A Brief Introduction to Some Dictionaries

Norman Merriam Webster BES—1850 Dictionary

    This handy translator provides you with 5,000,000 total translation to and from Spanish and English! This dictionary is specially designed for all levels of language skill from beginner to advanced.

Brand V7 Dictionary / Translator

    This special model features the largest and most complete Russian-English dictionary. Advanced English speech, accent correction function and specialized terms database will help you communicate. Business organizers will allow you to stay in touch with the world through all kinds of advanced features.

Seiko WP1500 Rogets III Thesaurus Dictionary

    It is the nearest word finder. It is also great for cross word puzzles. It will show you the time, day and date of local time zone and the same for over 100 cities throughout the world by simply entering the first letter of the name of the city.

Ectaco KD-800 Dictionary / Translator

    This advanced talking handheld translator features the following dictionaries: the general English-Korean dictionary for 215,905 entries（词条）；popular Korean-English dictionary for 183,279 entries, and the dictionary of Chinese traditional characters for 7,744 entries.

The Lingo Traveler 18

    It is a great value as well as an International translator. Draw on over 96,000 words and 8,000 useful phrases. Equipped with a powerful databank, The Lingo Traveler 18 allows you to store all of your appointments, telephone numbers, and addresses.

    "Make way, good people, make way, in the King's name! "cried he. "Open a text; and, I promise you, Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child, may have a fair sight of her brave clothing, from this time till an hour past noon. A blessing on the moral Colony of the Massachusetts, where immorality is dragged out into the sunshine! Come along, Madam Hester, and show your scarlet （鲜红色的；罪孽深重的）letter in the market-place!

    A lane was at once opened through the crowd. Led by the beadle （狱吏），and attended by an irregular procession of serious-looking men and unkind-looking women, Hester Prynne set forth towards the place appointed for her punishment. A crowd of eager and curious schoolboys, understanding little of the matter in hand, except that it gave them a half-holiday, ran before her progress, turning their heads continually to stare into her face, and at the winking baby in her arms, and at the shameful letter on her breast.

    It was no great distance, in those days, from the prison-door to the market-place. Measured by the prisoner's experience, however, it might be considered to be a rather long journey; for, though her manner was proud, she perhaps underwent an extreme pain from every footstep of those who thronged to see her, as if her heart had been thrown into the street for them all to step upon. In our nature, however, there is a condition that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present suffering, but chiefly by the pain that rankles （使痛心）after it. With almost a calm manner, therefore, Hester Prynne passed through this portion of her suffering, and came to a sort of scaffold （刑台），at the western end of the market-place. It stood nearly beneath the eaves of Boston's earliest church, and appeared to be a fixture there.

    In areas like the Central United States that get lots of tornadoes, there^'s a common piece of celestial （天上的）fortune-telling that green skies mean a tornado is on its way. Research has shown that it isn^'t quite as simple as that, but scientists have found that if you see a green sky, you should probably go inside. As far as most scientists can tell, the green skies around powerful thunderstorms are usually a combination of red sunsets and water droplets.

    Daytime skies are blue because blue shorter wavelengths of visible light tend to bounce off （反射）air molecules better than red longer wavelength light. So the blue light gets bounced all over the sky and looks like it's coming from everywhere. Meanwhile, around sunset sunlight travels through so much atmosphere that just about all the blue is bounced away from the horizon, leaving all those reds and oranges behind. The sunset might look exclusively （独有的）red and orange, but there's still some green and even blue light hidden in there, just far less than the other colors. But for us to notice the remaining green light, it needs to hit something that reflects green light much better than red. That's where water comes in.

    Big tall threatening storm clouds are made of water droplets, and even though water is best at reflecting blue light, it can still reflect green pretty well, much better than reds and oranges, so under just the right conditions, the water in and around a cloud can bounce the green light hidden in the sunset right into our eyes making the sky look green.

    Still, none of the conditions that can turn skies green are unique to the clouds that produce tornadoes. Sometimes they just lead to lots of rain, and maybe some hail. So if you see huge storm clouds rolling in and a green tint （色调）in the sky, it doesn't necessarily mean there^'s about to be a tornado, but it does mean you should probably head indoors.

    The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea-based project, comprises four parts: a 22.9-kilometer steel bridge, two artificial islands, a submerged sea tunnel extending for 6.7 kilometers, as well as leading bridges that connect the bridge to the cities.

    For a bridge project, designers prefer to build all the structure on the ground, and only choose the tunnel when there is no alternative. However, for the HZMB, the most practical design is to integrate bridge, island and tunnel to form a complete cross-sea channel.

    "The Pearl River Estuary （河口）holds a world-level shipping channel. Smooth traffic should be guaranteed. And the location is near the Hong Kong International Airport. With about 2,000 flights taking off and landing at the airport, the bridge cannot be built too high for safety reasons, said Meng Fanchao, chief designer of the project. ^"But you cannot have a submerged sea tunnel without any support. That forced us to build the artificial islands."

    Chinese engineers declared a trail in installing deep-immersed tunnel tubes. There is no model for us to refer to as all the cases are shallow-buried tubes, said Meng.

