阅读理解

    American Sign Language, often called ASL, is used by most people with hearing problems in the United States and Canada.

    Besides ASL, there are more than fifty sign languages used throughout the world today, including Mayan Sign, British Sign, Israeli Sign, and Chinese Sign. Like spoken languages, sign languages are different from each other. But all sign languages are based on sight instead of sounds.

    Sign languages have several main visual (视觉) parts that work together to express meaning. The first part is the shape made by the hands. Movement is also important. Moving the body or organs (器官) like hands affects the meaning of the shape. The place where the sign is made and the direction the hands face are crucial as well. Other visual clues (线索), such as the expression on a person's face, can sometimes change a sign's meaning. For example, a change in a smile can show whether a signer is happy, very happy, or overjoyed. Raising the eyebrows can mark a question.

    In sign languages, the visual parts are combined (结合) in different ways to create signs.

These signs stand for things, actions, feelings, and ideas. ASL has about 4,000 different signs. Like spoken  languages,  sign  languages  cannot  be  translated  word-for-word.  

    For English word may be represented by a series of signs in ASL. Or several English words may be

represented by a single ASL sign. Unlike spoken languages, the signs are organized according to sign-language grammar and the most important word or idea is signed first.

    In ASL, the letter signs are made with one hand. Signers would rarely, if ever, spell out all the words they are signing. That would be as awkward and slow as speakers spelling each spoken word. However, American Sign Language does not have signs for proper names, so signers may use the alphabet to spell these. Also, sign languages often borrow words from other languages. They may spell words using finger spelling which is done with a set of hand shapes that stand for letters of the alphabet.

    Sign languages  develop  naturally  when  people  with  shared  culture  and  needs  want  to communicate with each other. Signers are closely linked to each other, perhaps more than to speaking people in their own communities. Signers share points of view, values, needs, and problems,as well as languages.

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    Saving the Earth shouldn't be so difficult，if we can do the following．

    First，we should take our time ． There is no need to hurry．We can walk or ride a bike to work．

    Second，we should smell the Each．Open the windows．Turn off the air-conditioner, and at the same time，save the energy．

    Third，we should enjoy cooking at home and having meals on our dinner table．So we can use our own bowls and chopsticks，not the plastic ones．

    Fourth，we should spend our weekends and holidays in the park playing games and just riding a bike around.

    Fifth，we should learn how to use old things well in the house，in the garden，or in the kitchen．

    Lastly, no one really has a mountain and a sea．Don't throw rubbish here and there．

    Sometimes people cry when they are sad. Other times people cry tears of joy. But your eyes make tears all the time, whether you are crying or not. Do you know the tears help keep your eyes healthy? They keep your eyes from drying out. A special area of the eye drips (滴) all the time. It keeps the eye humid.

    If you look in a mirror, you can see tiny holes in the comers of your eyes. Each hole leads to a small tube that runs to your nose. Tears run slowly into this tube drip by drip. Day and night the holes drain (流走) the tears away. If they didn't, you would always look as if you were crying.

    If you begin to cry, there are many more tears. The holes can't drain all of them. Then extra tears run out onto your face.    

    Tears help keep eyes safe. If there is something harmful in the air, the eyes fill with tears. These tears coat your eyes. They keep the harmful air out.

    Contact lenses(隐形眼镜) can make the eyes too dry. Some people have to add tears to their eyes. They buy bottles of eye drops to keep their eyes wet.

    Humans have learnt many things from nature. These things have helped us in our daily life. The latest thing is self-repairing clothing.

    Scientists have developed a special way for clothing to repair rips and tears by itself, without the need for sewing. It works with materials such as cotton, linen and wool. The scientists are from the Naval Research Office and Pennsylvania State University in the USA. Scientists Dr Walter Dressick and Dr Melik Demirel looked at how a squid can cling on to things so well. The research team found a protein in the rings of teeth that cover the suckers on a squid. The protein is similar to the one found in the silk that spiders use to make spider webs. It is very strong and elastic.

    The new protein has been developed as part of a coating, which is put on clothes. When the coating is dipped in water, the area around the rip or tear joins together in less than a minute. This could help clothes last longer and save money for us. It could also be useful for military and survival clothes. People like soldiers and mountaineers would be safer if they had clothes that could be repaired quickly and easily. Professor Demirel spoke about the invention. He said," The coatings are thin, less than a micron, so they wouldn't be noticed in everyday wear." Then he added, "Even thin, they increase the overall strength of the material. For the first time, we are making self-healing textiles."

    Have you ever been ill? When you are ill, your body becomes hot, and there are pains all over your body. You must be unhappy because of it. You don't want to work. You stay in bed feeling sad.

    What makes us ill? It's germs. Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can't find them with your eyes, but you can see them with a microscope (显微镜). They are very, very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

    Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we can see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

    Germs aren't found only in water. They are found in the air and dust (灰尘). If you cut your finger, and if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut, some of the germs will go into your finger. Your finger will become big and red, and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs will go into all of your body, and you will have pain everywhere.