13．　　I take after my mother. From her I took over a curious nature, a sense of adventure and bright red hair. However, I did not receive a talent (才能) for (1)       from her.
　　My mother never doubted that I would be a child Mozart. She found a strict Russian woman to be my piano teacher when I was four. I did whatever the teacher told me in order to (2)       her. "Feel the music," she always told me, I "felt" it. But what is more unpleasant than too many wrong notes played continuously? She "felt" my music, too, which is why she always left with a (an) (3)       expression.
　　Once, in order to (4)       my practice, I managed to record one of my own rehearsals (练习). I put on the tape recording and read until the tape had finished. That method worked for a week, until my mother began to (5)       why I always missed the same note. She came in and found that I had fallen asleep while the tape of my performance played on and on.
　　Realizing I couldn't be a Mozart, my mother told me to pick another instrument. From then on, I worked my way through several other instruments, but I sill couldn't play any of them (6)      .
　　Then my mother hit on another idea. She took me to a drama (戏剧) teacher. However, the teacher put me into painting scenery (舞台布景) instead of teaching to sing. Immediately I fell in love with this active and practical world, and 1 discovered that I had a skill for building and painting. I loved the (7)       of taking our limited supplies and using them to make something beautiful!
　　I'm a sculptor (雕刻家) now, and every day I (8)       once again the pleasure of being fully involved in the act of artistic creation. It's a wonderful feeling. I realize that my mother was trying to give me this feeling. Perhaps she went about it in the wrong way, but her heart was in the right place.

14．　　AI (人工智能) makes our lives easier and better. Let's see the amazing AI.

15．　　As a teenager, school was difficult for me. I had a kind of attention disorder, which means I couldn't direct my attention to what I was doing. So when everyone else in the class was centering their attention on tasks, I could not.
　　In my first reading class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all finished in 45 minutes. I immediately put up my hand and said, "Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to finish the task."
　　She looked down at me through her glasses, saying, "You are not different from your classmates, young man." With her encouragement, I tried. But I didn't finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.
　　In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn't get much education. But Louis didn't give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.
　　Wasn't I the "blind" in my class, being made to learn like the "sighted" students? With thoughts running through my head, I found myself deeply attracted in reading and writing. I completed the task in less than 40 minutes. I realized that I was not different from others. I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problem, why should I ever give up?
　　I didn't expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day with an "A" on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words, "See what you can do when you keep trying?"

16．　　Success seems to be what everyone longs for in life no matter how old he is. Students want to succeed at study. Adults look forward to their success at work. Have you ever wondered what is the key to success? Some may say the answer is good luck. Some may say hard work is the key. In fact, hard work really does pay off. Scientists find that perseverance (坚持不解) leads to better grades and higher achievements in school.
　　"Being passionate (热诚的) is not enough to make sure that you can achieve success in your schoolwork," say researchers, and they thought of "courage" as a key to success. Courage is also considered as effort in reaching long-term goals, and a strong will to continue one's efforts no matter what difficulties they might go through.
　　Researchers think that the finding could help create new training to help children develop the skill and help them to succeed in their future.
　　Researchers from the Academy of Finland studied more than 2, 000 students from Helsinki They were followed through their learning from 12 to 16, the sixth grade until the ninth grade in local school years. Researchers found that the factor (因素) that best predicts courage was related to goals. What they had achieved in their past learning played no role in developing the skill.
　　Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro, who led the study, said, "Courage means a young person is really interested in his or her studies and does not give up easily. A key factor of courage is high perseverance when facing difficulties or in a terrible situation. The important finding is that these factors are the key to success and well-being. Our study shows the power of courage."
　　Professor Salmela-Aro also thinks it is important to develop new practices and build character to improve courage in teenagers. She added, "Young people should see everyday school work as part of their life in a wider context (背景) and set achievable goals for themselves. Schools must also serve as a place where it is safe to fail and learn to deal with setbacks. One must not be discouraged by setbacks, but draw power and new energy from them!"

