Although Americans treat friends warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show much politeness if it requires much time. But in China, we are usually     45     with our time. As hosts, we will appear at an airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off from our work to     46     guides (people who take tourists to a place) to our friends. It is opposite in America. Americans cannot manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily     47    . They will probably expect the visitors to get themselves from the airport to the hotels. And they expect the visitors will phone them from there. However,     48     the visitors arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real.

Some people remember the things by writing notes to themselves. Then they leave the notes in obvious (明显的) places, such as on the table or on the floor in the middle of the living room. I don’t think I like to write notes to myself. Most of the time I lose them or forget to look at them until it’s toolate. I prefer to use an alarm clock (闹钟) to tell me what I should do. I have ten alarm clocks in my house. They could tell me about things. For example, if I have to make a telephone call at a certain time, I’ll set an alarm clock to go off a few minutes early and put the clock by the telephone. Or if I want to watch a certain television program, I’ll set an alarm clock at the right time and put the clock on top of the TV set. I can remember almost anything if I use my clocks.

However, sometimes an alarm clock goes off and I don’t know what it means. I always remember setting it, but not why I set it. If the clock is by the telephone, I know I may have set it to tell me to call someone, but I can’t be sure. I might have set it to tell myself that somebody was to call me at a certain time.

HONG KONG IS AGING

A report from the Statistics Department (统计局) shows that population of Hong Kong will ________ from 7 million to 8.89 million in 30 years’ time. The population over 65 years old will reach 28% compared with the present rate of 13%.

Hong Kong people prefer not to have children nowadays and they live much longer than before. These ________ have destroyed the population structure and ________ a worrying situation. Hong Kong has become the city with the lowest birth rate around the world for years. Hong Kong people live even longer than Japanese. Hong Kong males and females can live to 83.1 and 90.1 years respectively (各自) on average.

Under these circumstances, the working population is getting smaller and the amount of medical spending in the future is getting ________. The Hong Kong government has encouraged people to give birth and worked on the medical plan for the future. ________, over 80% of Hong Kong people think that government has not done enough. They said that the government should think of a complete population plan.

An extract from The Greatest Tales of Sherlock Holmes

Peter was a carpenter of our village. Once I asked him to make a dining table for my wife. He made it just the right size to fill the space between the two windows. When I arrived home that evening, Peter was drinking a cup of tea and writing out his bill for his work.

My wife said to me, quietly, “That’s his ninth cup of tea today.” But she said loudly, “It’s a beautiful table, dear, isn’t it?”

“I won’t decide about that until I see that bill.” I said.

Peter laughed and gave me his bill for the work. It said:

When I was looking at the bill, Peter said, “It’s been a fine day, hasn’t it? Quite sunny.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m glad it is only the 10th of June.”

“Me too,” said Peter. “You wait—it’ll be a bit hotter by the end of the month.”

“Yes. Hotter and more expensive. Dining tables will be 20 more expensive on June 30th, won’t they, Peter?”

Peter looked hard at me for half a minute. There was a little smile in his two blue eyes. I gave his bill back to him.

“If it isn’t too much trouble, Peter,” I said, “Please add it up again. You can forget the date.”

I paid him ________ and he was happy to get it.

74. Write a passage of at least 60 words about the topic “My pocket money”. (以”我的零花钱”为题，写一篇不少于60字的短文，标点符号不计数，不要出现真实的姓名)