Break in springtime (P2)

I. Warming up

Discuss the following questions with your partner.

What are the traditions of Tomb Sweeping Day?

What did you do during the most recent Tomb Sweeping Day?

Do you know what your peers in the US or UK do during their spring breaks?

 

II. Reading

Read the article and fill in the blanks below with proper words. 

Spring break across the world

Countries1. _____

In the USIt usually starts in late March and April and lasts 2. _____. Some students go on vacation with their 3. _____, visiting a new state or even a new country. They can also relax at home, reading books and watching movies. However, a more popular way of spending the break is a 4. _____ getaway with friends.

In the UKStudents are given a 5. _____ week to finish coursework and catch up on their reading 6. _____.

In JapanInstead of partying, many Japanese students work as interns or engage in 7. _____ projects during their breaks.

In ChinaOnly a few universities offer spring breaks to students. Spring break in China is meant to 8. _____ students out of their ivory towers to experience more 9. _____. In addition to having fun, field trips and 10. _____ are on many students’ to-do lists.

 

Key:

1. Activities/ Arrangements2. one to two weeks 3. families   4. tropical5. reading  

6. assignments7. study-related8. push 9. diversity 10. volunteering

 

III. Language study

1. If Tomb Sweeping Day gives you an opportunity to go outdoors, spring break is what your American counterparts long for – unlike our semester, which start in late February, theirs begin as early as January.

本句的主干是spring break is what your American counterparts long for，这里what引导表语从句，并在从句中作long for的宾语；which引导的定语从句修饰先行词our semester。

 

2. Many students view the break as an opportunity to let off some steam.

Let off steam表示“放松，发泄（过剩的）精力、情绪”。例如：Those boys need to get out and let off some steam.

 

It’s probably not all luck (P5)

I. Pre-reading

Discuss the following questions with your partner.

Coincidences happen all the time. Can you explain a coincidence that happened to you or one you heard about? 

What do you think might be responsible for coincidences? 

 

II. Reading

Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions.

1. By mentioning Hand’s experience on the flight at the beginning of the article, the author intends to ____.

A. show how people usually react to coincidences 

B. show that such coincidences actually happen frequently

C. promote Hand’s newly-published book on coincidences 

D. make us wonder what caused that coincidence

2. What does Hand think can explain almost all coincidences?

A. Supernatural forces. 

B. The laws of probability.

C. Their broader contexts.

D. The law of natural selection.

3. What did Hand believe increased his chances of sitting next to his student?

A. The limited seats on the plane.

B. The times when they booked their return tickets.

C. The fact that many of the other passengers were traveling together with others. 

D. The rule that solo travelers must sit in specific areas of planes.

4. What can we conclude from the article?

A. The author believes that there are no supernatural forces at all.

B. If you bet on the same numbers each time, you will soon win the lottery.

C. Failing to see the broader contexts for events makes us fail to grasp their true probabilities.

D. Outrageous events wouldn’t happen if there were a large enough total number of events. 

 

Key:

1. D。由第三段“That sometimes leads people to attribute them to supernatural forces. But are those really responsible? ”可以推知文章开篇提到了汉德先生搭乘航班的一次巧合，旨在引起读者思考是什么导致这些巧合发生的呢，所以答案为D。

2. B。由第四段的“what we think of as extremely unlikely events actually happen around us all the time, and they can all be explained by the laws of probability”可知答案为B。

3. C。由第五段的“But the fact is that many passengers travel in pairs or other groups, and they all require adjacent (相邻的) seats, which makes solo travelers more likely to be seated next to other solo travelers. This increases the odds from 1 in 450 to a much greater chance. ”可推知C为正确答案。

4. C。由倒数第二段可知人们通过关注具体的例子，而不是更广的背景，从而低估了某些事发生的概率，所以C正确。A文中没有提及，B项的soon不对；D项的说法与事实相反。

 

III. Language study

1. According to Hand, although the odds of two specific number draws matching is very small, since there are many lotteries globally, the chance of any two draws matching increases with the number of draws, and it reaches a probability of greater than 50 percent by the 4404th round.

句中although引导让步状语从句，since引导原因状语从句。句意为：根据汉德的说法，虽然两组彩票号码相同的可能性很小，但是由于世界各地发行的彩票很多，当抽奖次数增多的时候，两组号码相同的可能性也增加了，当抽到第4404轮时，这种概率就大于50%。

 

More fit than ever (P6)

I. Pre-reading

Discuss with your partner:

The doctors diagnosed me with bacterial meningitis (细菌性的脑膜炎). Over the course of 2 and a half months, I lost my spleen (脾), my kidneys (肾), the hearing in my left ear and both of my legs below the knees. When my parents wheeled me out of the hospital, I felt like I had been pieced back together like a patchwork (布片缝制物) doll...

 

Here is what happened to actress and snowboarder Amy Purdy when she was 19 years old. What would you have done to move forward if you had been Amy Purdy? 

 

II. Reading

Read the article and choose the best answer for each of the following questions.

1. The underlined word “embrace” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ____.

A. keep away fromB. accept gladly  

C. communicate withD. take care of

2. What happened when the author went skiing not long after she was out of the hospital? 

A. Almost everybody there was inspired by her attempt.

B. She went down the mountain so fast that she hurt herself.  

C. She was displeased with her performance, but she didn't lose heart. 

D. It turned out that she performed better than she had expected. 

3. What message does the author want to convey with her speech?

A. Misfortune never comes alone, so be prepared.

B. People without imagination can never succeed.

C. It’s not what happens to you but how you react that matters.

D. Life is full of ups and downs and we should learn to live with them.

4. Which of the following best describes the author?

A. Patient and sensitive.

B. Humorous and ambitious.

C. Optimistic and determined.

D. Emotional and imaginative. 

 

Key:

1. B。作者因为生病身心收到很大伤害，但是她随后意识到为了继续生活下去，她必须忘记过去的自己，而去接受新的自己， embrace在这里应该是表示“欣然接受”的意思，所以答案为B。

2. C。由第四段的“I was so shocked. I was just as shocked as everybody else and I was so discouraged. But I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet that I would be able to do this again …”可知答案为C。

3. C。根据第三段“It was at this moment that I asked myself that life-defining question: if my life were a book and I were the author, how would I want the story to go?”以及最后一段可知作者的这一演讲是想要告诉听众，残疾不要紧，要紧的是正确的人生态度，所以答案为C。

4. C。综观全文，不难看出作者的乐观与坚毅，所以答案为C。

 

III. After reading

Read the article again and find from the article the sentences that reflect Amy Purdy’s optimism and determination.

1. And that is when it dawned on me, that I didn’t have to be small anymore. I could be as tall as I wanted or as short as I wanted depending on whom I was dating. And if I snowboard again, my feet aren’t going to get cold. And the best of all, I thought, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes that are on the sales rack (架子) and I did. So there were benefits here.

2. I was just as shocked as everybody else and I was so discouraged. But I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet that I would be able to do this again …

3. … my legs haven’t disabled me. If anything, they’ve enabled me. They’ve forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in possibilities, and that’s why I believe that our imaginations can be used as tools for breaking through borders, because in our minds, we can do anything and we can be anything. It’s belief in those dreams and facing our fears head-on that allow us to live our lives beyond our limits. 

 

What can we learn from Amy Purdy’s story?