英语 热门试卷

As we all know, sunshine is important to vegetables, but not all vegetables need lots of sunshine. Mark Hoffman and his wife, Guia, own a bed-and-breakfast guesthouse in rural Kempton, Illinois. They often serve their guests produce fresh from the garden.

The Hoffmans have been growing food and flowers for twenty-five years. For almost ten of those years, Mr. Hoffman has been experimenting and working with shade plantings. He says visitors to his website — greenhousebed.com — often ask how to plant in shade spaces. He said, “The bottom line here is that most plants will produce more in full sun. But if you do not have full sun, there are other options.”

For example, he grows tomatoes near oak trees. Oak trees can produce a lot of shade. But Mr. Hoffman says his tomato plants grow as long as they get five hours a day of direct sunshine, especially morning sun. Not only does this go against the traditional advice that tomatoes need six, eight, even twelve hours a day of full sun, it also shows how plants and trees roots can share nutrients and water. Mr. Hoffman also planted asparagus (芦笋) around a tree at its drip line (滴水线), the area below the outer limit of the branches. So when it rains, all the rain drips down right on the asparagus.

The Hoffmans’ website includes a list of vegetables, flowers and herbs that have produced acceptably for them in partial shade. Mr. Hoffman says plants with wider leaves seem to do better in shady environments. He also found that his potatoes did better in partial shade than in full sun.

Moving them out of the sun helped control an insect problem with leaf hoppers. Mr. Hoffman does not use pesticides (农药). Instead, he planted the potatoes at the drip line, especially on the east side of the tree. The potatoes get morning sun, but they are shaded during the hottest part of the day. Leaf hoppers dislike shade, and the hottest part of the day is when they do the worst of their damage.

Time of day, brightness of the sun, shadows from trees, walls and buildings, these all influence how much sunlight falls or does not fall on plants.

It began to snow when my husband fell to his death, just like any November day. His body, when I found it, was lightly covered with snow. It snowed almost every day for the next four months, while I sat on the couch and watched it pile up. One morning, I walked downstairs slowly and was surprised to see a snow remover clearing my driveway and the bent back of a woman shoveling (铲) my walk. I dropped to my knees, crawled through the living room. And back up stairs so those good people would not see me. I was embarrassed. My first thought was, how would I ever repay them? I didn’t have the strength to brush my hair let alone shovel someone’s walk．

Before John’s death, I took pride in the fact that I rarely asked for help or favors, I defined myself by my competence and independence. So who was I if I was no longer capable and busy? How could I respect myself if all I did was sit on the couch every day and watch the snowfall?

Learning how to receive the love and support that came my way wasn't easy. Friends cooked for me and l cried because I couldn't even help them set the table. “I’m not usually this lazy,” I wept. Finally, my friend Kathy sat down with me and said, “Mary, cooking for you is not a burden. I love you and I want to do it. It makes me feel good to be able to do something for you.”

Over and over, I heard similar emotions from the people who supported me during those dark days. One very wise man told me, “You are not doing nothing. Being fully open to your sorrow may be the hardest work you will ever do.”

I am not the person I once was，but in many ways I have changed for the better. My heart is now filled with thanks for people around me. I have been surprised to learn that there is incredible freedom that comes from facing one’s worst fear and walking away whole. I believe there is strength, for sure, in accepting a dark period of our life.

A man who owns a villa has decided to drop the asking price from $ 5,000 to a new iPhone 7 as the owner is desperate to sell before the tax auction (拍卖) season where “thousands” of homes near foreclosure (房屋止赎权) will flood into the market, a real estate broker (房地产经纪人) called Larry Else told ABC News.

“This house is really not worth much at all,” Else said. The windows are broken and there is no front door. The broker himself has not been inside the home because his company has a policy of not going in unsecured houses alone. Detroit’s declining fortunes have left its population about a third of what it used to be in its peak, according to the U.S. Census Bureau（人口普查办公室）.

Now, the property has accrued (拖欠) more than $6,000 in back taxes (退税款) and will enter foreclosure next year if that debt is not settled. So while the owner is asking for an iPhone 7, the true cost of the sale comes from the buyer including the cost of the back taxes.

That attracted great interest in the property, as Else said that he received four offers today alone. One woman said she was interested in the house for the wood. Another said that they would be willing to hand over an iPhone 6, and another offered $ 850. But Else hinted that the most likely buyer is someone who already lives on the block and put in a $ 700 bid (出价), and their familiarity with the area appeared to put them at the head of the pack. He said he expects one of the four offers to work out, and may even confirm the sale tonight.

This is not the end of his bartering (物物交换) business, however, as Else said that he’s already gotten another call from a homeowner who has had trouble selling their property.