Every year in America, high-school students who want to go to college take a national examination called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT in a shortened way. Their score is an important factor in determining which colleges will admit them or whether any will be admitted at all. The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures one's mathematical ability and use of the English language. Traditionally, the English part involved grammatical questions and paragraphs that test reading comprehension.

    But the SAT folks have added a single question, to be answered in an essay, hand-written on the spot. That's an interesting way to test writing ability, but content aside, have you ever seen young people's handwriting lately? Or anyone's for that matter, in this age of computer keyboards? Students write numbers and sign their names on bank checks. They scribble class notes in what can generously be described as the written word.

    Yet today's kids are asked to write, thoughtfully and clearly, for several minutes on this SAT Test. Good luck to the text scorers who must work out difficultly the scrawl (潦草的字迹) of young people who've been typing on computers since the age of three! Teachers insist that good handwriting can not only help one's score on the SAT, but also, later on in life, impress potential employers. And don't forget, we all have to turn to handwriting from time to time, as computers go down when power goes out.

    Then how to improve the handwriting? Well, with a few simple steps you can improve your hand writing.

    Position the pen. You should hold the pen between the forefinger and the thumb, then rest it near the first knuckle (指节) of the middle finger. The rest of your fingers should be curled (卷曲) under your hand and your hand should remain relaxed.

    Evaluate your writing. Make changes to your letters till you like how they look.

    Take your time. Speed is bound to make your writing messy-looking.

    Practice. Practice it a lot; it's not enough to do it once and hope for the best. It has to be something you work at to make great improvements.

    The 2016 Rio Olympic Games have come to an end. Without doubt, many Chinese sports fans sat in front of the TV and cheered our athletes on, hoping that they would get as many gold medals as possible.

    But sometimes our desire for gold medals can result in the sadness of failure. When Liu Xiang, China's track hero, pulled out of the Beijing Olympics due to injury, he greatly disappointed many Chinese sports fans.

    But things are different now. In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, we saw a healthier and more lenient Chinese attitude toward the sportspeople, fully in line with the Olympic spirit.

    China didn't win any gold medals on the first day. But, instead of criticizing the athletes who failed to finish on top of the podium(领奖台), the majority of fans were happy with their efforts. “Reacting in the right way when an athlete misses out on gold shows the maturity of a person, and is also a challenge for a country to face up to in the process of development,” commented CRI.

    Swimmer Fu Yuanhui won fans' hearts, even if she only won a bronze medal in the 100m backstroke final. Her fans on her Sina Weibo micro blog have increased 100,000 to over 6 million. Many sports fans appreciated her straightforward character and attitude toward competition.

    “The warm support from Internet users shows that public attitude toward competitive sport and the Olympics have gotten to a higher level,” said an article in the People's Daily.

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.

    Glacier Bay is one of the most famous parks in America, located in the state of Alaska. This park in the southeastern part of the state covers more than 1 million hectares of Alaskan wilderness. It includes mountains, glaciers (冰川), bays, and even rainforests. Glacier Bay supports hundreds of kinds of animals, including many species of birds, fish, bears, whales and sea lions.

    As its name suggests, much of Glacier Bay National Park is covered by glaciers. A glacier is a large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope (斜坡) or valley, or over a wide area of land. Glaciers cover more than 5,000 square kilometers of the park.

    Glacial ice has shaped the land over the last seven million years. The glaciers found in the park today are what remains from an ice advance known as the Little Ice Age. That period began about 4,000 years ago.

    During the Little Ice Age, the cold weather caused the ice to grow and advance. That situation continued until about 1,700s, when the climate began to warm. The higher temperatures caused the ice to start melting. That melting led the huge glacier to separate into more than 1,000 different glaciers.

    The extremely tall and jagged (参差不齐的) mountains seen in Glacier Bay National Park were formed by the ice advancing and then melting over time. The melting of the ice also created water that filled in and created the many fjords (峡湾) within the park. Fjords are narrow parts of the ocean that sit between cliffs or mountains.

    The huge amount of water from the melted ice killed off many kinds of plants. Vegetation returned to the area over the next 200 years. The regrowth in plants also brought back many animals to the land. This return of life to Glacier Bay is why it is sometimes called “a land reborn” by people.

