Chinese are very generous(慷慨的) when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the  money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States and Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes which will give them a head in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter. However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children are very skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children are short of self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills that they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework. Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking requires patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and finish his job successfully step by step. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and lots of self-confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse(激发) his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
【小题1】. Most Chinese parents don’t realize __________.

The question is so difficult that ______ students can answer it.

A. few                     B. many              C. most

选择恰当的词或短语并用其正确的形式填空。

be able to; share with; wonder; celebrate; collect stamps; be interested in; him

1. —Do you like the song Big Big World? —Yes,  it sounds_________.

2. Mum told Peter that he should tidy his room by_________.

3. It's said that Neil Armstrong_________flying at the age of six.

4. They are good friends,  so they have much_________each other.

5. He is a good swimmer,  so he_________swim to land when the ship had an accident.

6. _________the Special Administrative Region's 10th anniversary( 纪念日) ,  two baby pandas were given to Hong

Kong in April this year.

7. Mr Green is so crazy about_________that he spends most of his money on it.

Dear Sir,
I am writing to you about my stay at your hotel. My wife and I arrived on Saturday, May 15^th and stayed for a week. Though we were treated well and found the service excellent, we think there are one or two things we should bring your attention.
1. We hoped for a nice holiday from our busy work lives, and your ad said “comfortable and quiet”. We want to have a chance to enjoy ourselves. However, we were always waken up by the noise every morning. Is it really necessary for the workers to start their repair work so early?
2. We hoped to swim in your “wonderful pool”. To our disappointment(失望), we found that it was closed for the whole time of our stay.
I hope you do not mind my writing to you about these things, but I would be happy if you could give me some explanation(说明). As I said at the start, it is a pity, and your service is so good in other places.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Tom Green
【小题1】Who is Mr. Tom Green probably writing this letter to?

补全对话。（每空一词，共5分）

A: What bad weather! Another sandstorm begins.

B: So it is. But why are there so many sandstorms recently?

A: Because there is so much sand around us.

B: Why is there so much sand?

A: Because a lot of land has been _1.___ into sand.

B: And why?

A: Because people have __2.___ down a lot of trees.

B: That may be the root(根源). We should __3.__ people from cutting down trees. Although we have built “ the Great Green Wall”, we still need to work hard to __4.___ the environment.

A: I agree _5.__ you. Let’s go to the hill and plant trees on Sunday.

B:Good idea.