Many people like to travel by plane, but I don’t like it because an airport（飞机场）is usually far from the city. You have to get there early and wait for hours for the plane to take off and it is often late. You can’t open the windows. You can’t choose the food. Planes are fast, but they still take hours to go out of the airport and into the city.
　　I like traveling by train. I think trains are safe. Railway stations are usually in cities. When you are late for a train, you can catch another one. You can walk around in the train and open the windows. You can see many interesting things on your way. I know it takes a little more time.
　　I also like cars. You can start your journey when you want to, and you don’t need to get to a railway station or a bus stop. Also you can carry many things with you in a car. But sometimes there are too many cars on the road.

  Ten years ago, many people thought that the age of the physical books (纸质书) was coming to an end. The objects that had been the companions (伙伴) of millions of readers for hundreds of years were going to die out. Soon, we’d all be reading on little electronic screens and laughing at the memory of places called “libraries” and “bookshops”.

     But it seems not true about the idea of the death of the physical books. At least in the UK, according to The Guardian, sales of e-books are falling while sales of physical books are rising. More surprisingly, it’s young people who are buying the most physical books. More than 60 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds prefer print books to e-books. There are many reasons and the most popular one is: “I would like to hold the product.”

     Reading lovers always feel that physical books are very personal objects. They usually do some other things to make this kind of feeling even stronger. It often starts when they get the books. Many buyers of books like to write down their names on the inside cover when they’ve bought one just to show that the books are their personal things. If there’s a mark made on the pages from coffee or food, it doesn’t matter. These small accidents make our books even more personal. It’s just like readers of physical books make friends with them.

     The “friendship” that people develop with books isn’t just about feelings. Research has shown that readers remember more information from reading physical books than electronic ones.

     However, there’s no doubt that e-books are here to stay. They aren’t simply a “here today, gone tomorrow” thing. But it’s also certain that physical books, which have been in production since the fifteenth century, are here to stay, too.

A new study warns that about 30% of the worldˈs people may not have enough water by the year 2025.

    A personal American organization called Population Action International (PAI) did the new study. It says more than three hundred and thirty-five million people lack(缺少)enough water now. These people live in twenty-eight countries. Most of the countries are in Africa or the Middle East.

    PAI researcher Robert Engelman says by the year 2025, about three thousand million people may face water problems. At least 18 more countries are expected to lack enough water. The need for water keeps increasing. Yet the amount(数量)of water on the earth stays the same.

    The report says lack of water in the future may cause several problems. It may increase health problems. Lack of water often means drinking water is not safe. Mr. Engelman says there are problems all over the world because of diseases, such as cholera, which are carried in water. Lack of water may also lead to more international conflict(冲突). Countries may have to fight for water in the future. Some countries now get sixty percent of their water from other countries. This is true of Egypt, the Netherlands, Cambodia, Syria, Sudan. And Iraq. And the report says lack of water would influence the ability to improve their economies (经济).This is because new industries often need a great amount of water when they are beginning.

The Population Action International study gives several ways to the water problem. One way, it says, is to find ways to use water for more than one purpose, Another way is to teach people to be careful not to waste water. A third way is to use 1ess water for agriculture.

    The report also says a long-term way to the water problem is to control population growth. It says countries cannot provide clean water unless they slow population growth by limiting the number of children people have.

All the family love you very much and pay most attention to you because you are the only child in your family. But what will happen if you have a brother or a sister? How will things be different? From October, 2015, one couple can have two children in China.

Soon you may have a brother or a sister. You can play with him or her. You can talk about a lot of things with them and tell your secrets to them. You may even take care of each other. But there could be hard time, too. You may fight and pull each other’s hair. You may compete for your parents’ attention, food, the bathroom and even TV. So life with a brother or a sister will be unpredictable(不可预料的).

A birth order(顺序) can make a difference. The US psychologist(心理学家), Kevin Leman says birth order help develop children’s personalities(性格). According to Leman, parents are usually nervous and strict with their first child. They always set high goals for children. They want their eldest child to be perfect(完美).

But parents are much more relaxed about the late-born kids. So the younger children have fewer rules. They are often more creative. They also try to be funny, so they can get attention from their parents.

