1 . The Silk Road was an ancient trade route (古代贸易路线) that connected (连接) the East and the West together. It is more than six thousand miles from Asia to Europe. The Silk Road got its name from the silk.

Few traders went along the Silk Road. The route was too long. There were also difficulties along the way. In some places, people along the road didn’t think the traders were right. Some countries would not let traders from other countries go through their countries.

Traders thought of an idea. They made staging points (中转站) on the Silk Road. They put their goods (货物) at one point. Then they traveled to another point. There, they would give the goods to the next group of drivers.

Traders from the East brought silk, gold and other useful things to the West. People wanted to have treasures from far-off lands very much.

More goods were moved along the Silk Road. Ideas from other lands were moved, too. They heard new languages. Knowledge about science was passed along.

4 . The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected(连接) Europe, Africa and Asia. People got to these different places along these roads. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3,000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk trade(贸易) became important in the world, the Silk Road was almost 6,500 kilometres. It was from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.

Businessmen travelling along the Silk Road carried silk, of course. They also carried and traded spices(香料), cloth, valuable stones(宝石) and gold.

Today, the old Silk Road routes(路线) are still used, but now they are crossed by trains instead of camels and horses. There is a Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35,000 objects from all along the Silk Road. In this way, China protects(保护) the history of many countries and peoples.

6 . New York City isn’t the biggest city in the world, but it is the biggest city in the USA. Most Americans live in much smaller cities and towns, but almost 8 million people live in New York. Why did so many people come to live in one place?

New York City has a very good port(商埠). The Dutch(荷兰) settlers (new comers) wanted to use it for business. In 1626, the Dutch paid(付钱) the Indians twenty-four dollars for the island of Manhattan. Its Dutch name was New Amsterdam. Then the British took the land in 1664 and changed its name to New York.

The United States became an independent(独立的) country in 1783, and New York was its capital for a short time. The city became so crowded that some people moved out to other areas (places). But more people from everywhere went on coming into the city every day.

In most countries, people usually eat t    1     food on special holidays. A special day in the United States is T    2    . It is always on the f    3     Thursday in November, and it is a t    4     to give thanks for food in the autumn. At this time, people also remember the first travelers from England w    5     came to live in America about 400 years ago. These travelers had a long, hard winter, and many of them d    6    . In the next autumn, they gave thanks for life and food in t    7     new home. These days, most Americans still c    8     this idea of giving thanks by h    9     a big meal at home with their family. The m    10     dish of this meal is almost always turkey, a large bird.

9 . Thousands of years ago, people didn’t live in cold places because they don’t know how to keep themselves warm.     1     When an animal was killed, they made use of its skin to cover (覆盖) their bodies.     2    

Nature is our friend. It helped us discover (发现) fire when lighting hit a forest and stared a fire.     3     The fire kept people warm, and also frightened (吓跑) wild animals. Soon people found that their food tasted better when they cooked it, so they began to use fire to cook food.

But people still didn’t know how to make fire themselves. When they get fire from the forest, they tried to keep it burning.     4    

But later, they found different ways to make fire. For example, they made fire by burning wood or rubbing two pieces of stone together.

Today, it’s easy for people to make fire because we have matches, lighters and different kinds of heaters.     5    

10 . Today there are policemen everywhere,     1    . A few old men used to protect the city streets at night and they were not paid.

About 300 years ago, London was starting to get bigger and more and more people began to live there.     2    . There were so many thieves (小偷) who stole money in the streets that people stayed in their homes as much as possible.

In 1750,     3    . They were like policemen and were called “Bow Street Runners” because they worked near Bow Street.

Fifty years later, there were 120 “Bow Street Runners”,     4    . So in 1829, the first London Police Force was started with 3,000 officers.     5    , but a few rode horses. Until 1920 all the police in London were men.

Today, London police are quite well paid and for the few police officers who still ride horses, the pay is even better than for the others.