Five Things to Do Before You Are 18

Are you bored with your daily routine? Here are some things you should try before you are 18, because after that it’s too late.

Write your family tree

When you are young, get to know all the older people in your family and find out as much as you can about when they were young. Draw a family tree and make notes about each person so that you won’t forget.

Learn to swim

Seriously, this is so important that it could save your life. If you can’t swim well, you won’t be able to do water sports like waterskiing, surfing and diving. Even taking a boat trip will be dangerous for you. Make sure you do it.

Try at least one kind of team sport

Being a good team player is an important skill in life. You can’t just think of yourself, but have to work well with other people. Other advantages of team sports like basketball, football and baseball are that they keep you fit and healthy, and they are also great fun. Teams usually have a good social life too---you’ll go to lots of parties and make many friends.

Collect something

One of the best hobbies for under-18s is collecting things. You could collect rare Chinese stamps, or you could collect things that make you remember what you have done, like cinema tickets for films you have seen or emails from friends. The best way to collect is to have a special album to put your collection in and to write what each thing means to you. That way you won’t forget.

Camp out in the garden

If you don’t have your own garden, find a friend who has one! You will need: two or three friends, a small tent, sleeping bags and warm blankets. Take a lot of food and drink with you into the tent and play games until it gets dark. When it gets dark, tell ghost stories, and at midnight, eat all your sweets. You will need a torch or else you won’t be able to see all your sweets, and it might get too scary.

1．Draw a family tree and________ about each person so that you won’t forget.

A．know the name                                            B．write down some notes

C．find the birthday                                           D．ask the older for help

2．What’s the most important reason for learning to swim? 

   A．You might feel well.                                      B．It could make you healthy.

   C．You might easily do lots of things.                  D．It could save your life.   

3．The writer tells us that one of the best hobbies is to________.

   A．collect something                                         B．do some water sports

   C．camp out in the garden                                  D．send emails to your friends

4．What’s the passage mainly about?

   A．Hobbies to share.                                          B．Skills to have.

C．Things to do.                                               D．Sports to play.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — Is it hard for you to get up early and get ready for classes? Some students at Winter Park High School just roll out of bed in their pajamas （睡衣） and go to class in their own bedrooms. Of course, their teachers and classmates do not see them because all their class work is on the computer.

The Florida high school, the state’s only on–line school, has 250 students who are taking classes at home by computer. “I’m a lot more comfortable at home,” says Luke Levesque, a 16-year-old boy who is taking a computer class on-line. He thinks the school’s computer lab is so noisy that he can’t study well. “Home is much better,” he says.

Students in this first on-line program take classes in Algebra （代数）, American government, chemistry, computer, economics, and Web-page design. They also have to go to a regular school to attend other classes.

When a student is ready to begin a class, he or she turns on the computer, reads the teacher’s instructions, and begins working on the lesson for the day. What happens if a student has a question for the teacher? Or the teacher wants to say something about the work a student is doing? The student and the teacher talk to each other every day through e-mail or he or she calls the teacher. For example, when Luke opened his daily e-mail from the teacher, it contained （包含） her instructions for the day’s computer lesson. When he finished, he e-mailed the work back to her for grading.

Is it easy for students to cheat on tests when they’re working at home? The teachers have already thought about this. They make students take their final exams in person in the classroom.

“You see most of the same things on-line that you see in a regular classroom,” says teacher Linda Hayes. “You get to know the students on-line.”

If this first on-line program goes well, in three years Florida high school students will be able to take all their classes by computer. When that happens, students will be able to get their high school diplomas （毕业证书） without having to set foot in a classroom.

1．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The students take some of their classes on-line.

B．The teacher can correct the students’ work through e-mail.

C．The students have to go to their classrooms to take final exams.

D．The teacher can know the students better on-line than in a classroom.

2．What does the underlined phrase “in person” mean according to the passage?

A．themselves              B．on-line                 C．by others              D．through e-mails

3．What might happen in three years in Florida?

