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    A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. "Wait a minute," someone might say, "are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?"

    The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, "Hello, class. I'm Mr. Davis." Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.

    I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.

    "All right then,'' I said." Okay, here we go." Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of hands. Every student would shout. "Calm down, you'll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!"

    A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I asked the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.

    We all think plants were expected to get larger with increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but changes in temperature, humidity(湿度)and nutrient availability seem to have trumped the benefits of increased carbon dioxide" said researchers from the National University of Singapore.

    45 percent of the species studied now reach smaller adult sizes than they did in the past. The researchers pointed out that warmer temperatures and changing habitats, caused by climate change, are possible reasons for shrinking creatures.

    " We do not yet know the mechanisms(机制)involved, or why some organism are getting smaller while others are unaffected," the researchers said. "Until we understand more, we could be risking negative consequences that we can't yet quantify."

    The change is big in cold-blooded animals. Only two decades of warmer temperatures are enough to make retiles (爬行动物)smaller. An increase of only 1 degree centigrade caused nearly a 10 percent increase in metabolism(新陈代谢). Greater use of energy resulted in tiny tortoises and little lizards. Fish are smaller now too. Though overfishing has played a part in reducing numbers, experiments show that warmer temperatures also stop fish growing.

    Warm-blooded animals aren't immune(免除)from the size change caused by climate change. Many birds are now smaller. Soay sheep are thinner. Red deer are weaken And polar bears are smaller, compared with historical records.

    This is not the first time this has happened in Earth's history. 55 million years ago, a warming event similar to the current climate change caused bees, spiders and ants to shrink by 50 to 75 percent over several thousand years. That event happened over a longer time than the current climate change.

    The speed of modem climate change could mean organisms may not respond or adapt quickly enough, especially those with long generation times climate change will be shown in the future.

    A 12 -year-old girl who had a feeling that she might be quite clever has taken a test and proved she was absolutely right.

    After raising the idea with her parents and pestering (纠缠)them for the best part of a year, Lydia took the test in her summer holidays. It turns out the test wasn't that hard after all.

    "I was really nervous before the test and I thought it was going to be really hard. But as I started the test, I thought it was a bit easier than I thought it was going to be," she said.

    Lydia Sebastian achieved the top score of 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B paper, showing she has a higher IQ than well-known geniuses Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The comparison doesn't sit well with the British student, who's currently in Year 8 at a selective girl's grammar school in Essex, England.

    "I don't think I can be compared to such great intellectuals as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. They've achieved so much. I don't think it's right," Lydia told CNN.

To explain Lydia's mark's level, the top adult score in the Cattell III B test, which mainly tests verbal(语言) reasoning, is 161. A top 2% score—which allows entry to Mensa, the club for those with high IQs—would be 148 or over. Lydia scored 162, placing her in the top 1% of the population.

    Lydia's not quite sure what she wants to do when she leaves school, although she's leaning toward something "based around Maths, because it's one of my favorite subjects." "All I'm going to do is work as hard as I can, and see where that gets me," she said.

The Chongyang Festival is a {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (tradition) Chinese festival celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar. According to legend, during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), a Taoist named Huan Jing saved his hometown {#blank#}2{#/blank#} a plague （瘟疫） by leading villagers up a high hill in Shangcai, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (wear) dogwood branches and drinking chrysanthemum wine to drive away evil {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (spirit). Since then, the tradition of celebrating the double ninth day {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (last) for more than 2,000 years. The star during the festival is the dogwood plant, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} grows in most parts of China. Many women and children wear its branches on their arms or decorate their hair with it. Additionally, people fill dogwood into sachets （香囊）, which come in various shapes and {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (decorate) with lively patterns like birds and flowers. They stands for different meanings of luck.

The Chongyang Festival is not only a historical Chinese festival but also {#blank#}8{#/blank#} opportunity to show respect for the elderly. It encourages family reunions and helps to {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (strength) family bonds. Moreover, it shows the beauty of Chinese culture and allows people {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (connect) with their roots.

Following Zibo and Harbin, Tianshui, an ancient silk Road city in Northwest China's Gansu Province, became the latest place that has caused {#blank#}1{#/blank#} nationwide craze thanks to its malatang, or spicy hot pot. Tianshii spicy hot pot {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（make） by cooking raw ingredients（原料） —meats, vegetables and noodles, in a pot of boiling broth. Then they are rolled into a large steel basin, drizzled with garlic sauce, sprinkled with Tianshui peppercorns and crushed peanuts, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（brush） with bright red chili oil, and colored with coriander and green onions. Fragrant and {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（visual） appealing, it provokes（刺激） taste buds on the tip of tourists' tongue. Different {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Sichuan cuisine, the secrets to the unique flavor and attractive appearance of Tianshui malatang come from local speciality ingredients in Tianshui—Gangu chili peppers and Maiji peppercorns, both {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（belong）to local speciality agricultural industries. Unlike the peppers used throughout Sichuan, the Tianshui pepper is fragrant and juicy. It {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（burn） in the mouth but is smooth in the stomach.

Tianshui not only has delicious spicy hot po t food, but also stands out for its distinctive {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（region）culture. Its grottoes and murals（石窟与壁画） are among the most famous art {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（form） in Gansu. The Maijishan Grottoes, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} are home to 221caves and more than 1,000 square meters of ancient murals, are known for their impressive beauty.