It's Really a Miracle (奇迹)

    Mr. Clarke works in New York and he brought his family to China last summer. They visited many places of interest and had a good time here. Before they left for New York, the Clarkes climbed the Great Wall. It was the greatest project over two thousand years ago. They took a lot of photos there and then they had a picnic under a big tree. Suddenly it began to rain and they hurried to the car. And when they returned to the hotel, they couldn't find the bag in which their expensive camera was. They were all sorry for it. They could buy another camera but had no time to go to the Great Wall again. They could not miss the plane!

That evening they didn't have supper. Mr. Clarke hoped to make them happy, so he said, “Well, let me tell you a story. An old man lived in a sixty-story building. One day he fell down from it when he was cleaning the window. But he didn't hurt himself.”

  “It was a miracle!” called out his children, “Why?”

  “Because he lived on the first floor!”

    They all began to laugh while two policemen with a bag came in. They said a Chinese boy found it under a big tree and he asked them to find out who lost it.

  “It's really a miracle!” the Clarkes said happily.

    Sally Ride was born in California in 1951. She was the first American woman to travel into space. She loved to play tennis and wanted to be a tennis player when she was young. But after three months' professional(专业的) training, she changed her mind. She went to Stanford University and started to study science. She studied stars and planets. She did researches at the university and got her PhD in astrophysics(天体物理学博士学位) after several years' hard work.

    In 1977, she took a test to become an astronaut. And then she was picked up from over 8,000 people. In order to realize her dream of going into space, she had to get different kinds of special and difficult training. She learned how to fly a plane, how to jump out of a plane as well as how to operate(操作) special machines.

    Sally and four other astronauts flew a spaceship called Challenger on Jun. 18, 1983. She became the first American woman to travel into space. Later, she taught at the University of California. Then she wrote seven books on space for children, encouraging children to study science. Unfortunately, she died in 2012.

Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount(数量) of listening they need before they start speaking, and children who start speaking late are often long listeners. Most children will"obey (服从)"spoken instructions some time before they can speak, although the word"obey"can almost not describe the cooperation (合 作)shown by the children. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gestures and by making noises.

People agree that babies enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months babies use one or two special noises to show their happiness, pain, friendliness and so on. But since these are not a kind of communication, language. From about three months old they play with sounds for enjoyment, and by six months they are able to add new sounds to their words. This self-imitation (自 我 模 仿) leads to deliberate(故意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then appears — can people take these imitations as speech?

It is a problem we need not get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a special person means by it in a special situation, and what a child means by a word will change as he or she gets more experience of the world.

Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself or herself. I wonder, however, whether anything is gained when parents try to use this ability to teach new sounds.

Do you want to see animals? Well, Qingdao Zoo is really a good {#blank#}1{#/blank#}for you. There are many kinds of animals in the zoo. Let's see koalas {#blank#}2{#/blank#}The koalas come from Australia. They are very quiet and smart. People {#blank#}3{#/blank#} them very much. The pandas from China are cute. Many people like these {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.and white animals. They're shy. So {#blank#}5{#/blank#} be noisy when you see them. There's a tiger {#blank#}6{#/blank#}her two sons in the zoo. They are from the US. They're brave and interesting, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}they are not friendly. The giraffes come from Africa. They're beautiful. The lions are {#blank#}8{#/blank#} from Africa. They are really scary. Many people don't like {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. They always sleep in the day. They are very lazy. You can also {#blank#}10{#/blank#} many other kinds of animals in the zoo. Have a good time there.

Chongyang Festival is also called Double Ninth Festival.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} During the festival, Chongyang cake and chrysanthemum （菊花） wine are the traditional food. Climbing mountains and admiring beautiful chrysanthemums are interesting events.

 {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It has two layers（层） with nuts and jujubes （枣） between them. Since cake in Chinese is pronounced "gao" meaning high, people consider climbing a high mountain to be the same as eating cake. They also hope that they can make progress in the following days after eating the cake. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Drinking chrysanthemum wine is a necessary part of the festival. Chrysanthemums have the function of an antitoxin（抗毒素） and can drive the evil（邪恶） away. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

It is said that by climbing to a high mountain diseases can be prevented. Many well-known poems were created to describe the scene and feeling of mountain climbing. Now, family relatives or good friends gather to climb mountains to enjoy the beautiful scenery and share happiness of the holiday with each other. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}