2.polio 小儿麻痹症                               3. mermaid 美人鱼

Questions:

(1) What did Annette suffer from when she was a child?

(2)How did her legs become stronger?

(3)How did she help her family?

(4)What did she do in the Paris Olympics?

(5)What did she do in 1915?

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Louis Braille was born near Paris, France. He was a very smart child. He liked to play with his father’s work tools. One day, when he was four, a sharp tool went into his left eye. An infection started and spread to the other. A few weeks later, he was blind.

At age ten, Louis went to a school for blind children. One day a soldier, Charles Barbier, visited the school. Barbier had invented a system of night-reading. This system used dots of the letters. Soldiers used this system in times of war. Barbier thought this system could help blind people to read.

Barbier’s system was difficult, but it gave Louis an idea. He made Barbier’s system easier. By age fifteen, his new system was ready. But the schools did not want his system. Louis died in 1852 at age forty-three. Two years after he died, schools for the blind began to use his system.

Today we call this system Braille after Louis Braille. It is used for all languages, for mathematics, science, writing music, and for computers for the blind.

生词：1:Louis Braille ( 人名)路易斯-布菜叶 2；infection  感染     

3:charles Barbier (人名) 查尔斯-巴比亚

Questions:

(1)     What do you know about Louis Braille?

(2)     How did he become blind?

(3)     What did Barbier invent?

(4)     What did Louis do to Barbier’s system?

(5)     Is Braille’s system still used today?

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Millions of words have been written about young people in the United Sates. There are reasons for this great interest in the ideas, feelings and actions of youth.

Today there are about seven million Americans in colleges and universities. Young persons under 25 make up nearly half of the American population. Many of these will soon be in charge of the nation . Naturally, their ideas are important to everyone in the country, and it is necessary for older people to understand what they think and it is necessary for older people to understand what thy think and feel.

College students today have strong opinions about right and wrong. They are deeply interested in making a better life for all people, especially for those who have not been given a fair chance. They see much that is wrong in the old ways of their elders. So they insist on changing them. As a result, there is often trouble in American families.

Questions:

(1)     How many American are there in colleges and universities?

(2)     Why are young people very important in the USA today?

(3)     What is necessary for older people to do?

(4)     What strong opinions do college students today have?

(5)     What often causes trouble in American families?

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Dear Amy

My computer was broken so I couldn’t read your two e-mails until today.

I’m so sorry to hear about your problem, but I’m glad you’re feeling better and are recovering.

 I’m amazed that in China someone’s liver matched yours. This is really a touching story ? a stranger who donated part of his liver to a girl he doesn’t even know.

 You’re right. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about our weight. I think you look as great as you are, and you’re a wonderful person. I know that the pressure to stay slim is a problem, especially for an actress. However, your mother knows best: nothing is more important than health.

 It’s the same in China-many people, some of whom are not overweight at all, are always going on diets or taking weight-loss pills, which are often dangerous. I hope they can learn from your story.

 Questions:

(1)   Why couldn’t the speaker read the e-mails until today?

(2)   Who donated part of his liver to Amy?

(3)   What is Amy?

(4)   How do many people stay slim?

(5)   Why is the speaker glad?

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生词；1.Annette Kellerman (人名)安妮特-凯勒曼

Annette Kellerman was born in Australia in 1887. She had polio and could not walk easily. She had to wear metal supports on her legs to stand up on her own. To make her legs stronger, her mother took her for swimming lessons every week. Swimming made her legs so strong that when she was 15 she was able to throw away her supports.

Her family was poor so she got work acting as a mermaid. She wore a long tail and fish swam around her. People paid to come and see her.

In 1900Annette swam in Paris Olympics and won two gold medals. The next year she tried to swim across the Channel. She was the first woman to try to do it though she had to stop swimming for six hours.

In1915, Annette went to Hollywood and was the star of two films.

生词；1. logic 逻辑      2.  accountant 会计，会计师

Questions:

(1)     What percentage of the population is left-handed today?

(2)     Why are people left-handed?

(3)     What dose the left side of the brain control?

(4)     Which side of brain do you use when you recognize faces?

(5)     Do you think all artists are left-handed and all accountants are

   right-handed?

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5．What do you think of tricks and jokes like this?

12

Today about 15 percent of the population is left-handed. But why are people left-handed ? The answer is in the way the brain works.

The brain has two halves-the right half and the left half .The right half controls  the left side of the body, and the left controls the right side the body. So right-hanged people have a strong left brain, and left-handed people have a strong right brain.

The two halves of the brain are about the same size. But each side controls different things. The left side controls language, mathematics, and logic. When you memorize the spelling of words, or when you put things in order, you use your left side. The right side of the brain controls your love of art, colour,  music. It is also good at recognizing fact.

This does not mean that all artists are left-handed and all accountants are right-handed. There are actually many exceptions. Some right-handers have a strong right brain, and some left-handers have a strong left brain.

4．How are many tricks and jokes spread today?

3．How did Christian Spurling surprise every one?

2．What did Robert Kenneth Wilson do in 1934?

1．What does the monster in Loch Ness look like?

生词：1. monster n.怪物 2. Loch Ness 尼斯湖 3. fake n.假货；赝品

Questions: