School

British teenagers can leave school at sixteen after taking their GCSE exams.They study for exams in     18     ten subjects,so they have to work pretty hard! Today’s teens spend more time doing their homework than any teenagers in the past,     19     for 2.5﹣3 hours every evening.

Free Time

It’s not all work,of course.What do British teenagers do to     20    ? They love watching TV, going out, meeting friends in Internet cafes and listening to music.

Communications

In addition to the Internet, teenagers in Britain use their computers to play games and do their homework. They also love their mobile phones, and spend hours texting their friends and chatting. Today, phones are getting     21     and lighter and you can do a lot more with them than just talk. Text messaging has become the coolest and most popular way to communicate. More than 90% of 12 to 16-year-olds have a mobile, and experts say that this stops teenagers from     22     their money on sweets and cigarettes.

Fashion

At school,     23     all British teenagers have to wear a school uniform. However, in their free time they can wear whatever they like, and what they like is designer names such as Nike, Diesel and Paul Smith.     24    , 40% of British teens say that they think it is important to have the     25     fashion. Looking good doesn’t come cheap, but many teenagers think it usual or easy to spend more than £100 on one item of clothing.

Today many people all over the world ride bicycles. This is because it’s a wonderful means of transport. It is also an excellent form of exercise. Bicycles don’t pollute the air, either. Now there are about a billion bicycles in the world. But how much do you know about bicycles?

About 100 million bicycles are made around the world each year. Now there are over a half billion bicycles in China. Bikes first came to China in the 1800s. Today bicycles are very important for transportation in the world.

Then who invented the bicycles? A long time ago, Leonardo Da Vinci drew some rough pictures that looked like a bicycle. But he is not the inventor of a bicycle. In 1690, a Frenchman named De Sivrac invented the first bicycle. But it didn’t have pedals (脚蹬). In 1840, a Scottish named Kirkpatrick Macmillan added pedals. People thought of him as the inventor of the real bicycle.

Riding a bicycle has many health benefits. Riding for three hours or thirty kilometres every week cuts your risk (风险) of heart disease in half. Many people in Asia and Europe use their bicycles when travelling short distances. However, Americans only use their bicycles once in a hundred trips. If they use their bicycles a lot, they would save a lot of gas and help protect the environment(环境).

DIY is popular in the UK. It can not only save you money, but also give good results. Take care when doing DIY jobs because a    49     may happen.

When d    50     your house, every little corner is important. Finding the right b    51     between colors and materials is the key when trying to have a comfortable space.

DIY is not just about your house, but about your garden as well. Having a good garden is an ideal for some people. If you want to keep it t    52    , perhaps you should build a garden shed. Garden sheds have several different shapes and sizes. So whether you have a small or large garden, you can find a shed that will fit p    53    . The kitchen is such an important room in the house—just think about how much time you spend there every day in cooking and eating! You want nice surroundings with the wonderful equipment.

Having some DIY skills can help save you thousands of pounds over a number of years. Take a look at our articles and projects for a     54    .

This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two men called George Washington! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts (花生), while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. Why not let a coin decide? I said to myself. So I flipped (掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I found my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be making everyone act this way?”

I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I could get a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip (跳过) the 7th grade and started the 8th grade next term.

The experience taught me a lesson: ________ may be terrible, but ________.

Write a passage of at least 60 words on the topic “That day, I solved a trouble” (请以“那天，我解决了一件麻烦事”，写一篇不少于60个词的短文，标点符号不占格。)