1 . America’s Skies Will Be Filled with Hot Air Balloons
In September hot air balloon festivals are held around the United States. No two are alike.
Hudson Valley Hot-Air Balloon Festival
Union Vale, New York September 2-4
It’s a Labor Day lift-off in the Hudson Valley, with 100 balloon launches (发射) scheduled. Now let’s just hope the weather is good. But even if it doesn’t there are plenty of activities on offerlike helicopter rides. When the sun goes down the balloons light up like fireflies.
Ticket: $15
Great Reno Balloon Race
Reno, Nevada
September 9-11
Some people say the Great Reno Balloon Race is the world’s largest free hot air ballooning event. This year events for the three-day affair include 5 a.m.Glow Shows, where balloons are tethered(拴住) and lit from within. There’s a daily ascension(升空) of 100 balloons and kids can take a $5 tethered ride for charity.
Ticket: Free
Paris Balloon & Music Festival
Paris, Texas
September 9-12
Don’t know what an “Airmadillo”is? Find out at the Paris Balloon & Music Festival.Float (飘) on up yourself for $275, or just watch: the festival also features evening balloon glows and morning launches (balloon volunteers still needed), and, a live painting competition and music from local bands.
Ticket: $5
Lancaster Hot Air Balloon Festival
Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania
September 16-18
Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, is home to one of the most unique hot air balloon festivals in the country. Here, you can not only see fireworks, watch magic shows, and of course watch the launch of colorful balloons as well as take a ride yourself for $400, but also learn a bit about local culture, with plenty of delicious food.
Ticket:$10-$30
1. When can people attend an event for free?
| A．On September 2. | B．On September 9. |
| C．On September 12. | D．On September 16. |
| A．Hudson Valley Hot-Air Balloon Festival. |
| B．Lancaster Hot Air Balloon Festival. |
| C．Paris Balloon & Music Festival. |
| D．Great Reno Balloon Race. |
| A．It will introduce local culture. | B．It will offer people free rides. |
| C．It will look for volunteers. | D．It will last for four days. |
2 . Harbin Ice Festival 2022
Ever think of what Elsa's ice palace might look like in real life? Ice stairs, ice walls, and ice towers? When winter approaches, Harbin turns into a kingdom of ice and snow.
The annual Harbin Ice and Snow Festival opens in late December and lasts for around 3 months, till late February.
What’s new for Harbin Ice Festival.
Every year, there’s a unique theme for the Ice Festival. For 2022, there will be tributes (歌颂) to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. You will find the whole park is like a huge Winter Olympics venue (场地)!
A huge Snowflake Ferris Wheel (摩天轮) has already been built inside the park. Visitors will be able to ride on the Ferris Wheel and overlook the ice castles in early 2023. For this upcoming festival, the highlight may be when the giant Snowflake is colorfully lit up at night, shining high in the sky.
Yearly Time Line
| Dates | Activities |
| Early December | Ice Harvest |
| December | Carving and Building |
| Christmas period | Unofficial Opening |
| Jan. 5, 2022 | Opening Ceremony |
| Jan. 21 to Feb. 15, 2022 | Special Celebrations for Chinese New Year |
| Late Feb.to early Mar. | Ice and snow sculptures start to melt |
Click here and Book Now!
Tickets to Harbin Ice and Snow World are on sale now!
·Dec. 25, 2021－Jan. 5, 2022: ￥170/person (half price for children)
·Jan. 6, 2022－Feb. 28, 2022: ￥230/person (half price for children)
Contact us for available tour dates be fore they are fully booked.
Attention
As long as the ice and snow sculptures are open to visitors, it is impossible to take photos of the charming ice buildings without any visitors in! This might be different from what you see in the media (that have special access).
1. What can visitors do during Harbin Ice Festival 2022?| A．Visit Elsa’s real ice palace. |
| B．Watch Winter Olympics events. |
| C．Take the Snowflake Ferris Wheel. |
| D．Enjoy the colorfully lighted Snowflake. |
| A．￥425. | B．￥510. | C．￥575. | D．￥690. |
| A．A travel review. | B．A tourism website. |
| C．A tourism scrapbook. | D．A travel magazine. |
3 . In India, one of the most significant festivals is Diwali, which falls between October and November. It’s a five-day celebration that includes good food, fireworks, colored sand, and special candles and lamps.
