—I don't know,        .

—I       to but I forgot about it.

—No，it         be him—I'm sure he doesn't wear glasses.

—No，dear.They don't        well.Put them in the fridge instead.

    The New York Times published an article recently that shows great regret for the “death of conversation”. It 1that while technology such as cell pho nes, e-mails, and Internet posting makes us feel more2 than ever, they're also driving us away from people around us.

    Users get final connectivity at the price of 3face-to-face conversation. Sherry Turkle, author of the article in The New York Times says people are 4 to a different way of being “alone together”.

                Actually, 5text messages or writing micro-blogs allows us to6thoughts. But bits and pieces of online cannot7 a “real conversation.” Lan Guo, 19, a freshman English major from Changsha University, said that she would like to hear people's tone of voice and see their faces in a (n)8. “The give and take of ideas in a conversation sharpens our minds.” she said. She also mentions that burying ourselves in mobile technology reduces our chance of starting conversations with strangers and 9 people.

    Turkle mentioned the popular 10of “I share, therefore I am” among this generation. Liu Xuan, a young writer from Taiwan and psychology graduate from Harvard University, thinks it's a mindset adopted by most 11 people. They are so busy creating or polishing their online persona (网络人格) that they forget how to live a (n) 12 life. 

However, experts remind us that it's 13to blame mobile technology. Chen Chen, a sociology expert at China Youth & Children Research Center, 14 out that it is still owners of gadgets, who're avoiding personal contact. “Only by strengthening conversation can we understand each other. 15 throwing away the mobile gadgets is not a solution.” she said.

         Imagine looking f or your lost dog. You step into a cave. But instead of the dog, you find beautiful cave paintings. You see paintings of horses, deer, and bison drawn in black, brown, red and yellow. Your first question would probably be“Who did this? ”

          This is what happened to four French boys in 1940. They found the Lascaux caves. The paintings the boys discovered in those caves are about 17, 000 years old. They were drawn by the ancient people called Cro-Magnon(克鲁马努人).

          Cro-Magnons looked much like people of today. They used tools, such as fishing nets. But their art was extremely good. The main cave at Lascaux is called Great Hall of Bulls, which has a picture of bulls and horses in many colours. The largest animal is 18 feet long. There are smaller animals, such as bison, stags and a bear. There is also a strange spotted two-horned(两只角的)animal.

          To the left of the main cave are the most famous paintings that are the drawings of animals in many different colours. One painting is called Little Horses. On the ceiling are horses and cows. The most unusual sight may be in the Shaft of the Dead Man where there is a rhinoceros, a carefully drawn dead man, an injured bison and a bird.

          Why did Cro-Magnon artists do these beautiful drawings on cave walls? Did the drawings call upon some magic power? Did the Cro-Magnon people hope that the drawings would bring good luck? There is one thing the paintings seem to tell us. The Cro-Magnons were interested in the world. They looked at beauty and they understood it.

The British people love talking about the weather. This hot summer, Europe was caught in the heat wave, and many parts of China were also been struggling with record-breaking temperatures. Therefore, there's plenty for the British people to

get excited about.

          But beside from a simple“hot”, what other ways are there to describe the summer heat? Apart from phrases like“boiling hot”, there are many interesting expressions that relate to unbearably hot weather.

          Dog days of summer

          In books and newspaper articles, the period from early July to mid-August is often referred to as the“dog days of summer”. Some think the expression means the weather is so hot that dogs go wild. But in fact, the expression comes from 16 th century and refers to the days on which Sirius(天狼星)—the Dog Star—rises at the same time as the sun. The Romans associated the hot weather with this star and would sacrifice a dog every year in April to stop the anger of Sirius.

          So hot you can fry an egg on the sidewalk

This expression needs no explanation and although its origin is unclear, it hasn't stopped thousands of curious tourists from testing if the saying is true, with the result that sidewalks in Death Valley, California—the hottest place in the US—are now littered with broken eggshells. Early in July, the local government asked tourists to stop their cooking experiments. Even so, it is actually possible to fry an egg on the sidewalk, so long as you use a frying pan with a lid and the temperature is at least 49℃.

提示：①英语已成为一门国际语言。懂得英语，你便可与外国人交流，你还可以周游世界而且不被误解；

②许多书籍、报纸、杂志都是用英语写的。借助英语可以更直接地获取知识；

③如果你在外资企业(foreign company)或国外生活的话，英语不仅仅是你的交流工具，还是你的谋生方式；

④学习英语有时也是一件趣事。

参考词汇：国际的 international　误解 misunderstand　工具 tool