I never remember my father going for a night out with the boys, nor do I ever recall my father drinking. I never saw my father take a day off work because he was sick, nor did I ever see my father lie down to take a nap. He had no hobbies, except for taking care of his family.

For 22 years, since I left home for college, my father called me every Sunday. He was always interested in my life, how my family was doing, and I never once heard him complain about his life.

Nine years ago when I bought my first house, my father, who was 67 years old, spend there days painting it. All he asked for was a glass of iced tea and that I help a paint brush for him and talked to him. But I was too busy and I could not take the time to hold the paint brush or talk to my father.

Five years ago, my father spent five hours putting together a swing set for my daughter. Again, all he asked for was that I get him a glass of iced tea and talk to him. But again, I had laundry to do, and the house to clean.

On January 16, 1996, my father called me as usual. I had to get to church, and I cut the conversation short. Then at 4:40 p.m. that day there was another call. My father was in the hospital in Florida. I got on an airplane immediately. On the way, I vowed(发誓) that I would make up for the lost time and have a nice long talk with him.

I arrived in Florida at 1 a.m. My father had passed away at 9:12 p.m. This time it was he who did not have time to talk, or time to wait for me.

Many people say that they are working too many hours. They don’t have enough time to relax or to stay with their family.

Working hours are different from one country to another. In France, people spend about 1, 646 hours a year at work. In Japan, however, people work about 2, 159 hours a year.

Why do people work so many hours? Some people work extra hours because they want to make more money. However, many companies don’t pay overtime. Their workers don’t get more pay for more work. Some people think it’s their duty to work more hours. Some are afraid of losing their jobs if they don’t work more hours.

Many people say that their vacations are too short. In France, people get five weeks of paid vacation a year. In Germany, they get four to six weeks, and in the United States, two weeks. One study shows fewer than half of workers use all their vacation days. In Great Britain, there is a saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull (迟钝的) boy.” If that is true, there must be a lot of dull people in the world.

“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”

This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it.

We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives. But have all these developments really improved our lives?

Picture this. You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How happy do you feel?

Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they live simpler lives.

One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

The grandmother, Lyn, said, “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes.” The boys said they fought less. Probably, they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy, beer-drinking granny”, to one who cooked things.

下面文章中有五处（第1-5题）需要添加首句。请从以下选项中选出符合各段意思的小标题，选项中有一项是多余选项。

    16    

The most difficult thing about learning English is to remember new words. I study the words and remember them, but a week later I have forgotten most of them. When reading something in English, I always get into trouble when I come across a new word. There must be a better way to learn new words.

    17    

I have been studying English for so long now, but I don’t enjoy it any more. I used to like it, but now I feel that I’m not making any progress, I’m just not motivated any more. I wish there was something I could do to make me interested in studying English again.

    18    

I wish I could improve my spoken English. Every time when I take part in a group discussion or try to speak English to someone, I find it difficult to express myself. I don’t know what to say and I can’t think of the words I need.

    19    

I don’t like English at all. Why do we have to study English? I’d rather spend more time on math and science, because I think those subjects are more important.

    20    

I think it is easy to remember new grammar rules. But when writing something, I always make a lot of mistakes. How can I learn to use the rules that I have?

I hated running in the past. At middle school I thought running is tiring and I was always one of the last students to ________ the finish line. Then, in 2020, my friend asked me, “Would you like to run a 10K event with me?” I ________ at once, “No way! I hate running.”

Over the weekend I thought about his question. I thought, “________ do I hate running when I haven’t tried it since my middle school?” In the end I ________ to give running another try. I told my ________ I would like to join in the 10K event with him. He was very ________ to hear that. He advised me to ________ a running programme on the Internet to help me learn how to run.

There were lots of running programmes on the Internet. I ________ a 14-week running programme. The programme was very easy to ________. I had to run three times a week for ________ lengths of time. At first, I ran for short time and had long breaks in between. Then as the weeks went on, I had to run for ________ time and the breaks in between got shorter. I ________ following the running programme as I could see I ran better and better. I went from not being able to run for more than 30 seconds to running for over 30 ________! I went from hating running to loving running!

From this experience I learnt it was a good idea to try ________ before saying I hated it! It turned out that I ________ enjoyed running.

“Dreams (梦) may be more important than sleep. We all need to dream,” some scientists say.

Dreams take up about one quarter of our     36     (sleep) time. People have several dreams each night. Dreams are     37     short films. They are usually in color. Some dreams are like old films. They come to us over     38     over again. That may be because the dreamer is     39     (worry) about something. Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer.

Some people get new ideas about their work     40     dreams. They may have been thinking about their work all day. These     41     (think) can carry over into dreams.

Sometimes, we wake up with a good     42     (feel) from a dream. But often we can’t remember the dream. Dreams can disappear (消失)       43     (quick) from memory (记忆).

Too much dreaming can be harmful (有害的). The     44     (much) we sleep, the longer we dream. The mind is hard at work when we dream. That is     45     we may have a long sleep and still wake up tired.