The Amber Room     1    (give) this name because several tons of amber     2    (use) to make it. The    3    (select) amber had a beautiful yellow­brown colour like honey. The design of the room was in the fancy style popular in those days. It was also a treasure    4    (decorate) with gold and jewels, which     5    (take) the country’s best artists about ten years     6    (make).

Later, Catherine Ⅱ had the Amber Room    7    (move) to a palace outside St. Petersburg where she spent her summers. Sadly, the Amber Room,     8     (consider) one of the wonders of the world, is now missing.

4 . Canada is one of the few nations in the world to have two official languages: English and French. There are 10 provinces in the country, but only one of these—Quebec is known as “French Canada”. This is because it was founded by French explorers while British adventurers discovered the rest.

Canada left the British Empire(帝国) in 1867 to become an independent country, and English and French have been recognized as the official languages ever since.

Most people speak English as their first language and the two national television networks broadcast in English throughout the country. Apart from in Quebec and a few places on the east coast, French television is rare.

The same goes for traffic signs and menus, for example, outside of Quebec, there are only a few places where you’ll see traffic signs in French. In restaurants, it’s almost impossible to find French on the menu unless you are in the heartland(中心地带) of French Canada. However, all products sold in Canada must, by law, have labels(标签) and instructions in both languages.

In Canada’s English-speaking provinces, official bilingualism means that students can choose to complete a special French language course. Under this program, they are taught most of their subjects in French. If a student begins the course in kindergarten(幼儿园) or Grade One, it is likely that all his lessons will be in French. But if he starts at junior high school, 25 percent of the teaching will continue to be in English.

5 . Chinese ancient poetry was the heart and soul of Chinese ancient literature. Poems and songs have been the means of entertainment of men from the earliest times. Chinese ancient poetry was primarily written to be chanted or sung.

The poetic persona (表面形象) is a feature of classical Chinese poetry. The persona appears when the poem is written from the viewpoint of some other person. Some poems are comments on the contemporary society and life. Chinese ancient poems, although apparently simple in the first reading, have deeper and greater meanings when read intensively.

The earliest Chinese ancient poetry begins with The Book of Songs which is a collection of 305 poems. It was the first comprehensive compilation(辑)of Chinese ancient poems. Each poem in The Book of Songs was set to music and could be sung. Folk songs made up the most part of the book! Confucius, the great ancient philosopher, was fond of this book. It was also the accepted textbook of the Confucian school.

Chinese poetic history is extremely long and colorful. The Tang dynasty, the golden age of Chinese ancient poetry, produced many famous poems. Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, was compiled by Heng Tang Tui Shi(蘅塘退士) of the Qing dynasty. This was used for very many years to teach primary students.

Almost everything is the subject of Chinese ancient poetry including marriage, agriculture, courtship(求爱), sorrow and joys, romance, heroic deeds and so on. Generally, each poem is usually composed of lines of four, five or seven syllables. Translations of Chinese ancient poems are available in books and also online. Now these beautiful poems have attracted readers all over the world.

Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, the attitudes to dirt are always changing.

In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, and washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. The king of England did something similar in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. France’s Henry IV was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.

Though the belief above was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbour ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist(免疫学家) , encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.

Good afternoon, students and teachers. As a member of the International Olympic Committee, I am     1    (delight) to have been invited to your school to talk to you about the history and     2    (significant) of the Olympic Games. I’ll share some     3    (interest) facts and stories with you, and then we’ll have time for questions?

Do you know when the ancient Olympic Games began? It was in the year 776 BC. They     4    (hold) at Olympia in Greece every four years, for almost 12     5    (century), until AD 394.

Some of the sports from the ancient Olympics are still seen today, such as the long jump, wresting and running. At the ancient Olympics by tradition the athletes were all men and they had to compete     6    (wear) no clothes. Single women were allowed to take part in their own competition, at a separate festival in honour of Hera, the wife of the Greek god Zeus. Today, both male and female athletes from around the world can take part, no matter what nation they come     7    .

The contemporary Olympics were first held in 1896, in Athens. It was a Frenchman, Pierre de coubortin,    8     brought the Olympics back to life. He dreamed that the Olympics would make     9     possible for people of all countries to live side by side in peace. Now people all over the world are helping to realize this dream. Among them are many well-known athletes.

Did you know that perhaps the most famous boxer of all time first came to public attention during the 1960 Rome Olympics? He won the gold medal for the USA, under his birth name Cassius Clay. Afterwards, this young man went on to win the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1964 and later changed his name to     10     one we all know, Muhammad Ali. He returned to the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony.

10 . A fresh and gentle wind on your face, soft sand under your feet and blue waters as far as the eye can see. Is there any other Olympic sport that is played in such pleasant conditions as beach volleyball？

“I’ve gone to a lot of beautiful places, and met a lot of beautiful people. That wouldn’t have happened if I had been playing another sport.” said Randy Stoklos, America’s most famous beach volleyball player.

The sport began as a four-a-side game on beaches in Southern California in the 1920s. The first recorded two-man game took place there in 1930, and the first tournament (锦标赛) was held in Los Angeles 18 years later. The winners were awarded a case of Pepsi. In the 1950s, women started playing and the sport soon spread to Europe and South America. Yet at that time, beach volleyball was more an entertainment show than a sport, with beauty contests included. The Association of Volleyball Professionals was founded in 1983 and beach volleyball developed into a fast, athletic sport. Its world-wide popularity won beach volleyball a place at the 1996 Olympics in Atalanta, where 24 male teams and 16 female teams took part. At present, the US and Brazil are the best in the world at beach volleyball.

The game came to China in the early 1990s and there have been national tournaments since 1994. It became an official event at the Eighth National Games in 1997. China’s You Wenhui and Wang Lu finished ninth in the women’s beach volleyball world championships in Brazil.