1 . In the United States, “hitting the books” means studying a subject with great effort. One of the great challenges for students _______ taking tests. Students spend long hours _______ for a test. They read all their books carefully, and then read them a second time and a third time. They prepare for all possible question. They study every night. They are “hitting the books”.

3 . The apple pie

One Saturday, Lily asked her mother if they could make an apple pie. “Yes,” said her mother, “but we will need some apples.”

“I _______ to Grandma’s farm and pick some,” said Lily. Soon Lily picked four red apples. On the way home, Lily _______ a horse, a cow, and a pig in Grandma’s field. She gave each animal an apple. When Lily got home, her mother looked in the basket and said, “One apple? We can’t make a pie with one apple.” Lily laughed.

4 . Travelling can be either cheap or costly. It often depends on how far you want to travel and the choice of transport (交通工具). Riding a bicycle is _______ than driving a car, because it will not cost anything as you power it by your legs. However, the use of a bicycle can be hard work and can take a lot of time to travel long distances (距离). Cars and motorcycles are faster ways of transport, _______ they are more expensive to use as they need a lot of gas (汽油) to work.

5 . There was another car crash (撞车事故) yesterday morning at the traffic lights in the Village of Boussada. While Alice was driving a car across the road, another car suddenly hit _______ car. The driver of that car didn’t notice the traffic lights because they were behind a large tree. As a result, both of the cars were seriously broken. Luckily, no one got hurt badly. The drivers then went to the police station to report the accident and _______, “This is the third accident that happened this month. We should remove (移开) the tree, or there will be more accidents.”