Songkran is a time for cleaning in Thailand. People always  (1)  their house during the festival. It is  (2)  April 13 to 15 every year.

The festival is a  (3)  time for all children to show their love to their parents. Children pour some  (4)  on their parents’ hands. It is  (5)   called "Water Festival",  (6)   people think water can wash bad  (7)   away. It’s hot in April in Thailand. Water can make people  (8)  , so the festival is very popular.

At that time people usually come back home to  (9)  their families. They also do many interesting things,  (10)  travelling with their families. Everyone in Thailand enjoys the festival.

More than 3,000 languages are spoken in the world. Of all these languages, English is  (1)   used. When it is used, the English language has also   (2)   many new words from other languages. For example, Americans borrowed “cookbook” from   (3)  . They also borrowed “tofu” and “kowtow” from Chinese.

  (7)  hand, Chinese people love cats very much. But   (8)  western culture, “cat” is sometimes used to describe a woman who is cruel. The rose is   (9)   a symbol of love in both China and some western countries. People think the rose   (10)   love, peace, courage and friendship.

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.

How important is music? Students, teachers and parents usually answer that music is nice, but not very   (1)  . It is often only thought to beentertainment(娱乐的), but not the  (2)  choice for education. This opinion is wrong. In fact, music education is necessary for   (3)   students.

Music provides a kind of ability to know the world in a different  (4)  . Science explains how the sun rises and sets. Music works toexplore(探索)emotive(情绪的) meanings. All people in the world   (5)   every possible way to learn about our world.

Music is a form of thought. We can “  (6)  ” to each other in this amazing way.   (7)   the language we express our feelings, discoveries, ideas and hopes. All of these can be   (8)  with others. When we do not let our children   (9)  good music education, we take  (10)  away from the meanings that music expresses. So music education is much more necessary than people generally think.

People all over the world celebrate the new year．However, not all countries celebrate in the same way, and in some countries, the new year doesn't begin on the   (1)   date very year．

In many countries, the new year begins on 1st January, but people start celebrating on 31st December, New Year's Eve．In New York many people go to celebrate in Times Square．  (2)  they're waiting for the New Year, they listen to music, sing traditional songs and have fun．Just before 12 o'clock, everyone  (3)   down from 10：10, 9, 8… As soon as it's 12 o'clock, everyone shouts very  (4)  , “Happy New Year!”

New Year's Day is often a family day．Some families get together for a special meal．When the weather is fine, many families go out for a  (5)  ．

On New Year's Day, many people make resolutions for the new year．They  (6)   a list of things, such as “I will help out more with housework．I will work  (7)  at school than others．” or “I won't spend so much time playing video games．” When they have made  (8)  list, they read it to their family or friends and promise to  (9)  their resolutions．

So it doesn't matter how they celebrate,   (10)  people in countries all over the world, it's a time to say goodbye to the old year, and to welcome the new．

Formany young people, Halloween（万圣节）is the best day of the year. The festival has a very   (1)   history.

People   (2)  celebrated it in Ireland and Scotland as a festival of the dead. Families invited their ancestors（祖先）into their homes   (3)   tried to keep bad spirits（幽灵）out by   (4)   scary clothes. Now the festival is a time for  (5)  . Families make scary or funny faces into pumpkins（南瓜）and put candles inside to make them into lanterns（灯笼）. The children  (6)   and walk around to make more candy. They knock on doors and when a person opens the door, the children shout, “Trick or treat!”

If the person didn’t give them a treat, they would play a trick. But today, children usually don’t play tricks. They are too busy  (7)  as much candy as they can. Many people have Halloween parties. They like to watch scary movies and  (8)   scary stories. Sometimes they play a game. They put water and apples into a tub（盆）and try to  (9)   the apples out with their teeth. The game is so  (10)   that everyone likes it.

