Many people enjoy taking trips by themselves. Unluckily, they do not always have the best________.Instead, people should consider group tours. Taking a group tour is a wise choice for people to________themselves.
First, group tours plan travelers’ routes, so people don’t have to______where they are going next or how they are getting there. They can just______and enjoy their trip.______, my family once took a group tour to China. The travel agency (旅行社)______everything for us. We just looked at the schedule the travel agency had_______and followed it. Thanks to the travel agency, we had a _____trip. This made things _____on my father since he didn’t have to worry about where we would go next and ______at night．
Another______of group tours is that they allow people to communicate with one another while traveling．Travelers are able to develop______with people they would never have met______they are traveling together for a number of days. As I know, my parents _____Russia on a group tour for their honeymoon(蜜月). They______another couple on that trip, and everyone had a great time together. Even after many years, they still______together from time to time. If my parents had traveled by themselves, it would have been______for them to get to know this couple.
In short，there is _____better than a group tour when traveling. Group tours schedule everything on the trip, and they give us the______to meet others and make friends with them. Group tours are the ______way to travel when taking a trip．
1.A. maps B. cars C. places D. vacations
2.A. help B. enjoy C. praise D. encourage
3.A. guess B. prove C. worry about D. talk about
4.A. relax B. stop C. walk D. show
5.A. In all B. So far C. As usual D. For example
6.A. made use of B. took care of C. ran out of D. caught sight of
7.A. provided B. found C. changed D. bought
8.A. short B. strange C. pleasant D. terrible
9.A. earlier B. easier C. slower D. worse
10.A. work B. practice C. stay D. perform
11.A. rule B. question C. purpose D. advantage
12.A. skills B. programs C. friendships D. treatments
13.A. because B. unless C. while D. although
14.A. 1eft B. visited C. forgot D. missed
15.A. met B. invited C. followed D. recognized
16.A. dance B. learn C. cook D. travel
17.A. certain B. important C. impossible D. unnecessary
18.A. something B. nothing C. somebody D. nobody
19.A. gift B. hope C. method D. chance
20.A. best B. last C. only D. new
As we know, everyone can make mistakes, but don’t worry about it. The following is what we should do when we make mistakes.
● Just admit (承认）it. Don’t think that our mistakes are caused by others. 1. Don’t blame other people, and don’t cheat ourselves, either.
● 2. In order to stop the problem from getting worse, we should act quickly to solve it. If we don’t act and deal with the problem quickly, it’ll only make us feel more stressed. Also it is necessary to make a plan of action and correct the mistake according to it. 3.
● 4. Those who have made the most mistakes can get an A, for they are the ones who have learned the most. The more we learn from our mistakes, the cleverer we are.
● 5.What caused us to make the mistake? How can we avoid making the same mistake in the future? When we act with a method to get a good result, do it that way next time. If we don’t, we should stop, think about it, change it and try again.
A. Don’t be afraid of failure.
B. Realize that making mistakes is the best way to learn.
C. Solve it at once.
D. Be brave and face the fact that we have made the mistakes.
E. So be away from stress.
F. Think about what we can learn from our mistakes.
G. So decide quickly and act.
More than 30,000 people went to the White House on Monday for the 136th Easter Egg Roll (复活节滚彩蛋). President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama held the event by inviting thousands of kids to color and look for eggs. The theme of the day was “Hop Into Healthy, Swing Into Shape.” It was part of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” program to reduce obesity rates (肥胖率) among American kids. Mrs. Obama spoke to young reporters about her goal to get children to eat right and keep moving.
“We are working to make sure that kids born today grow up healthy, learn how to have balanced meals, and get more physical activity into their lives,” she said.
Mrs. Obama said she wants children across the nation to understand that “exercise isn’t just hard work, it’s play. If you’re running around with your dog, you’re getting exercise. If you walk up the stairs, that’s exercise. But if you’re sitting in front of the TV or on a computer game, you’re not exercising.”
The First Lady said that for kids who have balanced meals most of the time, having a special snack, like chocolate, will not hurt. “And if you are active, you can splurge (挥霍) a little more,” she said. Mrs. Obama’s favorite “splurge food” is French fries. But she balances her splurging by exercising almost every day. She loves to play tennis and she practices yoga.
“A lot of kids look up to athletes, and I think it’s important for athletes to share their good habits,” Mrs. Obama said. “Kids aren’t just going to wake up and be LeBron James. He’s practicing and eating right and working out and training. Our athletes can be really good messengers to kids who look up to them — they can say to kids, ‘If you really want to be like me, then you really do need to eat your vegetables.’”
1.The purpose of the “Let’s Move!” program is to _____.
A. help kids keep healthy
B. train more young reporters
C. encourage kids to eat more eggs
D. invite kids to visit the White House
2.In Mrs. Obama’s opinion, exercise _____.
A. can be fun to do
B. means hard work
C. should be done outdoors
D. requires special equipment
3.“Splurge food” is allowed to be eaten when _____.
A. you don’t hurt yourself
B. you have a special snack
C. you never eat French fries
D. you eat right and stay active
4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. All kids want to be LeBron James.
B. It is very easy to form good habits.
C. Athletes can set a good example for kids.
D. Kids like the messages the athletes give them.
5.In which part of a newspaper will the text most probably appear?
