The young man arrived on the Massachusetts beach early carrying a radio, a shovel , and a strange set of tools: a brick layer's trowel, a palette knife, spatulas, spoons, and a spray bottle. He walked down near the water -- the tide was out -- and switched on the radio to listen to soft rock. Then he shoveled wet sand into a pile nearly four feet high and as many feet across. Then he created a square shape. After that, he set to work with palette knife, spatulas, and spoons. He shaped a splendid tower, topped walls, fashioned beautiful bay windows, and carved out a big front gate. The man knew his sand. He smoothly finished some surfaces and carved artistic designs on others. As the shapes began to dry, he gently kept them slightly wet with water from the spray bottle, in case they might break in the wind. All this took hours. People gathered. At last he stood back, obviously satisfied with a castle worthy of the Austrian countryside or Disneyland. Then he gathered his tools and radio and moved them up to drier sand. He had known for a while what many in the crowd still ignored: the tide was coming in. Not only had he practiced his art with confidence and style, he also had done so against a powerful, irresistible deadline. As the crowd looked on, water came at the base of the castle. In minutes it was surrounded. Then the rising flood began to eat into the base, walls fell, the tower fell, and finally the gate fell. More minutes passed, and small waves erased bay windows -- soon no more than a small part was left. Many in the crowd looked terribly sad; some voiced fear and discouragement. But the man remained calm. He had, after all, had a wonderful day, making beauty out of nothing, and watching it return to nothing as time and tide moved on. In this passage, what does the incoming tide signal? A) It is time to begin working. B) It is the end of a day's work. C) It is the busiest time of the day. D) It is time for lookers-on to leave.
B
The top ten hottest English words in 2015 Selfie is "taking a photo by yourself", Now "taking a selfie" is generally a way of self-expression. Budgetwife is the opposite of budget husband . By name, you can see that the economy strength of budget male is not strong as the "diamond man" , but he is both economically and emotionally reliable. Phubbing refers to impolite behavior that in social situations people don't pay attention to the people around, but just look at their mobile phones, we can call it "down". People are called phubber "down" . Bromeo are male girlfriends. He is one of your most loyal friends, will support you in every situation. "Fangirl" or "fanboy" refers to those who are crazy about something or a star, even to the point of sanity. Gayriage refers to two people of equal gender form of marriage. Two men to get married, the marriage is called gayriage. Mompetition, it is the competition between mothers, comparing whose child is more beautiful, more smarter, more fashionable. It can be compared two or more mothers, and the children being compared can be adult. Social bubble , which means that some people seem to know many people, but only few people could be friends. After "financial bubble", "housing bubble", personal bubbles begin to hit career people. Tom is a _ , crazy about selfies. A) fanboy B) phubber C) bromeo D) photographer
A
Q: Do you want to work with people, animals or machines? Do you want to work indoors or outdoors, directly serve people in need or serve people behind the scenes? These are the typical questions that volunteer service agencies would ask. Every year, thousands of people in the west offer volunteer service. Volunteering greatly strengthens the community because it helps the old, the young, the weak, the sick, the disabled and the injured to overcome difficulties. Volunteers usually help in many different ways. They may give people advice, offer friendship to the young , drive the elderly to church, counsel kids against drugs, work as assistants in schools or nursing homes, raise funds, plant trees, help out in local libraries and do many other things. Volunteering can be a few hours a week or a few hours a month. Anybody who wants to serve people in need can become a volunteer. The art of volunteering is a process of both giving and receiving. Volunteering allows volunteers to meet new people, make new friends and mix with people from all walks of life. Volunteering is an excellent way to experiment,practice and try out new techniques and skills,discover your individual talents and explore career choice. Being a volunteer will take individuals on a wonderful journey and help them learn many important things beyond their school learning. You are a student of thirteen. If you want to be a volunteer, you can do the following except A) helping put in local libraries B) working as an assistant in schools C) offering friendship to the young D) driving the elderly to church
A: D
A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother and daughter at a Scottish beach has sparked a mystery about whether it could have travelled 5,000 miles across the seas from China. Nicola MacFarlane, 41, and daughter Lucy, four, from Portobello, near Edinburgh, were looking for driftwood on Portobello Beach when they came across an old glass bottle containing a note inside written in _ . Now the family are trying to work out if the letter has managed the extraordinary journey across the Philippine Sea, into the Indian Ocean and through both the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic Ocean's before washing up on the shores of Great Britain. It was written on Chinese Valentine's Day or Qixi Festival as it is more traditionally known, lunar July 7, 2012, so it sent off as recently as six days ago because it followed the modern calendar, which celebrated the occasion on August 23. Nicola was still excited to read about the Chinese love story after having it translated. "I really do hope that it is from China but even it is from nearer to home, it's still a lovely gesture and an inspiring find. It's a love story regardless of where it came from. Nicola, who runs a beach art business in Portobello, added: "I'm always at the beach looking for bits of driftwood but I've never come across anything like this before. We knew it was Chinese, but we had no idea what it said.' Unable to read the Mandarin text, Nicola turned to the internet and her Australian friend, Julie Gould, whose daughter attended a Chinese school in Sydney. Several hours later Julie returned with the news that it was in fact a love letter. The translated letter reads: "Da Hai(Ocean), I hope no-one will get this bottle, as we just wish you can hear our voice, and get your blessing. Today is the Chinese Valentine's Day, we pray that our relationship will last forever and we will have a long happy life together..." Nicola said: "It sounds to me like the couple are in love but cannot be together so they have sent the message to tell the world of... We can learn from the passage that Nicola _ . A) thinks the letter was written to show love B) had expected to get something unusual C) knows a little Chinese D) found the bottle was from a nearby place
A