    Based on new analysis, we are rapidly approaching major climate change and the effects on society and the environment could be quite severe. Geographers predict that within the next eighty years, current world climate zones could shift and some could completely disappear. Polar regions will get colder while tropical regions will get even hotter, forcing animals to migrate  (迁徙) north.

    Climate changes like these could lead to the spread of diseases. Tropical storms and hurricanes will not only increase but may also become more intense. If the changes come too quickly, animal and plant species may not be able to adapt fast enough and could disappear.

    According to Science Daily, a new study predicts that by the year 2100, many of today's familiar climates will be replaced by climates unknown in today's world. It is urgent that we reduce the risks of these far-reaching consequences for the whole world. The planet itself has been showing signs of change. In 2004, a serious tsunami created by a major earthquake killed thousands in Sumatra and in 2008, thousands died in China because of another severe earthquake. Egypt was hit in 2009 with a major earthquake and Haiti was devastated in 2010 by yet another massive earthquake.

    Within just the last few months, new reports from around the world have been coming in and most agree that our climate situation is much worse than previously thought. At this point, it doesn't matter what is causing it, but rather, what can be done about it. What's more, our world is getting more and more unstable every year. There is war and threat of war everywhere. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and serious.

    However, other planets are experiencing global warming as well as our own and some scientists believe there may be some connection between this. No one knows anything for sure at this point because there is simply not enough data.

Located at Europe's biggest water park, the Galaxy Erding in South Germany, the world's first VR water slide takes the exciting experience to a whole new level by offering thrill-seekers the choice of three attractive worlds — Space, Sky, or Snow. By simply wearing a headset, riders can slide through a magical alien world, follow beautiful butterflies around floating islands or put themselves in a white winter wonderland. To make the experience even more heart-stopping, the 160-meter-long ride that lasts about 35 seconds has two uphill tracks that provide a roller-coaster-like experience.

    While the tire slide, which has been successfully tested by almost 10,000 park goers since it opened in February 2018, is impressive, the technology behind it, developed by California startup Ballast is even more so. The specially-created waterproof headsets can be worn in water up to a few meters deep, without harming the delicate Samsung Galaxy S8 mobile devices that run the custom software for the VR experiences. The headsets also charge wirelessly (无线地), allowing park operators to swap out sets throughout the day.

    The biggest challenge the company faced, however, was providing a suitable VR experience for everyone. That's because unlike roller coasters, where the speed is fixed for all riders, water slide speeds vary depending on the weight of the person. To overcome the issue, Ballast fixed  smart sensors (传感器) in important areas along the slide to keep track of the rider's progress at  all times. The information, conveyed through the headset, allows the custom software to adjust his or her location within the virtual world accordingly, making for a smooth, seasickness free ride for all.

    Though Ballast is thrilled at Space Glider's success, the company has bigger ambitions. They want to create an experience where guests will be able to swim underwater surrounded by virtual dolphins, whales, and even sharks, without wearing the heavy headsets!

    It was at least two months before Christmas when nine-year-old Rose told her father and me that she wanted a new bicycle.

As Christmas drew nearer, her desire for a bicycle seemed to fade—or so we thought, as she didn't mention it again. We bought the latest fashionable Baby Sitter's Club dolls, a holiday dress and some beautiful story books. Then, much to our surprise, on December 23rd, she proudly announced that she "really wanted a bike more than anything else."

    It was just too late, what with all the details of preparing Christmas dinner and buying last-minute gifts. We could only think of the bicycle and the disappointment of our child. "What if I make a little bicycle out of clay and write a note that she could trade the clay model in for a real bike?" Her dad asked. The theory, of course, being that since that is a high-ticket item and she is "such a big girl", it would be much better for her to pick it out. So he spent the next five hours painstakingly working with clay to make a tiny bike.

    Three hours later, on Christmas morning, we were excited for Rose to open the little heart-shaped package with the beautiful red and white clay bike and the note. Finally, she opened it and read the note aloud.

    She looked at me and then at her dad and said, "so does this mean that I trade in this bike that Daddy made me for a real one?"

    Beaming, I said, "Yes."

    Rose had tears in her eyes when she replied, "I could never trade in this beautiful bicycle that Daddy made me. I'd rather keep this than get a real bike."

    At that moment, we would have moved heaven and earth to buy her every bicycle on the planet!