魷魚女王
Before reading Text A, you may need the following?information?to help you with a better understanding.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) grew up as the son of a British noble. He attended a private school from age seven, and entered Harrow in 1888. He was not impressed with his education. Later he entered Sandhurst Royal Military College in 1893, after three attempts to pass the entrance test. He joined the army in 1895.
He was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, he served as prime minister twice (1940-1945 and 1951-1955). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1953), and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
public school
In the UK, public school, also called independent school, is one of a relatively small group of institutions educating secondary-level students for a fee. It is independent of the state system in regard to endowment and administration. The typical great public school such as Eton, Harrow, and Winchester evolved from an institution founded by a single benefactor during the late European Middle Ages or the Renaissance. The curriculum from the beginning placed heavy emphasis on the Greek and Roman classics and continued to do so until well into the 20th century.
In the US, public schools generally refer to elementary or secondary schools, offered to all children by the government, and paid for, in whole or in part, by public funding from taxation. The term may also refer to institutions of post-secondary education funded, in whole or in part, and overseen by the government.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), born to a Jewish family in Germany, grew up in Munich and moved to Italy in 1894. As a boy, he was said to be slow in learning to talk, but later in his childhood he showed great curiosity about nature and a likewise great ability to solve difficult mathematical problems. After he left school, he went to Switzerland, where he graduated from university with a degree in mathematics. In 1905, Einstein published a series of papers which shook the whole scientific and intellectual world. For the theories he established in his papers, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Among the important discoveries Einstein made in his life, the greatest is the creation of his famous Theory of Relativity. He was considered the greatest scientist of the 20th century and one of the greatest of all time. His discoveries and theories have greatly influenced science in many fields.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman. Edison had very little formal education as a child, attending school only for a few months. He was taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by his mother, but he was always a very curious child and taught himself much by reading on his own. This belief in self-improvement remained throughout his life.
He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of invention, and therefore is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. Edison originated the concept and implementation of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world.
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (1930- ), is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor of the US in 2009.
Stanford
Commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, it is an American private research university located in Stanford, California. Stanford is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, and one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions.
Its academic reputation, alumni, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
小豬妖嘴巴挑
Unit1_passage :My brother, Jimmy, did not get enough oxygen during a difficult delivery, leaving him with brain damage, and two years later I was born. Since then, my life revolved around my brother's. Accompanying my growing up was always "go out and play and take your brother with you". I couldn't go anywhere without him, so I urged the neighborhood kids to come to my house for some out-of-control kid-centered fun.My mother taught Jimmy practical things like how to brush his teeth or put on a belt. My father, a saint, simply held the house together with his patience and understanding. I was in charge outside where I administered justice by tracking down the parents of the kids who picked on my brother, and telling on them.My father and Jimmy were inseparable. They ate breakfast together and on weekdays drove off to the navy shipping center every morning where they both worked—Jimmy unloaded color-coded boxes. At night after dinner, they would talk and play games late into the evening. They even whistled the same tunes.So when my father died of a heart attack in 1991, Jimmy was a wreck, beneath his careful disguise. He was simply in disbelief. Usually very agreeable, he now quit speaking altogether and no amount of words could penetrate the vacant expression he wore on his face. I hired someone to live with him and drive him to work, but no matter how much I tried to make things stay the same, even Jimmy grasped that the world he'd known was gone. One day I asked, "You miss Dad, don't you?" His lips quivered and then he asked, "What do you think, Margaret? He was my best friend." Our tears began to flow.My mother died of lung cancer six months later and I alone was left to look after Jimmy.He didn't adjust to going to work without my father right away, so he came and lived with me in New York City for a while. He went wherever I went and seemed to adjust pretty well. Still, Jimmy longed to live in my parents' house and work at his old job and I pledged to help him return. Eventually, I was able to work it out. He has lived there for 11 years now with many different caretakers and blossomed on his own. He has become essential to the neighborhood. When you have any mail to be picked up or your dog needs walking, he is your man.My mother was right, of course: It was possible to have a home with room for both his limitations and my ambitions. In fact, caring for someone who loves as deeply and appreciates my efforts as much as Jimmy does has enriched my life more than anything else ever could have.This hit home a few days after the September 11th disaster on Jimmy's 57th birthday. I had a party for him in my home in New York, but none of our family could join us because travel was difficult and they were still reckoning with the sheer terror the disaster had brought. I called on my faithful friends to help make it a merry and festive occasion, ignoring the fact that most of them were emotionally drained and exhausted. Instead of the customary "No gifts, please", I shouted, "Gifts! Please!"My friends—people Jimmy had come to know over the years—brought the ideal presents: country music CDs, a sweatshirt, one leather belt with "J-I-M-M-Y" on it, a knitted wool hat and a cowboy costume. The evening led up to the gifts and then the chocolate cake from his favorite bakery, and of course the ceremony wasn't complete without the singing.A thousand times Jimmy asked, "Is it time for the cake yet?" After dinner and the gifts Jimmy could no longer be restrained. He anxiously waited for the candles to be lit and then blew them out with one long breath as we all sang "Happy Birthday". Jimmy wasn't satisfied with our effort, though. He jumped up on the chair and stood erect pointing both index fingers into the air to conduct us and yelled, "One... more... time!" We sang with all of the energy left in our souls and when we were finished he put both his thumbs up and shouted, "That was super!"We had wanted to let him know that no matter how difficult things got in the world, there would always be people who cared about him. We ended up reminding ourselves instead. For Jimmy, the love with which we sang was a welcome bonus, but mostly he had just wanted to see everyone else happy again.Just as my father's death had changed Jimmy's world overnight, September 11th changed our lives; the world we'd known was gone. But, as we sang for Jimmy and held each other tight afterward praying for peace around the world, we were reminded that the constant love and support of our friends and family would get us through whatever life might present. The simplicity with which Jimmy had reconciled everything for us should not have been surprising. There had never been any limitations to what Jimmy's love could accomplish.
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