In honor of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, people make special prayers on the first day to obtain blessings for welfare, success, and well-being. People welcome the goddess into their homes by decorating entrances with colorful lanterns and traditional designs. In addition, many people treat themselves to fine jewellery, praying for good fortune. Those who cannot afford so much, seek out cheaper items such as clothes or household goods.
The second day of the festival is called Kali Chaudas. For some, the day provides an opportunity to drive away misfortune from homes and businesses. They decorate their homes with clay lamps and create design patterns called Rangoli on the floor using colored powder or sand.
The third day is when the biggest celebrations occur, which begin early in the morning with a visit to a temple to seek the blessing of the goddess. As the sun sets, festival observers light up their homes with small lamps and enjoy delicious traditional foods with their loved ones.
The festival’s fourth day is celebrated in many different ways. Friends and relatives visit with gifts, sweets and best wishes for the season.
And the final day of the festival is called Bhai Dooj. It honors the close bond between brothers and sisters and is observed with traditional ceremonies and more delicious foods.
For children in India, Diwali is similar to Christmas. They get an entire week off from school and are treated to gifts, new clothes, amazing food, and, in the past at least, a large number of fireworks. It is no wonder that the festival ranks high among the country’s favorite celebrations.
1. People celebrate the first day of Diwali mainly for _________.| A．good fortune |
| B．colorful lanterns |
| C．expensive jewellery |
| D．traditional designs |
| A．To design traditional patterns. |
| B．To produce colored powder or sand. |
| C．To help get rid of bad luck. |
| D．To produce an opportunity in business. |
| A．Exchange gifts and best wishes with his loved ones. |
| B．Be busy decorating his home during the day. |
| C．Get together with his sisters and brothers. |
| D．Light up his home with small lamps. |
| A．Having a week off. |
| B．Getting Christmas gifts. |
| C．Enjoying amazing food. |
| D．Setting off fireworks. |
4 . Ma Lili's parents are going to give a birthday party for her. She’s going to be fourteen years old. Ma Lili has a lot of friends. They are going to come to the party. They are girls from Ma Lili’s school. There are twenty-five of them.
Ma Lili’s mother is making birthday cakes for the party. They are very nice cakes. Ma Lili says to her mother "Mum, you’re very nice. Thank you for your nice cakes. " Her father is going shopping. He buys a lot of apples, bananas, oranges and pears.
It’s four o'clock in the afternoon. Now everything is ready. The party begins in thirty minutes.
1. Who is going to give Ma Lili a birthday party?| A．Ma Lili | B．Her friends | C．Her teacher | D．Her parents |
| A．Two | B．Twenty | C．Twenty-one | D．Twenty-five |
| A．is going shopping. | B．is making birthday cakes for the party. |
| C．buys a lot of apples, bananas, oranges and pears. | D．is very nice. |
| A．ten | B．eleven | C．thirteen | D．fourteen |
| A．four o'clock | B．half past four | C．five o'clock | D．half past five |
5 . If you are a fruit grower — or would like to become one — take advantage of Apple Day to see what’s around. It’s called Apple Day but in practice it’s more like Apple Month. The day itself is on October 21, but since it has caught on, events now spread out over most of October around Britain.
Visiting an apple event is a good chance to see, and often taste, a wide variety of apples. To people who are used to the limited choice of apples such as Golden Delicious and Royal Gala in supermarkets, it can be quite an eye opener to see the range of classical apples still in existence, such as Decio which was grown by the Romans. Although it doesn’t taste of anything special, it’s still worth a try, as is the knobbly(多疙瘩的) Cat’s Head which is more of a curiosity than anything else.
There are also varieties developed to suit specific local conditions. One of the very best varieties for eating quality is Orleans Reinette, but you’ll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it, so it’s a pipe dream for most apple lovers who fall for it.
At the events, you can meet expert growers and discuss which ones will best suit your conditions, and because these are family affairs, children are well catered for with apple-themed fun and games.
Apple Days are being held at all sorts of places with an interest in fruit, including stately gardens and commercial orchards(果园). If you want to have a real orchard experience, try visiting the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent.
