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“I am not meddling.“ Mary said mildly,“I’m just curious.“ gently shyly weakly sweetly
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In 1816 it seemed inevitable that Southern states would break away from the Union. strange certain inconsistent proper
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Many of Carson McCuller’s characters are isolated, disappointed people. solitary gloomy feeble frugal
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The workers finally called off the strikes. put off ended cancelled participated in
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John has made up his mind not to go to the meeting. wanted promised decided agreed
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I catch a cold now and then. always occasionally constantly regularly
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He often finds fault with my work. criticizes praises evaluates. ’talks about
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The little girl grasped her mother’s hand as she crossed the street. understood had a hold over took hold of left hold of
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In the situation comedy, a traditional format for television shows, the same characters appear repeatedly in humorous episodes. respectively again and again simultaneously briefly
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The best olive oil is obtained from olives that are harvested just after they ripen. preserved squeezed sorted gathered
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Do not waste time on insignificant points. interesting dull unimportant boring
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The company issues an annual report every March. a long a yearly a financial a product
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As both a religion and a social force, Puritanism has made a widespread influence in the linked States. a far-reaching a disturbing an annoying a favorable
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When Washington DC was burned in 1814, Dollety Madison rescued many official papers from the White House. stole filed hid saved
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She was one of the leading writers in her age. successful major outstanding musical
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Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!
What are special effects? Do you enjoy movies that use a lot of special effects Dinosaurs(恐龙) from the distant past! Space batdes from the distant future! There has been a revolution in special effects, and it has transformed the movies we see.
The revolution began in the mid 1970s with George Lucas’s Star Wars, a film that stunned (使震惊)audiences.That revolution continues to the present, with dramatic changes in special-effects technology.The company behind these changes is Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).And the man behind the company is Dennis Muren, who has worked with Lucas since Star Wars.
Muren’s interest in special effects began very early.At the age of 6, he was photographing toy dinosaurs and spaceships.At 10, he had an 8 millimeter movie camera and was making these things move through stop-motion.(Stop-motion is a process in which objects are shot with a camera, moved slightly, shot again, and so on.When the shots are put together, the objects appear to move.)
Talk to Muren and you’ll understand what ILM is all about: taking on new challenges.By 1989, Muren decided he had pushed the old technology as far as it would go.
He saw computer graphics (图像) (CG) technology as the wave of the future and took a year off to master it.
With CG technology, images can be scanned into a computer for processing, for example, and many separate shots can be combined into a single image.CG technology has now reached the point, Muren says, where special effects can be used to do just about anything so that movies can tell stories better than ever before.The huge success of Jurassic Park and its sequel (续集) , The Lost World, the stars of which were computer-generated dinosaurs, suggests that this may very well be true.
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A.by keeping its original shape and color
B.in the life of cut flowers
C.to produce carbon dioxide
D.for as long as possible
E.by controlling temperature
F.to replace the water and solution every day
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Keeping Cut Flowers (鲜切花)
1.While everybody enjoys fresh cut flowers around his/her house, few people know how to keep them for as long as possible.This may be done by keeping in mind a few simple facts.
2.An important thing to remember about cut flowers is that they are sensitive to temperature.For example, studies have shown that cut carnations (康乃馨) retain their freshness eight times longer when kept at 12°C! than when kept at 26°C.Keeping freshly harvested flowers at the right temperatures is probably the most important aspect of flower care.
3.Flowers are not intended by nature to live very long.Their biological purpose is simply to attract birds or insects, such as bees, for pollination (授粉) .After that, they quickly dry up and die.The process by which flowers consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide (二氧化碳), called respiration (呼吸) , generates the energy the flower needs to give the flower its shape and color.The making of seeds also depends on this energy.While all living things respire, flowers have a high level of respiration.A result of all this respiration is heat, and for flowers the level of heat relative to the mass of the flower is very high.Respiration also brings about the eventual death of the flower.Thus the greater the level of respiration, the sooner the flower dies.
4.How, then, to control the rate at which flowers die? By controlling respiration.How is respiration controlled?By controlling temperature.We know that respiration produces heat, but the re-verse(相反的过程)is also true.Thus by maintaining low temperatures, respiration is reduced and the cut flower will age more slowly.
5.Another vital factor in keeping cut flowers is the quality of the water in which they are placed.Flowers find it difficult to “drink“ water that is dirty or otherwise polluted.Even when water looks and smells clean, it almost certainly contains harmful substances that can endanger the flowers.To rid the water of these unwanted substances, household chlorine bleach (漂白剂) can be used in small quantities.It is recommended that 15 drops of chlorine bleach (at 4% solution) be added to each litre of water.The water and solution should also be replaced each day.
A.Control of Respiration
B.Beauty of Fresh Cut Flowers
C.Role of Respiration
D.Most Important Aspect of Flower Care
E.Need for Clean Water
F.Ways of Stopping Respiration
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Play
Play is the principal business of childhood, and in recent years research has shown the great importance of play in the development of a human being.From earliest infancy, every child needs opportunity and the right materials for play, and the main tools of play are toys.Their main function is to suggest, encourage and assist play.To succeed in this they must be good toys, which children will play with often, and will come back to again and again.Therefore it is important to choose suitable toys for different stages of a child’s development.
In recent years research on infant development has shown that the standard a child is likely to reach, within the range of his inherited abilities, is largely determined in the first three years of his life.So a baby’s ability to profit from the right play materials should not be underestimated.A baby, who is encouraged and stimulated, talked to and shown things and played with, has the best chance of growing up successfully.
In the next stage, from three to five years old, curiosity knows no bounds.Every type of suitable toy should be made available to the child, for trying out, experimenting and learning, for discovering his own particular ability.Bricks and jigsaws (七巧板)and construction toys; painting, scribbling (涂鸦) and making things; sand and water play; toys for imaginative and pretending play; the first social games for learning to play and get on with others.
By the third stage of play development—from five to seven or eight years—the child is at school.But for a few more years play is still the best way of learning, at home or at school.It is easier to see which type of toys the child most enjoys.
Until the age of seven or eight, play and work mean much the same to a child.But once reading has been mastered, then books and schools become the main source of learning.Toys are still interesting and valuable, they lead on to new hobbies, but their significance has changed—to a child of nine or ten years, toys and games mean, as to adults, relaxation and fun.
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“Salty“ Rice Plant Boosts Harvests
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive once more.
Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University’s School of Biological Sciences, have spent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that has become salty.
The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops, starting with rice.
It is estimated that each year more than 10m hectares (公顷) of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts (妨碍生长) plants.The problem is caused by several factors.In the tropics, mangroves (红树林) that create swamps (沼泽) and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down.In the Mediterranean, a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop, allowing sea water to seep (渗透) in.In Latin America, irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated (蒸发) by the heat, leaving salt deposits behind.
Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally.Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive.
To overcome these problems, Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants’ growth.They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eight harvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use.
Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants.Land that has been abandoned to nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