We can’t remember clearly since when we started to take our mobiles to a dinner table. This happens a lot, especially when we eat out. Once a dish comes, instead of lifting our chopsticks, we take out our mobiles and click. Later, we post the photos onto Weibo or Wechat, waiting to be “liked.” Then we check our mobiles from time to time during the meal, to see whether we get “liked” or not. We just cannot leave our mobiles for simply a meal.

Do you do that often? If not, how do you feel when others do that when having dinner with you?

A recent study suggests that what we are used to doing is not that good. Spending time taking photos of food makes the food less pleasant. To test this, some researchers did an experiment (实验). Some people were asked to take photos before they could enjoy food. It turned out that the more photos they took,         . So, why not stop taking photos and just enjoy the food?

Besides the scientific result, there are also some other bad influences of taking photos of food before meals. After posting the photos onto the Internet, one will be unable to control himself and check his mobile many times. “Does everyone accept my photo? I hope a lot of people like it!” It seems like your mobile secretly calls your name all the time, even when you are with real people.

So, next time you go out to have dinner with your family or friends, how about not taking photos of food? Let the food be delicious as it is and share your life with people around you. Trust me, it will be a wonderful time.

It’s the end of class. When the bell rings, students of Luohu Foreign Languages School in Shenzhen quickly take out their cell phones.(1)They want to log on to their micro blogs to check the interesting things that have happened in the last hour.

Since last year, the trend of micro blogging has swept the country. Recent surveys shows that most students in middle schools have a micro blog and some even update their blogs over five times per day.

“ We learn many fresh and interesting things on micro blogs and they have become popular topics in class,” said Andy Liang, 14. “ If you do not know about them, you are out of the loop.”

It is also a great place for students to let out stress. “My parents always ask me to study all the time, and encourage me before exams, but it really adds pressure,” said Simon Zhang, 15. “(2)When I share these feelings on my micro blog, I get many replies from friends in the same situation, which makes me feel better.”

But parents are worried that micro blogging could be a waste of time. Some misleading messages may even cause danger to kids, they said.

(3)Mr. Shen, a professor at the China Education Association, suggests parents not to worry too much as long as kids are not crazy about micro blogging. Maybe it can become a window for parents to understand their children. “If parents can read their children’s micro blog, they’ll know their thoughts, thus leading to better communication and solutions to problems,” he said. He also gives some tips for kids.

----Don’t micro blog for more than one hour a day.

----Never micro blog in class.

----Try to talk face to face with people from time to time.

----Be critical. Don’t trust all the messages on a micro blog.

             .

阅读短文，从下列各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出一个最佳答案。

Early last year, two young brothers in Jiangsu Province   (1)    badly burned while playing. The“game”they were playing was  (2)   they had watched in the cartoon Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf （《喜羊羊和灰太狼》）.The brothers were   (3)  two little goats while their friend was playing a bad wolf . Their friend tied them  (4)  a tree and set fire to the grass around them.

　 The sad story is an example of how many children follow the violence（暴力） they see on television, especially cartoons. It is  (5)  that violent cartoons can make children more aggressive（具有攻击性的）. In a survey, researchers  (6)  the children after watching non-violent and violent cartoons. They found that the kids who watched violent cartoons fought with others and  (7)   class rules more often.

　 Children under the age of seven are too  (8)  to understand that the violence on TV can bring   (9)  real harm. It is parents’ job        (10)     them understand it.

In western countries, people always talk about the weather, but nobody can do  anything about it. That is true. They usually begin their talks with "A nice day, isn't it?" "Do you think it will rain?" "What a fine day!" etc. 　　

Many people think they can tell what the weather is going to be like. But they can never agree with one another. One man may say, "Do you see how cloudy it is in the east? It's going to rain tomorrow." Another man would say, "No, it's going to be fine tomorrow.” People are often looking for the weather that they want. When a farmer needs water, he looks for something that could tell him it's going to rain; he won't believe anything else. When friends want to have a travel, they are sure that the weather is going to clear up very quickly. Almost everyone listens to what the weather man says. But he doesn't always tell us what we want, and once in a while he makes a mistake. Still, he probably comes closer to being correct than anyone else.