From American Express, wedding guests will, on average, spend $673 on each wedding they attend this year. It includes airfare （$225）, hotel （$170）, dining out （$116）and dressing up （$95）and the gift. If you have weddings to attend this year, here are some tips for you to avoid breaking the bank.

    ⒈Book flights in advance

    The moment you decide to attend a wedding is the time to check flight prices at the best time. Plane fares are higher in the summer, especially in July and August. Booking in advance will save you money, as will watch for sales on lower﹣cost carriers like JetBlue and Frontier. You can check Google Flights for a calendar of prices showing the cheapest days to fly from apps like Hopper to get real﹣time alerts when a fare is at its lowest price point.

    ⒉Don't blow your budget on the gift

    If you've got the money, an expensive gift is lovely. But there's no need to take out loans to prove your love for the happy couple. Skip an expensive necklace by giving （an appropriate amount of） cash instead. To save on the gift, consider making one： A photo album or scrapbook of memories with the bride and groom shows how much you care. You could also share the gift with other guest(s) or even make gifts with DIY ideas by yourself to save money.

    ⒊Use old dresses and suits

    You don't always have to be on a new dress for a wedding. While men have the option of repeating their suits, women are more likely to spend money on new clothes for the special occasion. But before you take out your wallet, consider reinventing something already in your closet. Belts, colorful scarves, shoes can bring life to any outfit.

    What happens inside the head of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball. That question motivated a study of the brains of experienced players.

    Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and  now competed year﹣round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions in the past.

    Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned. using a complex new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can't be seen during most scans.

    According to the data they presented, the researchers found that the  players who had headed the ball more than about 1, 100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball less.

    This pattern of white matter loss is "similar to those seen in traumatic brain injury", like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.

    The players who had headed the ball about 1, 100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at remembering lists of words read to them, forgetting the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.

    Chinese has overtaken French, Spanish and German to become one of the most promising foreign languages for job seekers in the UK. Research shows graduates in Chinese earn an average yearly salary of 31,000 pounds or more.

    Chinese students set themselves up for a different university experience from others who take traditional subjects. While an English student may have as little as six hours of a week, those studying Chinese are in class for most of the day. "I had a lot of friends on other courses who didn't do much in first or second year. You can't play at Chinese. You have to spend hours and hours writing characters," says Hannah, who graduated in Chinese Studies from Sheffield University. "The first year was really difficult. Most of my friends admitted at one point to crying because of the pressure. I was almost told at one point that I might want to reconsider and drop out. "

    So are the evenings in learning characters while your friends are at the student bar really worth its Despite the painful studying experience, most of the graduates think so. They use Chinese in their chosen careers, and would not have been in the jobs they do now without their knowledge of the language.

    Liberty now works for the civil service in Beijing. She earned a place on the Department for International Development graduate scheme with a salary of over 30, 000 pounds within two years. "The degree was absolutely worth it. Looking around at people I know who have studied French or Spanish at university, there's not such a chance to use it in the workplace."

    Hannah has set her apart in the workplace, but she warns ambitious students to think about whether they would really want to live in China in the future." Some people think they are going to learn Chinese and then be a big success, but I think it's important to be quite realistic about that. "

    It had been a long winter. Bitter cold, snowy days had hit us again and again. On the warmer days there had been little sunshine, but only cold, icy rain. The sun had become such a rare sight that I had to look at a picture of it on my wall calendar from time to time to remember what it looked like. The grass had remained brown and dormant（潜伏的）in the grassland. My own backyard had turned into a muddy mess that tried to steal the shoes right off my feet as I walked on it. My heart ached and longed for spring, and my own good cheer had trouble rising up against the continuous, cold, gray days.

    The rain poured down on me as I walked my dogs, holding their leashes in my icy fingers. I looked up at the sky hoping to see the sun smiling down with its warm, golden face. But it was no use. It was then, however, that I saw it. It wasn't the smiling face of the sun in the sky but a little, yellow face peeking（微露出） through the mud. It was a tiny flower, and it filled my heart with hope and joy. I smiled and thanked God for this little sign that winter would soon be over and that spring would arrive. I felt my good cheer rising up at last and I promised God that I would share it with everyone I could.

    One day that tiny flower's seeds will fill the grassland with little, yellow faces smiling up from the ground. Its work will make this world a better and more beautiful place. May we all do the same. May we all shine our light and share our love even on the coldest and grayest days. May we all help to share a bit of spring in winter. May we all work to make this world better and brighter even when it is at its darkest.

    Earth is home to around 7, 000 languages, around half of which are expected to disappear by 2100.

