Do you want your kids to learn a lot by watching cartoon shows? Here are some best choices for you to improve their foreign languages.

King of the Hill

King of the Hill describes an average middle-class family and their lives in a typical American town. It explores modern themes such as parent-child relationships, Friendship and justice. The show’s description of small town life is so accurate and warm that it is worth watching with mom and dad in the room.

Sazae-san

Sazae-san is more than a kids’ show. It is a cultural institution and the longest-running cartoon series in the world. The central character is Sazae, an outspoken(直言不讳的) but somewhat clumsy(笨拙的) woman in her early 20s, living together with her big family in Tokyo. All of the characters are colorful and funny, and given the names of fish.

Captain Blaubar

Based on the comic books by Walter Moers, this German cartoon series deals with the adventures of Captain Blaubar, a blue bear making up stories about his journeys on the Seven Seas. Each episode(集) is framed by a little story where the old captain interacts(互动) with his grandchildren.

El Oso Yogui

Yogi Bear in the Spanish cartoon is a funny animal. The plot of most of Yogi’s cartoon centers on his funny behaviour in the fictional(虚构的) Jellystone Park. Yogi, accompanied(陪伴) by his constant partner Boo-Boo Bear, would often try to steal picnic baskets from campers in the park, much to the displeasure of Park Ranger Smith. Yogi’s girlfriend, Cindy Bear, usually dislikes Yogi’s behaviour.

Our dog Sandy is a golden retriever（猎犬）. He sits in front of our house all day waiting for someone to come by and throw him a stick. Chasing sticks or tennis balls and bringing them back is the major activity in his life.

Once we performed an experiment to see how Sandy found these sticks and balls quickly.

There was one particular pile that must have had hundreds of sticks. We picked up one stick, walked away from the pile and then threw it back into the pile. It was impossible for us to tell with any certainty which stick we had originally chosen. So many of them looked alike to us that the best we could do was pick out seven sticks which resembled the one that had been thrown.

We tried the same thing with Sandy, only before throwing the stick we carved an X on it.

Then we threw it, not once but a dozen times into the pile. He circled the pile over and over.

Each time he brought back that stick. It wasn’ t the shape or the size or look of the stick that he used to pick it out from all the others. It was the smell we left on the stick. It is hard to imagine, but for dogs every living creature has its own distinctive smell.

The environment is the world that all living things share. It is what is — air, fire, wind, water, life, sometimes culture. Living creatures are born into the environment and are part of it too. For a dog like Sandy a book isn’ t much different than a stick, whereas for us one stick is pretty much like every other stick. There is no one world experienced by all living creatures. Though we all live in the same environment, we make many worlds.

The automobile (汽车) has many advantages. Above all, it offers people freedom to go where they want to go, when they want to go there. The basic purpose of a motor vehicle is to get from point A to point B as cheaply, quickly, and safely as possible.

In addition, much of the world’s economy is built on producing motor vehicles and supplying roads, services and repairs for those vehicles. Half of the world’s paychecks are auto related (相关的). In the United States, one of every six dollars spent and one of every six non-farm jobs are connected to the automobile or related industries, such as oil, steel, rubber, plastics, automobile services, and highway construction (建设).

Despite (尽管) their advantages, motor vehicles have many harmful effects on human lives and on air, water, land, and wild life resources. Since Karl Benz built the first automobile, almost 18 million people have been killed by motor vehicles. In addition to the tragic loss of life, these accidents cost American society about $60 billion annually in lost income and in insurance, administrative, and legal expenses.

Los Angeles is a global symbol of urban sprawl (城市扩张) built around a vast network of freeways. About one third of the city’s total metropolitan (大都市的) area and two thirds of its downtown area are devoted to roads, parking lots and other automobile related uses. Each day, its network of streets and freeways is crowded with more than five million vehicles, which are responsible for 85% of both the air pollution and the noise in this urban area.

If present trends continue, U.S. motorists will spend an average of two years of their lifetimes in traffic jams. Streets that used to be for people are now for cars. Pedestrians and people riding bicycles in the streets suffer from noise, pollution, stress, and danger.

You may think that choosing to lose weight requires a lot of effort and pain.

The truth is, you can lose weight, feel healthier, and look amazing, all by doing small things every day.     22     When you’re ready to lose a few pounds, check out these five small everyday things you can do.

    23    

Believe it or not, the diameter of your dinner plate can have a dramatic impact on how much food you eat at any time of the day. The bigger your plate, the more you can fit on it, and the more you put into your body.

Use a Food Diary or App

It’s so easy to sit at your desk or on the couch eating up an entire bag of potato chips, or a full packet of cookies.    24    

If you keep a food diary or app outlining what you eat, how much of it, and how many calories it has, you may be more inclined to control your food intake.

Drink More Water

    25    Your body needs more water than you’re probably giving it, and you may be reading the signs all wrong. Keep a water bottle on hand, drinking water throughout the day. By doing so, you can control your appetite while also making sure your body is not lack of water.

Exercise More

It seems like a given – you exercise, you lose weight. However, it’s not only those 10-mile runs that make all the difference.     26     For instance, park further away at the grocery store, take the steps instead of the elevator and jog on the spot during TV ad breaks of your favorite show.

Sarah is a senior at high school. Just like normal senior students, she looks forward to    42    (go) to college after graduation. But she is also quite different from her classmates; Sarah is a part-time model,    43    can take her quite a lot of money.

Days ago, Sarah    44    (tell) that the model agency wanted to give her a full-time job. That was an    45    (amaze) chance. But she    46    (decide) to go against it, choosing to follow her dream of studying engineering at college instead.

For her final exams, Sarah has turned down several     47    (invitation) to modelling events since then. But she hasn’t given up on modelling completely. In fact, she is    48    (confidence) that she will continue to model art-time throughout her college life in    49    future.

Sarah says, “The way I see it, education must always come first. Modelling is    50    (certain) interesting. But it’s not my dream. I want to get a good education rather than be left with nothing    51    (do) when I can’t model any more.”