It was the first time that Sneha had been alone at home. Her parents never left her alone even for an hour. But this time was different. Her grandfather suddenly fell ill and because she had to go to school the next morning, Sneha couldn’t leave with her parents.

Sneha’s mother was very worried while leaving. But Sneha told her that she would be fine and it was just for the night. In the morning, her aunt would come from another city.

Sneha was excited to be home alone at first. She spent the afternoon finishing her homework and then playing on the computer and later reading a magazine. But when it became dark, all her courage (勇气) was gone. She thought first she would sleep with the light on. But then she found she couldn’t get to sleep with the light shining on her face, so she turned it off.

Sneha lay on the bed and felt lonely. She began missing her parents. When she looked out the window, she started seeing all kinds of shapes in the darkness. She told herself they were just trees outside, but yet she was afraid.

Suddenly, she heard the noise in the hall. She was afraid at first, but finally she decided to go and see what was making the noise. She went into the hall and there was the noise once again. She quickly turned on the light and what she saw gave her a surprise. She saw her aunt coming in! She had a set of keys and arrived earlier than Sneha expected. Seeing her aunt made Sneha very happy and she ran to welcome her.

Before her mum came home, Sneha stayed with her aunt. She became brave enough to be alone if her aunt went out somewhere else.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。

Japan is an island country in East Asia. There are four main islands in Japan. They are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. There are also many small islands. The largest island in Japan is Honshu. The capital of Japan is on Honshu. Honshu is located south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Straits. It is the seventh largest island in the word. Honshu is linked to the islands of Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku by tunnels (隧道) or bridges. There are three bridge systems across the islands of the Inland Sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

   Honshu had a population of 103 million by 2005. The island has several past Japanese capitals, such as Kyoto, Nara and Kamakura. The island is about 1,300 kilometres long and ranges from 50 to 230 kilometres wide, and its area is 227, 962.59 km². It is larger than Great Britain. It has 5,450 kilometres of coastline (海岸线).

These days, the food that you buy comes from lots of different countries. When you go to the supermarket, you will see some kinds of fruits and vegetables you have never seen before. Have a look in your kitchen ,fridge, cupboard and fruit bowl and check where the food comes from. Perhaps there are apples fromCalifornia, lamb fromNew Zealand, or potatoes from Egypt. You will probably be surprised how far food travels to get to your plate. This journey, from field to plate, is called food miles. A food mile is the distance that food travels from the farmerˈs field to the person who buys the food. Nowadays, food often travels thousands of miles to get to the consumer(消费者). Why is this, and what are the influences of these long distances? 

Traditionally, farmers sold their food in the local market, so the food didnˈt have to travel very far. The consumers also did not travel very far because they went to their local market to buy the food. This was a good system for farmers and consumers. However, there were some disadvantages. For example, consumers could only buy food that farmers produced locally. In addition, they could only get food that was in season. Now, because of modern technology, food comes from all over the world. We do not have to wait for spring or summer to buy strawberries or tomatoes. They are available in winter if we want. 

Some countries have to import(进口) most of their food. This is because they have difficult climates. The United Arab Emirates(UAE), for example, gets 85% of its food from other countries. Even food made in the UAE often uses imported materials(材料). 

Whatˈs wrong with food miles？Is this not a good way of increasing international trade? I believe these miles are worrying for a number of reasons. First of all, because food travels such long distances, we need more planes, trucks, and ships to move the food. This means we use more oil or gas, so there is more pollution and more global warming（全球变暖）. In addition, food that travels a long way is not fresh and usually not very tasty. Tomatoes, for example, are picked early and stored for their long journeys. For this reason, they are usually tasteless when they get to the consumer. Local food has a better taste, and it also reduces(减少) the amount of global pollution. We need to buy more local food.

Close contacts（联系） between Japan and the rest of the world were created in the twentieth century. In the last forty years, business contacts between Japan and the West have become very important. Many foreign companies now have offices in Japan and Japanese businessmen do business around the world. Differences between Japanese and Western ways of doing business, however, often bewilder foreign businessmen and make doing business in Japan difficult for foreigners.

