Fast Food Courier Wins Poetry Competition

Lei Haiwei, a 37-year-old fast food courier (送急件的人)from Hunan province won the championship in a televised Chinese poetry knowledge competition, winning fans over with his true love for poems.

“My interest in poems began as early as I was 6 years old,” Lei said after winning the competition.

Lei Haiwei was born in a village of Dongkou county, Shaoyang city. He inherited (继承) his father Lei Changgen’s love of poems. The elder Lei put poetry on the kitchen wall for his son to read throughout childhood.

“My father hoped I would grow up to be a man who keeps the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas in mind,” the courier said.

In the father’s small house, there is a four-story bookshelf, the top of which is filled with poetry books. Lei Haiwei showed great interest in Chinese culture when he was a child. Every time his father told him the stories behind each poem, he was totally attracted. He enjoyed reading poems.

In 2001, the younger Lei graduated from a technical secondary school and found a job in Shanghai. Lei began to read books related to poems at bookstores or libraries in his spare time, since he didn’t have enough money to buy many. The young man also developed a habit of reciting poems he liked, writing down them after returning home.

Though Lei came to Hangzhou city in 2008 and works as a fast food courier, his love for poems hasn’t faded (减退). On his busiest work days, the courier has to deliver more than 50 orders a day, earning up to 9,000 yuan a month. Even so, he seized any available moment to recite poems.

“For example, I am used to reciting poems when I wait for food at restaurants, and traffic lights on my way to deliver food. Reciting poems not only enriches my knowledge, but also makes my job less boring,” the courier said.

As for his future plans, the courier said he will stick to reading and reciting poems.

1.When did Lei Haiwei begin to be interested in poems?

A. At the age of 6. B. At the age of 37.

C. At the age of 50. D. At the age of 16.

2.Why did Lei Haiwei read books at bookstores or libraries?

A. Because he could write down poems there.

B. Because he won the championship in a competition.

C. Because he could talk about poems with others there.

D. Because he didn’t have enough money to buy many books.

3.What does Lei Haiwei think of reciting poems?

A. It helps him get more money.

B. It makes his job more boring.

C. It makes him busier with his job.

D. It helps him get more knowledge.

Learning vocabulary doesn’t have to be boring

Many students have problems with vocabulary when preparing for tests like the SATs. Last week, TEENS offered advice on how to memorize new words. If you’re now familiar with those methods, why not try moving on to the next stage by using the following tips to build up your English vocabulary.

Repeated encounters (反复遇见)

The usual way of “memorizing” new material is through repeating it while it’s still in your mind. However, simply repeating a word seems to have little long-term effect.

But one kind of repetition is effective: repetition of encounters with a word. Words stand a good chance of being remembered if they’ve been met at least seven times in your reading, at intervals (相隔一段时间). So, read English magazines, newspapers, and websites regularly.

Spacing and review

It’s better to distribute (分配) memory work over a period of time rather than do it in a single session (一段时间). This is known as the “principle of distributed practice”, where new vocabulary introduced in one lesson is reviewed in the next, and then in later lessons.

Use it or lose it

Putting words to use in interesting ways helps add them to your long-term memory. In a study of vocabulary learning, students who made up their own sentences with new words and read them aloud remembered them better than those who learned the words separately and silently. Best of all, students were given the task of silently imagining a picture in their minds to go with a new word. So it might help if learners link words with a mental image.

Mix it up

Let’s face it — learning words can be really boring, but it doesn’t have to be. Thanks to the Internet, there are more interesting ways to get the job done. Try watching videos from English-speaking social media celebrities and copying the way they speak. You could even upload your own videos and try becoming a star yourself.

1.According to the passage, a good way of memorizing new words is ________.

A. simply repeating them

B. learning the words silently

C. reviewing them in one lesson

D. reading English magazines regularly

2.To make learning words more interesting, we can ________.

A. try to become a famous star

B. read new words on websites

C. make and upload our own English videos

D. draw a picture on the paper with a new word

3.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Where to use new words. B. How to memorize new words.

C. When to learn new words. D. What to write with new words.

Clara sits at her desk deep in thought. She stares at the math problem in front of her desperately trying to remember how to solve it, but as she sits there her long list of homework plays over in her head, and she becomes overwhelmed. She bites her lip thinking and thinking. Then she hears a song on the radio. As she turns up the music, a wave of calm spreads over her body, she closes her eyes and listens to the music.When the song ends, Clara’s eyes open and she turns off the radio. She looks again at the troublesome question and sighs, “I remember how to do this now,” she says to herself. Then she finishes the problem, but this time calmer than before.

According to NPR news, 45% of teens say they are stressed by school pressures, such as homework and grades. High school, and all of the honors and AP courses, can stress out teens like Clara to the point of exhaustion, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Lots of students can use stress relievers to simmer down during their school day. Music can be one of those reliefs.

When the body is stressed, it releases cortisol (释放皮质醇), a life sustaining adrenal hormone (肾上腺荷尔蒙) nicknamed “the stress hormone”. By playing music, students stop the flow (流动) of cortisol released from their body, therefore returning to their normal, non-stressed self quicker than someone who didn’t hear or play any music.

When returning to this state, teens can think more clearly, with their stress gone. Music does not only calm the stressed mind, it develops creativity, as well as improving math and reading skills. A music class can help students who are stressed and give them an hour of relaxation during their day. This can help high schoolers have a clear mind to concentrate on their schoolwork. Adding music to a teen’s day can help them become less stressed and finally help them with their courses, making a smarter generation.

Now, I know you’re thinking, “What about kids who find playing a musical instrument hard or boring? How would taking a music class help them?” Well, even though playing an instrument doesn’t necessarily help all teens, it is agreed that there are very few teens who do not listen to music. This shows that all students, in their own way, like hearing music throughout their day. The music that they listen to calms them and gives them reassurance (保证) that they can make it through their schoolwork. That being said, all schools should have a required hour of ‘relaxation’ time when high schoolers would listen to music, do easy homework, and calm themselves down after their long school day.

Music helps kids in their education, providing them with a brighter future and ensuring that they take care of their generation, the generation before them, and the generations to come.

1.The words “becomes overwhelmed” in Paragraph 1 probably mean “________”.

A. loses confidence B. feels disappointed

C. can not think clearly D. isn’t sure about the answers

2.What can we learn from the passage?

A. Music helps students to be more creative.

B. Few students can relax themselves at school.

C. Adding music to a teen’s day stops them from studying.

D. Music speeds up the flow of cortisol released from the body.

3.According to Paragraph 5, we know that ________.

A. taking a music class is hard and boring

B. all teens listen to music in their own way

C. playing an instrument is necessary for all teens

D. all schools have a required hour of ‘relaxation’ time

4.What is the best title of the passage?

A. The Bright Future of Music

B. The Way of Calming Down

C. The Calming Power of Music

D. The Way of Solving Problems

阅读短文，根据短文内容回答问题。

We see them everywhere — on boxes of food, on packages and on CDs. They, of course, are bar codes. The invention of bar codes has changed the way we shop and how companies learn where their products are.

It was two university students from America, Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland, who first got theidea of bar codes. In 1948, they heard that the president of a food company was looking for a way to easily get information about what was being sold to customers. They tried to help by using a code system. They invented a large electronic reader to read the codes. However, computers couldn’t easily record the data that was read.

Then, in the 1960s, David Collins made important developments in bar codes. He developed a system for recognizing train carriages. In order to develop the recognition system for other kinds of businesses, Collins started his own company. In 1969, Collins’s company put a bar code reading system in a car factory, showing that bar codes could be useful.

Shortly after Collins started his company, an American electronic company called RCA also saw the potential (潜力) of bar codes to help businesses. RCA’s

system, which recorded how much of a product was sold, was not perfect. Since bar codes were not common, not all products had them and different companies used different codes. Then, Woodland helped develop the Universal Product Code (UPC), which gave every product a code that included information about the manufacturer and the kind of product being sold. This made bar codes much more practical.

In addition to shops, hospitals use bar codes to recognize patients by giving them cards with bar codes on them. Libraries use bar codes to record which books have been lent, and airports use them to find out where bags are going. Bar codes have made life much easier and simpler.

1.What changed the way we shop?

2.Who first got the idea of bar codes?

3.Why did Collins start his own company?

4.What do hospitals use bar codes to do?

5.What is the passage mainly about?

假如你叫李华，学校英语广播站正在招募主持人。请你用英文给负责的老

师 Sam 写一封自荐信，内容包括：你的基本信息，想做主持人的理由，以及

具体打算做的事情。

提示词语： like, improve, help, introduce, share

提示问题： ● What’s your name and hobby?

● Why do you want to be a host?

● What are you going to do?

Dear Sam,

I’d like to be a host for the English Broadcasting Station (英语广播站). __

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I’m looking forward to your early reply.

Yours,

Li Hua

善待他人是中华民族的传统美德。某英文网站正在开展以“团结友善”为

主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请你用英文写一篇短文投稿，说说你对善待

他人的看法，你曾经友善待人的经历，以及你的感受。

提示词语： important, help, happy

提示问题： ● What do you think of being kind to others?

● What did you do?

● How do you feel?

Being kind to others is a traditional virtue (美德) of Chinese people. ______

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This girl is creative. often makes great things.

A. I B. You C. He D. She

Jack rides his bike the park every weekend.

A. in B. on C. at D. of

We’re doing our best this year, we’ll keep on trying.

A. but B. and C. because D. or

Table tennis is than football in our school.

A. popular B. very popular C. more popular D. the most popular