Are you ready for the coming festive season? What gifts will you give to make your friends feel special? Here teenagers share their ideas for gifts and look forward to the ones they'll get.

Hu Ziwei, 15, Nanjing Foreign Language School

My class will have a gift exchange party, during which we will put on a small talent show. Many of us had our gifts ready a week ago. I believe that the boys will give magic tools, stationary （文具） or sweets, while girls are likely to give dolls or mobile accessories （挂件）.

The biggest fun about these parties is not knowing from whom you'll receive a gift and who will receive your gifts. The computer will decide everything! Our teacher hopes the activity will help us get to know each other better – you see, we've only known each other for three months. I'm looking forward to my surprise gift!

Liu Wei, 17,Beijing No 8 High School

Although my birthday was in November, I'll get a special birthday gift from my classmates this week. A．collective （集体的） birthday party is scheduled for all the students who had birthdays fall in the last six months.

My classroom has been decorated with colorful ribbons and Christmas balls. Someone told me that there will be a huge birthday cake and that a personalized gift sent with best wishes from other students is being prepared for each birthday student. I'm sure we will treasure this event and I'm so looking forward to the big moment!

Yin Zhaohua, 19, Jixi No 1 High School in Heilongjiang

I'm still enjoying the gifts I received on Christmas Eve. Nowadays traditional greeting cards are being replaced with apples and sweets, which symbolize （象征） hope for the year ahead. I got more than 20 apples this Christmas, which means I sent a similar number of apples out. I think apples are healthier, more environmentally and friendly gifts than cards sent through the post.

Wu Shang, 16, Mianyang High School in Sichuan

These last two weeks have been filled with every kind of exam so the atmosphere（气氛） on campus is not at all like a holiday. I miss the days when I got handwritten cards.

In fact, I haven't received or sent holiday cards since the Internet became popular. It's so fast and easy to send an e-card. Also, text messages are fun and convenient （方便的）. I'll send warm hugs to my best friends on New Year's D．ay to let them know that I'll be always there for them.

1. Where is Yin Zhaohua from?

A．He is from the east of China                   B．He is from the capital of China

C．He is from the north of China                  D．He is from the west of China

2. Before the gift exchange party, Hu Ziwei knows _____________

A．from whom she'll receive a gift           B．who will receive her gifts.

C．what gift she will send to her classmates    D．that she may get a magic tool

3. In Liu Wei’s classroom we can’t see _____________ during the collective birthday party.

A．some colorful ribbons                              B．some Christmas balls

C．a huge birthday cake                               D．some mobile accessories

4. On New Year’s D．ay Wu Shang will _____________.

A．have an important exam                   B．send some handwritten cards

C．meet and hug her best friends warmly       D．send some text messages to her friends

5. From the passage we can infer _____________

A．the kids share the same ideas about gifts  

B．the kids will receive and send expensive gifts

C．apples are sent as gifts to keep young kids healthy

D．the kids are trying to show their wishes in different ways

Television has long been one of America's favorite forms to relax: It develops faster than print and radio media．But how and when we catch our favorite shows is changing greatly．

    During the 2004-2005 TV season the average family watched more than 8 hours of television a day, an increase of morn than 12 percent from ten years ago. There were also more programs to choose. In 2006 the ordinary American home had access to 104 different channels, almost double the number just six years ago.

But new technologies（技术）like video recorder and digital cable（数字有线）are changing the way people think of traditional TV．That, of course, depends on the audience's age．Old people still watch some TV shows and the nightly news．Young people are more likely to listen to download music on watch their favourite shows on the Internet．However, according to an expert, “TV will never be replaced．But without the video recorder or the Internet, I would feel lost—like I had my legs, but not my arms.”

1．American people like watching TV and __________

A．it develops faster than newspaper and radio media

B．all the American families watch TV 8 hours a day

C．there were 104 different channels in 2000

D．all people like the night news

2．Why is the way American people watch TV changing a lot?

