While thousands of college students headed for warm climate to enjoy sun and fun during their week off from classes, seven local students had other plans.

    The Northern Essex Community College (NECC) students and one of their teachers spent part of their spring break in New York City, helping repair an area{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (destroy) by the hurricane.

    “I wanted to see for myself what happened,” said Terry. “I couldn't imagine{#blank#}2{#/blank#}it is like to lose your home and everything that you know and the{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(power) effect the hurricane had on those people. I wanted to do something, to understand their feeling of helplessness.”

    The group headed into Brooklyn's Red Hook district, which was hit hard by the hurricane. There they met people from other parts of the country,{#blank#}4{#/blank#}had also volunteered to help. Together, those volunteers and the NECC students{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(work) to clear rubbish out of a three-story building. They put on protective suits and gloves{#blank#}6{#/blank#}they entered the building.

    Inside the building, the students saw nothing but broken walls and doors and pieces of the building {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(lie) all over the place.

    The students returned to school with{#blank#}8{#/blank#}sense of achievement, a feeling that{#blank#}9{#/blank#}helped people in need. I was remarkable how a community lost so much and was still able to recover, and this left the deepest impression{#blank#}10{#/blank#}the students.

    Elias was a poor black worker in south Africa. The time {#blank#}1{#/blank#}he first met Nelson Mandel was a period of his life .he was twelve years old at that time. Nelson Mandel was a black lawyer to{#blank#}2{#/blank#} he turned for advice .Nelson offered{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(guide) to poor black people on their{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(illegal) problems. Elias needed Mandel's help{#blank#}5{#/blank#}he had little education. The school {#blank#}6{#/blank#}he studied for only two years was three kilometers away .he had to drop out of school because his family couldn't pay the school fees{#blank#}7{#/blank#}the bus fare .He couldn't read or write well .After trying hard, he got a job in a gold mine ,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} he didn't have passbook to live in Johannesbug and he worried about {#blank#}9{#/blank#}he would become out{#blank#}10{#/blank#}work.

    I'm Yuan Longping. Look at my sunburnt face and arms and my slim strong body and you will think I'm {#blank#}1{#/blank#} like a farmer than a scientist. In fact I {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(struggle) for the past five decades to help {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(farmer). In 1974, I began to grow a so-called super hybrid rice. This special strain of rice makes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} possible to produce one-third more of the crop in the same fields.

    I was born into a poor farmer's family in 1931. When I was young, I saw many people go hungry often. So I have devoted myself to {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(find) ways to increasing rice harvest without expanding the area of fields since I graduated from Southwest Agriculture College in 1953. Now more than 60% of the rice{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(produce) in China each year is from this hybrid strain. I am circulating this knowledge in India, Vietnam and other less developed countries to increase their harvest. Perhaps you think I am rich. {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(actual) I live a simple life. I care little for money. In my opinion, a person with too much money will have more troubles. I don't want to be famous {#blank#}8{#/blank#} I prefer to have more time to do my research. In my free time I love listening to music, playing mah-jong and reading. I once had a dream, in {#blank#}9{#/blank#} I saw rice plants as tall as sorghum and each ear of rice was as big as an ear of corn and each grain of rice was as huge as a peanut. Now I have another dream-to export my rice so that it can {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(grow) all over the world.

    The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic (残奥会)Games brought the world's attention to sport like never before. It was admirable {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(see) a small nation like the UK organize the Olympic for {#blank#}2{#/blank#} third time in modern history.

    Britain probably {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(invent) quite a few modern sports. One is cricket (板球), {#blank#}4{#/blank#} is now played at international level in a dozen countries. Tennis also first became popular here and Wimbledon is one of the four big tournaments every year. Golf{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (suppose) to be Scottish in origin (起源)from a school of the same name.

    Every town in Britain has football, rugby or cricket club (sometimes all three) and at least one swimming pool. Schools have a gymnasium and playing fields with a running track. As British is an island, there are lots of opportunities for practising water sports {#blank#}6{#/blank#} well.

    "Fair play" in British society is as important as {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (win) or losing. Teamwork is also necessary in many areas of professional life. Even so, individualism (个性)and competitiveness make sporting champions. Steve Redgrave, winner of five gold {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(medal) at five Olympic Games, says: "Being {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (confidence)in yourself is the most important in sporting success. {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(personal), it is the iron in the mind not the supplements (增补物）that wins medals."

    You may not have noticed it before, but many people often sit with a hunched (驼背的) back when they are in a difficult situation, such as trying hard {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (solve) a math problem. But there's a reason for this: this body position helps to reduce pressure.

     However, according to Erik Peper, a health professor at San Francisco State University, poor posture (姿势) may make our brains work not as well as they {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (normal) do.

    Peper and a team of researchers {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (study) 125 students' performance in a math test and their different postures. The team found that good posture—for example sitting up straight—could help people perform better {#blank#}4{#/blank#} bad posture when they feel stressed.

    Another professor Richard Harvey further explained in Science Daily that sitting with bad posture might make us feel more {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (comfort), but it actually increases our pressure levels.

    So the next time you have to take a test, try sitting upright and taking a deep {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (breathe). If Peper's study is correct, this small change may have {#blank#}7{#/blank#} great influence on you.

    There are many things {#blank#}8{#/blank#} lead to poor posture. The good news {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) that posture can be improved at any age by {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (make) just a few simple corrections in the way one stands, sits and moves.