    Languages disappear for many reasons. Sometimes younger generations stop learning a language because parents want children to fit in.       Native American children of the late﹣19th century were required to attend boarding schools where educators forbade them from speaking their native languages.

    The United Nations ranks endangered languages according to their risk level. For example, a "critically endangered" language is one that even grandparents don't speak often. New York's Onondaga language is an example with only 50 speakers left. An "extinct" language has no speakers. It is gone forever. Alaska's Eyak language is one example.      

           In the same way, different languages contribute to cultural diversity. Saving these languages benefits our understanding of other cultures. Languages can show how a society looks at the world and what it values. A language may describe something in a way that is funny, too. In Welsh, it rains not cats and dogs, but old wives and walking sticks.

    The Endangered Language Alliance wants to save languages from disappearing.       However, its efforts are limited. If an endangered language is going to make a real comeback, it'll probably get its start in schools. For nearly 100 years, public schools in Hawaii did not teach the Hawaiian language. Now students can keep learning in Hawaiian from elementary schools to college and beyond.

           At least one did. In 1881, a Jewish linguist named Eliezer Ben﹣Yehuda brought the 3,000-year-old language Hebrew back to life. Today it is one of the official languages of the country of Israel, with more than 4million speakers.

A. The last person who spoke it died in 2008.

B. Why should we save endangered languages.

C. Various animals and plants benefit our environment.

D. With just 5 speakers left, it is absolutely endangered.

E. Can a language with zero native speakers come back to life.

F. Sometimes societies force minorities to give up their language.

G. The non-profit group finds native speakers and records their stories.

    Most people are anxious about the unfamiliar or unknown while some are thrilled. I am one of the latter. The idea of skiing to the North Pole had never crossed my mind until I saw a（n）1in a newspaper looking for people to join a team that would2350 miles to the magnetic North Pole. Back in 1996, a woman from the UK had never3this challenge. I wondered what it would be like to4in temperatures that cold, so I sent off for the application form.

    When the application form5, it said "Are You Man Enough for the Ultimate Challenge " and it was full of pictures of6explorers. I was angry and decided that women could do it too, so it made me even more7 to get on the team.

    Over 500 individuals8 for a place in the team, and the selection process included physical and psychological tests designed to9 the best group. Our test was to complete the Sandhurst military assault course, where the UK's best officers are trained, and it's not for10. We had to climb a huge rope ladder, and I stopped at the top because I have a fear of11. I thought all hope was12. But two others helped me over, and later I found out that the organizers were not looking for amazing13, but great team players, and this moment had shown them who would14 others in the team.

    I had also shown my real self, and in a place like the Arctic, you have to be yourself,15 there is nowhere to hide. These16of asking for help and showing your real self are necessary for women to master.

    I realized that by being myself, I could17. I was chosen for the team, and as a result became the18 British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole. I realized that I could achieve more than I ever19 was  possible﹣but more importantly, by sharing my story with others, I could20them to take a step into the unknown.

    Speaking of talented people, we will think of the young. Mozart created his first piano concerto at 11. Yet I can 't help but draw much      (inspire) from those who succeeded at an old age.      (give ) hope, I am convinced that our dreams can come true if we have faith       ourselves and keep learning and working for      .

    Consider the story of Mary Declany, a 72﹣year﹣old woman from the UK, who invented a new art form in the 1770s. On a visit to a friend, she met two plant experts who      (take) a trip with an explorer through the South  Pacific. Interested in their work, she picked up a pair of      (scissor) and began making flower collages with cut paper.

          surprised us most was that her works of art were so unique and       （value) that they were on display in the British Museum. There's the modern versio        （create) our lives, without worrying about our age. And away from the mysterious world, Colonel Sanders didn't open his first KFC restaurant       he was 62, while Fauja Singh ran his first marathon at 89.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词；

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉；

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词．

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉．

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改的词．

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分．

    It was in a mountain area where I went hiking with my friends last summer. It was the good trip in the beginning but something unexpecting happened later. One of my friend suddenly felt a terrible pain in his stomach and he couldn't move any farther. Nobody knew how to deal it. One girl tried to call her mom, and there was no signal in the mountain area. Worried about him, we put up a tent that we brought with and let him to rest in it. After taking some pills, he drink some water and ate some food. Fortunate, he felt much better and we walked on. We all enjoyed us on the top of the mountain.

1）表示歉意；

2）解释原因；

3）另约时间．

注意：1）开头已给出；2）词数100左右；3）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯．

参考词汇：五彩田园 the Hi﹣tech Idyllic Resort

Dear Tom

    How's everything going …

Yours,

Li Hua