John Snow was a famous doctor in London —so    1    , indeed, that he attended Queen Victoria as her personal     2    . But he became inspired when he thought about helping ordinary people     3    to cholera.

First there was England. Wales was    4     to it in the thirteenth century.Now when people refer to England you find Wales    5    as well.Next England and Wales were joined to Scotland in the seventeenth century and the name was changed to “Great Britain”. Happily this was accomplished without    6     when King James of Scotland became King of England and Wales as well.

At first my new surroundings were difficult to    7    . The air seemed thin, as though its combination of gases had little oxygen     8    . Hit by a    9     of fresh air, my head ached. Just as I tried to make the necessary    10    to this new situation, Wang Ping appeared.

2 . As Victor Hugo once said, “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face”, and up to now nobody has been able to do this better than Charlie Chaplin. He brightened the lives of Americans and British through two world wars and the hard years in between. He made people laugh at a time     1    , so they could feel more content with their lives.

Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and produced the films he starred in. In 1972 he was given a special Oscar for his outstanding work in films. He lived in England and the USA but spent his last years in Switzerland, where he was buried in 1977. He is loved and remembered as a great actor who could     2     .

Which theme park would you like to visit? There are     3     theme parks, with a different park for almost everything: food, culture, science, cartoons, movies or history. Some parks are famous for having the biggest or longest roller coasters, others for     4     and sounds of a culture.     5     , there is a theme park for you!

3 . A

Water had also appeared on other planets like Mars but,     1     the earth, it     2     later. It was not immediately obvious that water was to be     3     to the development of life.     4     many scientists believe is that the continued presence of water allowed the earth to dissolve     5     gases and acids into the oceans and seas.

B

Some people have the idea that you can cross Canada in less than five days, but they forget     6     Canada is 5,500 kilometres from coast to coast. Here in Vancouver, you’re in Canada’s warmest part. People say it is Canada’s most beautiful city,     7     by mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Skiing in the Rocky mountains and sailing in the harbor make Vancouver one of Canada’s most popular cities     8     in. Its population is increasing rapidly. The coast north of Vancouver has some of the oldest and most beautiful forests in the world. It is so wet there that the trees are     9     tall, some     10     over 90 metres.

4 . I had heard of the killers that helped whalers catch huge whales. When I worked at a whaling station, I     1     it many times. One afternoon, I heard a loud noise coming from the bay. We ran down to the shore     2     time to see an enormous animal throwing itself out of the water. George, one of the whalers, told me that it was Old Tom, the killer, who was telling us there's a whale. Another whaler     3     out to     4     a whale hunt. We immediately headed out into the bay, with Old Tom     5     us the way. Using a telescope we saw that several killers    6     there were throwing themselves on top of the whale's blow­hole to stop it     7     while others were stopping it diving or     8     out to sea. Then the man in the bow of the boat aimed at the whale and killed it. These killers     9     harmed or attacked people. Once when we were in the bay, the sea was     10     , for which James was carried away by waves. Worse still, there was a shark. Fortunately, Old Tom rescued James.

Marty Fielding is a fairly positive person who considers he has a good life. He is realistic about his     1     , but doesn't let this stop him doing as much as he     2     . Marty has to deal with many difficult things     3     as missing lots of school, not able to run     4     and play sports like other boys at his age. However, he keeps busy doing things that do not require     5     strength, like computer programming. His fellow students accept people with     6     like Marty. They encourage the disabled to live     7     and full lives. So Marty has friends with     8     he can go to movies and football matches and he has lots of pets. He also studies     9     . He is a psychologically strong,     10     boy.

6 . In the early evening we always stop to make camp. We put up our tent and then we eat. After supper Wang Wei put her head down on her     1     and went to sleep but I stayed     2    . At     3     the sky became clearer and the stars grew brighter. It was so quiet. There was almost no wind—only the flames of our fire for     4    . As I lay     5     the stars I thought about how far we had already travelled.

All hope was not lost. Soon after the quakes, the army sent 150,000 soldiers to Tangshan to help the rescue workers. Hundreds of thousands of people were helped. The army     6     teams to dig out those who were trapped and to     7     the dead. To the north of the city, most of the 10,000     8     were rescued from the coal mines there. Workers built     9     for survivors whose homes had been destroyed.     10     water was taken to the city by train, truck and plane. Slowly, the city began to breathe again.

Our eating habits have changed, as    1     our way of life, and the fuel we need for our body is also different. Other nutrients, such as fiber and minerals, help keep our body    2     well. Vitamins, which we can get from eating vegetables, fruit, fish and drinking milk, help our body    3     disease. It is probably better, however, if we spend our time and money in buying good food and     4     a balanced diet. If we eat healthy food in the right    5    , we do not have to buy any supplements. The same goes for “crash diets” that some companies say will make us    6     fast.     7     eating expensive diet food or going on unhealthy diets, we can simply try to eat less fat and sugar and     8     more.

Kwanzaa is a seven-day festival     9     the culture and history of African Americans. Kwanzaa is a time for learning    10     joy. On the last day of Kwanzaa, family and friends     11     to enjoy a large meal and to celebrate the new year.

    12     a new festival may seem an unusual way to celebrate history and culture, but we are in fact creating new festivals every year.     13     we celebrate a festival it changes a little and in that way we keep our culture    14     . The Spring Festival, Christmas, Ramadan, Kwanzaa and all the other holidays and festivals help us understand who we are, remember where we come from, and     15     our hopes for a happy future.