A

    “My wife of 24 years, Marie Roberts, was raised in New York City, worked in the fashion industry, and never got her hands dirty,” said Keith Roberts. “Then, nine years ago, I wanted to move to Florida and reconnect to my country life, but how would I inspire（激发）the same feeling in, well, a city woman? I brought her a two-month-old potbellied pig.”

    At first sight, Marie, then 46, was smitten. So soon she took in another abandoned（遗弃）pig. And thus began Sugarloaf Mountain Farm, her animal shelter in central Florida. With the couple's two children grown up, these animals would now be Marie's babies.

    The Farm now has 300 rescues, from alpacas to donkeys, each with its own story. “A gentleman had a litter of eight pigs, and all but one died,” says Marie. “She weighed one pound and suffered great pain. For three weeks straight, I fed that baby every hour, day and night, seldom sleeping.” Till now, Marie still gets five to ten requests a day to save animals and has to turn most down. “If she can't rescue the animal, she works with that person to find a solution,” Keith says. “She's not only saving animals; above all, she's giving their owners peace of mind.”

    “A woman called from her nursing home,” Marie remembers. “Her pigs would be abandoned if she couldn't find a suitable home. 'I only have a few months, and I need to know that they'll be safe,' she said.” So Marie drove three hours and got them. Soon after, Marie received a note from the woman's daughter. “Dear Marie,” she wrote. “My mom went peacefully, as she went knowing that they are forever loved. Thank you for being Mom's angel.”

    “She is a ball of energy,” Keith adds. “A few times she's gone so far in some situations, like when she locked herself in the chicken coop（鸡舍）. I found her sitting in it with ten chicks nestled in her lap.” That is exactly what you'd expect from a true mother hen.

B

    According to a new study ,a smiley face emoji（笑脸符）in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could even weaken information sharing. In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile.

    In one of the experiments, people were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then tell about both the ability and warmth of that person. Before that, they all received similar messages. But some included smileys while others did not. The results suggested that contrary to face-to-face smiles, which increase both ability and warmth, the smileys in a business e-mail had no effect on the perception（感知）of warmth, and in fact had a bad effect on the perception of ability. The perceptions of low ability in turn weakened information sharing.

    In another experiment, the use of a smiley was compared to a smiling or neutral photograph. The findings showed that in the case（情况）of a photograph, a smiling sender was judged to be more able and friendly than a neutral one. However, when an e-mail on formal work-related maters included a smiley, the sender was thought to be less able. The smiley did not influence the opinion on the sender's friendliness.

    “People are easy to accept that a smiley equals a real smile, but the findings of this study show that in the workplace, this seems not the case, especially when first communications are concerned.” Dr. Glikson says. “In such a situation, it is better not to use smileys to people at whatever age. Smileys could hardly be a wise choice to a person you are not familiar with.”

C

    Are you looking for a different place to visit this summer? Why not take a magical trip to an Earth-size planet beyond our solar system with NASA's Planet Travel Center?

    We live in a universe full of planets outside our solar system. Unluckily, even the nearest of those planets are light-years away, so sending spaceships and humans to these attracting worlds remains a distant dream. But on NASA's Planet Exploration website, you can start a journey on an imagined globe of a new world through 360-degree visualization（可视化）. As you land onto each globe's ground, you'll discover amazing views, like the blood-red sky of TRAPPIST-1d, or stand on a moon of the huge planet Kepler-16b, which appears larger than either of the planet's two suns. The view from each planet's ground is an artist's impression based on the limited information that is reachable; no real photos of these planets exist.

    The newest planet with such 360-degree visualization is Kepler-186f, an Earth-size planet rounding a star much cooler and redder than the Sun. “Kepler-186f is also so distant, and it is till now impossible to recognize their atmospheres—if they exist at all—or characterize their atmospheric qualities,” said Martin Still, scientist for NASA's newest space-based planet-hunting program, wondering people's reaction to their creation. “Though with such challenges unsettled, using the NASA visualization tool, you can see how the existence and disappearing of an atmosphere would change the view of the sky from the planet's ground.” Still added.

    Aaron, head of Planet Travel Center, points out that their present and future schedules of the globe visualization will find the nearest planets to our solar system and characterize their atmospheres, bridging the gap between our imagination and what's really out there. In the near future, all the 360-degree visualizations are viewable on desktop and mobile devices, like smartphones, allowing all readers a wonderful enjoyment from the possibilities of a new world.

Four Ways to Give Truly Meaningful Gifts

    Buying someone you love a gift that expresses your truest feelings isn't always easy. But when you get it right, the joy they show is worth it.       

    Listen up.

    While you may think it's a great idea to surprise someone by giving them something you think is meaningful, it's best to get them exactly what they have told you. For example, you heard friends say they wanted the newest bike but you bought them a gym membership instead.        So get them what they've specially asked for.

    In the spirit of showing love, we might go big. However, we may not be thinking of what really makes the person happy. You might think buying your father the latest TV is perfect, but then when you get it home, it lights up the living room like a stadium and is totally wrong for the space. So think smart.

    Keep it open.

    Many of us may consider giving cash impersonal（没人情味的）. But this may save you some concern. The receiver can be allowed to choose whatever they want. In a recent survey of over 7,000 Black Friday shoppers, 39 percent said the receiver they were shopping for was “picky（挑剔）”.       

    Create an experience.

    Visit websites where you can get the latest tickets for a play, buy a surf lesson, or even something unexpected like a flight lesson.        For example, if your kids are into NASCAR, just imagine the look on their faces when you score them a ride at a race car driving school. So give them a time that they will remember to heart.

    Once a little boy found a caterpillar（蝴蝶幼虫）. After he was allowed to 1 it at home, the little boy got a large box from his mother and put plants to eat, and a 2 to climb on. One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting 3. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon（茧）. The mother 4 how the caterpillar was going to go through a(n) 5 and become a butterfly.

    The little boy watched every day, 6 the coming out of the butterfly. One day it happened, a small hole 7 in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle（挣扎）to come out. At first the boy was 8, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard. But it looked like it was making no 9. Longing to see it out, the boy 10 to help. He cut the cocoon with scissors to make the hole 11 and the butterfly quickly flew out!

    To his 12, the butterfly had an unexpectedly large body and small wings. He 13 to watch the butterfly, hoping that the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the huge body. 14 nothing happened! It never was able to 15.

    The boy tried to 16 what had gone wrong. To help him, his mother took him to talk to a scientist. He 17 that the butterfly was supposed to struggle. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never fly. The boy's good wish 18 the butterfly.

    As you go through school, and life, keep in mind that struggling is an important part of any experience for 19. It is the struggle that 20 us to develop our ability to fly.

    Daisy had always longed to help endangered species of wildlife. One day she made a dream that she       (take) to a distant land in Tibet by a flying carpet .There, the antelope told her they were killed for the wool beneath their       (stomach). Then the carpet flew her to Zimbabwe        she met an elephant. The elephant said they used to be        endangered species because local farmers hunted them without mercy.       (fortunate), their number was now increasing        the help of the government. So when learning that more attention was paid to       (protect) wildlife, Daisy felt happy. Her final stop was a thick rainforest. A monkey was seen rubbing a millipede insect over       (it) body. Out of       (curious), Daisy asked the monkey what the millipede contained. Knowing it contained a powerful drug, Daisy could hardly wait       (share) the good news with WWF.

1）表示欢迎；

2）介绍戏剧节（如目的、内容等）；

3）表达祝愿。

注意：

1）词数80左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

参考词汇：代表on behalf of…