12．　　Once a king got two nice falcons (猎鹰) from his son. He had never seen such beautiful falcons before. He loved them so much and he ordered the best falconer (训鹰人) to train them to fly.
　　After several months, the king came to see how the training was going on. He found that one falcon had already been able to fly high in the sky, while the other was staying on the branch (树枝) of a tree quietly, just keeping still.
　　The king called all his falconers together and ordered them to try every way they could to make the other falcon fly. But none of them succeeded. One day, while the king was taking a walk in the forest, an idea came to his mind. Maybe someone who knew the natural environment well could solve this problem. He sent for a farmer who lived in the forest into his palace to train it at once.
　　The next morning, the king saw the other falcon flying above in the sky freely. "It is unbelievable!" shouted the king. "How could you make it happen?"
　　The farmer replied, "It's very easy. I just cut off the branch where the falcon rested."
　　It is always the same to human beings. We all have "two flying wings" in our hearts as well, but we often seem not to notice them and stay where we are just for safety and comfort. We won't realize we can fly so high and freely until the "branch" we are resting on breaks.

13．　　Have you ever wondered if the cold you have is really a common cold or the flu?Most people don't know the differences between them. Here's some information about colds and the flu.

　　"Each year tens of thousands of people die of flu," D. Yul Ejnes says. And the flu vaccine (疫苗) can help prevent it. Of course, it's best to get your flu vaccine at the beginning of the flu season—usually in the fall.

14．　　Think of somebody you really admire. You will probably find that their success didn't come easily. As "Father of Hybrid Rice (杂交水稻)", Yuan Longping got over great difficulties and spent his whole life working to reduce (减少) world hunger and helping to feed the country with the largest population.
　　Wu Mengchao. the "Father of Chinese Hepatobiliary Surgery" (肝胆外科), focused on saving people's lives for nearly eighty years. He did more than 16, 000 operations (手术) during his life. Holding the knife for such a long time deformed his fingers. Wu once said, "It would be my greatest happiness if I could work at the operating table until my dying day. "
　　In 1969, in order to solve the problem of malaria (疟疾). Tu Youyou, a pharmacologist (药学家), took on the job as head of a research team. She and her teammates did different kinds of experiments (实验). However, the results were disappointing. Instead of giving up, they kept trying. Finally, in 1972, they made it!In 2015, at the age of 85, she received a Nobel Prize.
　　Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, believed that every failure was a step towards success. He once said, "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I didn't give up, because every wrong try is another step forward." Sometimes, their success was a surprise, even to themselves. The famous scientist Alexander Fleming said, "When I woke up just after daybreak on 28th September, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionise (变革) all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic (抗生素). But I guess that was exactly what I did."
　　Some people only became successful after their deaths. Not like Pablo Picasso who became famous and very rich during his lifetime, the artist Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting all through his life and that was to a friend. But he kept painting and he painted more than 2,000 artworks in the following ten years. Now his paintings are very popular and they sell for millions of pounds.
　　One thing all these people have in common is sticking to (坚持) their goals no matter what happens.

15．Popcorn, the Perfect Snack
　　Pop! Pop-pop! Fresh popcorn is one of the most popular foods when people are watching a movie or a ball game. It is delicious, cheap and easy to make. Popcorn may just be the perfect snack.
　　Not all corn pops. There is a tiny amount of water in corn kernels (玉米粒). When the corn kernel is heated, the water in it turns to steam (水蒸气). In some corn the steam goes out through the outside cover. In popcorn the steam can't get out. Pressure builds up until... pop!
　　Popcorn has been around for thousands of years. Back then, people made popcorn by putting corn kernels on red﹣hot stones near a fire. Popcorn was not always eaten whole as it is now. Instead, people made the popcorn into a type of flour (面粉) and then added water to make bread.
　　The first poppers (爆米花机) were invented in the 1880s. These machines heated the corn with steam. Later these popcorn poppers were put into small wagons (车) and pulled to different places. Popcorn was sold at carnivals (狂欢节), parks and state fairs. People could not get enough of it!
　　Soon movie theaters began selling popcorn too. It started the tradition of eating popcorn at the movies. At this time popcorn became more popular than ever. For a short time though, people began eating less popcorn. In the 1950s, television was still very new. Many people stayed at home to watch television instead of going to movies.Few people owned popcorn poppers. Then microwave ovens (微波炉) were invented. It became easy to make popcorn at home. Americans started to eat more popcorn again — more than one billion pounds each year!

16．　　Our grandparents seem to have magic powers sometimes. If they are (1)       (give) a Chinese lunar calendar, they will know what the weather will be (2)       days or even months later.
　　What's the secret?They are following the 24 Solar Terms (节气), which is (3)       important part of Chinese culture.
　　The 24 Solar Terms (4)       (begin) during the ancient periods. At that time, most Chinese people made their living on farms, so weather changes were important for (5)       (they). Of course, they had no weather report or Internet to help them. (6)       people found a way. They studied the sun's movement and also paid attention to other natural changes such as air temperature, water and plant growth. In the end, they worked (7)       24 Solar Terms to mark the changes. The terms became their guide to farming work. For example, the Solar Term jingzhe is when insects (昆虫) wake up from a long sleep in the cold winter. (8)       (farmer) take it as a sign of warm weather and get busy working.
　　The 24 Solar Terms is regarded as China's (9)      (five) great invention, after paper-making, printing, the compass and gunpowder. Now, it is still (10)       (wide) used in daily life even in the age of technology based modern farming.

22．请阅读Tony从美国发来的电子邮件, 并根据所给提示和要求, 以李华的名义回复．

提示:
How you have changed.
Introduce a traditional art or food.
要求:
1. 邮件必须包括所有提示内容, 可适当发挥．
2. 邮件不能涉及真实的人名、校名和地名．
3. 80词左右, 开头已给出, 不计入总词数．
参考词汇:the symbol of (……的象征)
Hi Tony,
　　I am very happy to get your letter. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Li Hua