Hi Hongbo,

I’m so glad to read about the changes talking place in your city. It’s really good news that you can travel by subway in Xi’an, though there’s only one line there. Here in London we have twelve lines. By the way, we don’t use the word “subway” here. It’s American English. We call it “the Underground”, instead.

The London Underground is very famous. It’s famous for several reasons. First of all, part of the underground railway today is the oldest in the world, which opened in 1863. Secondly, the London Underground is also the first line to have electric trains, in 1890. Thirdly but not the last, the London Underground is the second largest metro system in the world, after the Shanghai Metro. There are 270 stations in the Underground and it has 402 kilometres of tracks(轨道). What’s more, the city of London itself helps make the transportation system famous! I’ve got a few photos to help you build a clear picture of the Underground in my city. They are together with this mail.

In your email, you also said workers were building more lines. I’m sure your city is developing fast. Maybe you can send me a few photos of your city today. I really want to see the changes taking place there. I’m happy for you to live there in an ancient city with such a new look!

So much for now. I’ll write soon again. Best wishes!

1. Where is the writer from？

2. The second paragraph mainly tells us        ?

3.In the email, the words “subway”, “underground”, and “metro” mean         .

4. What does the writer want Hongbo to do?

根据已给的首字母给各句空白处填上一个适当的词，使句子完整、正确。

1.Last year Cindy was thirteen years old. And tomorrow will be her f?????????? birthday.

2.How can you make y???????? understood (明白) if you cannot express clearly?

3.Don’t open the door until the car s??? _???? .

4.Christmas is the most important holiday in w??????????? countries.

5.Today is so cold. The temperature is b??????????? zero.

6.You’ll have to speak louder. The old man is a bit d??????????? .

7.This teapot is made of glass. It’s broken e????????? .

8.Susan didn’t get m????????? until she was thirty-nine.

9.Ted got an A in this English test b????????? of his hard work.

10.My sister Tracy is m????????? interested in sports than in music.

Today is Sunday, March 20. We, sixteen boys and seventeen girls, go to school early, but we have no lessons. Our teacher takes us to the zoo. We are very excited about the trip. We get on a bus, it goes fast and at half past nine we get there. How beautiful the zoo is! There're a lot of trees, some hills, and a big lake. The sun is shining and the flowers are coming out. There are all kinds of animals in it, elephants, monkeys, birds, fishes and many other animals. The birds are singing in the trees and the fishes are swimming in the lake. We like to watch monkeys. They are playing on the hill or having oranges, apples and bananas. There are many rules in the zoo. We mustn't do this and we mustn't do that. But we all have a good time. At one in the afternoon we leave the zoo. 
【小题1】 The weather is ______ today

Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the language of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present-day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

    Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time, some even die out completely. About 1,000 years ago, English was a little known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

If a language has a number of speakers, or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of people. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can’t understand speakers from other parts.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

A. most people in the world speak Chinese

B. there are thousands of languages in today’s world

C. man has much knowledge about languages

D. some people know several languages

2.Most European and Indian languages_______.

A. will soon die out completely

B. were once a relative of English

C. are no longer spoken

D. come from the same family of language.

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

  A. Chinese is the language with the most speakers.

  B. English was a well-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

  C. A language has many speakers, but there may be no differences in the way it is spoken in different areas.

  D. Speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can understand speakers from other parts.

4.It is considered a most difficult thing for one to learn to speak Chinese because_______.

A. there are great differences between the dialects of Chinese

B. Chinese and many foreign languages are not of the same family

C. Chinese is a very old language

D. there are great differences between the old Chinese and the present-day Chinese

5.The underlined word “dialect” in the last paragraph means_______.

A. a special language spoken by Chinese

B. the sign used by Chinese people in a special area

C. the difference between the old and today’s Chinese

D. the form of a language used in one part of the country

On the evening of October7, Li Fen was watching TV while his mother was b1.___ cooking supper in the kitchen. S 2.___the telephone rang. Li Fen q 3.__ picked it up to a4._ the call. It was from a good friend of his m5.___. She wanted to say “Happy Birthday” to his mother. “Today is mother’s birthday, but I have already f 6.___ all about it. Mother gives me a lot of l 7.__ and care while I didn’t care for her e 8.__ . From now on. I must always r9.this, s10.__ my love to her and care for her enough,” Li Fen thought to himself, feeling a little ashamed(惭愧的).