    "For lack of experience, the installation of the first tube lasted for 96 hours," said Yin Haiqing, deputy manager of the Project Management Department. "Everyone was exhausted when we made it."

    The 6.7-kilometer tunnel is the world's longest submerged sea tunnel.

    Two artificial islands, covering an area of 200,000 square meters, help create a smooth transition between bridge sections and tunnels. Different from traditional island, the engineers put 120 steel cylinders （圆柱）with a 22-meter diameter （直径）into the seabed, make out the shape of an island, and fill the island with soil. It is an innovative way they adopted to build the artificial island, making it firmer, more efficient and friendly to the marine ecology.

    The HZMB provides a fixed link between the two Chinese economic centres Hong Kong and Macau and the mainland of China at Zhuhai.

    Tipping is part of everyday life in many parts of the world. It's usually an informal charge that's paid on top of the bill to show appreciation to the person who has provided you a service.

    Tipping culture can vary from place to place. In the Middle East, people who serve usually try to be more helpful.       . An example is the tour guides of Egypt. When a tourist goes around a famous site in Egypt like the pyramids, they^'11 often be accompanied by a very qualified tour guide. Thanks to the guide, a tourist will certainly know more about the pyramids than he or she did at the start.       .

    In some places, tipping doesn't exist at all. Tips aren't part of life in China, South Korea or Japan. But in other places in Asia, not leaving a tip can lead to trouble. An American travel agent told Conde Nast Traveler that in India, for example, a person who doesn't leave a tip after a meal in a restaurant will often be chased down the street.       , he said.

    Many people only give tips on a subjective （主观的）basis. But it's this subjective aspect to tipping that can cause problems. On the one hand, they don't want to be mean; on the other hand, they don't want to pay too much and feel that they've been cheated.       .

A common solution for this problem is to offer a guideline on the check.       .

This can prevent the awkwardness when it's time to pay up.

A. Tips are then given to appreciate the expertise of the guide

B. If you tip badly, people think less of you

C. They'll run after you and scream for money

D. It will suggest that a certain percentage of the bill should be paid on top as a tip

E. Very often people who travel to the United States forget to tip

F. After all, a tip isn't part of the bill

G. But they may expect a little extra in return

    My head was so full of digital noise that my brain was about to explode. As a writer, I was 1 to admit my love of books had been replaced by a brain that simply could not sit 2. So, this year I 3 to return to books before the Internet broke my brain.

    My goal was 52 books. It seemed like an impossible 4. A 400-page book will take the 5 person around eight hours to read. Finding the time to read was a challenge but I 6it anyway. I treated my mind like a misbehaving child who needs some rules laid down. Then I read for an hour or two at a time without 7 each day. It was something I hadn't done in years.

    In The Distracted Mind, Larry Rosen says that the more we 8spending time away from our electronic devices, the 9and more focused we become. And this is what I found. Again, I would 10 bring myself back to the page, 11 the urge to reach for that screen. I took inspiration from a book On Quiet, in which the author 12 how buying a safe（保险箱）to lock away her family devices for long periods had opened up a space to reflect.

    For me, finding that quiet time 13 finding time just to read. It was a  14  moment between me and my book when I ordinarily would have reached for my15. I read on the tram, in bed at night and on lunch 16.

    With my re-gained 17 for books, I created a space 18 I could press pause and find inspiration, knowledge and 19. In our fast-paced world, reading for the sake of reading is not selfish but a powerful way to 20 and be ourselves.

    Recently, an Indian film “Hindi Medium^" has made        hit! It told a story that a couple spared no effort        (give) their daughter the        (good) education and finally she was accepted by the elite of Delhi. Actually, this phenomenon can also be seen in China.

    Today more and more parents adopt the idea of "personal quality education" and commit to encouraging their children to cultivate a variety of interests outside the        (tradition) classroom activities, like playing the violin, robot programming and so on. But participating       too many extracurricular activities does deprive the children of their playtime.

    It        (point) out that more Chinese parents need to realize that the hand-holding mentality is overwhelming their children. They have to loosen their control, give the kids time of        (they) own, and let them take the initiative. Today parents worry        (endless) about preparing the kids for the real world, a battlefield where everyone must arm themselves for a fight. But there is no denying        the best times in life are those        (steal) moments we spend with others- an idle afternoon with a beloved companion, a cup of tea with an old friend, or a simple game of tag with classmates after school.

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：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

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。

    I can still clear remember I was once asked to make the speech before the whole class. You can imagine how shy I was when I thought of that with so many eye fixed to me. I had no choice but prepare for it, though. The most hardest part was my oral presentation from my memory. The real moment began when I stood on the platform with my legs trembled and my mind blank. So my listeners were waiting patiently. Gradually, 1 found me back, giving my speech at last. Then I heard all the listeners applauding loudly. Ever since then, my fear of speaking before the audience had disappeared. Actually, now I've become a great speaker!

1）工作内容：进社区宣传；照顾流浪动物等；

2）志愿者要求：有爱心，时间灵活；

3）报名方式。

注意：1）词数100左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

3）参考词汇：动物保护协会一Animal Protection Association;流浪动物一stray animals

Dear Mike,

Yours,

Li Hua