《SAT写作极品素材》

SAT-ESSAY素材 1 Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first African woman to be awarded the peace prize since it was created in 1901. A surprised Mrs. Maathai broke the news to reporters minutes before the official announcement. The prize committee says Mrs. Maathai, Kenya's Deputy Environment Minister(助理环境部长), is an example for all Africans fighting for democracy and peace. The delighted 64-year-old professor said the award was completely unexpected. "This is extremely encouraging to the people of Africa and the African woman," she told the BBC. "It is a recognition of the many efforts of African women, who continue to struggle despite all the problems they face." In the late 1970s, Mrs. Maathai led a campaign called the Green Belt Movement to plant tens of millions of trees across Africa to slow deforestation(采伐森林) . The movement grew to include projects to preserve biodiversity, educate people about their environment and promote the rights of women and girls. Known as "The Tree Woman" in Kenya, Mrs Maathai celebrated by planting a Nandi flame tree(凤凰木) in her home town of Nyeri, in the shadow of Mount Kenya. She said she was delighted that the vital role of the environment had been recognised. "The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that". "I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance," she added. The committee says she has combined science with social engagement and politics, and has worked both locally and internationally. The professor was the 12th woman peace laureate since the first award was first made in 1901. A spokesman for the Kenyan government said his country was honored. "This is a great moment in Kenyan history. To us this shows that what Wangari Maathai has been doing here has been recognized," Alfred Mutua said. "We're very proud of her and she deserves all the credit." Mrs. Maathai beat a record 194 nominations, including former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the UN energy watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, to win the prize. Mrs. Maathai is the second woman in a row to be awarded the peace prize, which last year went to Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran. The award, which includes 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.3m) is awarded in Oslo on 10 www.xiaoma.com December each year. 2 Reeve was real-life 'Superman' Although he will always be remembered for portraying "Superman," the greatest role of actor Christopher Reeve's life was as a champion of sufferers of spinal cord injuries(脊椎损伤患者中 的斗士) and an advocate of stem cell research(干细胞研究). Unlike the man of steel, he wasn't faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and he couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound. But the courage and determination Reeve displayed in trying to overcome his paralysis from a 1995 horse-riding accident far surpassed any of the feats of the comic book hero(连环画英 雄). "He became a real-life Superman. His heroism, his courage was extraordinary," Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of Britain's Medical Research Council(英国医学研究学会主任) said. "Like many people who suffer some terrible injury, Christopher Reeve was reinvented(彻底改 变) by that experience and brought the kind of energy and enthusiasm that made him successful as a film star to an entirely different issue, with huge effect." Reeve, 52, died on October 10 of heart failure(心脏功能衰竭) after having treatment for an infected pressure wound(伤口严重感染) without realizing his dream of walking again. But in the nine years since his accident, he made personal progress to regain some feeling(重 新获得了人们的尊敬和欣赏 ), established the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit research organization, and used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries. He also provided hope and inspiration to other patients and lobbied for scientists to be allowed to conduct stem cell research in the hopes of eventually curing paralysis and other illnesses such as diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease(糖尿病、阿兹海默症和巴金 森氏症). "He has been our champion. If you think of spinal injuries you automatically conjure up(想起、 回忆) a picture of Christopher Reeve," said Paul Smith, executive director of the Spinal Injuries Association in England. It is because of Reeve that spinal cord injuries and stem cell research are so widely discussed, according to Smith. The fact that it happened to Reeve showed it can affect anyone, even www.xiaoma.com Superman. Reeve did not live long enough to see whether stem cell research could help restore movement to the paralyzed. The research is still in its early days and no one knows what advances it may bring. 3 Adventurer Fossett launches solo balloon trip The giant high-altitude balloon, bathed in the desert's golden morning light, drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km (62 miles) east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m. (2300 GMT). Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to unfavourable winds, but with time running out before the arrival of the morning's hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch. Fossett waved to around 100 townsfolk as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days. "I am a bit nervous about the first night," Fossett said before take-off. "On the first night I will find out if everything works, if there are any leaks in the balloon, if there are any failures in communications and if the all-important heating works," he said. The millionaire former stockbroker has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world. The last attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart. Fossett's fourth solo bid ended in near disaster in 1998, when a thunderstorm off Australia's northeastern coast shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet (9,000 metres) into the Coral Sea. He was unhurt. This year Fossett, 57, decided to launch in western Australia, some 600 km (400 miles) from the Indian Ocean, to have a better chance of avoiding thunderstorms in the South Pacific and gain time to detect problems while still over land. 4 www.xiaoma.com Laughing Matter-Woman Resorts to Comedy to Confront the Trauma of Cancer "In a flash moment, I went from being a happy expectant