1 . Writing Competition for Kids 2020
Our website, Kids-World-Travel-Guide.com, holds a writing competition every year. This year, we invite you to share with us your favorite places. Write short essays (文章), and let us know about your hometown, a wonderful city that you cannot forget, or a place of your dreams.
Groups:
Group A: kids aged 8 - 11 years old Words: 300 - 400
Group B: kids aged 12 - 15 years old Words: 500 - 600
The essay may be about:
☆ My hometown
☆ The city that I once visited
☆ My favorite city in the world
☆ The city where I lived as an exchange student
☆ A perfect city in my mind: If I was King/Queen…
Tip: The essay has to be written in English, but may include words in a foreign language.
Other important information:
● The competition is free for students to enter.
● The competition is open to students all over the world.
● The essays must be finished by the students themselves.
● The essays must have been received by 1 November 2020.
● The essays can only be received through e-mail.
● The essays must not have been published elsewhere, or have won a prize in any other competition.
● The winning essays will be published on Kids-World-Travel-Guide.com on 15 November 2020.
● The winners will receive prizes. Prizes must be accepted within 60 days since 15 November 2020.
Good luck and enjoy the journey!
1. What can you write in your essay?| A．A great dream. | B．An unforgettable trip. |
| C．A place you imagine. | D．A city you want to change. |
| A．Before 1 November 2020. | B．Before 15 November 2020. |
| C．Before 1 January 2021. | D．Before 15 January 2021. |
| A．Take a trip for free. | B．See their essays online. |
| C．Be a writer of the website. | D．Accept their prizes in three months. |
2 . Life can sometimes go_haywire rather like the feeling you get when you've lost control of your moving car. It's a feeling of complete helplessness and panic that makes us feel overwhelmed (被压垮的).
In most cases, there is a difference between our expectations and reality. The greater the difference, the greater the feeling is of being overwhelmed. This difference is often created when our expectations are too demanding or when reality changes in a way we did not expect. Think of the weather ruining your carefully made travel plans to get across the state. Think of that illness that made you stay in bed. While we may be feeling overwhelmed with everything going on in our lives right now, there are some steps we can take to regain a sense of control of our lives.
We all know we should control our emotion properly and we can be affected greatly when we are overwhelmed, but feeling overwhelmed is part of life. When we're feeling overwhelmed, it only means we are living, breathing human beings. For life is like a roller coaster ride with its ups, downs and turns. It's also like the season with its alternating periods of relative calm and periods of varying degrees of stress and anxiety. Sometimes we forget this.
No matter how much we try, we may not be able to control reality. But we can adjust our expectations to match reality. This may mean revising our goals and tasks or quitting projects. It may feel like failure in the moment, like giving up, but this ability is an opportunity to create success in the long term. Working with reality rather than against it can give us hope.
When we're feeling overwhelmed, we can easily fall into an allornothing (孤注一掷). We may overlook the things we manage to accomplish when we feel overwhelmed. But celebrating our small wins creates space for gratitude to take hold in our hearts. Trade our expectations for appreciation and our whole world changes in an instant. Celebrating wins (whatever size！) allows us to clearly see the progress we are making. Acknowledging our small bites and celebrating our wins however small makes us have a more accepting attitude toward the opportunities, the gifts and the joys in our lives.
1. The underlined phrase “go haywire” can be replaced by ________.| A．be in a mess | B．become dull | C．bring surprises | D．change quickly |
| A．We fail to control our emotion sometimes. |
| B．We must learn to control our emotion well. |
| C．It is natural for everyone to feel overwhelmed. |
| D．Feeling overwhelmed is a big barrier to our life. |
| A．Accept our failure and quit. | B．Change our goal based on reality. |
| C．Try our best to change reality. | D．Find a better way to realize our goal. |
| A．Small bites are better than big wins. |
| B．We should show gratitude to others. |
| C．Celebrating small wins helps us make progress. |
| D．We should appreciate even small achievements of ours. |
3 . An unusual trip to Hawaii brought two strangers closer and closer and their story deserves a wide spread.
As her plane sliced through the sky above the ocean, there came a sudden thunderstorm. Five minutes later, Uemoto and her copilot McMahon heard a strange sound. Then, without warning, they lost power to both of the engines. It took them a moment to process the fact that they might crash. The pilots powered through the items on the emergency checklist. Nothing worked. As the plane was falling, they jumped into the ocean.
