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A Different Kind of Spring Break
For many American university students, the weeklong spring break holiday means an endless party on a sunny beach. In Panama City Beach, Florida more than half a million university students arrive during the month of March to play and party, making it the number one spring break place in the United States.
A weeklong party is not for everyone, however, and a growing number of American university students have found a way to make spring break matter. For them, joining or leading a group of volunteers to help solve problems such as homelessness or environmental damage makes spring break a special learning experience that university students can feel good about.
During one spring break week, students from James Madison University in Virginia took part in 15 “spring break” trips to nearby states, three others to more distant parts of the United States, and five international trips. One group of JMU students traveled to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane (飓风) Katrina. Another group traveled to Mississippi to organize creative activities for children living in a homeless shelter. One group of students did go to Florida, but not to lie on the sand. They did some work to help protect the native Florida plants.
Students who take part in spring break projects find them very rewarding (值得的). While most university students have to get their degrees before they can start helping people, student volunteers are able to help people right now without degrees. On the other hand, the buildings or rooms they live or stay are far from attractive. Students often sleep on the floor of a school or church. But they only pay around $250 for meals and transportation, which is much less than some of their friends spend traveling to more traditional spring break hot spots.
Spring break projects appear to be growing in popularity at universities across the United States. Some students take the opportunity to meet new friends. Others want to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place. Whatever their reasons, these students have discovered something that give them rich rewards along with a break from school work.
1.What‟s the number one spring break place in the United States?
2.What is the way to make spring break matter for some students?
3.How did the students help in Bogalusa, Louisiana?
4.Where do the student volunteers often sleep?
5.What makes the spring break projects more rewarding?
People always have different feelings. Among them is shyness. It means feeling frightened when you are around other people. Some children were born shy. Some become very shy later because of life experience. In fact, everyone gets a little shy sometimes. It depends on how shy you are. If shyness doesn’t stop you from doing something you want to do, being shy isn’t a big problem.
According to scientists, shyness generally begins during childhood. Most of time, shyness is caused by people’s worry about what other people think of them, so shy people often find it very difficult to meet new people. This fear has bad effects on their work life, social life and love life. The following suggestions may be helpful for shy people.
Find ways to relax when you go out. When you are old enough, consider drinking a glass of wine before heading out for the night. Talk with your friend or family members to help yourself calm down(平静).
Look best when you go out. Wear something that makes you feel confident and comfortable.
Listen carefully when people speak. Shy people sometimes think that meeting new people means having to do a lot of talking. You can ask simple questions and then listen to the answers. People love to feel like other people are listening to them and sharing their point of view.
Build your confidence and change your attitude towards meeting new people instead of worrying about how they will think of you, and think about what are good points you hope to find in the new person you will meet.
Try these suggestions if you do feel very shy. Hopefully you can enjoy your life better.
1.What does shyness mean?
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2.Is being shy always a big problem according to the passage?
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3.When do scientists think shyness usually begins?
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4.Who can help shy people calm down?
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5.What is the passage mainly about?
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阅读短文，根据短文内容回答问题。
Ready, Set, Jump!
For skydivers, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s just the beginning. Thousands if people try skydiving each year. Some only jump once, while others go on to experience lifelong adventures, flying and turning over through the air.
Skydiving is a method of leaving an airplane and returning to the earth with the help of gravity, then slowing down by using a parachute (降落伞). It may include more or less free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been used and the body gradually accelerates (加速) to the highest speed.
There are three choices for the beginners. However, before you try skydiving, a ground course on safety is required. The first method is accelerated free-fall. You jump out of the plane while being held by two coaches, one on either side. They hold onto you until you open your parachute. The second method is called static line. After jumping out, you will experience free-fall for a second or two. Then the weight of your body will pull the line tight, opening the parachute.
Tandem (串联) is the most popular because it is the easiest. You and the coach are
tied together, the coach behind, with you in front. You jump out of the plane together, and the coach takes care of opening the parachute.
For each of these three methods, the coaches give instructions in the air with hand
signals (信号) or a radio. If you are eager to try something challenging and would love to feel the freedom of flying, skydiving might be an adventure for you. Who knows? With risk and excitement mixed together, skydiving might just change your life.
1.Do thousands of people try skydiving each year?
2.How many choices are there for the beginners?
3.Why is tandem the most popular?
4.How do the coaches give instructions in the air?
5.What is the passage mainly about?
Max’s Good Habit
Max reads more than anyone he knows. He loves to read during all of his free time. His friends laugh at him because he would rather read than play video games, but his parents and his teachers are proud of him. They say reading is important, and it will help him learn about the world around him. They also tell him it is a good habit to read on a regular basis.
