Beethoven is one of the greatest composers in the history of music. In his twenties, he lost his hearing. But he didn't give up.1by his struggles with deafness, he produced hundreds of musical works.

    At 54 years of age, he lived at a small house in Vienna,2he completed his last work, Symphony No 9. Before the performance, Beethoven nervously imagined how people would 3. The backstage atmosphere at the theatre was tense. During the performance, Michael Umlauf and Beethoven took 4of the concert as directors together. For more than an hour, Beethoven jumped about in front of the orchestra, 5 his arms wildly in the air, and madly turning the pages of his score while Umlauf stood quietly by his side, skillfully guiding the orchestra. As the final joyous note signaled the end of the symphony, the audience 6 to their feet clapping, cheering and waving their hats. The performance was a great 7.

    Beethoven was surprised at the audiences response. 8shocked the audience as well was that the person who didn't hear the symphony was the very man who composed it! Beethoven is a real musical genius.

    I'm not someone who likes to play games. But last April, I heard some of my classmates talking about the Rubik's Cube (魔方).

    I saw a friend solve this puzzle very1which really surprised me. Before I had even made my first 2 , he had aligned (对齐) all the colors. At the time, I thought my classmate must be using some 3technique.

    At home I searched online for 4.I found out about an Australian teenager who can 5 the third order cube in 4. 73 seconds. I was shocked. Fascinated (着迷) by his 6, I began to study the Rubik's Cube myself.

    Without a teacher to help me, it was a big challenge. The first thing I did was to 7the formulas (公式) for the cube. 8, that turned out to be an ineffective way of solving the problem.

    I began to 9another approach to the cube, called "muscle memory". It depends on practicing a specific mechanical movement into memory through10. As time went on, became more and more skillful. Meanwhile I found that it was a 11way to improve my logical skills and memory.

    I'm so glad that I was12 to the Rubik's Cube. All in all, to take on a new thing is always a good idea, a way into a new world.

SUMMER PROGRAM

Program Title:

London: Creativity, Innovation and Leadership

The Academic Program:

Program Dates:

•Teaching will take place daily finishing 4 pm every day from July 23 to August 3.

•Accommodation check-in on Sunday July 22 and check-out on Saturday August 4.

Number of Participants:

    The cost is based on a minimum of 30 students (£2,450 per student). In addition there will be two group leaders who will accompany the group. Please note that we cannot accept a reduction in the number of students without adjusting the cost of the program.

Accommodation:

    Participants will be accommodated in King's College London student dormitory. Each apartment has a single bedroom, laundry room and free Wi-Fi connection.

The program fee will include:

    •Weekday breakfast and lunch on campus (Monday-Friday only).

    •Academic lectures, seminars and workshops.

    •Guided excursions and site visits.

    •Cultural and social activities as outlined.

    •Accommodation inside campus.

    •Course certification.

    • Airport transfers on arrival and departure

    English culture, King's College London, academic study …If you are interested, come and sign up!

    People can reduce, reuse or recycle waste instead of throwing it away. Matt and Sam decided to do an experiment to see how much waste the three R's could save.

    First, they collected the rubbish from six classrooms at their school and then divided the rubbish into three groups:

•things that were reusable, such as a pencil or a marker

•things that could be recycled, such as cans, glass, or paper

•things that were truly waste

    Then, Matt and Sam weighed each of the three groups. They discovered that 84% of the total rubbish thrown away that day could be recycled or reused. They decided to do something about it.

    Matt and Sam presented the idea of starting a recycling programme to the school leaders. Then they worked with the Student Council. They prepared brochures for the students and their families about recycling. After thinking over the possibility of the programme, the school bought colored containers for each classroom. Besides, each room received a blue container for paper and a green container for glass and cans as well as a red container for real rubbish.

    Within a short time, each classroom in the school was sorting recyclable materials from rubbish before it was thrown. To check the school's progress, Matt and Sam weighed the rubbish one more time. They collected the rubbish from the red containers from the same six classrooms as before, sorted the rubbish into three groups again and weighed each group. This time, they found that the red containers were filled with 90% real waste. Only 10% of recyclable materials had been thrown into the red containers. Matt and Sam were pleased with their efforts.

Many on the Mountain

    We often see people waiting in lines at supermarkets, theatres and amusement parks. Surprisingly, some people even have to wait in line at the summit (顶峰)of Qomolangma in the Himalayas.

