It is a Chinese custom that when guests visit, the first thing a host does is to make and serve them ________.

Tea is made of the young leaves of a tea tree. According to the particular ________ the Chinese use to process the leaves, there are six kinds of tea: green tea, oolong, flower tea, black tea and compressed tea. ________ them, green tea is the most popular.

The time to ________ the tea is very important. For example, Longjing, one kind of the best green tea, is gathered （采摘） several days before Tomb Sweeping Day ________ new leaves have just begun to grow.

Although Chinese people drink tea daily, there are ________ between tea drinking and tea tasting. People who drink tea might just do this because they are ________. Tea tasting, on the other hand, has cultural meanings. Tasting is ________ the shape, flavor, color and the freshness of tea. The water is also ________. In China, people consider spring water from famous natural spring （泉） the best.

The ancestors （祖先） ________ tea as a drink which can refresh （恢复精神） themselves. Tea is also a symbol of elegance （优雅）. Tea tasting has something to do with the idea of harmony with nature.

When visiting Yunnan, you’ll find 18 oddities （云南18怪） here. For example, “girls wear flowers in all seasons” and “three mosquitoes （蚊子） make up a dish.” Maybe you’ve never heard of these expressions before. Now more and more people fall in love with the delicious flower dishes in Yunnan.

The people in Yunnan have been eating flowers for a long time. After the Spring Festival, March is always the best time to eat the flowers. One popular kind of flower is Tanglihua Flowers （棠梨花), which can be picked in the mountains. The flower sellers say it is very hard to pick two kilos of these flowers each time. They have to climb up to the tall trees and pick the flowers carefully. Have you ever tried Tanglihua Flowers? They taste a little sweet!

The other kind is Jinquehua Flowers （金雀花）. It is also used as helpful medicine when people don’t want to eat anything! My grandma can cook Jinquehua Flowers very well. She says it’s a traditional way of cooking Jinquehua Flowers with eggs. Delicious and healthy!

If you have a chance, try these flowers!

William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

He was born in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582, he married a farmer’s daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

At twenty-eight, he moved to London and joined a theatre company, the Global Theatre. He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He made almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money, he bought a large house in his hometown.

At the age of forty-nine, Shakespeare retired（退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two in 1616. He left his money to his family. He left the genius（天才作品）to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

Can plants talk? Modern research has found something amazing: they do communicate with each other through certain “language”.

It has been known for some time that plants use chemicals (化学物质) to communicate with each other. This happens when a plant gets attacked (攻击) by insects. The plant gives out chemicals from the leaves that are being eaten. This is like a warning, or a call for help: “I’m being attacked!” When another plant gets the chemicals, it starts to give out its own, different chemicals. Some of these chemicals drive insects away. Others attract (吸引) the wasps (黄蜂)! The wasps kill the insects that are eating the plants. Scientists hope to learn more about this plant warning system (系统), so that we can use it to grow more crops.

More surprisingly, plants also use sound to communicate. People can’t hear these sounds; but plants are making them. Some plants make noises with their roots.

Most surprisingly of all, plants have an amazing system of communication that can connect nearly every plant in a forest. Scientists call this system the “wood wide web”. The wood wide web is connected underground by fungi (霉菌). It connects the roots of different plants to each other. It is in some ways similar to the Internet we use. Using the wood wide web, plants can share information and even food with each other. However, it may cause bad effects. Plants may use it to steal food from each other, or spread chemicals to attack other plants. Perhaps one day scientists will learn how to create a “firewall” to help stop these attacks within the wood wide web.

It is never too late to change. If you want to improve your study, these good habits will help you.

Communicate with your teacher

Every successful relationship is built on clear communication. The student-teacher relationship is no different. Miscommunication is one of those things that can cause bad grades, although you have made good efforts （努力）. At the end of each day, make sure that you understand your homework.

Set up a study area at home

Spend time knowing your real needs and planning for the perfect study place. Make sure your study area is comfortable. It is very important to set up your table and chair in a comfortable way. Next, stock （储备） your study space with all the tools you’ll need, like pens, pencils, paper, dictionaries and math tools.

Prepare yourself for examination days

It is certainly important to study for exams ahead of time. But there are also a few things you can do to improve your performance on the day of the exam. Prepare physically and mentally （精神上) for the testing environment to perform well. Eat and drink wisely on the day of the test. Make sure you don’t go into the test hungrily. Don’t forget to wear a watch. You’ll need to keep an eye on the time while you’re taking tests.

Take care of yourself

Some of your personal habits might influence your grades. Are you feeling tired or bored during homework time? You can change your grades by practicing a few good homework habits. You can also change the way you feel by taking care of your mind and body.

Hope the above will help you a lot.

I know a friend who is one of the so called left-behind children. Lee is an 11-year-old boy. He works very hard and does     41     (good) in almost all of his subjects. It’s hard to believe that he used to have a lot of     42     (difficulty) in school.

When his parents moved to the city to make more money, they could not have the time to be at home to take care     43     him. So he became less     44     (interesting) in study and missed classes. Then his parents make a     45     (decide) to send him to a boarding (寄宿) school. He     46     (find) life there was difficult.

One day he told his teacher     47     he wanted to leave school. His teacher advised his parents to talk with their son. This conversation changed his life. He realized that his parents would always love     48     (he), they would be     49     (pride) of everything good that he did. Now he is much     50     (happy) and more outgoing than he used to be.