Christmas is an interesting festival. It is ___  (1)  ___December 25th. It’s the ___  (2)  ___ festival in the Western countries. It’s just like our Spring Festival. Families get together and enjoy the holiday. There is always an old man. He has many names, but we usually call him Santa Claus. He always ___  (3)  ___ a red coat and a red hat. He is very busy on Christmas Eve. ___  (4)  ___does Santa put his gifts? In the Christmas ___  (5)  ___! So children always hang (挂) the stockings on their beds on Christmas Eve. And then they will find gifts in them the next morning. In addition (此外), people often put a Christmas tree in their house. And they also sing Christmas songs from door to door on Christmas Eve. Can you sing it?

Beautiful pictures of mountains and forests, clear skies, flying birds, wild animals, silly faces-you can find them all in one place.   (1)  ?On a postcard! Have people always sent postcards? No! Before postcards, people   (2)  sealed (密封的) letters.

The   (3)   for the first decorated postcard came to John P. Charlton in 1861. He thought a simple card with a border would be a great way to send a note. Then in the late 1800s, postcards which had pictures on them   (4)  .By law, people had to write their note on the front-on the picture! The back was   (5)  for the address. Several years later, England allowed a divided-back (背面隔开的) postcard. Then people could write their note on the back left side. And they put the address   (6)  . During the early 1900s, the golden age of postcards, people around the world were more and more   (7)   picture postcards. In 1908, Americans alone mailed over 677 million postcards.

Today, postcards are the   (8)  most popular collection in the world after stamps and coins. You can always see or get a lot of newly-designed postcards, especially on New Year's Day.

  I come fromGuilin. It is my  (1)  .It’s a beautiful  (2)  of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The  (3)  of Guilin is about 4,760,000.The climate (气候) there is very great. The old like to live there. Guilin has a  (4)  history. It is a good place to   (5)  your free time. You can enjoy its natural scenery. It is  (6)  the Li River(漓江). There are many good places to visit. It is  (7)  its green hills and clear water in the world. It is very popular. Every year   (8)  of visitors come here to spend their holidays.  (9)  to my home town! I will be your good guide. You will have  (10)  good time.  

Other than your family, who are the people you see the most? Probably your neighbors. In countries like theUSAand the UK, neighbors are a big part of life. When you __41__ into a new house, you should go and introduce yourself to your neighbors. If you are __42__, they’ll give you a traditional gift like a cake to celebrate your moving into a new home. In theUSAand the UK, many people have __43__, and they can grow fruit and vegetables there. Often, people will __44__ their fruit and vegetables with their neighbors. One neighbor would grow potatoes, __45__ another would have apple trees. They give some of their fruit and vegetables to each other.

However, neighbors are not __46__ kind. The 2007 American filmDisturbiais about a young boy who is placed under home confinement(禁闭) for beating his teacher. Having nothing better to do, Kale __47__ his neighbors all day through windows. But he finds out __48__ terrible: one of his neighbors may be a murder(杀人犯).

Songkran Festival(宋干节) is the traditional Thai New Year. Thai people   (1)   it in April. For Thai people, it is an important   (2)     .

    Songkran is a time to visit families, clean away the old year and bring in a fresh one. Many Thais clean away the old year  (3)  washing their homes and Buddhas(佛像) around the house. They will  (4)  the water that runs over the Buddhas and pour(倒) it onto the shoulders of family members for good luck.

In many parts of Thailand, people  (5)  have a big water fight in the streets during

   Songkran Festival. You can throw   (6)  on anyone walking by, and they can do the same to you! Everyone takes part in this  (7)  . It is a way to express(表达) wishes for good luck.   (8)  children and adults have great fun in the water fight.People in other Asian countries like Cambodia and Laos also celebrate Songkran Festival,   (9)  the celebration in Thailand is the most exciting. Every year, a large number of   (10)  go to Thailand to welcome the arrival of Songkran. If you plan to visit Thailand, the days of Songkran are a great time to get to know Thai traditions.

They can fish swim or enjoy the sun there America is a larger country  Many families travel by   car   or by train to see interesting places.

They also travel by plane to a foreign countryMany big cities have many famous buildings theaters shops and other places  (9)  travelers

Christmas is coming. It's one of the most important holidays in the ___  (1)  ___ countries, such as America, England and Australia. But have you heard any ___  (2)  ___ about Christmas? Here is one. It is said that there was a farmer who ___  (3)  ___ a poor boy on a cold windy Christmas Eve and gave him a big Christmas meal. The boy was very ___  (4)  ___. He cut a branch of a fir tree and inserted it in to the earth. He said, “ At this time of every year, there will be many presents on this branch. I hope I can ___  (5)  ___ your favor by this beautiful fir tree.” After the boy left, the framer discovered that the branch had grown up into a big tree. Then he ___  (6)  ___ that the boy was someone from God. This is the origin of Christmas trees. In Western countries, everyone will prepare a Christmas tree to ___  (7)  ___ the happiness of Christmas. Christmas trees are __  (8)  ___ trees like fir trees because green trees mean long lives. People put Christmas presents in the tree___  (9)  ___ under the tree. At Christmas people sing and dance happily, and enjoy ___  (10)  ____ around the tree.

Almost everyone 21 the meanings of Mr, Mrs and Miss. Mr is used before the family names of men. Mrs is for married(结婚的) women and Miss is for unmarried women. But 22 is Ms?

Some businessmen(商人) in the United States 23 Ms before a womanˈs name, when they don’t know whether(是否) the woman is married. Today, however, many women like Ms better 24 Mrs or Miss.

The word " 25 " does not tell us whether a man is married or not. Some women want to be equal to(和......平等) 26 in this way. These women feel that it is not important for people to know whether they are married or not.

However, there are still some problems with "Ms". 27 women like it. Some like the older ways of doing things. Some find that  28 is difficult to read. Ms 29 [miz]. Young women like it better than older women do. It is difficult to know whether Ms will be used by more American women in the future. What do you think 30 it?

More than 3,000 languages are spoken on the earth today. Many of these languages are spoken   (1)   small groups of people. On the   (2)   hand, over 200 languages are spoken by one million or more people. Chinese is the language spoken by the   (3)   number of people in the world. But English is most   (4)   spoken in the world.

English is spoken by more than 400 million people   (5)   their first language. It is   (6)   by most people in the U.S.A., Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. And it is   (7)   used very widely in many other countries of the world.

Look at the back of your watch. You may see the English words “Made   (8)   China, or Japan, even Germany.”English is the first language in   (9)   of these countries. Why are English words   (10)   on it? That is because in the modern world English is widely used for business between different countries.