3 . Now that the Government’s official “stay at home” advice has been lifted, many office workers are flooding back into city centres, alongside students who are returning to in-person classes across Britain. As a result, we’re seeing demand for rental homes in key city locations rise by as much as 70% compared to this time last year when working from home and online lectures were the new norm. Take a look at the hottest rental locations outside London.

1. Clifton, Bristol

The hottest rental market in Britain is Clifton, where rental demand is up by 71%. The area is packed with gorgeous Georgian houses or period flats which have the double benefit of being within walking distance of the city centre, and also close to Bristol University and a good choice of local pubs, cafes, restaurants, and shops.

2. Didsbury, Manchester

The neighbourhood of Didsbury, just over five miles (or a seven-minute train ride) south of Manchester’s city centre, has long been a hotspot. Didsbury still has a real urban village feel, several lovely parks and an annual summer festival, although its independent shops are slowly but surely being driven out by chains. Property wise there is a good mix of modern purpose built flats, and period houses and flats. Interest from renters is up 62 per cent in Didsbury.

3. Edinburgh per cent.

This rental hotspot on today’s league table is north of the border. The beautiful university city of Edinburgh has seen demand rise by 58 percent. With its historic UNESCO World Heritage centre, villagey suburbs like Stockbridge, and even the seaside at Portobello this is truly a “something for everyone” option.

1. What is one of the reasons for the increasing need of rental homes?

A．The government’s “stay at home” advice.	B．Students’ taking online lectures.
C．Workers’ returning to office.	D．London’s overcrowding.

2. What may contribute to Didsbury being a hotspot for rental?

A．Walking distance to the city center.	B．Convenient chain stores.
C．Good location near the sea.	D．unique rural feel.

3. Which city has increased most in rental demand?

A．Clifton

B．Didsbury

C．London

D．Edinburgh

4 . Thing you need to know about studying there study style

Since the 1950s, the Netherlands has had courses in English especially for foreign students. Students are expected to be critical of what they read and hear, and to be able of working independently. Foreign students will soon notice that at Dutch institutions for higher learning is people are expected to do a lot of talking. The most common form of teaching is the seminar or working group, where a small group of students work under a teacher’s supervision to analyze a certain problem. On exams, they have to show that they know the material, and that they have formed well-founded opinions on the subject.

Accommodations

If you are in an exchange programmer or an international course, it is quite possible that a room will be arranged for you. Accept it immediately, or you will regret it later. That’s because finding a place to live in a country as crowded as the Netherlands is not easy.

Before you leave China, ask your host institution whether or not housing will indeed be arranged in advance. If you are in the Netherlands and still looking for a place, ask the international relations office or the student dean for advice.

Expenses

Tuition:

Bachelor’s degree: about 2,500 euros a year   

Master’s degree: 5,000 — 12,000 euros a year

Living expenses:

Experience has shown that a year in the Netherlands costs a Chinese student about 450 — 750euros a month. Here is a breakdown of average prices of supermarket goods:

Litre of milk:   0.5 — 0.8 euro   Kilo of apples:   1.5 euros          Shampoo, 400ml: 4 euros

Tube of toothpaste:   1 euro     Bed sheet:   20 euros

Other expenses:

Haircut: 15 euros     Air ticket to China: 600 — 800 euros     Mobile phone call(one minute): 0.1 — 0.3 euro

Phone call to China (with IP card):   7euros(one minute)

Postage stamp in the Netherlands: Stamp for China:0.39 euro (1 euro = about 10yuan) 0.78 euro

Transportation

Trains, buses and trams run throughout the country.

If you really want to sample Dutch life, and get around quickly and easily, buy yourself a bicycle. Most students buy second-hand bicycles. A reasonable one will cost you 70 — 120 euros. You can find them at second-hand bicycle shops or at the bicycle parking facilities near railway stations.

1. Teachers expect foreign students to do much talking and analyzing in order to make them ________.

A．get higher marks	B．pass exams easier
C．be able to work independently	D．get in close touch with each other

2. The passage implies that _________.

A．it is easier to find a room in Netherlands

B．it is difficult to find a room in Netherlands

C．your host institution will surely find a room for you

D．the international relations office can find a room for you

3. It costs at least _________ a year for a Master’s degree.

A．104,000 yuan

B．104,000 euros

C．174,000 yuan

D．134,000 euros

5 . China Daily and its Study China platform ( studychina.chinaservicesinfo.com ) are holding a story-telling contest from April to May 31, 2022.

International students who study or used to study in China are welcome to share their campus life.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

■Works in three categories: Articles; Photos; Videos

■Languages in either English or Chinese are preferred.

WHAT YOU CAN GET

We offer a prize worth up to 10,000 yuan ( approximately $1,563 ). Some of the best works get a chance to be featured on China Daily app ( with 36 million users ) and studychina.chinaservicesinfo.com.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Articles & Photos

Article: 300-1,000 English or Chinese words

Photo: 10 photos maximum, 5MB for each; each with a caption up to 200 English words; format in JPG or PNG

Videos

Format: MP4 or MOV

Size: 1GB maximum, up to 4 minutes.

Caption: 200-500 English words to give a brief introduction.

