雨越来越大了，小心开车。
It’s raining more and more heavily. Let’s _________________________.
我看到桌子上放着一张便条。
I saw a note lying ______________________.
狗是人类的好朋友。
________are man’s best friends.
Why Live Near the River?
Imagine pioneers traveling west in the 1800s. In those days, it was hard to find running water and shops where to buy things. As time went by, most pioneers had to make their homes near a river so that they could get water easily.
How did rivers help people live in the past?
Back in the pioneer days, people grew their own food, caught their own fish, and collected their own water.1. People also used rivers as roads, traveling on boats. Traders shipped goods (货物) to people from other areas.
2.
When building many factories right next to rivers for the water’s power to make machines work, some people choose to live near a river for working. They use the river to ship large goods, and some of them work at these factories where power factories provide electricity to homes and businesses.3.
Who wouldn’t want to live near a river?
Some people are nervous about living near rivers because rivers can cause floods (洪水). Every once in a while, floodwaters rise higher than a house, ruining (泡坏) many things in the house.
4.Such waste causes water to smell bad and pollutes the crops (庄稼) we eat. Water and crops in polluted areas can make people very sick.
How do people decide where to live?
5.Rivers can provide jobs and fun activities in a beautiful place. However, those living by rivers should be willing to accept possible problems as well.
A.Why do people live near rivers now?
B.Why did people want to live near a river?
C.Some factories put their waste into rivers.
D.Staying close to a river was easy to get water for living.
E.Some factories stop waste water from running into rivers.
F.People who carry goods onto ships live near the river, too.
G.People should think over the possible risks before deciding where to live.
New Zealand offers free school lunches to thousands of kids
WELLINGTON, Feb. 20 ( Xinhua) – “Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on schooldays under the government’s free and healthy school lunch program,” Prime Minister (首相) Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday.
“The program is for 7 ,000 students at 31 schools right now. The number will extend to 21,000 students in 120 schools by the start of 2021 ,”Ardern said while she was serving up lunch at a school in Hawke’s Bay.
“A full stomach makes all the difference to a child’s learning,” Ardern said.
“Providing a free and healthy lunch at school is one way to help New Zealand become the best place in the world for school children. And people can see that difference right away,” she said. She added that providing these lunches was also a great way for local families to have jobs.
“The program is one of 75 plans from New Zealand’s CYWS ( Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy). It started last year and developed with the money from 10,000 New Zealanders including 6,000 young people,” said Education Minister Chris Hipkins.
1.What kind of writing is it?
A.Story. B.News. C.Email. D.Invitation.
2.The underlined word “extend” here means “__________”.
A.increase B.double C.remain D.fall
3.From the second paragraph, we know that Ardern was __________ when she explained the program.
A.planning for the free lunch program B.giving lunch to the school children
C.thinking how to provide jobs for local families D.collecting money from New Zealanders
4.By “A full stomach makes all the difference to a child’s learning,” Ardern meant that “__________”.
A.learning well mainly depends on eating B.learning to eat a proper lunch is important
C.eating has nothing to do with learming D.children will learm better if they eat well
People use languages to communicate. Any language has its ways to express people’s minds. One of the ways in common is the use of idioms. An idiom is a group of words. It has a special meaning that is different from the usual meaning. For example, under the weather is an idiom meaning ill. So when people say “I’m under the weather," they are saying that they’re not feeling well. Another example, in all weathers means in all kinds of weather. So, “There are homeless people sleeping on the streets in all weathers" tells us that homeless people sleep on the streets no matter whether it is cold or hot.
Different languages may have different ways to make idioms. For people who are learning a foreign language, idioms could cause misunderstandings and bring them endless headaches. On the other hand, if things are done right, idioms can also be a fun way of looking into a new culture and understanding how the people think and talk.
Metaphor (比喻) is often used in idioms. Let’s read the following two examples:
● It makes my blood boil (煮沸) when people litter.
● The night was dark and quiet; my blood ran cold when I heard a strange noise outside at dark night.
In neither situation above, our blood can reach the point so high or so low in temperature. Yet, with the situations the two sentences created, it is not difficult to work out the unhappy feelings of really angry in the first example and very afraid in the second.
Of course, not all idioms are this easy to understand. When we come to idioms of a foreign language, a good dictionary of idioms is always suggested.
1.This passage tells us something about __________ in the English language.
A.grammar B.writing C.reading D.idioms
2.If your brother breaks your computer, you can say to him, “__________.”
A.I’m under the weather B.I’m there in all weathers
C.You’ve made my blood boil D.My blood runs cold
3.What is the writer’s advice when you come to an expression like under the weather?
A.We should look it up in a good idiom dictionary.
B.We should try to express our minds with it.
C.We should find an interesting way to learn it.
D.We should create situations to guess its meaning.
