L1 Get ahead with your English

    Many people (predict) in the 1700s that English (will) be the global languages one day, which (prove) to be the case. With the growing international companies and the great advances in communications, more and more people decide to learn English the second language. And the fact is speaking more than one language make you (stand) out. People have realized that in the (absent) of the native language environment, people can not learn it well. In words, you have to be (surround) by the language. Sadly, most of the English learners can not live in the native country, means we can only depend on our school resources.

    Sir Emest Shackleton was not only a great explorer, but also he was an intelligent man. He once found himself and two of his men at the top of an icy mountain ridge (山脊. They had no way to get down to its side. Their destination had been the tiny Whaling Station of strummers, near the South Pole. Shackleton knew if they didn't get down from the ridge, no one would ever hear from them again.

    Shackleton knew there was only one thing to do. He explained that they would all have to slide (滑) down. He instructed the two men to wind(绕) their ropes into a coil(卷) .Then each of the men sat down on a coiled and slid down the icy slope into the darkness. When they found themselves at the bottom, unhurt, Shackleton said, "You know, we shouldn't do that kind of thing too often." The laughter broke the tension all the men were feeling. They arrived later than expected, but safely at the Whaling Station.

    A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a hole. When all the other frogs saw how1the hole was, they told the two frogs that they would die soon.

    At first, both of the two frogs didn't 2their words and tried their best to jump out of the hole. The other frogs3 telling them to stop, because they thought there was no 4 to jump out of such a deep hole. Finally, one of the frogs believed these words and 5. He fell down and died.

    The other frog 6to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs shouted at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally 7. When he got out, the other frogs said, "Don't you hear us?" To their great8, the frog turned out to be 9. He thought they were 10 him all the time, not stopping him.

    To find out how the name Canada came about we must go back to the 16th century. At that time, the French dreamed of discovering and controlling more land, of expanding(扩大) trade beyond their borders and of spreading their beliefs across the world. In 1535, Francois I, king of France, ordered a navigator(航海家) named Jacques Cartier to explore the New World and search for a way to India.

    Carrier first arrived at the gulf of the St. Lawrence, which he intended (打算) to explore. He did not know what to expect but he hoped that this gulf was just an arm of the ocean between two islands. If it was, he would soon be on his way to the Far East. So he sailed upstream along the St. Lawrence River. However, instead of reaching Asia he arrived at Quebec or Standalone, as the Indians called it. It was at this point that the term "Canada" entered the country's history. Apparently the word "Canada" came from an India word" kanata", which means community or village. Cartier first used it when he referred to Standalone or Quebec. What a huge "village" Canada is!

The Uniqueness of Finger-prints (指纹的唯一性)

    Every human being has a unique arrangement of the skin on his fingers and this arrangement is unchangeable. Scientists and experts have proved the uniqueness of finger-prints and discovered that no exactly similar pattern is passed on from parents to children, though nobody knows why this is the case.

    The ridge structure on a person's fingers does not change with growth and is not affected by surface injuries. Burns, cuts and other damage to the outer part of the skin will be replaced in time by new one, which bears a reproduction of the original pattern. It is only when the inner skin is injured that the arrangement will be destroyed. Some criminals make use of this fact to remove their own finger-prints but this is a dangerous and rare step to take.

    Finger-prints can be made very easily with printer's ink. They can by recorded easily. With special methods, identification can be achieved successfully within a short time. Because of the simplicity and economy of this system, finger-prints have often been used as a method of solving criminal case. A suspected man may deny a charge but this may be in vain. His finger-prints can prove who he is even if his appearance has been changed by age or accident.

    When a suspect leaves finger-prints behind at the scene of a crime, they are difficult to detect with the naked eye. Special techniques are used to “develop” them. Some of the marks found are incomplete but identification is possible if a print of a quarter of an inch square can be obtained.

Choose the best answers according to the above:

    If you saw a father (pat) his son the back smiling happily, what would you think was on? You would probably think that the father was his son on (do) something well, maybe (pass) an exam or winning a race. You would know what was going because you understood the message (convey) by the father's body language. the world, a pat on the back and a smile usually means," Well done".

    When Lew Alcindor was 13, and obviously still growing, a group of schools began offering him scholarships (奖学金). The Alcindors decided to send their only child to Power Memorial Academy, a small school on Manhattan's West Side.

    At Power, Alcindor came under the control of Coach Jack Donohue, a strict young an who already gained his fame as one of the best coaches in the city. Donohue brought Alcindor along slowly. As a first-year student, the boy was not able to do much but wave his long skinny arms and shoot a basket now and then. But by the second year, when he was 15 years old and nearly 7 feet tall, Alcindor was quick and skillful enough to make the high school All-American team and to lead Power to an undefeated season.

    From then on he simply got better. Some rival coaches(对方教练) used to take their teams quickly away from the floor before Power warmed up so that their players would not see him any sooner than they had to. Wearing size 16 D shoes and sucking a lollipop(棒棒糖), Alcindor would loosen up by starting his leaping lay-ups(擦板球). Then he would casually shoot the ball with either hand, to the delight of the fans.

    When reporters and photographers began to follow Alcindor closely, Donohue protected his boy firmly. He simply ordered Lew to talk to no member of the press, and this suited Lew fine. He was not comfortable talking to grown-ups, perhaps because he towered over them. Discouraged photographers began following him in secret as though he were an easily-frightened giraffe. Once after ducking into a subway to escape, Alcindor told a friend that it was all becoming like policemen and robbers. “People want you not for yourself,” Donohue warned him, “but because you're a basketball player. Don't forget that.”