A．Students can take some of their classes on-line.

B．Computers will be widely used by students at school.

C．Students will be able to finish their high school education at home.

D．Students sometimes have to go to their classrooms to get their diplomas.

4．What’s the passage mainly about?

A．It’s helpful to talk to the teacher through e-mail every day.

B．It’s possible for the students to take classes by computer.

C．It’s more comfortable to study at home than at school.

D．It’s easy for the students to cheat on tests at home.

补全对话, 每空只填一词，缩写算一词。

Tommy: Hey，Sally.

Sally: Yes?

Tommy: Is my computer game    1    the table?

Sally:    2  , it isn’t. It’s on the bookcase.

Tommy: Oh, OK. How    3    my books? Are they on the bookcase, too?

Sally: No, they aren’t. They’re on the chair.

Tommy: Oh. So, where’s my pencil case?

Sally: It’s under the sofa.

Tommy: And    4    is my backpack?

Sally: It’s under the table. And your baseball is under the chair.

Tommy: Oh, OK. And where    5    Mom’s keys?

Sally: The keys? They’re on the table.

1）让我们去踢足球吧！

   1       2    soccer.

2） 请问，这用英语怎么说? 请拼写出来。

   3    me, what’s this    4        5   ? And    6    it, please.

3） 她每天都做运动。

   She    7        8    every day.

4） 谢谢你的全家福。

   9    you for your family    10   .

American and British people both speak English, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like the same language.

First of all, they sound very different. Often, Americans don’t say all the letters in each word, especially consonants （辅音） like “t” and “d.” For example, Americans may say “I dun no” instead of “I don’t know”. However, the British usually pronounce their consonants more carefully.

Also, some letters have different sounds. For example, Americans say the “a” in “half” like the “a” in “cat,” but the British say the “a” in “half” like the “a” in “ash.”

Sound is not the only difference between British English and American English. The two languages have different words for some things. For example, the words for clothing are different. Americans use the word “sweater,” but the British say “jumper.”

Many other words and expressions are different in the two countries. In England, if you are going to telephone a friend, you “ring her up.” In America, you “give her a call.” The British use the word “lovely” to describe something they like. Americans use the word “cool” or “great”.

There are also some differences in grammar. For example, Americans almost always use the helping verb “do” with the verb “have.” They might say “Do you have an extra pen?” The British often ask the question in a different way. They might say “Have you got an extra pen?”

These differences can be confusing（令人混淆的） if you are learning English. But there is a reason for the differences. Languages change over time. When the same language is used in different places, it changes differently in each place. This is what happened to English. It also happened to other languages, such as French. Many people in Canada speak French, but their French is different from the French spoken in France.

1．Do Americans say all the letters in each word?

___________________________________________________________

2．Who use the word “sweater”, Americans or the British?

___________________________________________________________

3．Is French the same in Canada and France?

____________________________________________________________

4．Why are there some differences in the same language?

___________________________________________________________

5．What is the main idea of the passage?

___________________________________________________________

假如你是李雷，你将参加在澳大利亚举办的冬令营。请你根据下表提供的信息写一篇开营式上的发言，介绍你的家庭和个人情况、兴趣爱好等等。可适当发挥。发言稿的开头已为你写好。（字数不少于60词）

Dear friends,

I’m very happy to join the winter camp.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                           Yours,

                                                           Li Lei

The host ________ his voice so that the audience could hear him clearly.

A. rised　　　　B. rose　　　　       C. raised　　　　  D. raises

Do you know ______________ the MP3 player last week?

A. how much did she pay for                            B. how much did she spend on

C. how much she paid for                          D. how much she cost

When does Oxfam Trailwalker ______ every year? It _______ in November every year since 1981.

A. hold, take place　　                              B. talk place, is held

C. take place, has been held　　                 D. held, has taken place

The radio says it will be much ________ and there will be much ________.

A. snow, cloudier　　   B. snowy, clouds　　    C. snowier, cloudy　　 D. snowier, cloud