案例分析 The Truth about Left-Handed People

About 90% of people in the world today are right-handed. The other 10% are left-handed, including Obama, the President of the US. Every day, left-handed folks quietly face problems. It could be something as simple as driving a car or using a can opener.

Why are so few of us left-handed? One theory is that handedness (hand preference) could be a result of genetics. Scientists say that there are two genes (基因) associated with handedness. One is the D gene. It is more frequent in the population and promotes (促成) right-hand preference. The other is the C gene. It has the ability to promote a preference for either hand. When the C gene is present, there is a 50% chance that a person could be right- or left-handed.

Another theory has to do with human brains, which are made up of two halves. If the left half is more powerful, then one is most likely right-handed. But with left-handers, it is more complicated. Seventy percent of them are also left-brain dominant (占优势的). The other 30% have right-side dominant brains.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, left-handedness was considered a disability. But not all of the myths about left-handers are bad. One myth suggests that they are more creative and smarter than the right-handers. So far scientific research has yet to find any truth to these claims. In fact, a 2013 survey out of New Zealand found that left-handers and right-handers were the same.

Life might be a little more complicated for left-handers when it comes to cutting a piece of paper or opening a bottle of wine. However, it seems to be a good sign if you are trying to make it to the White House

案例分析 The Yellow Treehouse

Whenever I travel abroad, I try to eat out as much as possible in order to explore. the local culture. Over the years, I have been to a great number of restaurants. Some of them have impressed me deeply. If I were to make a list of the most remarkable local restaurants, New Zealand's Yellow Treehouse would top my list.

This restaurant is located in the woods of Warkworth. It is about a 40-minute drive north of Auckland. It is a wooden tree house built ten meters above the ground on a Redwood tree.From the ground, it looks like a small onion-shaped knag (木节) in the middle of the tree trunk. The restaurant also has a narrow wooden bridge. It connects the restaurant with the neighboring trees. The place looks particularly pretty at night!

inside, the place feels quite different from what it looks like outside. It is spacious(宽敞的) and comfortable. What I like the most about the construction is that it is built entirely of natural materials. The restaurant can host up to 30 guests at a time. It is a perfect place for a family celebration, like a wedding or a birthday party.

The cook of the place does a great job as well. The menu mainly consists of local food.Overall, the dinner is tasty, and the service attentive and polite. The place is really a must-see, or rather a must-eat-in.

案例分析 The Story of Milton Hershey

Almost every kid in the US has eaten a famous Hershey chocolate bar. But few people know that the Hershey chocolate factory is only about 100 years old.Even fewer know that its founder, Milton Hershey, had suffered many failures before he started his famous company.

Milton grew up in the farm country of Pennsylvania. He was first trained to become a printer. After working for a small newspaper for a short time, he decided that printing was not for him. Then he got a job at a candy factory. After a few years, he decided to open his own little candy business. But this first business had to close down because it was not making money. Then, Milton travelled to Denver to learn how to make caramels (黄油奶糖). He took his new skills to New York City and sold candies on the street. But this second business also failed.

Soon afterwards, he moved back to his hometown. There he experimented with all sorts of candies and chocolates. By 1893, he was selling a million dollars' worth of caramel candy each year. Since his chocolate-flavored (巧克力口味的)

caramels were the best-selling, he decided to make chocolate himself. He learned how to make delicious chocolate by adding fresh milk. His milk chocolate turned out to be a great success. So he sold his caramel factory and focused on making chocolate only.

In 1903, Milton Hershey built a huge chocolate factory and an entire town to go with it. Today, the town of Hershey is still the home of the Hershey chocolate factory.

You can smell the delicious chocolate smells just by driving through the town.

案例分析 Australian Aborigines(土著居民)

Some aborigines live in the desert of Western Australia. They gather wild plants and hunt wild animals.Their desert environment averages less than eight inches of rain per year. And the temperature in summer may rise to 48°C. The few permanent(永久的) water holes are separated by hundreds of square miles of sand and rock.

On a typical day,the aborigines get up just before sunrise. The people breakfast on water and food left over from the night before.Children are sent to fetch water. In the cool of the early morning,the adults talk and make plans for the day. Where should they go for food-to places they have been to recently, or to new places? The women decide which plants they want to collect, and where those plants are most likely to be found. Then they take up their sticks and set out with large wooden bowls of drinking water on their heads. Their children ride on their hips(胯)or walk alongside. Meanwhile, the men may have decided to hunt animals.They go to a stream where they will wait to get any animal that may come along. They lie patiently behind a screen of bush they have set up, hoping for a chance to throw a spear (矛) at the animal.If they miss,the animal will run away. So they can only throw once.