By ten that night, their bodies began trembling uncontrollably in the cool night air. Something must be done to pull them through. Swimming on her stomach, Uemoto had McMahon wrap his arms around her knees so he could rest his head on the back of her legs. To be with someone else and to feel another person's comforting presence in the darkness somehow made the suffering bearable.
When the sun rose the next morning, they caught sight of the island of Hawaii, the destination they had dared dream! Suddenly, Uemoto saw a shark, which made her breath catch in her throat. "What do we do? What do we do?" Uemoto asked, panicked. "Just keep looking forward! If it comes close, I'll kick it in the eye!" said McMahon evenly. Unexpectedly, the shark circled them for about 30 minutes. Then, as quietly as it had appeared, it swam off. Uemoto and McMahon breathed a sigh of relief.
After struggling in the water for over 20 hours, there came a US Navy helicopter. It flew overhead and next banked towards them. Uemoto and McMahon burst into tears. Alone, either of them would have died. But together, they made it.
1. What caused the plane to crash?| A．A sudden thunderstorm hit the plane. |
| B．The engines of the plane broke down. |
| C．The pilots operated the plane improperly. |
| D．The emergency list failed to help the pilots. |
| A．He calmed his partner down. |
| B．He kicked the shark in the eye. |
| C．He was scared to death at the shark. |
| D．He managed to drive the shark away. |
| A．Ambitious and humorous. | B．Clear-headed and generous. |
| C．Demanding and appealing. | D．Strong-willed and considerate. |
| A．A Race against Death |
| B．A Test of Friendship |
| C．A Wonder Made by Joined Hands |
| D．A Struggle Fought in the Darkness |
4 . We talk about people being “colour-blind” but very few of us are. Even those who describe themselves as colour-blind are normally just colour lack. A strongly, colour-blind person will still be able to tell 20 different colours, compared to the 100 or so that normal-sighted people see.
Pingelap, a tiny island in the Pacific, is a beautiful spot but one that has a’ genetic trouble. It is known as Colour-blind Island because so many people who live on this remote island can only sec in black and white.
Not being able to see in colour is bad enough. But one is lander, Herrol, who’s a fisherman, also struggles in full sunlight because all he sees is a painful burnt-out image. “I find it difficult to go outside in the sun,” he says, “because when it’s sunny I cannot see to do my work.”
But if being truly colour-blind is rare, why is it that around 10% of the population of Pingelap live in a totally black and white world?
Well, we know that in 1780 the population of Pingelap was all but wiped out by a tsunami (海啸). As few as 20 people survived, one of whom was the king. It’s believed he had a genetic fault that causes colour-blindness and he passed this fault on to his many generations.
There is one advantage. Herrol can see well, really well, in the dark. So when it gets dark, Herrol and his friends get in their boats and hunt flying fish. They hang up flaming torches and the fish are attracted to the flames. “This type of fishing is fun,” Herrol says, “especially if we catch plenty. So even though it’s hard work we enjoy it.”
1. What is Pingelap famous as?| A．A tiny island. |
| B．A beautiful island. |
| C．A mentally troubled island. |
| D．A colour-blind island. |
| A．He may stay at home when it’s sunny. |
| B．He is interested in burnt-out images. |
| C．He likes taking photos very much. |
| D．He doesn’t live in Pingelap any more. |
| A．Because Pingelap often suffers from tsunamis. |
| B．Because the king had an unlucky marriage. |
| C．Because the king’s genetic fault played a role. |
| D．Because the king made a serious mistake. |
| A．The island of colour-blindness. |
| B．The disadvantage of Herrol. |
| C．The history of Pingelap. |
| D．The advantage of colour-blindness. |
5 . Thanksgiving Day is special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.
Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4, 1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.
The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three-day feast. The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.
In time, other colonies began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving. Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours. But the Canadian thanks-giving Day falls on the second Monday in October.
1. The first to celebrate thanksgiving were____.| A．some people from England | B．the American Indians |
| C．Sarah Josepha Hale | D．Governor Bradford |
| A．in the U. S. A. | B．in Great Britain |
| C．in Canada | D．on some island off the Atlantic |
| A．Thanksgiving Day used to be a holiday to celebrate a good harvest. |
| B．Abraham Lincoln was not the first to decide on thanksgiving celebrations. |
| C．Thanksgiving Day is celebrated to express the American and Indian people’s thanks to God. |
| D．There’s little difference between the American way and the Canadian way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. |
| A．how Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the U. S. A. |
| B．how Thanksgiving Day came into being and the different ways it is celebrated |
| C．that Thanksgiving Day is in fact a harvest holiday |
| D．how the way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day changed with the time and places |
