11．　　You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many centuries. In fact, an English dictionary you (1)       today wasn't made until the Qing Dynasty. Three men did most of the important (2)       work on dictionaries. They spent nearly all their lives trying to (3)       words for their dictionaries. For them, it was a wonderful journey. The largest dictionary in the world is Oxford English dictionary. The (4)       for this dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857. Twenty-two years later, Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary. Murray had never been to (5)      . At the age of fourteen, he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank. (6)       he became a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job, Murray had a small (7)       in his garden to do the work. Every morning Murray got out of bed at five o'clock and (8)       in the small house several hours before breakfast. Often he would work into the night. Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years. But after five years, he was (9)       adding words for the letter "A"! He worked on the dictionary (10)       he was very old.
　　Forty-four years later, in 1928, other editors finished the dictionary.

12．　　In your spare time, do you help your parents with chores around the house? Can you cook for your family?
　　In order to stress the importance of hard-working spirit education among students of different ages, the Communist Party of China Central Committee recently released guideline.
　　The guideline calls for students to respect labor work. Students should learn basic life skills and form good working habits through such education.
　　The government has been trying to stress the importance of hard﹣working spirit education. But this has been overlooked in recent years. Many teenagers do not value the importance of working hard and aren't interested in doing so.
　　According to a study of nearly 3000 students that was done by Ningbo Evening News in March, only 22% of students help with everyday chores around the house.
　　School and families play an important role in teaching students about the value of working hard, the guideline says.
　　Primary and middle school should provide students with hard-working spirit classes every week, according to the guideline. Schools can also hold activities to give students real﹣world work experience. For example, schools can teach children how to plant trees on Tree-Planting Day.
　　As children's first teachers, parents should also encourage children to learn how to do chores at home. Students should master one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

13．　　When you think of the Artic, you imagine an icy land of pure white snow. Others imagine it was the last really clean place left on earth. We have polluted the deepest oceans with plastic rubbish. "And now", CNN says, "It's the Arctic's turn."
　　German scientists have recently found microplastics in Arctic snow. Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters. Sadly, the scientists found 1800 pieces of microplastics per liter of (每升) snow.
　　How is plastic pollution reaching the Arctic?According to scientists, "It's clear that most of the microplastics in the snow come from the air. " They fall off the plastic objects and are moved by the wind, just like dust. They mix with ice in the air and fall to the ground as snow. Finding these plastics in Arctic snow means that we may breathe them in.
　　Are they bad for us? Scientists cannot answer this question for now, according to the WHO. We do know that our bodies cannot take in "large" pieces of microplastics. However, if the plastics are small enough, they can find ways into our bodies and stay there for a long time, which can be bad for our health. What's more, earlier studies have shown that microplastics may contribute to lung cancer risk.
　　Microplastics have also been found in rivers and oceans around the world. Earlier research has found that they flow over long distances and into our oceans, hurting ecosystems along the way. They start in our wastewater, then flow into rivers and out to the sea, where they are eaten by sea animals. If people then eat these animals, it means that we're eating the plastic as well.

14．　　One can't discuss Chinese music without mentioning the Chinese seven-string zither (七弦琴), also known as the guqin, one of the four arts of ancient China. The other three arts are go (围棋), calligraphy (书法) and painting. It first appeared over 3, 000 years ago and represents China's solo musical instrument tradition.
　　At first, the guqin had only five strings, representing the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Later, in the Zhou dynasty, King Wen of Zhou added a sixth string for his son. King Wu of Zhou, added a seventh string to encourage his army to fight with the Shang.
　　Ambience (环境气氛) was important in playing the Chinese zither. Usually, it was practiced in quiet setting and never for public performance. Ancient artists enjoyed performing by a stream in the mountains. The sound of the guqin mixed with the echoes (回音) from the mountains, until the musician found himself at one with nature. Playing it in snow was also a favorite pastime for ancient artists, who believed the instrument was the purest of its kind in the world. Also, a night with moonlight was considered ideal for playing the guqin.
　　Nowadays, there are fewer than one thousand well-trained guqin players. The original number of several thousand pieces has greatly reduced to only a hundred works by today. The guqin and its music was added to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (人类非物质文化遗产) in 2003.
(1)题完成句子, (2)—(3)题简略回答问题, (4)题找出并写下第三段主题句, (5)题将文中画线句子译成汉语．

15．　　Happiness is important for everyone. Most people want to be happy, (1)       few know how to find happiness. Money and success alone do not bring lasting happiness. Happiness (2)      (depend)on ourselves.
　　The first secret of happiness is to enjoy the simple things in life. You should enjoy life's simple pleasures, such as reading a good book, listening to your favorite music, or spending time (3)       close friends or relatives. If you have several good friends, you will feel (4)      (happy) than before.
　　The second secret to leading a happy life is to be active. Many people experience this by dancing or playing a sport. You can forget about your problems, and only think about the activity.
　　Finally, many people find happiness in helping others. People feel good when they bring kindness and (5)      (warm) to others.

21．假设你是李硕, 你的加拿大笔友Mike最近对中文很感兴趣, 写信给你询问如何学好中文, 请你根据以下提示内容, 给他写一封回信．
提示:
How to learn Chinese well?
1. reading Chinese newspapers and magazines
2. listen to Chinese songs
3. speak Chinese as much as possible
4. …
注意:
1. 内容必须包含以上所有提示信息, 可以适当发挥．
2. 词数80个左右, 开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数．
3. 文中不得出现真实姓名和学校名称．
Dear Mike,
　　I am very glad to receive your letter. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Shuo