A. Business. B. Health.
C. Culture. D. Education.
National Potato Day was back on Friday 23rd August 2013. Along with BordBia (Irish Food Board) and many other potato growers in Ireland, Keogh’s Farm brought you a day that was all about potatoes and showing love for our national vegetable.
Keogh’s invited the public to Spud Fest, which took place on Dublin’s South King Street from 12 pm to 4 pm. This festival brought the farm to the city with potato performers, face painters, balloon modeling, music, tastings and plenty of other festival fun to celebrate the most delicious day of the year. There were lots of potatoes, of course.
Keogh’s along with the support of BordBia called on everyone to enjoy at least one potato on National Potato Day. Potatoes are naturally low in fat, a great source of vitamins and minerals and are a great way to support local Irish homegrown produce and businesses.
Tom Keogh, General Manager of Keogh’s Farm said, “We can’t believe we were getting ready for our third year of National Potato Day. When we dreamt the idea up in 2011, we had no idea it would attract so many people. Since the first National Potato Day we have received nothing but interest in potatoes at home and all over the world.
“Ireland is now recognized as one of the finest producers of top quality vegetables, with the potato leading the field. We are happy that BordBia have joined us this year to bring all our fellow potato producers together and join forces to promote (提升) the enjoyment of the potato. We are hoping National Potato Day is a day to encourage everyone to love potatoes!”
1.According to the text, Spud Fest _____.
A. was open to everyone
B. lasted about five hours
C. sold different vegetables
D. was held in the countryside
2.What did Tom Keogh think of the first National Potato Day?
A. It was world-famous.
B. It was rather terrible.
C. It was very worthless.
D. It was quite successful.
3.The text is mainly to introduce _____.
A. a popular vegetable
B. a well-known capital
C. an interesting festival
D. a famous potato grower
Reporter: Why did you start this new website for Alcott Middle School?
Sarah: Three months ago, my mom was complaining about how she never hears about the days our school ends early until after the fact. She works late and sometimes she has to ask our neighbor at the last minute to pick me up after school. It happened several times, and she was frustrated that there wasn’t better notification (通知) from the school.
Reporter: Didn’t your school already have a website with that information?
Sarah: We had a website. But there wasn’t much information on it, and nobody was in charge of keeping it up to date (包含最新信息的). I asked my teacher if our class could update the school calendar. That seemed pretty easy.
Reporter: Was it?
Sarah: Yeah, and it was kind of fun. So then we asked the principal (校长) if we could redo the whole site. He said okay, so we went to work. We discovered websites that taught us how to make our site look better and added more hot links that people could click to get more information about a subject. We posted photos from basketball games. Our class even started a blog about what’s going on at school. Then we persuaded the teachers to create their own pages.
Reporter: So what’s next?
Sarah: A few friends and I started a small Web design business. We’re asking other schools if they’ll employ (雇用) us to set up a site like the one we created.
Reporter: Wow! That’s pretty enterprising (有事业心的) for a 13-year-old.
Sarah: I guess so. But it doesn’t seem like work when you’re doing something you enjoy.
1.How did Sarah’s mom feel about her school three months ago?
A. Hopeful. B. Thankful.
C. Dissatisfied. D. Uninterested.
2.The underlined part “in charge of” is closest in meaning to _____.
A. in keeping with B. in touch with
C. in need of D. in control of
3.Sarah set up the new school website _____.
A. with the help of her teachers
B. by researching on other websites
C. in order to please her principal
D. to make her school more famous
4.What can we learn about Sarah?
A. She doesn’t like working at all.
B. She dreams of being a boss.
C. She enjoys what she does now.
D. She wants to make lots of money.
Pete Sparks was a sensitive (敏感的) boy. So sensitive that even his hair was ticklish (怕痒的). You only had to touch his hair a little bit and he would start laughing. When this ticklish laughter started, no one could make him stop.
Pete tried everything to control his ticklishness, but nothing worked. So he began to feel sad for being different.
One day in the street, he met a special clown. The clown was very old and could hardly walk, but when he saw Pete in tears, he went to cheer him up. It didn’t take long to make Pete laugh. Later Pete told him about his ticklish problem, and he asked the clown how such an old man could carry on being a clown.
“I have no one to take my place,” said the clown. “I have a very serious job to do.” Pete looked at him, surprised. “Come, I’ll show you,” said the clown. So the clown took Pete to many hospitals full of children who were sick. As soon as they saw the clown, their faces changed completely and lit up with a smile. Their short while spent with the clown changed everything for them. That day was even more special, because in every show Pete’s laughter would end up with the kids lying on the floor, dying with laughter. When the visit came to an end, the old clown said to Pete, “Now do you see why I can’t retire (退休), even at my age?”
That was how Pete became a clown, and took the special old man’s place. From that day on, the fact that Pete was different actually made him happy, thanks to his special gift (天赋).
1.Pete wanted to change because he wanted to _____.
A. make a difference
B. just be a normal boy
C. make everyone happy
D. just be a special clown
2.The clown took Pete to the hospitals in order to _____.
A. treat his ticklishness
B. encourage him to be a clown
C. show him the meaning of his job
D. know whether Pete had told a lie
3.What does the story teach us?
A. Practice makes perfect.
B. Everyone is born useful.
C. Well begun is half done.
D. Where there is life, there is hope.
