking the child's spirit.

    Miss Sullivan's battle began. Sometimes, there was real fighting between the wild child and the strong young teacher. At last, however, the battle was won by Miss Sullivan, who succeeded in showing Helen that she loved her and wanted to help her. The child and her teacher became friends. They continued to be friends until the teacher's death, fifty years later.

    The day on which Helen finally accepted Miss Sullivan as her friend and teacher was a great day in Helen's life. After that, the teacher could begin to teach the child language.

    Whether you are a national or an international student, we welcome you to Middletown University. Our reputation is built on providing high-quality education in both academic and vocational (职业的) subjects. As well as priding ourselves on our traditional face-to-face learning, we have recently introduced a range of distance-learning courses.

    What do they cost?

    Costs for our coursers vary considerably. Click on each department's homepage for more information. Scholarships and bursaries an available for certain courses, particularly for those in the sciences and education.

    SAMPLE COURSE OVERVIEW

    BA in English Language and Literature

    The main purpose of this course is to develop your ability to describe, analyze and manipulate features of the English language, and to see how these are expressed in literature. As well as taking core modules which cover these areas, students will be able to specialize in their fields of interest.

    Duration: three-year course

    Course: Choose 12 out of 20 modules.

    Weekly timetable: eight hours of lectures/four hours of seminars

    Assessment: essays, exams and an 8,000-word dissertation at the end of the third year

    Requirements: academic experience and interest in the subject; good school-exam grades

    Diploma in teaching

    In the first term, you will learn about the theory of teaching and how to be an effective teacher. In the second term, you will also begin teaching in a school. The third term is completely practical.

    Duration: one-year course

    Course: Choose six out of ten modules (three are compulsory).

    Weekly timetable: six hours of lectures/ two hours of seminars/ six hours of classroom teaching

    Assessment: combination of essays and classroom observation

    Requirement: first degree in specific subject area