17．　　Do you have good friends? Do you sometimes feel so close to them that they are like family to you?
　　It turns out that this isn't just an expression. A study by Yale University has found that you and your friends have more genes (基因) in common than strangers do. Researchers looked at the genes of 1, 932 people and compared them in pairs of unrelated friends and strangers. They found that friends have 1% of genes that match.
　　"1% of genes may not sound like much to the layperson (外行), but to geneticists (遗传学家) it is a larger number," Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale University told Discovery News. In fact, this is the same amount of genes you share with your fourth cousins, those who have the same great-great-great grandparents as you.
　　So do you happen to become friends with people who share your genes? Not at all. In fact, it is evolution (进化) that brings you together.
　　People who share certain genes also share skills and have similar likes and dislikes, researchers said. In ancient times, it was important that people who were alike stayed together. For example, people who had a similar susceptibility (易感性) to the cold were more likely to help each other build a fire, giving them a better chance to stay alive.
　　Researchers also found that among all the genes studied, those producing a change in sense of smell were the most similar in friends. This is probably because people who smell things in the same way are more easily drawn to similar environments. For example, people who like the smell of coffee may hang out at cafes (咖啡馆) more often and as a result are more likely to meet and become friends with each other.
　　With their findings, the team has developed an interesting test called the "friendship score". It can help tell how big the chances are that two people will be friends by studying their genes.
　　So, here is a question for you: would you like to take this test and know in advance (提前) who your friends are going to be, or would you still prefer to learn about it by yourself and let time be the judge?

18．　　Psychologists (心理学家) are interested in the reasons why some people like taking part in risky sports.
　　When they studied people who were learning to jump from a plane with a parachute, they found that the parachutists' bodies produced large amounts of two hormones (激素), adrenaline (肾上腺素) and noradrenaline (去甲肾上腺素), just before they made their jump. These hormones help to prepare us for any sudden activity. Adrenaline increases the heart beat and provides more sugar for the muscles (肌肉), while noradrenaline makes us react (反应) more quickly. However, noradrenaline also supplies energy to a part of the brain which controls feelings of pleasure. A feeling of pleasure caused by this hormone makes certain people want to take part in dangerous sports.
　　Another possible reason is the level of excitement in part of the brain. According to some psychologists, the brain tries to manage a certain level of excitement. They believe that people who have a low level of excitement look for new experiences in order to fire themselves with excitement, but people who usually have a high level of excitement try to avoid risks in order not to become overexcited. If the psychologists are right, people with a low excitement level are the ones who enjoy taking part in dangerous sports and activities.
　　It is thought that people with low levels of excitement have a slower-reacting nervous system than people with higher levels. So it may be possible to find out your level of excitement by testing your nervous system. A quick way of doing this is to put some lemon juice on your tongue (舌头). If you produce a lot of saliva (唾液), your nervous system has been affected (影响) by the lemon and so you probably have a high level of excitement;if you produce little saliva, you probably have a low excitement level. If you have a low level, you might enjoy taking part in risky sports. However, this does not mean that you have to try parachuting!

1. Did the parachutists' bodies produce large amounts of adrenaline and noradrenaline before they made their jump?
__________________________________________________
2. What does adrenaline increase and provide?
__________________________________________________
3. Why do people with a high level of excitement try to avoid risks?
__________________________________________________
4. How can people find out their level of excitement?
__________________________________________________
5. Who may enjoy taking part in risky activities?
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19．题目①
假如你是李华, 你们学校正在开展"垃圾分类"宣传活动, 倡议大家在日常生活中正确地进行垃圾分类. 为了达到更好的宣传效果, 学校将在本月底开展一次英文演讲比赛. 你们班的交换生Peter给你发邮件询问相关事情. 请用英语回复一封邮件, 告诉他演讲稿上交的时间, 并分享你对演讲的一些想法.
提示词语:necessary, waste sorting (垃圾分类), different bins (垃圾箱), body languages
提示问题:
● When should you hand in the speech paper?
● What would you like to share with Peter about the speech?