I’m glad to know your mum is coming to China. I h    1     she can stay in Beijing for some time. It is in the n    2     of China. She can visit the great Wall and the Summer Palace there. Shanghai is also an interesting big c    3    . It is in the east of China. She can visit the Bund, the Yu Garden and the City God Temple. I’m s    4     she will love the snacks there, too.

Guilin is in the south of China. She can see beautiful rivers and m    5     there. I hope she can also go to Lhasa. It is in the west of China. She can visit the Potala Palace and see snow-capped (积雪覆盖的) mountains.

Yours,

Yaoyao

My grandparents live in a small old town in the south part of Jiangsu. Many of its buildings have a history of three centuries. There are many old buildings and bridges.

Thirty years ago, people there u    1     to live a quiet and peaceful life. There were few cars, few f    2    . And of course, little p    3    . But now the town has t    4     into a hot travel destination (目的地). It is not a quiet place any more. Every day, t    5     of tourists come into the town. The parking areas are always f    6     of cars and coaches. Tourists come to the town on holiday. They say it can help them relax themselves. But, can they r    7     enjoy a holiday in such a crowded (拥挤的) and n    8     town?

Now, too many tourists have c    9     many problems. The biggest problem is that they have polluted the town. The rivers are dirty and the air is not so f    10     as before. Local people have more money, but is money so important?

France is a country in Western Europe, it is famous for its art, delicious food and wonderful sights. Millions of t    1     come to this country to have a trip. It has a p    2     of over 66 million, they mostly speak French. The country is home to many famous places of interest, such a    3     the River Seine and the Eiffel Tower.

Many people come to France for the country’s art. If you visit France, it is not strange to m    4     street artists in the city or come across a singer in the subway.

Louvre (卢浮宫) is one of the l    5     and most famous museums in the world. Inside, there are 35,000 works of art, like the p    6     Mona Lisa by Da Vinci and the statue (雕塑) David by Michelangelo. The museum is so large that it t    7     nine months to enjoy all the pieces in it.

What’s more, French food is a    8     famous in the world. Bread is very important in France. The best known French bread is called a baguette (法棍面包). They are long, delicious and t    9     salty. Snails (蜗牛) are also a must-have here. French people eat 40,000 tons of snails every year!

But France is not a    10     good. Some people feel sorry about the crowded subway in Paris.

Do you like travelling? Why not come to Singapore? Walking through the streets of Singapore, you can hear different languages spoken, s    1     as English, Chinese and Malay (马来语). English is used for business, although the official language (官方语言) here is Malay. If you want to feel relaxed, you can simply s    2       Putonghua a lot of the time. But in my o    3     , it’s a good place to practice your English. Let’s be brave enough to open our mouth. Maybe you will get a big surprise. We should believe in o    4    .

Have you e    5       tried Chinese food outside of China? Singapore is a place you can find a lot of food from China. Singapore is also a good place to try new food. W    6     you like Indian food, Western food or Japanese food, you’ll find it all in Singapore. If you are interested in delicious food, come to Singapore.

Besides, Singapore has a special z    7       called Night Safari. You can go to see animals at night. It might seem strange to go to a zoo when it’s dark. H    8    , if you go to see lions, tigers or foxes during the daytime, they will probably be asleep! A lot of animals only wake up at night, so this is the b    9       time to watch them. The animals are in a more natural environment at Night Safari.

People from different cultures live and work peacefully with each other and share their traditions (传统). Large number of people, ideas, are mixed together under the same sky. Now, however, there is a strong Chinese business community and also a growing Indian business community. Singapore welcomes talented people from around the world and hope they will have a good time here.

I am sure Singapore is a good place you will n    10     forget!

Harbin is very cold in winter. S    1     many people call it the “Ice City”.

Every year, lots of people f    2     all over the world visit Harbin in winter t    3     come and see the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival (冰雪节). The festival u    4     begins in January. During the festival, people can e    5     the beautiful ice and snow world. They can see many k    6     of ice and snow sculptures (雕塑). Many children like the animal sculptures because they’re very nice and c    7     .

People can also do other a    8     during the festival. They can go winter swimming or p    9     snowfield football. People feel very happy with these i    10     games.

If you like ice and snow, you will love Harbin.

Most people have heard the story of the lost city of Atlantis. But is any part of the story t    1    ?

Over two thousand years ago, the Greek writer Plato wrote about Atlantis, an island in the Atlantic Ocean (大西洋). The island’s people were very rich. They b    2     a big city with many great buildings. But the people became greedy (贪婪的)—they had many things, but they still wanted m    3    . So the gods became angry. Earthquakes and large waves began to hit the island. Finally, Atlantis went down i    4     the sea.

Many explorers (探险家) have l    5     for Atlantis. In 2004, explorer Robert Sarmast reported finding the remains of a city under the sea near Cyprus. However, Sarmast and other scientists later realized the structures he found under the sea were n    6     man-made. Mark Adams, writer of the 2016 book Meet Me in Atlantis, b    7       the city was in Morocco. Plato wrote about red and black stone circles around the city. Adams found s    8       red and black stones in the desert there, very near the Atlantic Ocean.

Most people, however, think Atlantis is simply a story. The p    9     of the story may be to teach people not to be greedy. Richard Ellis also wrote a book about Atlantis in 1999. He says “there is not a piece of solid evidence (证据) for a real Atlantis.”

So was the island real or not? We o    10     know one thing: The mystery (谜) of Atlantis will be with us for a long time.

There are many cities in most countries. But every country has one special city—the capital. For example, China’s capital city is Beijing.

The capital city is very important. It is home to a country’s central government (中央政府).

Leaders of a country w    1     and live there. It is often the centre of a country’s economy (经济) and culture too.

The capital city is very special, so countries do not often change it. But Indonesia is going to b    2     a new capital on the island of Borneo. Jakarta, the capital is sinking into the sea now. The city has taken out too much groundwater.

People cannot change the capital city easily in a few m    3    . It will take around 10 years and cost about $32 billion.

There are some interesting things to know about capital cities around the world.

◎   Capitals are usually large cities, but not a    4     the largest city in a country. For example, Canberra is the capital of Australia, but the largest city in Australia is Sydney.

◎   Some countries have more than o    5     capital. For example, South Africa has three and Bolivia has two.

◎   Some s    6     countries take the whole country itself as the capital, such as Singapore in Asia. It just has an area of 719 square kilometers, while Beijing is 16410 square kilometers.

Jinan is a beautiful city in the w    1     of Shandong Province. It’s bigger and busier than some other cities. It has a p    2     of more than six million. In the city you can see p    3     of old and new buildings. Some of them are in Russian style(风格). Some of t    4     are in Japanese style.

Jinan is famous f    5     its springs(泉). Because of its springs, Jinan is c    6    Spring City. Every year t    7     of tourists go there and enjoy springs. Oh, near Jinan there are lots of low m    8    . So it’s very hot in summer. In winter, it’s very cold there. In spring and autumn, it’s not hot or c    9    . So tourists all like to go there to e    10     springs in these seasons.