    The best time to climb the Himalayas is during the months of April and May, as well as some days in September and October. "In these periods of recent years, the path contains rocks and deep crack from melting ice due to the warm weather, which make expeditions up the mountain more dangerous, said Apa, an experienced Nepalese guide. During this year's climbing season, crowds of climbers became stuck in a long line near the summit. The line is above the mountain's highest campsite — about 8,000 meters above sea level.

    However, most people can only spend a few minutes at the summit without extra oxygen supplies. Twenty-one mountaineers have died in the Himalayan mountains so far this year, according to Gripped, a magazine dedicated to mountain climbing. Eleven of these climbers died on Qomolangma.

    This death count marks a four-year high. Overcrowding, inexperience and poor weather have been the most common causes of death, USA Today reported.

    After these tragedies, one question remains: Why do so many people risk their lives to climb the mountain? The answer differs from climber to climber. Studies suggest that people who take risks tend to perceive themselves differently than people who avoid risky activities. But for adventurers who are drawn to the Himalayas, reaching the summit of Qomolangma is a lifelong dream, according to Discovery News.

    ''Qomolangma is like a light to bugs that attracts people once they hear about it. It represents the ultimate for many people, '' US mountaineer Alan Arnette said. Technological advances have also encouraged more people to climb the mountain. People can get high-tech safety equipment more easily than before. And with the internet, climbers know better than ever about how to reach the summit safely, Yahoo Travel noted.

    Fans of art believe that its main purpose is to make us look at life from many different angles. When it comes to Cubism, however, the artists of this era wanted us to look at life from every angle.

    The father of Cubism, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is among the art world's most famous names. Like many other great names before him, he felt restrained by the rules of his teachers and decided to do something: break them.

    Early in his painting career, Picasso realized something important about how people view and remember scenes of beauty. When we look at a subject, we don't just see it from one angle, as many paintings appear. Instead, we study the subject from a number of different angles, heights and viewpoints. This is the aim of Cubism: It portrays subjects from a wide range of angles; it doesn't force us to see things as the artist viewed them at the time he or she painted them. To bring his visions to life, Picasso and other Cubists took the most basic components of a subject and rearranged them in a way which let us see it in full detail.

    "By breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas, Picasso aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space," in the words of the Tate Institution. Or as Lithuanian-born Cubist Jacques Lipchitz once put it: "Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different."

    Cubism stood out as it was an art movement which didn't just rely on the artist to share their vision by painting what they saw. As cubist paintings mainly show their subjects in a deconstructed form, this means that viewers must use their imaginations to find the missing pieces for themselves. As Guardian art critic Johnathan Jones noted, this is part of the beauty of enjoying Picasso's works. "If you can relax your gaze enough and just enjoy the painting long enough, something really amazing happens. Your mind produces a solid feeling of the things Picasso was looking at the world is revealed in its majesty," he wrote.

    Is traffic a big problem where you live? Increased cycling may be the answer. Where are the best places to live and cycle? A new report lists the best bike-friendly cities around the world.

    Top of the list is Amsterdam, the bike capital of the world. An unbelievable 40% of all traffic movements are by bicycle. Copenhagen, the city of bikes, is a city where 32 % of workers cycle to work because it's fast and easy. Berlin is another European city that's great for cycling. The city has about 80 kilometers of bike lanes, and 50 kilometers of pavement (人行道) paths. Cycling accounts for 12% of total street traffic.

    Barcelona has been praised for its cycle service ''Bicing'', a bicycle service that allows users to take and leave bicycles at any of the 100 stations spread around the city. The city has created a ''green ring'' that surrounds the city area of Barcelona with a bike path. There are 3,250 parking spaces for bikes at street level at present. Barcelona City is also building a new underground car park for bicycles.

    The UK has its cycle-friendly cities too. Bristol is the birthplace of ''Sustrans'' — the cycle-route charity which was formed 30 years ago. One of their projects was turning an old rail line between Bristol and Bath into a bike route. Other bike-friendly cities in the UK include Cambridge and York.

    Bicycle is a most popular means of transportation in China. Nowadays, riding a bicycle is also a good way to support low-carbon living. There are many riding routes in Beijing for outdoor-lovers to explore. Cyclists can get close enough to experience the history and culture of Beijing, including the Forbidden City, the Bird's Nest, Hutong etc.

•save energy

•reduce pollution

•improve the environment

短文的开头已为你写好，不计入总词数。

    Nowadays green living is becoming more and more popular. ……