Boyan Slat has one huge goal. It's a goal that could be good for people and a {#blank#}1{#/blank#} all over the world. Amazingly, it looks like he's going to m {#blank#}2{#/blank#}his goal.

    When he was 16  Dutch engineering student Slat was on vacation in Greece, and he started to think about all the rubbish that is p{#blank#}3{#/blank#} onto beaches by water. The oceans around the world are all of plastic—millions of tons of plastic. Unfortunately, plastic doesn't just disappear. It takes c{#blank#}4{#/blank#} to break down (分解).

    The p{#blank#}5{#/blank#} situation of the oceans is bad and worrying and Slat wanted to do something to change it. So he made it a personal goal to clean up the rubbish in the world's oceans.

    Slat started with an idea for an unusual m{#blank#}6{#/blank#} to "catch" the plastic floating (漂浮) in the water using the natural energy of the ocean. He left school in 2013 to begin work on his project The Ocean Cleanup. Soon, the project r{#blank#}7{#/blank#} a lot of attention.

    A year later, he was leading a team of 100 scientists and engineers working on the invention. Slat needed money for this, so he started asking people to d{#blank#}8{#/blank#} to his project online and raised over $ 2 million!

    Soon after, Slat was named a "Champion of the Earth" by the United Nations for his meaningful and v{#blank#}9{#/blank#} work. It's the most important title the UN gives to people helping the environment. The Ocean Cleanup also won several awards (奖项) for having one of the best inventions of 2015. But the d{#blank#}10{#/blank#} goes on for Slat. He hopes that the oceans will be free of plastic in about twenty or thirty years.

    Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

Emily's Blog

Shut Up Zoos, Not Animals!

You may think that visiting zoos is harmless fun, but you're wrong because zoos are just prisons(监狱) for animals. The difference is that prisoners get out after a few years! Animals in cages look bored and are boring to look at. After all, we all know what an elephant looks like, we've seen them on TV. So why make animals suffer by shutting them up for our fun? Shut up the zoos instead!

Posted by: Emily on April 19, at 18：12 Comments(3)

Comments

I partly agree. But some zoos aren't there for our fun. I've just got back from Jersey Zoo. It saves rare animals and breeds them. Then it returns the babies to the wild. Not all zoos are the same, you know.

Posted by: Angela on April 21, at 18：17

Quite agree! Every time I go to the zoo, I never look into the poor animals' eyes! Kept in the small and smelly cages, they look so lonely and sad. Hope one day they will return to nature, where they can live happily and freely with their families.

Posted by : John on April 22, at 12：21

Personally, I think zoos are fantastic places for children. They can play with animals and enjoy themselves so much there. Also, they learn a lot about animals. Why shut up?

Posted by: David on April 22, at 21：05 )

I'm Eason. I {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in "New York with my family. I like reading very much, and I have many books at {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, I'm in the school book club now. There're{#blank#}3{#/blank#}students and three teachers in the club. We meet from 7:00 to 8:00 {#blank#}4{#/blank#}  Wednesday afternoon. We usually{#blank#}5{#/blank#}about one book together. Our teacher {#blank#}6{#/blank#} asks us some questions about the book. All of us want to answer them, because it's interesting {#blank#}7{#/blank#}a game. We can borrow (借) a book from the club, but we must take it back {#blank#}8{#/blank#}  It's fun joining the book club, because we can also make {#blank#}9{#/blank#} friends here. There's a new book {#blank#}10{#/blank#}every month in the club. I like the show very much and I never miss (错过)it!

Humans are mammals (哺乳动物). Most mammals are born able to do many things.

Some can walk within a few minutes of being born. They have to be able to run away if 1 is near. But human babies are born 2. They need the care of adults to live.

In the first month of life, babies can not smile or sit up. They can not even hold up their own heads 3 some help from grown-ups.

In the next few months, babies grow a lot. They learn to roll over, support their heads, and 4 sit up while being held.

Babies also have to learn to use their 5. It takes months for them to learn to reach for objects. At around six months old many babies can 6 an object from one hand to another.

Babbling is 7 a human baby learns to speak. Babies all seem to make similar sounds by babbling. They try to imitate (模仿) the sounds they hear from adults. It will take about nine months 8 a baby can say real words.

Somewhere around a baby's first birthday he or she may stand or walk with help. Soon the baby will 9 around on his or her own!

The first year of a baby's life is a time of growing and 10. Growing sure takes a lot of work!