Naturally ,American schoolchildren love holidays .And they get a lot of them each year .Besides having national holidays such as Thanksgiving and Presidents; Day off from school ,students get longer breaks in the US only go to school for about 180 days a year.To students ,holidays are perfect .However ,parents think there are advantages and disadvantages .
On the one hand ,school holidays allow families to spend time together .Many American parents take time off from work during June,July or august to travel with their children on vacations either in the US or in a foreign country .On the other hand ,schoolchildren get much more time off school than parents get vacation for an time.This means that parents with young children may have to pay more in the babysitting or day care coats.As well ,the long summer holidays mean that students sometimes get bored.
Besides going on trips with their parents ,American students enjoy taking part in different kind s of activities during the holidays .For example ,some kids enjoy summer camps and outdoor adventure holidays .Such trips are great  adventurous students .They  also have a lot to offer students who aren’t usually interested in traditional PE activities .ou can do courses in survival skills ,for example .Students learn how to make a camp in the forest ,which wild food they can eat and how to find their way to make a camp in the forest,which wild food they can eat and how to find their way back to the center.
Students who are not excited about summer camps and outdoor adventure may take part in courses in computer game design ,film making and photography  during the holidays .Finally ,the traditional school trip to foreign countries is always popular .Students can practice their foreign language skills and experience every day life in a different culture.
【小题1】How long are kids in the US at school every year?
About 180 days     B.About 280 days
C.About 200 days   D.About 300 days
【小题2】What does the underlined “they “refer to in the third paragraph?

There was a little boy with a bad temper（脾气）.His father gave him some nails（钉子）to drive into the fence (栅栏)when he lost his temper .The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the fence .Then it began to become less . He found it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence .

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all . He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out one nail for each day that he  held his temper .The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone .

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence .He said , “You have done well ,my son ,but you look at the fence . It will never be the same .When you say things in anger ,they leave a scar（痕迹）just like this one .You can put a knife in a man and draw it out . It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry ,the wound (伤口)is still there .A verbal （言语）wound is as bad as a physical(肉体)one.

1.Who was in a bad temper ?

2. The word “it” in “it began to become less”refers to (指) ________ .

3.The way of pulling out nails is to _________.

4. The boy thought that _______

5.We learn from the reading that _______ .

先通读下列短文，掌握大意，然后根据短文内容和所给首字母，在空格内填入一个适当的词，使短文意思完整。所填单词在题后横线上必须完整写出

What would you think if you saw a fish walking? Would you look again i 1. you saw a fish climbing a tree? There is a fish that does b 2. of these things. It is called the tree-climbing fish.

It is believed that a traveller to India first told about the tree-climbing fish. The fish was h 3. up in a tree. What was the fish doing in that tree? How did it get there? The traveller t 4. a bird might have put it there.

The next day the traveller saw a fish come out of the w 5. . It was hard to believe, but up the road went the fish. It used its fins (鱼鳍) and tail to pull i 6. along. It stopped to eat some worms. After the fish ate, it walked slowly over to a tree. Up, up it c 7. . When it got high up in the tree, it took a rest.

The traveller was s 8. to see these things and told other people about the tree-climbing fish. The people wanted to know w 9. this fish looked like. He explained the one he saw was dark brown and about one foot long.

People can f 10. the tree-climbing fish not only in India but also in the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, and other places. At one time, people saw the fish in Florida, America. Because the weather there was too terrible, it was not able to live there any longer.

Look at your classmates around you. You all wear the same uniform and similar sneakers. Do you want to stand out among them? A fashionable and useful backpack can be a great idea!
Backpacks are lightweight and easy to carry.
They are great tools for students. They help you to stay organized. You can keep school things, books and personal items like cell phones and keys neatly (整洁地). With a unique backpack, you can also stand out among your classmates.
Tourists also love backpacks. With convenient backpacks, backpackers can move freely from one place to another. Meanwhile, they can also free their hands to do other things like taking photos.
But in the very beginning backpacks were not what we see today.
It is thought that US hiker Dick Kelty invented the first modern backpack in 1951. He used nylon (尼龙) and aluminum tubing (铝制管型材料) to make backpacks lightweight. Then he added shoulder straps (带子) and waist straps to transfer(转移) much of the weight to the hips (臀部).
Today, backpacks come in different styles.
Rolling (滚动的) backpacks have wheels on the bottom. Users can pull them along the ground if they are too heavy to carry on their shoulders.
And with more people bringing laptops to school and work, backpacks also offer space for lightweight electronics.
【小题1】 Backpacks are useful for tourists because_____.