A．The number of audiences is large．      

B．People spent lots of time watching TV.

C．There are mere channels to choose       

D．The new technologies give new ideas to relax.

3．The underlined word “had access to” means ___________

A．had a night to buy 

B．had time to enjoy

C．was able to choose from

D．had a way to relax

4．The passage mainly tells us _____________

     A．the video recorder and the Interne1 will not replace TV

     B．old people like TV shows mere than the young

     C．how and when American people catch their favourite shows is changing greatly

     D．we will feel lost without the new technologies

Different colours can affect us in many different ways; that’s according to Verity Allen. In a new programme “Colour me Healthy”, Verity looks at the ways that colours can influence how hard we work and the choices we make. They can even change our emotions and even influence how healthy we are. 

“Have you ever noticed how people always use the same colours for the same things?” says Verity. “Our toothpaste is always white or blue or maybe red. It’s never green. Why not? For some reason we think that blue and white is clean, while we think of green products(产品)as being a bit unpleasant. It’s the same for businesses. We respect a company which writes its name in blue or black, but we don’t respect one that uses pink or orange. People who design（设计）new products can use these ideas to influence what we buy.”

During the programme, Verity studies eight different colours, two colours in each part. She meets people who work in the colour industry, from people who design food packages, to people who name the colours of lipsticks. Some of the people she meets clearly have very little scientific knowledge to prove their ideas, such as the American “Colour Doctor” who believes that serious diseases can be treated successfully by the use of coloured lights. However, she also interviews real scientists who are studying the effects of green and red lights on mice, with some surprising results. 

Overall, it’s an interesting show, and anyone who watches it will probably find out something new. But because Verity goes out of her way to be polite to everyone she meets on the programme, it’s up to you to make your own decisions about how much you should believe.

1.What’s Verity’s opinion about colours?

A．Colours help people choose products.

B．Different people prefer different colours.

C．Colours have influences on people in many ways.

D．People working in colour industry know little about colours.

2.What can you infer from Paragraph 2?

A．Colours influence people’s feelings and opinions.

B．People get ideas for new products from colours.

C．New products are popular because of colours.

D．Most companies prefer bright colours.

3.The underlined part “goes out of her way” probably means ______.

A．feels very pleased

B．makes a special effort

C．goes on in her own way

D．carries on very slowly

4. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．How people use colours.

B．How colours influence people.

C．What happens in a programme.

D．What makes a programme believable.

 

When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.

Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity（身份，特性）as a society.

Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same thing. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.

The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language through which we express our fears, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.

Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.

So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.

1.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?      

A．Students regard music as a way of entertainment.

B．Students disagree with their parents on education.

C．Students take music as an important subject.

D．Students prefer the arts to science.

2.In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.       

A．compare it with rock music

B．show music identifies a society

C．introduce American musical traditions

D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles

3.According to the passage, the arts and science____________.      .

A．explain the world in different ways

B．explain different facts of the world

C．express people’s feelings in different ways

D．explain what it means to be human differently

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Music education is worth more attention.

B．Music should be of top education priority.

C．Music is really a good communication tool.

D．Music education makes students more imaginative.

 

When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity（身份，特性）as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same thing. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language through which we express our fears, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.
【小题1】What can we learn from Paragraph 1?      

A．Students regard music as a way of entertainment.

B．Students disagree with their parents on education.

C．Students take music as an important subject.

D．Students prefer the arts to science.

【小题2】In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.       

A．compare it with rock music

B．show music identifies a society

C．introduce American musical traditions

D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles

【小题3】According to the passage, the arts and science____________.      .

A．explain the world in different ways

B．explain different facts of the world

C．express people’s feelings in different ways

D．explain what it means to be human differently

【小题4】What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Music education is worth more attention.

B．Music should be of top education priority.

C．Music is really a good communication tool.

D．Music education makes students more imaginative.