1. What can people do at the apple events?| A．Attend experts’ lectures. |
| B．Visit fruit-loving families. |
| C．Plant fruit trees in an orchard. |
| D．Taste many kinds of apples. |
| A．It is a new variety. |
| B．It has a strange look. |
| C．It is rarely seen now. |
| D．It has a special taste. |
| A．A practical idea. |
| B．A vain hope. |
| C．A brilliant plan. |
| D．A selfish desire. |
| A．To show how to grow apples. |
| B．To introduce an apple festival. |
| C．To help people select apples. |
| D．To promote apple research. |
6 . Two years ago, my friend Terry and I were living in our dormitory at our university. With his birthday approaching, he came to me with an unusual request. Instead of receiving presents and getting drunk (like most every other 21-year-old would), he wanted to do some acts of kindness. I was struck with such an idea. He told me about a TED talk he had watched online, which had inspired him.
Our university is not located in the safest area in Los Angeles. In fact, its location is so unsafe that the school employs the second largest private legal militia (民兵队伍) in the United States to protect its students. They have to work around the clock, standing on street corners throughout the university keeping watch. It’s a thankless job as most students grow used to seeing officers all around and finally hardly even notice their presence.
How could we show them our appreciation? We rented a truck and asked its driver to drive us around the place where we knew the officers would be and we poured them each a cup of hot chocolate. The truck driver was a bit hesitant (犹豫的) about our plan at first but after a while he was helping us spot officers and our lively spirits had spread to him as well. Smiles and appreciative words from the officers impressed us a lot. Soon they were talking about us over their radio and we were the ones being spotted and called over. Finally, the hot chocolate seemed secondary (次要的) to their interest in meeting us, the two boys that went around with hot chocolate expecting to share some late-night laughter. It was amazing to see how a small simple act can lift everyone’s spirits.
1. What inspired Terry to celebrate his birthday in a different way?| A．A radio speech. | B．An online video. |
| C．His concern for other people. | D．Other 21-year-old’s birthday celebrations. |
| A．They don’t think the officers perform their duty well. |
| B．They feel frightened to see the officers around. |
| C．They are not used to being watched by the officers. |
| D．They seldom appreciate the officers’ hard work. |
| A．He was unwilling to accept the idea. |
| B．He couldn’t wait to join the two boys. |
| C．He was strongly against the idea. |
| D．He was struck with the idea. |
| A．Lovely officers around the school |
| B．Importance of school safety |
| C．A unique birthday request |
| D．Late-night laughter |
7 . People around the world take celebrating seriously, and many of them are willing to go to great effort and expense to plan and participate in public celebrations.
Exactly when and where human beings began coming together in public to celebrate as a group can date back to hunter-gatherer societies, when success in the never-ending search for food, clothing, and shelter must have aroused the need to celebrate together.
Besides the need for food and survival, there are records of religious parades dating back to 3000 B.C. Parades were also used to demonstrate military power and celebrate military victories; to attract customers to events such as the circus by giving the public a sample of the entertainment; or to celebrate ethnic (民族的) connection and holidays. The New York Times of October 28, 1917, summed it up by saying, “If you take the parades out of history, you have precious little history left.”
Of course, many modern celebrations are not connected to any religion. In the Internet era, electronic communication makes it possible to organize celebrations almost instantly. “Flash mobs” are a new way of gathering and celebrating. Secretly planned online, they bring together tens, hundreds, or thousands of individuals to perform some unusual or funny act in a public place. Flash mobs not only reflect the increased speed of communication but also a lighter attitude to celebration. No longer is public celebrating something necessarily linked to human survival, religion, or deep traditions.
This does not mean, however, that modern celebrations are not socially conscious. One striking image inspiring community spirit is Edwards’ photograph of crowds in Australia, who were gathering in the rain for a music festival to raise funds for wildfire relief. Throughout history, across countries and cultures, celebrations are always worth significant amount of time and money spent planning, preparing, organizing, and carrying out an event. The priority given to celebrating seems to put it alongside food, shelter, love, and freedom as a basic need of humanity.
1. According to the passage, which one of the following events can make celebrations happen?| A．A business has made a huge profit. | B．It has been sunny for a week. |
| C．Farmers harvest in the autumn. | D．A new museum opens in the city center. |
| A．If there is no parade, human history will be more precious. |
| B．Students should be taught the importance of parades in history class. |
| C．Only parades can be recorded in history books. |
| D．Many significant historic moments featured a parade. |
| A．Four strangers meet at a concert and then decide to perform together in a public square. |
| B．Someone announces openly a series of performances to take place at school. |
| C．An online group plans and performs a dance in a crowded train station. |
| D．The number of people watching a street performer grows to several hundred. |
| A．Why We Celebrate? | B．Celebration and Social Responsibility |
| C．Planning a Parade | D．The Origin of Celebration |
8 . Are you confused about what to do next when you plan a birthday celebration for your loved family member or try to help your family prepare for birthdays?
