1 . We’ve explored London many times and come away with quite a few lessons. Here are our tips.

Visiting Buckingham Palace

Being London’s most famous landmark, this 775-room building is where Queen Elizabeth hosted feasts (盛宴) and met heads of state. But if you’re dreaming of taking a visit to it, you’ll need to plan your trip carefully. The palace is typically only open during the summer months from July 23rd to October 3rd. Visiting hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. If you’re visiting when the palace isn’t available to tour, you can still see the Changing of the Guard.

Hitting the London Eye

The London Eye is a playful addition (添加) to the city skyline. Standing near centuries-old buildings, this huge Ferris wheel spins (旋转) slowly over the left bank of the Thames, serving up views over the London Bridge and the Shard to the west, plus a wide perspective (视野) of the Palace of Westminster. Buy your tickets beforehand online, choose a clear day and go in the morning to avoid the crowds peak.

Drinking afternoon tea

Afternoon tea is reason enough to come to London. The British have taken a simple tea break and turned it into a luxurious (奢侈的) ceremony, complete with patterned china, fine plates of finger sandwiches, cakes and scones in cream and jam. When making a booking, remember that afternoon tea isn’t a snack but a full meal with sweet and salty elements (元素), and you’ll be full. The smart move is to leave out lunch and maybe even dinner.

4 . How would you feel if moving to a new town meant losing touch of your friends? What if the only way of getting news from faraway friends was writing letters that took a long time to arrive? This was how things worked not very long ago. Thanks to advances in technology, how we make friends and communicate with them has changed greatly.

Nowadays, we can move around the world and still stay in touch with the people that we want to remain friends with. Social media tools let us see what our friends are up to and maintain friendships. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection.

The digital age also enables us to find people who share our interests, such as collecting model cars. Whatever our hobbies, the Internet can connect us with others who also enjoy doing them, even if they live on the other side of the world.

But when you “friend” people online, does this mean that they really are your friends?

It depends.

If people always exchange true personal information online, then yes, these friendships can be real and meaningful. ① But we need to keep in mind that what we see on social media is often not the whole truth about a person. ② On social media sites, people tend to post only positive updates that make them appear happy and friendly.③ Remember the saying: On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. ④ A young person could be old; a woman could be a man; we could even be sharing our information with criminals.

But this doesn’t mean that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. Although technology has changed the way we make friends, the meaning of friendship and our longing for friends remain the same. As Aristotle said, no one would choose to live without friends, even if he or she had all other goods.

Lucy Black recently became the youngest person     1     (travel) to every country in the world. By the age of 22, she     2     (visit) all the countries in an effort to challenge     3     (she). She wanted to see what could     4     (achieve) by a female traveler.

At first, Lucy used planes, boats and trains to get around. It was not all easy sailing and there were many difficulties she met, including     5     (arrange) visas to enter some countries. But the challenges were outweighed by the memorable experiences on her way. “There’re so many incredible experiences     6     can come out of traveling alone because you are more open to the connections with the     7     (local) than you would be in a big group,” she said.

Lucy enjoyed meeting a variety of people and exploring varied cultures. But the most     8     (value) experience of all was discovering     9     sense of independence, she said.

For Lucy, nothing compared to the joy of traveling. She described it     10     her favorite part of living.

6 . The 1975 film Jaw s tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers. Jaws was a great success. It strengthened people’s long-held idea of the great white shark as a dangerous animal.

People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks. Many people started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. At that time, nobody cared if sharks were killed, or how many were killed. People just wanted them killed.

After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins are cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.

Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book that the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks’ behaviour. “Sharks don’t target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food, and they attack us by mistake.

Fortunately, not everyone who watched the film Jaws became afraid of sharks—some became interested in understanding them. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.

9 . In a classroom in rural Kenya’s Rift Valley, a student, Priscilla Sitienei, takes notes alongside her fellow classmates. She wears the same school uniform. However, there is something different.

Sitienei is more than 80 years older than them. February 11 was Sitienei’s ninety-ninth birthday. “The main reason for my returning to school was that I would like to become a doctor because I used to be a midwife (助产士),” she said. She added that her children supported her decision.

Back in 2003, the government of the East African country began helping to pay for the cost of primary schooling. This has allowed some older members of society, who had missed out on education in their younger days, to go back to school.

This has given Sitienei more than an education. She has become a film star. Sitienei travelled to Paris last year for the launch (发布) of a film about her journey. It is titled Gogo, which means grandmother in her native Kalenjin language. She will also be heading to New York City soon for a showing of the film there.

Sitienei is in her sixth year of primary school. She said her aims were far more practical than becoming a movie star. She said, “I also enjoy school activities, including physical education classes. They keep me fit. I get to jump around, even though not as much as they do, but I at least move my body. That is my joy.”

Sitienei shares her wide experience and knowledge with the children. Her teachers also use her experience to keep the peace during lessons. Her class teacher, Leonida Talaam, said, “I use Sitienei to help control the class. And it works! When I go outside, the class remains silent.”