mother, to being someone afraid for her life," she told reporters. Minutes after doctors delivered Nate by emergency C-section, Southcott went into surgery. The diagnosis was ovarian cancer. Suddenly tears and chemotherapy overtook her life. But the lowest moment came after she lost all her hair and a free wig arrived. She tried it on as her older son Kyler watched. "I thought I can cry about this bad wig and he'll remember it, or I can laugh about it and he will remember that," Southcott said. That was when she started laughing a lot, and found it was the perfect medicine. "I spent a lot time looking for anything humor based for cancer patients," she said. "And I'll tell you what: There isn't much out there." Using herself as a bald model, Bonnie started her own line of greeting cards and a calendar. Each pose pokes fun at the tribulations of chemo. "We desperately need to laugh," she said. "It's vital to our joy." Even though Southcott's ovarian cancer is in remission, the diagnosis is no laughing matter - a 25-percent chance she will live for another two-years. She plans to appreciate every moment of motherhood. And she plans to laugh. 5 Spacewoman Stuck in Orbit with Too Much Shrimp Peggy Whitson, the American astronaut spending her 130th day in space, said on Sunday that she was happy in orbit, but maybe she brought along too much shrimp. "Sometimes, when you come to space, your tastes change. One of my favorite foods on the ground is shrimp, and up here I can't stand it," said Whitson, the science officer on the International Space Station . A quick check of the station's manifest showed that Whitson had planned more than 40 www.xiaoma.com shrimp meals for her stay. "The guys like it because they get all my shrimp," she said, referring to her two Russian crewmates, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treshcvev. The three members of the space station's Expedition Five team held a joint news conference with the six astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday. "I'm having a great time up here. It's fun to live here and do the science," said Whitson, a biochemist conducting and monitoring dozens of studies on the station. When someone asked about her plans for Christmas, Whitson said "It's hard to imagine being back home because I guess I feel like this is my home right now. I don't have my husband, but other than that, this is my home." Whitson, due to return to Earth with Korzun and Treschev aboard a U.S. shuttle in November, said some changes in space take more getting used to than others. Salsa can usually overcome space blandness. "We could probably eat paper if we had it with salsa," she said. But calluses are another matter. In weightlessness, she never actually stands, but does sway about with her feet in foot restraints. "It was really interesting to me to lose the calluses from the bottom of your feet and to get calluses on the top of your feet after being up here for a few months," she said. 6 'Professor Popsicle' Proves Cold No Barrier During a cold stretch that had many Canadians scurrying indoors, a researcher known as "Professor Popsicle" has found humans can successfully spend days on end in the bitter cold. Gordon Giesbrecht has spent the past 26 days skiing the isolated, frozen expanse of Lake Winnipeg as part of his research for the University of Manitoba on how the body copes with the cold. Temperatures averaged 15 degrees below zero and dipped as low as 31 below during his 240-mile trek on cross-country skis. "Now when I'm outside and it's -25 C, it's not really a big problem," he told reporters by satellite phone from his small tent on the world's tenth largest lake. www.xiaoma.com "This has been more a test of just dealing with the cold and living with it, and getting your clothing and your actions coordinated so that you don't end up getting frostbite or anything," explained Giesbrecht. Soft, deep snow made for some tough slogging with his backpack and sled carrying his food and gear. On two mornings, Giesbrecht emerged from his tent to find the wind so fierce that his tent was almost flat. "The most vulnerable time of the day is when you are trying to set up your tent, and I was not about to take that chance," he wrote on a Web site updated by his family. Other than numb fingertips, which will likely take a month to return to normal, Giesbrecht said he feels fine. 7 The flying Frenchman set to smash round the world record They are calling him the Bob Beamon of sailing. And just like Beamon, who astonished the world with his record-breaking long-jump in 1968, the French sailor Francis Joyon is rewriting the nautical record books in an unprecedented fashion. Joyon, 47, is now in the final stages of an incredible voyage and on course to smash the existing non-stop solo round-the-world record by 20 days. Once he crosses the finish line off the Channel port of Brest on the morning of February 3, he will have completed one of the greatest feats of single-handed sailing in history. Just like Beamon, whose leap at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 broke the world record by an almost unbelievable 21in - which stood unbeaten until 1991 - Joyon's expected time of 73 days for the 26,000-mile global course will have far exceeded what most thought possible for a solo sailor. Joyon set sail in November on an adventure some predicted would end in disaster. The father of four from La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany was undertaking the voyage in the 90ft trimaran IDEC, a boat of tremendous power with a huge rotating mast that had been built to be raced by a crew of up to ten. Many were worried that Joyon would end up exhausted and IDEC would simply flip over as she ran out of control in the Southern Ocean. Others predicted that Joyon would be unable to handle IDEC's enormous sails or that the boat could lose her mast in the rough conditions that any round-the-world sailor inevitably would www.xiaoma.com face. There were also all the usual dangers - collision with debris in the water, with ice around Antarctica or the possibility that Joyon would collide with a ship while sleeping. When he set off, the solo record stood at 93 days. Although Joyon was sailing a much faster boat than the previous record-holder, most saw little chance of him getting even close to 80 days. Joyon had other ideas and over the past 71 days he has enjoyed good fortune with the weather, rarely running out of wind. He has, however, also displayed extraordinary stamina, determination and seamanship in keeping IDEC running close to her full potential. 