Form a band. If you want to fully enjoy yourselves, instead of turning on the music on the computer or phone, you can invite your classmates to form a band for your family member’s birthday. They can play a much music as you like.
Find a meeting place. Many people like to hold their parties at home.
Invite a special guest. Birthdays are often more memorable than the rest. To ensure your loved one’s party is special, besides gifts, think about someone you can invite that your family member will be happy and surprised to see.
| A．Buy a special cake. |
| B．Make a cake at home. |
| C．It’s not always easy to know where to begin. |
| D．You extremely want to get special birthday gifts. |
| E．It can be a friend your family member expects to see. |
| F．All of you will enjoy you selves in the live music this way. |
| G．But not everyone’s house is big enough for a birthday party. |
9 . Do you know the Monkey Buffet Festival in Thailand? It is on the last Sunday of November. It is a great day for monkeys in Thailand. The festival has a history of 35 years. People there think monkeys can bring good luck to them. So, to thank monkeys, they have this special festival.
On that day every year, people put lots of fruit, vegetables, cakes and even drinks on the tables outside. They are all for monkeys. Many people come to see the monkeys on that day.
During the festival, there are a lot of interesting activities about monkeys. Young people always dress like monkeys and they sing and dance and play some music on the street.
Monkeys always live in groups. Most of them live in the trees. They are good at running and jumping. They eat fruit, vegetables, plants and birds’ eggs. Monkeys are clever. Do you think so?
1. When is the festival in Thailand?| A．In September. | B．In October. | C．In November. | D．In December. |
| A．Because they think monkeys are cute. |
| B．Because they think monkeys are clever. |
| C．Because they think monkeys can work for them. |
| D．Because they think monkeys can bring good luck. |
| A．Sing and dance. | B．Eat all kinds of delicious food. |
| C．Play with monkeys. | D．Run and jump. |
| A．Eggs. | B．Beef. | C．Bananas. | D．Apples. |
| A．Monkeys in Thailand | B．Monkeys’ Favorite Food |
| C．The Festival for Monkeys | D．Monkeys Are Cute Animals |
10 . Four Autumn Festivals Recommended in Australia
Bright Autumn Festival, From Late April to Early May
Nothing says autumn like red and orange leaves and comfort food. Enjoy the ten-day Bright Autumn Festival in Victoria’s High Country. The tree-lined avenues, small-town charms and delicious fresh produce won’t disappoint, with everything from open gardens, historical tours, live music, markets to a dedicated Nut Festival.
Kartini Waingi-Water Lights,Early May
Visit Robinvale on the banks of the Murray River for the four-day Water Lights Festival. Kids and adults alike will marvel at this attractive laser show that presents the vibrant, diverse and rich culture of the region.
Grampians Grape Escape, Early May
Food and wine devotees, you’re in luck. The Grampians Grape Escape at Halls Gap is an unforgettable two-day experience that’s all about top-quality wines, gourmet food and live music -the perfect trio. You may even learn a few skills from one of the cooking demonstrations and masterclasses.
La Fiera Italian Festival, Mid-May
Every year in mid-May, the Myrtleford community celebrates its Italian roots with a three-day festival dedicated to all of the region’s cultural and culinary delights. There are food stalls, wine tastings, a movie night, kids’ activities and even a soccer tournament to look forward to, as well as markets and entertainment. Also a traditional grape stomp, part of the wine-making process, can be experienced. It showcases grapes being crushed by foot to release their juices.
1. What will attract you at the Bright Autumn Festival?| A．Fantastic light show. | B．Splendid autumn scenery. |
| C．Masterclasses in cooking. | D．Soccer’ competitions. |
| A．Bright Autumn Festival. |
| B．La Fiera Italian Festival. |
| C．Grampians Grape Escape. |
| D．Kartini Waingi-Water Lights. |
| A．In the Myrtleford community. |
| B．In Victoria’s High Country. |
| C．At Halls Gap. |
| D．At Robinvale. |
