The backyard barbecue is one of the most famous American traditions. Summer is the best barbecue season. In     1    （place）like Southern California and Nevada, it rarely rains during the summer. The air is dry, much like a desert.     2    is nice to invite friends, neighbors or co-workers to enjoy a summer feast.

Along with the food, outdoor barbecue is a     3    （society）setting. People get together to have drinks and food, and keep up     4    the latest happenings. They meet and talk with each other while     5    （have）a great time. In addition, many people bring their children along. They will have fun playing with each other.

The main     6    （attract）though is the food. People love experimenting with new things     7    （improve）the taste of their favorite meat. Ribs（肋骨）and chicken     8    （consider）at to be the most popular items on the menu. People can cook just about anything. The most wonderful thing about a backyard barbecue is the smell of barbequing food.

The tradition is     9    （especial）are at festivals such as the Fourth of July and Veterans Day. People do not need an excuse to have a barbecue outdoors.     10    they need are just a grill（烧烤架）, some food and good company.

3 . At the last weekend of November,I drove to Fragrant Hills Park to see red leaves with my wife.Although the park announced it closed     1     (it) yearly Red Leaf Festival early on November 13,it was still very crowded. It     2     (report) that it received more than one million visitors during the Red Leaf Festival.

We were told four ways to the top of the mountain,each of     3     took 60 minutes to complete.We chose one way to get to the top.    4     (See) from the top,it looked very beautiful.    5     colorful the mountain is! Some trees were all red and some were covered     6     yellow.The yellow leaves were especially golden and     7     (enjoy).Then we visited Liulita, Xishangqingxue,Duojingting and so on.I think they were all     8     (well) worth visiting than many other attractions.

On the way,we met an old couple who came from America.They said that they had travelled in China for several     9     (month) and China was very great and beautiful.When I     10     (hear) what they said,I was feeling proud as a Chinese.

Li Ming: Hi, Lin Tao, it’s several months since we       1     (meet) last time. You said you were tired of your work and you     2    (find) a new job. What are you doing now?   

Lin Tao: Oh, I’m       3    (train) for the work in the supermarket these weeks. You know, a supermarket     4    (build) in our town, and it     5    (be) open in about two months. Where are you going now?

Li Ming: I    6     (go) to the center stadium, where the spring sports meeting    7    (hold).

Lin Tao: I hear that a car exhibition is also     8     (hold) there. Why don’t you drive there?   It’s a long way from here.

Li Ming: There is something wrong with my car and it     9     (repair) in a company. At present my new plan to lose weight     10     (make), so I’d like to go there on foot.

Lin Tao: I see. Then wish you a good day!

Li Ming: Thank you!   Bye!

Lin Tao: Bye!

Researchers in Hong Kong demonstrated that when nursing home patients enjoyed jokes, funny books and videos, and silly singing and dancing    1     a weekly basis, their awareness of pain and loneliness decreased    2     (significant). They also felt happier and more satisfied with life.

Many studies     3     (conduct) to prove that laughter can cause increased blood flow, lower blood sugar levels, and better sleep. You don’t have to write a joke to obtain the benefits. Merely experiencing humour will do     4     trick.

But there might be an even stronger reason that a sense of humour is born into the human body. Not only does humour make us smarter and healthier,    5     it may also make us more attractive to others. Because creating and appreciating jokes both require     6     (we) to make connections between many separate pieces of information,     7     (have) a sense of humour shows that we have a wide knowledge and that we know how to think about it in new ways.

Humour has several unique powers. It forces people     8     (consider) in different ways. It promotes the     9     (communicate) among people. It brings people together. It reduces the pain     10     (connect) with life’s difficulties. It exercises your brain. And it makes you cheer up.

Finding time in your day for a joke or two is no laughing matter. To start laughing, check out the funniest jokes of all time.

Schoolwork can be stressful sometimes,     1     （especial） in the final year of high school. Daily matters can pile up and affect our health. Therefore,     2     （find） a good way to deal with pressure is important. I just discovered my new favorite method ， the trampoline （蹦床）!

The door opens and you are     3     （amaze） to see people jumping and flying around like superheroes. The trampoline park is full of colorful inflatables （充气气垫）. For     4     （begin）， it is the best area to start.