SUBMIT HERE

*Click the button to see the full text of the statement

Contact us: shenyjia@chinadaily.om.cn

gaowenjun@chinadaily.com.cn

1. What is the theme of the story-telling contest?

A．Campus life in China.	B．Foreign cultures and customs.
C．Personal experiences of reading China Daily.	D．Videos and photos introducing China.

2. How can a college student participate in the contest?

A．By posting a video format in JPG.	B．By uploading a five minutes’ video.
C．By sending 12 photos, each with a caption.	D．By submitting an article of 500 English words.

3. Where may the article come from?

A．A magazine.

B．A website.

C．A newspaper.

D．A textbook.

6 . There are more than 35,000 museums in the United States — an impressive figure, even when considering the massive size of the country. It’s impossible to visit them all, of course, but you can prioritize (优先考虑) and conquer the most important ones.

●The Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. Its collection, stewarded (统筹) by 11 curatorial (策展的) departments, is encyclopedic (百科全书般的) and includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat`s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist and Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

Address: 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603

Hours: Mon — Tue 10:30 am — 5 pm;

Wed — Fri 10:30 am — 8 pm;

Sat — Sun 10:30 am — 5 pm

● The Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The diverse, high-quality permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, range from the earliest fossils (化石) to past and current cultures from around the world and interactive programming demonstrating today’s urgent conservation needs.

Address: 1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605

Hours: Mon 9 am — 5 pm; Tue — Wed Closed; Thu — Sun 9 am – 5 pm

●The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, founded in 1870, is the largest art museum in the United States. Its permanent collection contains over 2 million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building is by area one of the world’s largest art galleries. A much smaller second location contains an extensive collection of art, architecture and artifacts from medieval (中世纪的) Europe.

Address: 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028

Hours: Mon — Thu 10 am — 5:30 pm; Fri — Sat 10 am — 9 pm; Sun 10 am — 5:30 pm

●The Children`s Museum of Indianapolis

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is the world’s largest children’s museum. Among the exhibits are a simulated (模拟的) Cretaceous dinosaur habitat, a carousel, a steam locomotive (蒸汽机车) and the glass sculpture Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling. The museum`s focus is family learning; most exhibits are designed to be interactive, allowing children and families to actively participate.

Address: 3000 N Meridian St, Indianapolis, IN 46208

Hours: Mon — Sun 10 am — 5 pm

1. What can visitors do in the Art Institute of Chicago?

A．Observe the earliest fossils.

B．Design building models.

C．Appreciate Picasso’s The Old Guitarist.

D．See Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling.

2. What do the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have in common?

A．Both are located in Chicago.

B．Both have a history of over 200 years.

C．Both feature modern and futuristic artworks.

D．Both are managed by more than 10 curatorial departments.

3. Where should Mr and Mrs Brown go if they want to spend a day with their son who loves dinosaurs?

A．The Art Institute of Chicago.	B．The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
C．The Field Museum of Natural History.	D．The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

9 . “It’s like tasering an elderly person who’s already on a pacemaker,” says a British newspaper boss of the newsprint market, where prices have risen by over 50% in a matter of months.

When times were good, before ads went online, newspapers had a supportive partnership with paper mills. As ads went away and circulations fell, “paper mills had the worst of it for years as newspapers reduced pages, went wholly digital or shut forever.”

The papers were able to cut down the cost of newsprint from firms fighting for business as demand decreased. Price-taking paper mills suffered in silence, taking out newsprint capacity and adjusting machines to make packaging for e-commerce. The pandemic, with people working from home, meant even fewer newspaper sales, which depressed demand for newsprint again and increased the pain for paper suppliers. In the past 24 months European mills have responded by shutting almost a fifth of their newsprint capacity, says a buyer for a large British newspaper group.

Then reopening of economies and growing demand for newsprint, combined with much reduced capacity and coupled with up-going energy prices, has resulted in a price shock. Particularly controversial are additional energy charges that some paper suppliers are seeking to pass on.

Newspaper firms consider this amounts as breaking agreements. European newspapers will have to pay newsprint prices that are 50—70% higher in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the year before. As for their counterparts in Asia and Oceania, they are facing prices around 25% to 45% above their usual level. North American prices went up earlier, and more gradually; agreements are fixed monthly rather than half-yearly. But there, too, newsprint prices are 20—30% higher in 2021 than in 2020.

Germany’s print and media industry association has warned that mills are going to force newspapers to quit paper editions, hurting each other in the process. But more digital adrenaline is one possible response of newspapers to the paper mills’ tasers.

1. What can be learned from the first three paragraph?

A．Newspapers have raised their prices by over 50% .

B．Newspapers and paper mills were good friends all the time.

C．Newspapers and paper mills affect each other.

D．Newspapers increased their sales and the pain of paper mills.

2. The paper mills and the newspapers don’t agree with each other on the prices for ________ ?

A．Reopening of economies.	B．Growing demand for newsprint.
C．Much reduced capacity.	D．Additional energy consumption.

3. Which of the following area has the highest increase in newsprint prices?

A．Europe.

B．Asia.

C．Oceania.

D．North American.

4. Which column does this passage belong to?

A．Health.

B．Science.

C．Business.

D．Environment.