根据短文内容选择正确答案

How much do you know about manners? Different countries have different manners. In   (1)  Asian countries, especially in Japan, it is good manners to take off your   (2)   before you go into a house.   (3)   in European (欧洲) countries, even if the floors are very clean, people will not do this. If you are a visitor  to a Chinese family, you usually do not finish up the food when you have a meal. You often leave a little to   (4)   thatyou have had enough. But in England, a visitor always eats up food to show that he   (5)   it. We must know the customs of other   (6)   so that natives (当地人) will not think that we’re bad-mannered. People all over the world   (7)   that awell-mannered person should be kind and   (8)   to others. If you   (9)   this, at least you will not go very far wrong.   (10)   likes a person with good manners, but no one likes a person with bad manners. So, keep your manners!

Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events: love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It   (1)   real-life, stories and sounds the way people really talk.

Country is a traditional kind of music from the southern states of America. Nashville,

Tennessee is the   (2)   of country music. Country music, sometimes called country-western, comes from two kinds of music. One is the traditional music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States.   (3)   is traditional cowboy（牛仔） music from the west. The singers usually play the guitar, and in the 1920s they started   (4)   electric guitars. At first city people said country music was low class. It was popular   (5)  in the South. But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the Northeast and Midwest to work in the factories.   (6)   took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps（军营）in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became   (7)   all over the country.
   Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada—in small towns and in New York City,   (8)   black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. Many songs these days are just about modern life in the US, such as the importance of money and success, but not belonging to a group.   (9)  , country music brings back to the “good old days” when people were kind and trusted each other. It reminds us that the best things in life   (10)   free-laughter, friends, family, and the beauty of nature and the countryside.

The music that started with cowboys and poor southerners is now popular all over the world.

先通读短文，掌握其大意，然后从A、B、C、D四个选项中选出一个可以填入相应空白处的最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Father works very hard for the family every day. There is a special festival（节日）in China. It’s Baba’s Day. It’s for Chinese   (1)  . It is on August 8^th. This date   (2)   like the Chinese word “ Baba”. It’s from Shanghai. It is an interesting day in a year.

 Children in   (3)   often celebrate（庆祝）it with their family. It is a   (4)   chance for them to show their love to their fathers.   (5)   this day, they are very nice, helpful and happy. After they wake up, they cook breakfast in the   (6)  . They spend a long time on it. When they finish   (7)   breakfast, they take nice food and hot drinks to their father’s beds. They also buy their fathers some wonderful presents（礼物）, such as beautiful cards, new clothes and   (8)   things. They do lots of things for their fathers.

Boys and girls, do you love your fathers? Then don’t   (9)   this day. On the morning of this day you need to say to   (10)  , “Dad, I love you. Happy Baba’s Day!”

Summer is a good season for vacations. It is often very hot   4 1   the months of July and August. Students do not go to school during these two months. Most American families like   (1)  during their summer vacation.       

Many families take their lunch to a park or  (2)  far from the city. They like to eat where there are many trees or a nice lake.   (3)  they live near the sea, they often go to the beach. But for the others they don't like to  (4)  one or two weeks at one of the big seaside towns.   

Why do people like going to the beach? I think it is the sand, the sea and the sun. Of course，there are lots of new things to see,nice things   (5)   and exciting things to do , but it is the feeling of sand under one's feet , of salty water one's skin, and of the warm sun on one's back that makes the seaside what it is.       

Many   (6)   like to meet people from other countries like Mexico or Canada. Some people have   (7)   time and money to travel to other countries like France Japan. They usually   49  to these countries on planes.    

The United States is a very  (8)  country. Lots of families travel by car or by train to see  (9)  places in their own country. People   (10)  New York，Chicago，San Francisco and Los Angeles. These big cities have many famous buildings , theatres, stores and other   (11)  of interest for tourists.     

Certainly not everyone likes to go to busy cities. Some families travel to the mountains or to beautiful countries. They usually   (12)  a camera and video, and return with a lot of nice pictures and tapes of the places they visit. Then they would share them  (13)  their friends.