It was a little bit frightening at the beginning, as we     5     hardly walk on the trampolines. But when I started to jump, I felt all the stress leave my body. After jumping for a while, I     6     （lie） down and closed my eyes, imagining I had become a bird     7     could touch the sky.

There     8     （be） some other bouncing activities. My favorite one was the basketball dunking area. It included a full-height basketball hoop above runway trampolines. With the power of bouncing, I could dunk like     9     NBA superstar. It was not only relaxing, but also fun!

While outdoor activities are largely up to the weather, indoor trampoline parks are really good places     10     （go） whenever you want to have a good time.

Something is happening to the British. They seem to be developing green fingers! The number of people growing their own fruit and vegetables     1     (increase) in the past year, according to Gardeners’ World.

Gardens and private land for vegetables and fruit across the UK have been put to use with people’s     2     (discover) of the joys of home-grown produce. But not everyone has space for a vegetable land or a flowerbed. And sometimes a window box just isn’t enough for     3     gardening challenge. This is why people plant flowers or vegetables in public spaces to make them     4     (green) and more pleasing to the eye.

Many people would approve     5     beautifying towns and cities, but this type of gardening is not     6     (strict) legal. Therefore, the special gardening often takes place late at night. But the image of the enthusiastic gardener is not someone     7     breaks the law. It is of someone spending all their time in     8     (greenhouse) and potting sheds (育秧棚), a person knowing every aspect of how to tend and grow the plants.

Yet, despite the increase in people growing their own, half of the UK population     9     (be) still puzzled about when most fruit and vegetables are in season, according to Gardeners’ World. It seems that Britain still has a long way     10     (go) before being called a nation of gardeners

The Inferno is the oldest and most celebrated of all amateur ski races. It     1     (hold) every January, near MÜrren in Switzerland. Anyone can take part, as long as they belong to     2     ski racing club.

The Inferno was the     3     (invent) of a British businessman called Henry Lunn, who came up with the idea of the package holiday in the early 1900s and     4     (begin) taking groups of people to the Alps for winter sports. Henry’s son, Arnold, grew very fond of MÜrren and he founded a ski club there in 1924. Four years later, seventeen of the club’s members took part in the first Inferno race,     5     the top of the 2,970-metre Schilthorn mountain to MÜrren below.

In those early days, they used     6    (climb) for six hours from the railway station in MÜrren before the start of the race. Today,     7     (racer) use a cable car (缆车) which takes about twenty minutes. In the first race, the winning time for the fourteen-kilometre race was one hour, twelve minutes. These days it tends to be almost     8     (exact) an hour. Although the skiers are very much faster now, some things haven’t changed. The course,     9     is steep (陡峭的) and has sharp bends (急转弯), remains one of the most     10     (demand) and frightening in the world.

Summer is over, but there’s no reason to be upset as that means autumn is upon us, arguably the     1     (good) season of the year.

Beijing’s autumn is extremely short, so parks around the city fill up fast with people coming to see the season’s sight—a show of changing     2     (color) as the trees turn from dark green to deep red. There are plenty of places in the city center     3     (catch) the golden Gingko leaves, but I’m heading just outside of the Fifth Ring Road to see the season on     4     larger scale.

Despite parks like Xiangshan getting so busy     5     you need tickets a week in advance, there are still areas well-known and     6     _ (frequent) visited by the Beijing crowds, and Baiwangshan, one of such places,     7     (locate) 3km from the Summer Palace to the city’s North West. It offers hiking tails and beautiful views of the city and     8     (surround) forests.

I love coming to Beijing’s parks at this time of year because I can always enjoy     9     (I), bathing in the last of the good weather and golden colors. You never know     10     you’re going to find around every corner.

A group of our friends from church were planning a picnic, and it sounded like fun.I was a   single-mother with four    1     (child) then, so time was a bit tight for me.What did have that we could contribute     2    the picnic?Then a thought struck.I could make a cherry pie! A friend had given me two canned cherries     3    would make a very nice pie filling,so I worked at once .When   the cooking was done and served,it looked so good and the smell was     4     (wonder).

At the picnic,Stu,my then new boyfriend ,was the first     5     (take)a   bite of my pie.I saw a     6     (puzzle) look go across his face.Then he    7     (begin) to spit out cherry stones.It had not     8     (occur) to me that someone would can cherries without getting the stones out first.    9     embarrassing! Well, he married me anyway. And the cherry pie has been    10     inside joke for the past 48 years.