1．　　If there are a great number of choices available to you, what will you make a decision? A (1)       kid walked into a candy store with his dad and was surprised by so many candies (2)       sale. "It's amazing. What should I choose?" he asked (3)      .
　　"Come on, son. We don't have much time. I have to attend (4)       important meeting." his dad said. "These are all my favorite and I don't know what (5)      ." He picked up some bags and then put them back. He (6)       make up his mind. "Hurry up, son. We have no time. I'm very busy." his dad said. So the boy ran around the store (7)       again. His eyes moved from one bag to (8)      , but all of the sweets looked so good and he hesitated.
　　Finally, the dad lost his patience. He caught his son by the hand and they walked out of the store empty-handed. The boy cried. He wanted them all, but ended up with (9)       because he wouldn't choose just one.
　　Some of us are (10)       that boy. The world is that candy store. We have a lot of choices, (11)       if we don't make a decision about our jobs education, relationships, marriage or other important things, we (12)       empty-handed. Sometimes we worry about (13)       the wrong choice. If we regret the direction (14)       we take, is it too late to go back?We don't have to worry about this. How do we know (15)       it is good or not if we don't make a choice?
　　The bigger danger is that we make no decision at all and end up going now here and doing nothing.

2．　　Suppose every person on earth ate only one kind of food and in one year that food disappeared. If that happened, all humans would soon (1)       too.
　　Luckily, humans don't (2)       the problem. However, the giant panda, one of the world's most lovely animals, may.
　　It has been discovered that the bamboo plants the giant pandas eat are dying. As a result, many of the pandas are dying of (3)      . In the wild, the giant panda eats only two kinds of bamboo plants. One is the umbrella bamboo, the other is the fountain bamboo. Both kinds can live 100 years. In its hundredth year the bamboo plant blooms, has seeds and (4)      .
　　Last year the umbrella and the fountain bamboo that grow in China became 100 years old. Now almost all of these bamboo plants are (5)      . Young shoots now grow from the seeds. However, it will be many months before the shoots are (6)       enough to be eaten as food by the pandas. So the large black and white animals continue to live.
　　Can the wild pandas be (7)      ? A group of scientists studied the pandas in their native habitat. They especially wanted to (8)       more about the animals' food. They wanted to see if the pandas are able to change to other foods while the two kinds of bamboo are growing.
　　The Chinese (9)       recognizes the worldwide care about the giant pandas and has taken action to save the animals. Large areas of the giant pandas habitat have been set up as wildlife preserves (保护区) so that the pandas can live there (10)      . At the same time, Chinese scientists are trying to increase the number of giant pandas by raising some of the animals in zoos.

3．　　Lisa stood next to her tall silent grandfather and watched her parents drive off, leaving her behind. She looked up at her grandfather. He looked down at her. His skin was a little darker than hers. His hair was black and white, as if it couldn't decide which color it should be.
　　"You don't talk much, Grandpa," Lisa said.
　　"You don't visit much, Lisa," her grandfather replied.
　　They stood looking at each other. "Come with me, Lisa," said Grandpa. He started walking without looking back.
　　Lisa followed him to a large storehouse.
　　Lisa remembered her last visit to Grandpa's. She had played hide-and-seek with her brother Jack in the storehouse. But now Jack needed an operation. Lisa had to stay here alone for a few days.
　　"You coming?" Grandpa's voice sounded muffled. His words were coming from inside the storehouse.
　　Lisa went inside. The storehouse was full of all kinds of things. She could see him in the far corner. Lisa walked over and stood next to him. He pointed to a small wooden box with "Lisa" painted on it in bright green letters.
　　"Yours," he said.
　　Lisa bent down and opened it. In it were some old things—a bright blue feather, a tiny V-shape leaf and some dolls. She looked up at Grandpa, with tears in her eyes.
　　"The box stays here, but it belonged to you. No one else." Then he closed his eyes and smiled. His smile reminded Lisa of her father. Grandpa no longer seemed strange and silent.
　　"I may be so overcapitalized (过剩)," Lisa answered, carefully pronouncing the familiar word.
　　Grandpa laughed out loud. "How did that eight-year-old brain of yours find its way around a big word like 'overcapitalized'?"
　　"It's my dad's favourite word," Lisa replied.
　　Grandpa looked down at Lisa and smiled. His smile again reminded Lisa of her father. Without thinking, she reached up and took Grandpa's hand. Lisa's hand felt small and safe inside her grandfather's.
　　"I might need more than one visit to my box," Lisa said seriously.
　　"I expect," Grandpa said.

