Hee-haw! Scores of farms across the country are opening up to overnight guests. The best have all the appeal of a first-rate inn ----- plus here a moo, there a moo.
Sure, you and your kids plan to conquer the theme parks. In the meanwhile, why not make a little hay? Farm stays are fast becoming the great American alternative to the pre-packaged vacation.
LIBERTY HILL FARM
Rochester, Vt.; 802/767-3926; www.libertyhillfarm.com. Adults$75, teens $50,kids 12 and under $35, including breakfast and dinner; shared baths.
Beth and Bob Kennett run a farm straight out of a storybook. You’ll find Beth in the kitchen, rolling out dough（生面团） for a pie. Bob’s busy with other work. Guests sleep in seven sunny bedrooms right in the farmhouse and can participate in any of the farm jobs. Maybe you and your kids won’t be up at 6 a.m. to meet the milk truck, but you can help with the milking twice a day, collect eggs, and pick sweet corn and wild blackberries in season.
HULL-O FARM
Durham, N.Y.; 518/239-6950; www.hull-o.com; Adults $110, kids 10—14 $60, 5—9 $50, 2—4 $35, under 2 free, including breakfast and dinner; private baths.
It started in 1993 as a way to bring in some extra money at a time of falling milk prices. But soon after Frank and Sherry Hull opened their Catskill Mountains dairy farm to overnight visitors, they discovered they loved it. As you drive up, Sherry greets you on the porch（入口处）of the 1825 farmhouse with a cow-shaped cookie jar. Before long your kids are playing around with the cows, sheep, ducks, goats and getting ready for a hayride（乘坐装满干草的牛车出游）.
MERAMEC FARM CABINS
Bourbon, Mo.; 573/732-4765; http://www.wine-mo.com Doubles with private bath $75, $10 per additional person. Trail and riding fees extra.
Climb onto the back of the Ford pickup and catch up with the herd. One gentle cow named Cricket will even let the kids sit on her back. At the barn（牲口棚）, Carol will introduce you to the horses ---15 Missouri Fox Trotters --- and lead you on a trail ride over the hills and down along the spring-fed Meramec River, where everyone swims. Grab a fishing pole and head back to the river. When you have your fill of the wild, try Carol and Dave’s favorite restaurants or wineries（酿酒厂）, within 20 miles of the farm.
【小题1】The underlined sentence in the first paragraph implies that ___________.

NEW YORK - People who keep doing some work in their field after they retire may enjoy better physical and mental health than those who stop work completely or switch to another area of work, according to a U.S. study.
Researchers from the University of Maryland said the findings suggest that prospective retirees should consider moving into so-called "bridge employment" as a transition to full retirement.
"In essence, if someone is in a field where part-time work or self-employment is possible, he or she should consider it as they plan for retirement," researcher Dr. Mo Wang, an assistant professor of psychology, told Reuters Health.
For their study, Wang and his colleagues used data on more than 12,000 workers in a U.S. health study begun in 1992. Participants, who were between the ages of 51 and 61 at the outset, were surveyed every two years over a six-year period.
Overall, Wang's team found, people who went into some form of bridge employment reported lower rates of major diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis during the study period than their counterparts who went straight into full retirement.
The findings were not explained by older age or worse initial health among people who opted for full retirement, the investigators report in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
On top of their better physical health, "bridge" workers also tended to report fewer mental health problems, such as depression.
The same mental health benefits were not seen, however, when retirees took part-time work in other fields -- possibly, Wang said, because many of these people may have taken those jobs out of financial need rather than choice.
He noted that the lack of benefit could also stem from the fact that these retirees had to adjust to an unfamiliar job position or had to make lifestyle changes.
Bridge work, particularly in one's accustomed field, may benefit physical and mental health for a number of reasons, according to Wang.
In general, he explained, such work may help older adults maintain the active lifestyles they had during their careers and decrease any stress they might feel from the transition into retirement.  wwwWang said when it comes to mental health, for instance, bridge work may help by allowing people to keep some of the "role identity" that they have formed over their careers.
Staying active in general, not only through work, can also benefit retirees' physical health, Wang noted. He added, however, that any mental health benefits are likely to depend on the type of activity -- whether it is something that the person truly enjoys, and that helps ease any stress of moving into retirement.
"These findings," Wang said, "suggest that for retirees and prospective retirees, carefully considering whether to engage in bridge employment -- and if so, what types of bridge employment -- is quite important."
【小题1】 What does the underlined phrase “at the outset” mean?__________

Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize for Literature might ignite an explosion of global interest in Chinese literature and lead to more titles translated into English, European experts say.
“Hopefully, the award means more people will read Chinese literature and more works will get translated,” says Michel Hockx, professor of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia from University of London. “Many very good Chinese writers have been accepted globally for a long time already. Mo Yan is probably the most translated Chinese writer alive, with at least five of his novels made available in English over the past 20 years.”
Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, says Mo’s win coincides with growing interest in Chinese literature and recognizes the talents of a distinctive and visionary（富于幻想的）writer. “We are very excited by the fact that English translations of more of his books should now become available,” Ruppin says. He made the comment after Mo became the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its century-long history.
As East-West cultural exchange has been booming, Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Hockx explains, “It’s mainly because there are many more opportunities for Chinese writers to visit other countries, to publish their works outside China and to interact with readers abroad. At the same time, more and more people globally are learning Chinese and taking an interest in the Chinese language and culture.”
University of Oxford lecturer in modern Chinese literature Margaret Hillenbrand says, “The obvious reason for the growing global presence of Chinese literature is the growing global presence of China itself. People have come to realize that there is a serious knowledge deficit between China and its international counterparts — in particular, China knows incomparably more about Europe and America than the other way round — and reading Chinese literature is an effective, simple means of solving that gap.”
【小题1】The underlined word “ignite” in Paragraph 1 probably means  “________”.

We couldn’t forget the historic moment on Oct.11, 2012, when the first Chinese Nobel laureate, Mo Yan, won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. Minutes after the award was announced, millions of Chinese expressed pleasure and pride for Mo Yan on the Internet. So a Chinese getting the Nobel Prize for literature did really increase the national pride.
On Dec.11 (Monday) in Sweden Mo was given the Nobel diploma, medal and a document confirming the prize amount. In his speech at the ceremony, Mo said receiving the prize felt like a fairy tale, but of course it was true and that literature was useless compared with science. Mo's award filled the blank left by Chinese literature in the world literary history. Meanwhile, Monday's Nobel awards ceremony set off another buying rush on Mo's works among Chinese readers.
【小题1】Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for _________.