初级英语阅读 20201231 Thu

Hi, my name is Kathy. Today is the end of 2020. The new year 2021 is coming. I wish you a happy new year. I like to sing a song for you. "Happy new year, happy new year, happy new year to you all. We are singing, we are dancing, happy new year to you all!" I hope you like this song. 

中级英语阅读 20201231 Thu

One day an out of work mime is visiting the zoo and attempts to earn some money as a street performer. Unfortunately, as soon as he starts to draw a crowd, a zoo keeper grabs him and drags him into his office. The zoo keeper explains to the mime that the zoos most popular attraction, a gorilla has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla until they can get another one. The mime accepts. 

So the next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before crowd comes. He discovers that it's a great job. He can sleep all he wants, play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime. However, eventually the crowds tire of him and he tires of just swinging on tires. He begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage, crawls across a partition, and dangles from the top to the lions cage. Of course, this makes the lion furious, but the crowd loves it. 

At the end of the day the zoo keeper comes and gives the mime a raise for being such a good attraction. Well, this goes on for some time, the mime keeps taunting the lion, the crowds grow larger, and his salary keeps going up. Then one terrible day when he is dangling over the furious lion he slips and falls. The mime is terrified. The lion gathers itself and prepares to pounce. The mime is so scared that he begins to run round and round the cage with the lion close behind. 

Finally, the mime starts screaming and yelling, 'Help, Help me!', but the lion is quick and pounces. The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, 'Shut up you idiot! Do you want to get us both fired?'

高级英语阅读 20201231 Thu

The U.K. government outlined plans on Wednesday to impose stricter coronavirus restrictions on millions of people across England as a new strain of the virus spreads across the country.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more regions would be placed into the toughest Tier 4 category from 12:01 a.m. London time Thursday.

“This new variant is now spreading across most of England and cases are doubling fast,” Hancock told the House of Commons. “It is therefore necessary to apply Tier 4 measures to a wider area, including the remaining parts of the southeast, as well as large parts of the midlands, the northwest, the northeast and the southwest.”

The move will mean three-quarters of the population will be in Tier 4 for the New Year holiday, Hancock said.

The restrictions, which include a stay-at-home order, mean people must not leave their homes unless they have a reasonable excuse. Businesses including nonessential shops, gyms and hairdressers must close.

The announcement came shortly after the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine was authorized for emergency use in the U.K., raising expectations that Britain will significantly ramp up its inoculation program.