People enjoy taking trips. But what are the reasons they leave home? One reason is for education. People travel because they want to learn more about other people and other places. They are curious about other cultures. When people are tourists, they get a quick look at different ways of living. Even a short look at another kind of lifestyle is an important lesson. On a trip, a person can learn directly by visiting museums and historic spots. What does a tourist learn who sees the art museums, visits the historical palaces and other scenic spots in Paris and shops along the River Seine? He gets a vivid picture, a real life of one of the French people. He learns about their attitudes（态度）, how they feel about business, beauty and history.
What about the tourist who goes to Hong Kong? Does he get the same information that he could get from a book? He might read that Hong Kong is crowded, that there is less than 200 square meters of space for each person. But seeing and feeling the lack of space will impress him much more. He might read that there are nearly 200 vehicles for every kilometer of roadway. But the sight of so many vehicles parked along the roadside would be a much more vivid lesson. The tourist to Hong Kong will never forget the contrasts(对比，对照): the straight vertical lines of tall modern buildings and the moving lines of boats that people live in.
【小题1】Why do people leave home to travel according to the passage?

A poor farmer had a  friend who was famous for the wonderful apple trees he grew.
One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it.  The farmer was pleased with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.
He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit.  If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbors would come at night and steal some of the apples.  If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit.  Finally he planted the tree in his wood.  But without sunlight and good soil(土壤), the tree soon died.
Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place.  “What’s the difference?” the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.
“Yes,” said the friend, “but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit.  Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed (毁掉) a good apple tree! ”
【小题1】What gift did the farmer get from his friend one day?
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【小题2】How many people are there in the story?
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【小题3】Where did the farmer plant the apple tree at last?
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【小题4】Why did the apple tree soon die?
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【小题5】Who destroyed the apple tree?
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Almost all of us have unpleasant habits. We all want to get rid of(摆脱) them, but we don't know proper ways. Here’s some advice.

    ●Write down all the reasons why you want to stop some behavior. Look at the reasons very often.

    ●It's clever to do something else when you want to stop your bad habits. If you get angry easily, for example, you can go out for a walk.

    ●Decide what you'll do to reward(奖励) yourself if you really get rid of your bad habits.

    ●If you get too heavy, keep junk food out of your house.

    ●Bad habits develop over years, so you can't get rid of them very soon. So you should be patient.

    ●Don't be afraid to ask others for support. You can talk to your friends, family or other people. When you talk to them, they might be able to provide some advice that you can’t get from yourself.

Have you ever wondered?
1.      Why do airplanes take longer to fly west than east?
It can take five hours to go west-east from New York (NY) to London but seven hours to travel east-west from London to NY. The reason for the difference is an atmospheric phenomenon (大气现象) known as the jet stream (气流). The jet stream is a very high altitude (=" above" sea level) wind which always blows from the west to the east across the Atlantic. So the planes moving at a constant air speed go faster from the west to the east when they are moving with the wind than in the opposite.
2.      What would happen if the gravity on Earth was suddenly turned off?
Supposing we could magically turn off gravity. Would buildings and other structures（建筑物）float away? What happened would depend on (依靠) how strongly the things were attached (吸附) to the earth. The earth is moving at quite a speed, moving at over a thousand miles per hour. If you turn something around your head on a string, it goes around in a circle until you let go of the string. Then it flies off in a straight line. ‘Turning off’ gravity would be like letting go of the string. Things not attached to the earth would fly off in a straight line. People in buildings would suddenly shoot upwards at a great speed until they hit the ceiling (=" top" surface of a room). Most things outside would fly off into space.
【小题1】What information can we get from the first passage?

Habit is any action that we have performed so often that it becomes something that we do almost without thinking. Some of them are thought to be bad habits. People spend countless hours and dollars each year trying to get rid of these bad habits but often fail. Why? Change is hard work and there is no shortcut to achieve it. However, there is still some advice for you to follow.

First, look at why you do it. In other words, what’s the result of doing this thing? If your bad habit is shouting at people when you are unhappy or under pressure, what do you get from it? It may make you feel a little better for the moment. Or maybe you have a bad habit of leaving your homework undone. The result could be that you get more time to spend on the Internet!

Next, take a look on the other hand. What are you losing because of your habit? Shouting at other people is a bad habit because it makes people around you feel bad and unhappy. Leaving your homework undone is a bad habit because you may be punished by your teacher. Having more Internet time means that you are losing the chance to learn the things that you need to learn. When you think that way, you’ll find that it’s not wise to keep your bad habit! Now it is time to make a decision. What will you choose? I’m sure you will choose to do what you think is more important.

1.From the first paragraph we know that __________.

2.The underlined sentence “there is no shortcut to achieve it” means that __________.

3.According to the reading, if you want to get rid of your habits, you have to __________.

4.Which of the following does NOT happen because of a bad habit according to the reading?

5. The main purpose of this passage is to __________.