One day Max was reading a magazine article about volcanoes. He told his friends all about volcanoes and what causes them to erupt(爆发). The very next week, his class was told to do a science project. It was to create a poster board with information about volcanoes and to build a volcano model. Guess who everyone wanted in their project group? Max's friends weren't laughing at him anymore. Max ended up being in a group with Liz, Anna and Josh.
Max made copies of the magazine article about volcanoes so his project partners could read about them, too. They also went to the library to look for more information about volcanoes.
The group met at Anna’s house that night to organize the information. They all asked Max what he thought was most important. Then they discussed and decided on the information they wanted to put on the poster board.
The next night they met at Josh's house to build their volcano. They used cardboard and modeling clay(黏土). First they made a volcano shape with the cardboard, and then they covered the shape in brown clay. They also fixed red clay to the top of the volcano model to make it look like it was erupting.
The volcano looked great. Max. Liz, Anna and Josh were very proud of their hard work. When they turned in their project. their teacher was proud, too. Thanks to Max's good habit, they got an A+ on both parts of the project.
1.Why do Max's friends laugh at him?
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2.What was the science project?
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3.Where did the group get the information about volcanoes?
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4.What did the group use to make the volcano model?
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5.What do you learn from this story?
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Born to Travel
Burton Holmes was a born traveller if ever there was
one. He was born in Chicago in 1870. When he was 16, his
grandmother took him to Europe. He took a camera with him, and took pictures. When he was 17, he went to Europe again with his grandmother. That year they also went to California and to Cuba.
Burton was on the road all the time after that. Everywhere he went, he took at least one camera. Then Holmes began giving talks to the Chicago Camera Club. His talks were so popular that he decided to build a business on them.
Holmes’s first travel pictures were on glass slides(幻灯片). These were in black and white. Then he decided to have the slides painted so that his pictures would appear in colour. A few years later, in 1897, Holmes began showing moving pictures of his travel experiences. This was only a year after movies first were shown to a group of people in New York. Later, he set up a film company and his films became popular. There is even
a star with his name on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1910 Holmes published a set of books about his travel experiences. These books also included the general travel information for others to follow.
Burton Holmes had many adventures over the years. He took pictures at the first modern Olympics, in Athens, Greece, in 1896. In 1899 Holmes took the first moving pictures of a war. He was the first person to take moving pictures in China, and the first person to drive a car in Denmark. He photographed the opening of Yellowstone National Park, in 1916. When things happened, Burton Holmes was there. In travelling for 62 years Holmes kept time in his photographs, saving it for generations to come.
1.When was Burton Holmes born?
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2.Did Burton take at least one camera with him everywhere he went?
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3.Why did Burton decide to have the slides painted?
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4.What did Burton Holmes do in 1910?
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5.What was the most valuable thing Burton did for future generations?
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No summer beach vacation in the northeast U. S. A state of Massachusetts is complete without an order of fried clams at a seaside restaurant. People enjoy eating the shellfish, which are dipped(蘸) in a mixture made from flour, water and spices and then cooked in hot oil.
One restaurant known for its seafood is Nancy’s on Matha’s Vineyard.
Martha’s Vineyard is a small island off the coast of Massachusetts U. S. President Barack Obama and his family like to visit Martha’s Vineyard in the summer. The Obama family often eats at Nancy’s during their vacations. It seems that one Obama has even started working at Nancy’s this summer.
The Boston Herald newspaper first reported that Sasha Obama the president’s younger daughter has a job there. She is 15 years old. The story says that Sasha Obama is helping the restaurant get ready for its lunch service each day. She is also bringing customers their food orders at a take-out window. She works about four hours. Her last day is Saturday, when the rest of the Obama family arrives for vacation. One of the other workers at the restaurant said Sasha started working earlier the week. She has been using her full name, Natasha, while on the job.
Many people followed the story on social media.“Sasha Obama” became a hot twitter topic. One person wrote on Twitter: “Keeping it real.” Another added hash-tag “Respect”. But a third person twittered that someone else who really needs the money should have the job. He said that Sasha Obama was only working because people would like the story.
The president’s daughter does have a safe team looking out for her. But they have been waiting in a large car nearby while she works.
1.Is Matha’s Vineyard the name of a restaurant?
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2.Who first reported the story of Sasha?
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3.How long did Sasha work at the restaurant a day?
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4.According to a third person, why did Sasha work at a restaurant?
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5.What do you think of Sasha?
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