8 Ronaldo: King of the World Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima was born on 22 September 1976 in a poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Like most of his childhood friends, Ronaldo began his soccer career playing barefoot in the streets of his neighborhood. At the age of 14, he joined S 　 Cristovo soccer club and only two years later became the star of Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte scoring a total of 58 goals in 60 matches and earning himself a reputation for his explosive pace and outstanding finishing skills. His goal-scoring record and unusual agility led him to be included in the Brazilian World Cup winning team the following year. After the World Cup, many top European football clubs were trying to sign him. Many people, including Brazilian football legend Pelé, referred to him as the most promising footballer of his generation. Since his transfer to Dutch team PSV Eindhoven, Ronaldo s biography is one of success after success. Two Copa América s, a UEFA Cup, a Dutch Cup, a Spanish League Cup, and two awards as best player in the world, all in the space of two years, are some of Ronaldo s impressive achievements. On arrival to Inter-Milan in 1997, Ronaldo became the idol of the local fans who refer to him as “il Fenomeno.” Since the 98 World Cup he has suffered two serious knee injuries that have severely limited his appearances. Just when people began to wonder whether Ronaldo would be able to continue with his football career, he proved to the world that he still could play. In the World Cup held in Korea and Japan, the magical striker won the Golden Shoe award and tied Pelé's Brazilian record for career World Cup goals with 12. He helped Brazil capture its fifth World Cup championship on June 30 with a 2-0 win over Germany. It was the third time that Ronaldo has ever played in the World Cup. www.xiaoma.com 9 Hewitt: I Came, I Saw, I Conquered Lleyton Hewitt was born in Adelaide, Australia on 24 February, 1981. His mother is a former champion netballer, his father is a league footballer, and his sister is already ranked number one in Australia for her age in tennis. She has achieved already more in tennis than Lleyton had at the same age. The Hewitt's have a grass court at their home. This was where young Lleyton began his tennis career. When Lleyton showed an unusual ability for a 4-year-old and he was hitting balls consistently over the net, his parents decided it was time to find him a coach. “Rather than get into bad habits, it was best he learnt how to hit the ball correctly.” says his father. Two years later, they got Peter Smith as his coach. At the age of five, when most children that age are playing hide and seek or getting into all sorts of trouble, Lleyton and his family would make the trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open. Lleyton would sit for up to 12 hours a day watching players practise. Lleyton's career as a tennis player was planned by his parents who tried their best to keep him away from football. Lleyton's parents thought it was too risky to play football since he might get hurt. Had Lleyton played football, it is quite possible he may have ended up playing for his favorite team—the Adelaide Crows. As his mother says, “I guess we've guided him into things we felt good for him before he did.” By the time Lleyton was eight, he was winning “under-10 games” and always won a year ahead of his age. A professional career was looking very promising. Lleyton officially turned pro in 1997. 10 ￡400,000 advance for student's first novel An 18-year-old author has received a ￡400,000 advance for her debut novel, one of the biggest deals for a young author in British publishing history. Helen Oyeyemi, a first-year student at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is now in the top bracket of British authors and shares an accountant with J. K. Rowling and Zadie Smith. Ms Oyeyemi struck a two-book deal with Bloomsbury after the publisher was bowled over by her novel The Icarus Girl. The story concerns Jessamy, an eight-year-old genius who, while on a visit to relatives in Nigeria, meets Tilly Tilly, a friend whom only she can see. www.xiaoma.com Their relationship is friendly at first but becomes darker as it appears that Tilly Tilly is a ghost who wants Jessamy's body for her own. In an interview, the Nigerian-born author said that she was astonished at the speed with which she was snapped up. "I had to sign the contract between my exams. It was on the day of my theology A level," she said. Ms Oyeyemi, whose father is a teacher and whose mother is training to become a driver for London Underground, began writing at the age of seven. "I rewrote Little Women so that Laurie married Jo because I thought that was a better ending." She began writing The Icarus Girl last year when she was in the sixth form of Notre Dame School. Her agent, Robin Wade, showed the book to Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, who is also Donna Tartt's editor. "The prose sings immediately right from the first page," Ms Pringle said. Ms Oyeyemi does not believe that she will become a full-time writer, however. "I don't think that many people can do that these days," she said. "I would quite like to be a literary agent." 11 101-year-old man parachutes into record book A 101-year-old man is believed to be the world's oldest skydiver after he accepted a dare from friends and jumped out of an airplane at nearly 10,000 feet. Frank Moody, from Holloways Beach on Australia's northeastern coast, beat the record set by a 94-year-old Norwegian in 1999, said Amanda Pilkington, from Skydive Cairns, which organized the jump. On the morning of June 16, Moody jumped in tandem with an experienced skydiver from more than 9,900 feet, she said. "He's an absolute legend. It was a bit of a drunken dare by some of his mates at the local Holloways Beach football club. He said: 'Sure, I'll go jump out of an airplane,'" Pilkington quoted him as saying, adding she nearly f