It was 3: 34 in the morning. Suddenly the bed moved a little. I woke up. That bed used to move a lot so I just thought it was my wife rolling (翻) over. I looked over to her and she was fast asleep. So I thought it was just ________ small tremor (轻微地震). We used to get many small tremors in Chile. But then everything in the room started making noise. The tremor got a bit ________. My wife woke up.

I went to open the front door to make sure it wouldn’t get stuck while my wife went to see ________ the kids were. They were still fast asleep.

I got to the front door and left it ________ just in case we had to run out. When I turned around to go back to the bedroom, the full force of the earthquake started to hit. I couldn’t move forward. While I was trying to hold myself up ________ the wall, I looked out of the window. It was frightening, some buildings coming in and out of view and some already falling down. Then the earthquake made a strong push and our lights ________. In the darkness, I thought, “This is it! We’re not coming out of this alive.”

Luckily, the terrible shaking gradually slowed down and then stopped. I could finally walk to our ________ room. My wife had been standing over them during the strongest part of the earthquake, making sure nothing ________ on them.

After such a big earthquake, we expected the “smaller” aftershocks to be still very strong. There was still a ________ that the building might fall down. So we woke the kids up, got some basic things and started to walk down the emergency(紧急情况) stairs... all 22 floors of them.

________ we finally arrived at the ground floor many other people bad already arrived, some in pajamas, some half-dressed. The good news was everyone got out of the building safe and sound.

Pandas in Qatar

In order to celebrate Opening Ceremony of the World Cup, on a special flight from China, two giant pandas—Si Hai and Jing Jing—arrived at Doha, the capital of Qatar. It marked the first time giant pandas have traveled to the Middle East. According to the agreement between China and Qatar, they are expected to stay in Qatar for 15 years.

The Qatari government has built a giant panda hall to house the animals. The two giant pandas enjoy an air-conditioned sports ground, an indoor exhibition hall and an independent “bedroom”. China had also sent expert groups to Qatar to help out.

________

As people worldwide cheered for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the idea of “Made in China” also caught the world’s attention as it played a big role in the event.

Besides the Lusail Stadium(体育馆) built by China Railway Construction Corporation, Chinese companies from Guangdong and Zhejiang have provided more than 10,000 containers(集装箱) for tourists and soccer fans to live in.

The Power Construction Corporation of China of Guizhou also built the Al-Qasar 800-megawatt photovoltaic(光伏) plant, providing green electricity for the World Cup.

Apart from big companies, manufacturers from Yiwu, China’s small goods center, are seeing their growing influence. Nearly 70 percent of the World Cup’s souvenirs(纪念品) are made in Yiwu, from soccer balls to national flags.

Chinese Referees in Qatar

With great pride, Chinese referees Ma Ning, Shi Xiang and Cao Yi joined the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Despite not getting the chance to join in a match together, the three college P.E. teachers were still the first Chinese officials to play a role at a FIFA World Cup for 20 years.

“Face the gap and forge ahead!” Ma wrote of the conclusion of his World Cup journey on social media.

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“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not enough for any man’s greed（贪婪）.”

—Mahatma Ghandi

What you need depends on how old you are and your way of life.

If we don’t need to buy so much, we don’t need to work so much. We can reduce our working time from eight hours to six hours each day. Some people are leaving very well-paid jobs to live a healthier life in the countryside. This is called “downshifting（放慢生活节奏）”. Parents can spend more time with their children and people who are looking for a job are given more opportunities to work.

What was the best thing you bought last week?

Were you able to choose from lots of different products? People who buy things are called consumers. Consumers have choices. We usually choose the color, taste, smell or size of what we buy, but there are other choices we can make. The following questions will help you to consider these choices.

Who made it?

If a friend made it, you probably like it more and you will want to keep it for a long time. If it was made by somebody who enjoyed making it, the quality and the design are probably better.

What is it made from?

One of the places where we want to buy expensive products is at the airport’s duty-free shop. There are beautifully shaped bottles and small boxes full of perfumes（香水）and creams （护肤霜）that promise to make you look good. However, if you look at the ingredients you will find that the perfumes are mainly alcohol（酒精）and the creams mainly contain petroleum（石油）.

Does it have much packaging（包装）?

Almost all products are sold in packaging. Some products have too much packaging, creating more rubbish and using up resources. Some use recycled packaging, which is better for the environment.

Next time you go shopping, think about what you really need to buy. If it is more expensive to buy goods that don’t have much packaging and things that last longer, buy less. If you can choose to work less, decide which richer. After all, _________.

There are some differences between American English and British English. Some differences are quite interesting.

When my friend Lily from London used the word “larder”, I didn’t know what it meant. Realizing I didn’t follow her, she used another word. I finally knew she wanted to find something to keep some food. The next word came up when we were planning a lunch date. She jotted down the date and time in her diary, while I wrote it down on my calendar. If she called me on the phone, she would ring me up. But if the line was busy, she would say the line was engaged. She once told me a funny story about a pissed woman. I wondered what had made the lady angry. It turns out that pissed means drunk.

Most times, I could understand what Lily meant until last week I read a message written from Lily to me. I found out the British really like the letter“u”and have kept it in many words. However, we Americans have dropped it. Somewhere in our language history, we decided that “neighbor”, “color” and “favorite” were just fine without “u” next to the “o”.

Here is one more example. While I was in London for the first time last year, I lost my watch. When I asked my British friend what time it was, he said aloud as “a quarter to seven”, which made me speechless and lost in thought. After a few seconds, I finally realized it was “six forty-five”. Equally, 6:15 for us is translated as “six fifteen”, while the British would say “a quarter past six”. Although the differences between American and British English sometimes make me confused（困惑的）, it’s really fun to explore more of them from my own experience.

Every year around August, millions of teens take their parents to stores to buy new clothes for the start of the school year. Not every parent can afford this, so some teens have to go to school in the same clothes they     54     last year. The obvious(明显的) differences in clothes cause differences     55     students. There is a simple solution to this problem: school uniforms.

From sixth grade until I graduated from high school, I attended a school that required students to wear uniforms. The uniform was very simple: dark brown shoes, green-brown pants, and a white shirt. The uniform left little room for any kind of self-expression, especially through     56    .

However, I learned how to stand out by expressing myself through my personality, art, and sports. I did not know I could draw until the sixth grade. I also would never have learned of my musical abilities if it were not for my wish to find ways to express myself. Uniforms taught me that I was just myself     57       what I wore.

Uniforms also help to offer a much     58     learning environment. I remember an event that happened in my junior high school. A man ran away from prison(监狱) and wanted to hide in the gym of our school.

Luckily, cameras all over the school quickly found the stranger before any danger could ever happen as he was dressing     59    . School officials kept the man staying inside our gym     60     the police came to take him back to prison.

Uniforms help     61     a better educational experience for all students no matter what race, culture, or economic class(经济阶层). In closing, wearing uniforms is good for both schools and students.

62. 距离新型冠状病毒感染疫情（COVID-19）爆发已经过去三年多时间。有人说，这三年，自己的健康码没有黄，青春却黄了；也有人说，这三年，让我们懂得了生命的无常，金钱的无能和健康的无价。关于疫情这三年，你有什么难忘的经历和感受呢？这三年疫情让你产生了什么变化呢？假如你是李华，请为班级主题班会“疫情这三年”准备一篇演讲稿，向同学们分享你在疫情期间的见闻、感受和改变。

It has been three years since the outbreak of COVID-19.