By noon,the men and women are back at camp. The women are usually with their wooden bowls each filled with fruits or other plant foods; the men are often with only some small animals such as rabbits.Since the men's food-getting is less certain of success than the women's, most of the aborigines’ diet is plant food

案例分析 The Power of a Parent

Tom is a young man being raised on the poor streets of Los Angles by his father, Frank Smith. He becomes friends with his neighbors Ricky and Doughboy. The three young men take different paths in life, due in large part to the parenting they receive.

Tom is the only one of the three with a father to guide him. He sometimes hates his father's discipline, but Frank explains that he is trying to teach Tom how to be responsible. He does not want him to be like his little friends across the street. Frank also fills Tom's mind and heart with messages about how to be a leader and how much he is loved. Tom becomes a strong young man who is able to resist the bad influence around him.

Ricky receives words of support and love from his mother, which helps raise his self-respect. He also looks to Frank and Tom for guidance and direction. Living in a single-parent family, he has never received this from his father. Doughboy, on the other hand, is told by his single mother from an early age that he will never achieve anything. Their mothers' words come true. The two boys grow up to be the type of person predicted by their mothers. Ricky becomes a star football player while Doughboy struggles aimlessly through life. The lesson from the story is clear: A parent's attitude towards his or her children can make all the difference.

案例分析 One day Mark was riding his bike when it began to rain. He started to feel cold so he looked for a tree to go under for shelter. He was disappointed when he struggled to find a tree. Someday I am going to inspire people to plant trees everywhere, so he thought.

Once he got home, he took out his social studies homework and went up to his room to do it. While he was going to his room, he saw his dad throwing away a piece of paper which was used only on one side. He was about to stop him but it was too late. Someday I am going to inspire people to use both sides of the paper,Mark thought.

When he woke up the next morning, Mark figured out a way to inspire people. He would put posters around the school. Then he took out eight sheets of poster paper. He made four saying "PLANT A TREE FOR ME," and another four saying "PAPER HAS TWO SIDES, SO USE BOTH."

He went to school early and put the posters around the school. After class, his teacher told him to go to the principal's office. Mark had never been to the principal's office before. What if the principal had to punish him about the posters because they never asked him to put them up?

When Mark walked in nervously and took a seat, Principal Marcus told him"I would like to thank you for inspiring people to help other living things. When I was on the way back from my lunch break, I saw seven fifth graders planting a tree and heard a few others telling someone else to use both sides of the paper and I'm pretty sure it's because of your posters." Mark couldn't believe his ears. He had finally inspired people. Mark felt very proud.

案例分析 A Female Kenyan Wine Producer

Mrs. Karanja is the founder of the only large-scale brewery(酿酒厂) in Kenya actually owned by a Kenyan. She was born in a middle-class family. She was lucky enough to have graduated from one of the best schools in Kenya. After marriage, she and her husband ran a hardware store(五金店) for seven years, but then she wanted to do something more interesting.

Despite having no experience of the drinks industry, Mrs. Karanja recognized a gap in the market. Low income Kenyans struggled to afford to buy the alcoholic products of the global firms. And many Kenyans were being injured or even killed by dangerous home-made wines.

To solve this problem, Mrs. Karanja came up with the idea of making a fortified wine(加度葡萄酒)Despite being low-priced, the wine would be made to high standards. So using their savings, Mrs. Karanja and her husband set up their own brewery, Keroche.

The beginning days were the toughest, because getting people to trust their products was not easy. Keroche also faced a problem in getting its products distributed, as most distributors wished to continue working only for famous global firms.

Over the next five years, however, sales slowly built up. Later, the company stopped producing fortified wine and moved into beer and other drinks. Today, the business has a 20% share of the overall drinks market in Kenya. Mrs. Karanja is now considering expansion into other countries.

案例分析 Dollhouse History

In America, when people hear the term "dollhouse," they think of a small house for children to play with. However, there is much more to it. History tells us that dollhouses were first designed for adults and children of high social status. A dollhouse can delight both the adult and the child. Children and adults feel special when receiving or planning their fantasy house.

Dollhouses began in Europe in the 1600s when they were referred to as"Baby Houses." These houses were made up of several cupboards. In the cupboards, everyday objects created on a tiny scale were displayed (展示). The displays focused on the way people lived at that time. They showed detailed household (家庭),routines with servants, and kitchen settings, etc. These were carefully designed, and only the upper class could afford to have them built.

As time went on, factories were built to make dollhouses. Germany was the leader of dollhouse makers before World War I. These houses were shipped throughout Central Europe and England, and even to America. Later, the folding dollhouse became popular. Around 1894, an American company produced dollhouses that had four rooms. Children could share such dollhouses when they were playing games. During World War I, Germany needed their resources to fuel the war. As a result, other countries began to make more dollhouses.

After World War II, dollhouses produced in the US were usually made of plastic and metal. In the 1970s, people became interested in wooden dollhouses again. Besides children, today's dollhouses are also designed for the adult collectors.