Just like     1     (speak) language, body language varies from culture    2    culture. For example, making eye contact in some countries is a way    3     (display) interest, while men and women are not     4     (social) permitted to make eye contact in many Middle Eastern countries. Also, you should avoid    5     (make) a gesture of “OK” in Brazil and Germany as it is not considered polite.

In many countries, shaking one’s head means “no” and    6     (nod) one’s head means “yes”. By comparison, the gestures have     7     opposite meaning in Bulgaria and southern Albania.

Smiling has many different uses. A smile can help us get    8     difficult situations, find friends in a world of strangers or break down barriers.     9    we’re feeling down or lonely, there’s nothing    10     (good) than seeing the smiling face of a good friend.

Once there was a little girl named Emily. Although her singing was very pleasant to hear, lacking of courage, she never dared to sing in front of strangers.

One summer, the neighborhood where she lived would hold a singing competition. Her best friend, Lucy, came to invite her to participate in the competition, but Emily said, “I’m afraid to take part in it.” Her mother said, “It’s okay; just do it bravely.” Emily followed her mama’s advice and decided to give herself a try. The day came. Emily and Lucy went to the competition site. But she was too timid (胆小的)to walk onto the stage. She had been waiting until others finished singing. She shakily (颤抖地)forced herself to stand on the stage. She started to sing,but her voice was so low. What’s worse, she was so nervous that she forgot the lyrics (歌词)after singing a few words. Being laughed at by others, embarrassed and shy, she ran away from the stage.

Some naughty boys ran after her and said, “Emily, coward (胆小鬼)!Emily, coward!” Emily didn’t argue with them. What she wanted was to go back home as quickly as she could. Finally, she rushed into the house, hugged her mom and cried sadly.

“Well, my poor girl, don’t cry. Tell me what happened to you,” asked her mom. Emily looked up at her mother and told her what she had experienced.

Listening to her, her mom cupped her face and said, “It doesn’t matter, girl. As long as you practice singing more in front of strangers, you will become braver little by little. So, my girl, don’t be beaten by a failure.You can go out to practice singing every day. No matter who is listening to you, go on singing and never stop. I believe there will be a harvest for you.”

Emily listened to her mother carefully and followed her mom’s suggestion.

Going on singing,she walked into the park,where many people were singing and dancing.

3 . A little boy told his mother that there was a teacher-parent meeting in his school. To the little boy’s_________, she said she would go. This would be the first time that his classmates and teacher met his mother and he felt _________of her appearance. Although she was a beautiful woman, there was a severe scar (伤疤) that_________nearly the entire right side of her face. The boy never wanted to_________why or how she got the scar.

At the meeting, the people were _________by the kindness and natural beauty of his mother_________the scar, but the little boy was still embarrassed (尴尬的) and_________himself from everyone. He, however,_________ a conversation between his mother and his teacher.

The teacher asked_________, “How did you get the scar on your face?”

The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of__________, so I went in. As I was running toward his bed, I saw a piece of wood coming down and I placed myself over him trying to protect him. I was knocked __________but fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us.” She __________the burned side of her face. “This scar will be permanent, but until this day, I have never__________what I did.”

At this point, the little boy came out running toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He held her in his arms and appreciated her great __________of sacrifice (牺牲), He held her hand __________ for the rest of the day.

14.

A．honour

B．spirit

C．happiness

D．pride

4 . To grow sugary dates in the sand, Siwa’s farmers must first make the desert suitable for farming. As an oasis (绿洲) in Egypt, Siwa has been home to humans for thousands of years. Since ancient times, the oasis has had farms producing some of the most valuable dates in Egypt, and sugary dates have appeared on Egyptians, tables.

The desert environment in Siwa is not quite fit for plant, to grow. For example, the water there contains much salt. However, with local people’s efforts, the Siwa oasis contains complex agricultural (农业的) fields, where date trees, crops and other plants grow in harmony (和谐). That impressed me a lot during my visit to the oasis. To make a new piece of field, farmers first move away the top soil and replace it with a mixture of sand and waste matter from animals. The first plants are medicinal plants. Then, farmers plant date trees and olive trees. These farming skills are passed down from generation to generation.

To grow date trees is demanding. And it takes 10 years for a new date tree to grow up, but once it does, the tree produces generous fruit: around 110 pounds of dates per year. Each farmer picks dates with the skilled hands. They climb the trees using nothing more than a belt. In total, Siwa gets more than 25,000 tons of dates from 280,000 trees per year.

The dates can be eaten fresh, or made dry. Every part of the date tree is important in Siwa, from leaves made into beds and boxes to wood used to build houses. And then, of course, there’s the fruit itself. The dates can be cooked with goat meat or mixed with eggs for breakfast. They can also be mixed with flour, water, and olive oil, and boiled slowly to make a local dessert.

Local farmers once developed many unique date varieties, which their camels carried to Cairo. But later many of those varieties perished. And today only several major varieties remain and some have become quite rare and been at risk. The construction of a road in the oasis made the survival of local agricultural tradition even harder.

5 . With the new semester about to start, our school is welcoming a group of new international students. We have some apps here that will make your life easier. We hope you will have a wonderful life here.

★WeChat

WeChat is now the most popular social media app in China. Almost everyone is using WeChat. You can send both text and voice messages on WeChat. You can also make voice and video calls. You can also post texts, pictures and video clips. If your friends in your home country have this app, you can also chat with them through voice or video. WeChat is also widely used now as a form of payment which can be used in stores, online, and in other shopping apps.

★Alipay

Alipay is a similar app to PayPal. It was first used on Taobao and now people can still use it as a mobile payment option. You can even use mobile payment at street vendors, so if you have this app, you can leave your wallet at home.

★Didi

Now Didi seems to be the smartest way to travel around. With one tap, a car comes directly to you. Didi is a Chinese car-hailing service app. It has a function called “ride sharing”, which saves a lot of money for passengers. But it does not have an English version, so if you want to use it, you will have to learn some Chinese.

★Pleco

This is one of the top Chinese/English dictionary apps and it covers 130, 000 Chinese words and includes 20, 000 example sentences with pinyin. It is perfect for those who want to learn Chinese, and also for tourists who need to translate words or phrases from English to Chinese.