The American businessman, for example, wants to start talking business immediately. He does not want to wait. The Japanese businessman, on the other hand, likes to arrive at decisions after giving them serious thought. Another thing foreign businessmen have difficulty in understanding is when a Japanese means “Yes” or “No”. This is because of cultural differences between Japanese and Western society(社会), Which make it difficult for a Japanese to say “No” directly.

In the USA, it is easy to say “No” to something one does not want to do. But in Japan, it is very difficult to say “No”. To refuse an invitation or a request(请求) with “No” is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly. So instead of saying “No” directly, the Japanese have developed many ways to avoid(避免) saying “No”. These can help them avoid hurting other people’s feelings. However, this often makes their ways of doing business rather difficult for foreigners to understand and follow.

You can plan your own hours and work when you want to. There is no more rush hour and no hours that people waste when they get to and from a job every day.

②The Fact   The fact is that this dream can be attained. You can stay at home，work when you want to and make money when you need to. There are plenty of opportunities for you to make money at home, just by using your computer and the Internet．

③Start Today!  Educate yourself，look closely into all the opportunities and decide on what works best for you. It will not happen during one night, but you can make the decision today and start to make it happen today.

④How Could You Do It? Do you have a blog（博客）or a personal website like millions of other people?  Are you using it to make money? Most of these blog and website owners are not. But you can do that!

⑤             When you have your computer and the Internet working for you, your businesses will be working for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You will make money while you sleep, travel or do whatever you want to do all day long．

⑥Get Going!  There are many ways you can make money with your computer. And you can begin your Stay – at – home businesses with just a little money. What are you waiting for ?

Two McDonalds

There were two McDonalds – Mac and Dick – and they were brothers. In 1948, they owned a restaurant in California. They liked working in the restaurant, but they got tired of the customers (顾客) ordering so many different things to eat. They decided to give a smaller menu to the customers so that they wouldn’t have to wait so long for their meals. The food could be made before they came. They also began to use plastic plates so that there wouldn’t be any washing-up.

These were such good ideas that the McDonald brothers used them, and the customers were very pleased. They got their meals very quickly---in less than a minute---and they paid only 15 cents for hamburgers and 10 cents for fries. The first McDonald’s restaurant had no seats for customers to sit on. This meant that people had to take their food away, and that no one had to clean up any tables after them?

A man called Ray Kroc came to buy their business. After that, people paid him to open their own restaurants using the McDonald’s name and menu. Before long, there were McDonald’s restaurants all over the United States and now they are all over the world – even in China and Russia.

McDonald’s restaurants are becoming more and more popular. Many parents take their children to McDonald’s at weekends. Children like going there not only for the food, but also the dolls, like the Snoopy dolls and Hello Kitty dolls. Besides, they can also play interesting games there. Maybe that’s the reason why McDonald’s restaurants are becoming more and more successful.

   ( B )  

The American secret service began in 1865．It has many important jobs．One is to stop different types of fraud (诈骗), such as printing fake money, credit card fraud and computer fraud．The other is to protect the president at all times．
　　The secret service’s earliest job was to stop people from making fake money．The secret service agents (特工) still have to do that because the criminals (罪犯) are smarter now．They are better at using computers and other expensive equipment．But agents are much smarter．
　　Protecting the president is hard．The most dangerous places  are outdoors．Agents can’t check every person in the crowd, so they must watch the crowd carefully．And they always follow the president．They’re just like the president’s shadow．
　　Unluckily, some people do want to give the president trouble, or even hurt him．The secret service agents try to find them and stop them when they want to do something bad．It’s a dangerous, but important job．The secret service helps keep the president and the country safe．

It is often said that China is a developing country and the West is developed. However, China is trying her best to be “developed”. We can see her hard work in the following aspects(方面).