13．Looking at life differently
　　When I was 14, life was boring.
　　However, I didn't mind having the same views (风景) every day. And even though my school had over a thousand students, I didn't really care to notice the differences between us all.
　　But this boring view of mine (1)       when my parents bought me a camera for Christmas. After a month of playing with my new camera, I realized I had no (2)       for taking pictures. Even though I got friends to pose (摆姿势) in front of ancient buildings and in flowery fields, nothing seemed to (3)      . My photos were clearly missing something of importance and had no creativity. After a while, I dropped my new hobby.
　　Then, a month or two later, I suddenly decided to pick it up again. During the summer break, I went for a walk on the railroad tracks (铁轨) behind my house.
　　The tracks are a warm red color. Before the walk, I thought, "Maybe I should bring my camera."
　　Surprisingly, this (4)       was what began my love for photography. When I was walking on the tracks without a model and only nature around me, I realized how important it was to look at the details (细节) of things. I didn't worry about trying to (5)       something beautiful. Instead, I just took photos of the beauty already around me.
　　I quickly became (6)       about color, lighting, shape and everything in between. After months of studying outdoor sights and looking at people's eyes, I was (7)       able to create beauty of my own. Slowly, my photos became something I was proud of.
　　So far, my works have appeared in two magazines and been shown in two different museums. They're not huge achievements, but they're important to me. And they're the (8)       of how much my artistic abilities have grown.
　　Thanks to this Christmas gift from my parents, I now have a new way of looking at the world.

15．　　It was coming up on Marty's birthday. His mom had asked him what he wanted as a gift this year. He thought maybe a new bicycle, or maybe a new camera, a new basketball, or a telescope (望远镜). "Any of those gifts would be great," he said. Secretly, he hoped for the telescope. Marty loved space, stars, and learning about the planets.
　　Marty's mom and dad talked about the gifts one night after Marty went to sleep. "I think we should get Marty the telescope," said dad. "He's so interested in space and the planets. He would like that the best." "Sounds good," said mom. Dad told her he would pick out a telescope for Marty the next day after work.
　　Marty's dad had the telescope in his car. He waited until Marty was asleep and brought it into the house. "Wow!" said Marty's mom after dad put it together. "This is wonderful." "Now where are we going to hide it until Sunday?" "How about in the attic (阁楼)?" "Marty won't find it there."
　　Sunday morning came and Marty ran down the stairs into the kitchen. His gift was usually near his chair at the table, but this year he didn't see anything. "Happy Birthday!" shouted mom and dad from the next room. They came into the kitchen and saw Marty was looking around for a gift. "I guess you think we forgot to get you a gift," said mom. Marty looked confused. "Well, you usually put my gift in the kitchen," Marty said. Dad told Marty to follow him outside the house in the yard. "This is fantastic!" shouted Marty. "I don't take many pictures, and I probably wouldn't use the basketball much, and my bike is okay for now. But I will use the telescope! Thanks so much." "You're welcome," said mom and dad. All that night, Marty saw many beautiful stars and even the planet Mars. Marty would remember his tenth birthday for the rest of his life!

16．　　Homeless people face a lot of challenges, such as not having enough to eat and no job opportunities. Some of the most basic challenges, however, are not having clean water and toiletries (卫生用品) — a big problem for homeless teens. That encouraged a young researcher to invent a multi-purpose product to help these teens.
　　"I was born into a life of volunteering," said 13-year-old Leia Gluckman. And that's true. Her mom is a president of an organization providing help for homeless teens. Leia and her brother have volunteered there for years. When she was a young girl, Leia helped serve food where teens were eating. Now she's a teenager herself, and she's managing the toiletry and clothing work there.
　　From her work at the center, Leia noticed that teens asked for some toiletries more than others. What they needed most often were toothpaste, body powder (粉) and shampoo (洗发水). Leia wondered whether she could create a product to serve all three purposes.
　　It would need to take away dirt and oil from skin and hair. It would need to clean teeth. Also, it would need to kill bacteria (病菌) without being harmful to people. She wanted her ingredients (产品成分) to be natural, to be able to break down easily and to taste and smell pleasant. Moreover, this product had to be low-cost and have a long shelf life.
　　Leia started by going to stores and looking at the ingredient lists for toiletries. Then she tried eight different ways. She tested each way to see how well it worked.
　　Not all of them worked well. But she finally decided on three. Each includes salt and baking powder. Salt helps clean teeth and skin; baking powder helps take in bad smells. She also has some other recipes which include some special materials that give her products different tastes and smells, which would let teens choose a product based on personal preferences.
　　It wasn't easy, but Leia came up with some model products. She presented them at the finals of Broadcom MASTERS science competition.
　　Leia wants to develop her products further. "Could it possibly be used to drive away mosquitoes (蚊子)?" she wonders.
　　"Science offers a way to go about solving problems and helping people," says Leia. And she thinks her products could benefit a great number of people, not just the homeless. Anyone in an area with little or no chance to get clean water could find her products useful, maybe refugees (难民) and soldiers who are sent to places without running water.

