Lots of interesting animals live with us. Do you want     1     know these animals?

Reading Worksheet

There are different ways of asking for help. Native speakers often ask for help     1     a polite and indirect way, for example, using “could” “would you mind” and so on.

“Could I ask you the time, please?”

“Would you mind     2     (turn) your radio down, please?”

First, polite     3     (request) are normally made in the form of questions. Second, native English speakers often use “please”     4     (make) their requests more polite. Third, “Could I…?” or “Can I…?” are similar requests. Both of them are correct, but the first one sounds more formal. You might use “Could I...?” if you want to be     5     (polite) than before.

When I was a child, my mom was in poor health, so I’ve dreamed of becoming a doctor. Now I’m a surgeon (外科大夫). Let me tell you something about working as a doctor.

A medical school student can be a doctor. But if you want to get into a top h    1    , you must get your doctoral degree (学位) from one of the best universities. It usually takes eight to eleven years b    2     getting a doctoral degree.

Doctors need different qualities and a    3    . At school, medical students study all the basic subjects, and then we c    4     our specialty (专业). It is necessary for a surgeon to have two perfect h    5     and a strong body as he/she does important operations. Pediatricians (儿童医生) need to be good at communicating as they often do with k    6    . Doctors in top hospitals also have teaching tasks because new doctors need to be t    7    .

Every day, we spend time seeing patients in clinics and inpatient departments. We need to talk with them and their f    8    , we also need to have meetings with other doctors, plan treatment and w    9     medical records.

So if you choose to become a doctor, you’d better forget about having full weekends or holidays like o    10    . But I still want to say working as a doctor can be busy but rewarding.

I have been a fan of radio programmes for a long time. One day last September, I had an idea to set     1     a radio station for our school. I talked about my idea with our monitor and head teacher.     2     (lucky), both of them agreed. In December, we     3     (start) our station.

Our first programme was a music show on Christmas Day. It was not successful. Our members wanted to give up     4     I didn’t. I held a meeting and told them we could run our station better     5     we made careful plans for what we would do next. We first found some new members and they were very     6     (help). We not only made our station bigger, but also made it known all around the school. We spent more time     7     (search) for the latest news and hot songs for our listeners. We also invited teachers to our station to give     8     (suggest) on studies. Our hard work finally paid off.     9     station became more and more popular and many students and teachers listened to our programmes.

Running the radio station has become one of my most important life experiences so far. It taught     10     (I) that we shouldn’t give up on our way to making our dreams come true. What we should do is to keep trying and work hard.

6 . We woke up in paradise-seriously. According to our guide, Ivy, Suzhou is known as the “City of Paradise”. It draws a large number of     1     (visitor) every year. For over 600 years, Suzhou has been widely known for     2     (it) classical gardens. The Humble Administrator’s Garden (拙政园) is the     3     (large) and most famous one among them. When walking     4     the garden, we saw a Taichi master and his students practicing the martial art. We tried     5     follow them. Seeing that we were very interested, the master came over     6     taught us some basic moves kindly. After we left the garden, Ivy took us to Yuanwailou Hotel     7     lunch. We enjoyed a lot of local desserts like rice cakes, mooncakes and the famous “red soup” noodles.

After lunch, Ivy guided us through     8     local market. Even though it was late afternoon, it was still quite busy. Many people were bargaining (讨价还价) and most of them     9     (speak) Suzhou dialect (方言). Ivy said only people who grew up in the city could speak it well. Our last stop of the day is No.1 Silk Factory. By this time, we were very tired.     10     (lucky), there was a teahouse near the factory. We enjoyed some Chinese tea and then went back to the hotel. It was really a wonderful day.

With final exams just around the corner, you may not be sure how to prepare for the big day. Here are a few suggestions you can take.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Many students may be afraid to ask their teachers for extra help after class. However, this actually shows your idea to be a successful     1     (learn). In fact, teachers are happy     2     (provide) help if you have problems. And you can also ask teachers for some advice on studying for the exam.

Start studying early for final exams.

A big mistake students make when they prepare for final exams is waiting to study until the night before exams. However, trying to remember everything the night before exams     3     (not work) for most people. The best way you are able to study     4     (wise) is to start studying as early as possible. You     5     (suppose) to break up your studying so that you can remember the information easily.

Besides, try to make a study schedule (时间表) for     6     (you), such as going over your notes for 60-90 minutes each day before the exams.

Set up a study group.

Forming a study group helps you stick to your study schedule. Also, study groups can be     7     (help) as you can ask each other questions and discuss difficult problems.

Make sure you get enough sleep.

It’s also important to spend some time     8     (care) for yourself. Although studying is important, you should never let it influence your health. Though you may want to stay up late studying, this is one of the worst things to do. Getting at least 8 hours of sleep will make sure that you are able to pay more attention to your studies.

Halley VI is a research station in the Antarctic (南极). It is home to a team of     1     (scientist) who do research into the weather and climate change. The base is over 500km away     2     the nearest city. During the winter, temperatures can     3     (easy) fall to -55°C, and for 105 days of the year, the sun does not rise. During this time, travel is impossible: no ships can reach the station     4     the ocean freezes over, and strong winds and snow stop planes from flying there. Only a few workers stay behind to continue     5     (they) research over the winter. These workers must be prepared     6     (deal) with problems on their own.

The current (现在) research station is     7     sixth building since the base     8     (set) up in 1956. The earlier buildings broke under the weight of the snow or became too dangerous to live in. Ever since then, engineers     9     (work) hard to improve the design of Halley VI. Now it is     10     (pleasant) for living and working there than before.

Have you ever been to Beijing? I’ve always been interested in the beauty of Chinese     1     (文化) and history. So when there was a Chinese Summer Camp in Beijing, I was     2     (高兴) to go on a trip to the capital of China.

When we first arrived in Beijing, we     3     (期待) a city filled with buildings and busy streets. But we were greatly surprised.

The first thing that surprised us was the space. Beijing is really a huge city. Its wide streets and green spaces made the area feel less     4     (拥挤的). Tian’anmen Square is the perfect example for that. The ancient sites like the Great Wall were clean and well-served, which really left a feeling of     5     (国家的) pride. We were also worried that few people spoke English. But we     6     (发现) that most Chinese people know the language. They were even able to     7     (交流) with us in day-to-day situations. What’s more, they were friendly, helpful and treated us like     8     (客人). The most exciting part of our visit was riding the shared bikes     9     (环绕) the city and enjoyed the beautiful     10     (风景) of Beijing.

It was great to experience Beijing in person and to leave with new friends and great stories to tell back home.