4．　　Living things have a life cycle. They are born, grow, and die. Even though stars are not living things, they do have a life cycle. A star is born in a cloud of dust and gas. A young star is blue and very hot. A middle-aged star is yellow. It cools and becomes a red giant. Finally, the star explodes. The light of a star tells astronomers many things about the star. Annie Jump Cannon was an American astronomer who carefully classified (分级) stars by looking at their light.
　　Annie Jump Cannon was born in 1863. Her mother taught her about the constellations (星座) when she was a girl. Annie was interested in studying the stars when she grew up. But not many women went to college in those days. Also, Annie had an illness that caused her lost most of her hearing. But these things didn't stop Annie from earning two college degrees.
　　Cannon was hired to work at the Harvard College Observatory (天文台). Astronomers there used telescopes and took photographs of the sky. It was an exciting new science.
　　The light from each star passed through a prism (棱镜) in the telescope. A prism is a piece of cut glass. Light passing through a prism is separated into a rainbow. Cannon studied the photos of each band of colors. Almost all photos were black and white. She could not see the colors. She could only see different dark lines. She used them to classify stars from younger and very hot to older and cooler.
　　Annie Jump Cannon classified more than 300, 000 stars! Her star catalog is still used by astronomers all over the world. During her lifetime, Cannon received many honors. In 1934, an award was named for her. The Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy is given every year. It is given to a woman astronomer from North America.

5．　　Whether you are preparing for an emergency situation or packing for a backpacking trip, putting together a survival kit is always necessary. Go through this page, and you may get some ideas about how to make a suitable one for yourself.
Step l
Preparing the must-haves

Step 2 Personalizing Your Kit

6．　　Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word "obey" is hardly right as a kind of the wanting and happy understanding usually shown by the children. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gestures (手势) and by making questioning noises.
　　Any attempt (尝试) to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words, leads to great difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises divide themselves as particularly (特别;尤其) expressive as pleasure, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these can't be said to show the baby's meaning to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation leads on to easy imitation (模仿) of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises (发生;出现) as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
　　It is a problem we need to get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation;and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at seven months, of "mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at another time for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes.       .

7．　　In summer, it's common on the street to see many Chinese women holding umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. (1)       She wrote on the blog, "Unlike Chinese women, American women prefer to put on their tank tops (背心) and sunglasses during summer."
　　(2)       Many Americans don't want white skin. They would rather be tanned (晒黑). Amy also wrote,"Having darker skin is so popular that many women and men will pay for fake tans (假晒黑) so that they can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too."
　　Why do they like tanned skin?Michelle Louis reported in her research, "(3)      " She further explained, "Tans make people's skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner than when they have pale skin."
　　Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. (4)       On Amy's blog, she also gave two examples:Some women carried umbrellas around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago;During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought beautiful. But now, Chinese women prefer to be thin.
　　In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. (5)      
A. But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand.
B. The process of tanning can help make people's skin smooth and hide marks.
C. This may be caused by the different standards of beauty between the US and China.
D. People may grow up with only one idea of what beauty is, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the correct or the best idea.
E. In different cultures and at different times of history, the standards change.

8．　　Last week, we discussed whether the high school entrance examination should include music and art. Students have different opinions about it.
　　Some students think it offers us more c(1)       to study music and art. Therefore, we will pay more attention to them. Meanwhile, it can i(2)       our skills in the arts. However, some students d(3)      . If music and art are in the exam, there will be more subjects to prepare for, and it requires more time and energy. So students will have too much pressure.
　　In my view, music and art should be part of the high school entrance examination. As we all know, art and music play an important r(4)       in our lives, which can help us develop our interest and make our life more c (5)      . The most important thing is that music and art can help us relax.

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