17．　　Virtual(虚拟的) reality is a way to create a computer-made environment that brings the user into a virtual world. If you ever have put on a VR headset, you would know exactly what I am talking about. From an experiential view we do understand the idea, but what about the technical backend that goes into making it all possible? In this blog, we will understand the technology behind virtual reality and the basic terms about the development of a virtual ecosystem for a VR headset.
　　The primary subject of virtual reality is simulating(模拟) the vision. Every headset is to perfect their method to create an immersive(浸人式) 3D environment. Each VR headset puts up a screen or two in front of eyes, keeping the user away from any interaction with the real world. Two autofocus lenses(自动对焦镜片) are generally placed between the screen and the eyes that change based on eye movement and positioning. The vision appears on the screen either by using a mobile phone or HDMI line connected to a PC.
　　To create a truly immersive virtual reality, there are certain requirements — a frame rate(帧率) of at least 60 fps, a refresh rate and at least 100-degree field of view (though 180 degrees is perfect). If either of these doesn't work according to the standards, the user will experience too big of a time difference between their actions and the response from the screen. We need the response to be less than 20 ms (1/1000 second) to fool the brain which is achieved by joining all the above in the right proportion(比例). Another matter that needs to be looked at here is to prevent net sickness because of the differences between the frame rate and refresh rate.
　　Apart from the image, there are certain other things that go into creating an immersive VR experience, holding the user's attention completely in the virtual environment. For example, sound effects, when put with the image, can create very attractive effects. By using a headphone and 3D sound effects, the user can totally believe in the virtual environment. While perfecting sound effects, proper care needs to be taken about the consistency(一致) between the pictures and the sound. If you start playing frightening music in the background of a happy scene, it will just put the user off.
　　In future, we will see rapid progress in creating a truly immersive digital experience. With leading players like Google, Microsoft, Oculus, and HTC making great efforts to improve the capabilities(性能), we are not far from achieving a virtual reality that would feel so much better than the real world. If you would like to develop a VR app for your business, then feel free to get in touch. With over 10 years of experience in mobile technologies, we can make every dream a reality.

18．阅读短文, 根据短文内容回答问题。
　　Paperless homework will affect students' handwriting
　　A growing number of primary schools in Shanghai are now encouraging "paperless" homework. Instead of writing with a pen, children can finish their homework simply by "surfing and typing" on their iPad screens.
　　Many people welcome the use of this new technology in schools. And it isn't difficult to understand why digital homework could be the next big thing in education: it reduces waste; makes it easier for teachers to collect homework; and now that everything else is digitalized, homework should too.
　　But there's an overlooked downside to online homework, as it shows an alarming trend(趋势): how technology is affecting physical handwriting.
　　In today's digital age, handwriting is already a weakening skill. Can you remember the last time you used a pen? For me, it was when I had to fill out a form at work. To be honest, I couldn't write quite a few characters and had to type them on my iPhone to remind me of how to write them correctly. I know I'm not alone. There are more saying they share similar embarrassment(尴尬) when asked to write by hand.
　　In a time when computers, smart phones and keyboards are widely used in the world, is handwriting even important? The answer is yes. Handwriting plays an important role in the learning process. Writing a character is more difficult than typing. It requires the body and mind work together actively. So for school-age children, writing not only allows them to memorize characters, but also trains their brains the way typing can't.
　　Too many children, lost in technology, lie on a sofa or in bed with their smartphones or iPads — a seldom mentioned side effect of modern technology, which may lead to physical problems later.
　　All said, I'm not saying that digital homework should be canceled. Digitalization is an unstoppable trend. But for courses such as Chinese and English language, I hope to see digital homework introduced later into the courses, at least after children have had the ability to write characters and spell words well.

(1)How do children finish their paperless homework?
      
(2)Why do many people welcome digital homework?
      
(3)What happened when the writer used a pen to fill out a form at work?
      
(4)Why is handwriting important for school-age children?
      
(5)What does the writer think of digital homework?
      

19．　　根据中文和英文提示，完成一篇不少于50词的文段写作。文中已给出内容不计入总数。所给提示词语仅供选用。请不要写出你的校名和姓名。
　　假如你是李华，你们学校将要举办一场阅读沙龙 （Reading Salon），你打算邀请你们班交换生Tim参加，请用英语写一封电子邮件，告诉他活动的时间、地点和内容，以及需要做什么准备。
提示词语：introduce, talk about, learn
提示问题：
When and where will you hold the Reading Salon?
What will you do at the Salon?
What do you advise Tim to prepare for it?

Dear Tim,
　　How is everything going? There'll be a Reading Salon in our school. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
　　Looking forward to your early reply.
Li Hua,
Yours

20．　　根据中文和英文提示，完成一篇不少于50词的文段写作。文中已给出内容不计入总数。所给提示词语仅供选用。请不要写出你的校名和姓名。
　　“不信不立，不诚不行。”诚实守信是中华民族的传统美德，我们在日常生活中也应该诚实待人，言而有信。
　　某英文网站正在开展以“诚信”为主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈生活中你是怎么做的，以及这样做的意义。
提示词语：honest, believe, promise, happy, virtue (美德)
提示问题：
What do you do in your daily life?
Why do you do so?
　　 It's one of our traditional virtues to be honest. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________