Black Friday

    Thanksgiving Day is always on a Thursday. The day after it has been known as Black Friday. It is the start of the holiday shopping season, and it has been the busiest shopping day of the year in the US since 2005.

    Most stores offer big sales on Black Friday. They open their doors quite early in the morning. They try to attract shoppers with big discounts（打折）. Some items（商品）like TVs and cloths are much cheaper than usual. Stores may even lose money on these items. They hope that shoppers will buy gifts for other people while they are in the store.

    Black Friday is a great time to go shopping. However, there are problems. The biggest one is that there are not enough low-priced items. Each store may only have a few. These items are in great need, so people stand in long lines to get them. They may wait for three to four hours before a store opens. They may be hoping to get a low price on a TV or computer, but not everybody can get one. Some people leave, disappointed.

The situation makes people worried. Some Black Friday events have been crazy. There have been fights over toys among shoppers. Some workers have even been hurt by large crowds. But most Black Friday events are safe and fun. Still, if you plan to go, you will expect large crowds and a bit of pushing.

Now people all over the country take part in Black Friday events. It is even spreading to other parts of the world. Stores have held Black Friday events in the UK, Australia, and Brazil since 2012. In Mexico, stores offer a weekend of discounts every year. They call it ‘El Buen Fin’, which means ‘the good weekend’ in Spanish. I guess people everywhere like to buy things on sale.

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Nearly every parent says that we never grow up. In fact, we are maybe 16 or 17 years old.

In their eyes, we are always little ones and always do wrong things. For example, when I need to stay at home alone, they always worry about me and my life without them.

Most parents always think that they have offered the best things they can to make their children live in a comfortable world. They buy their children pretty clothes, cool shoes, strange but expensive school things, and always a thousand-yuan-cost bike. They think that they have done everything they can to their dear little children. In return, they only want their little boy to give them good results in the examinations.

But why children still can’t understand them? Why? Does it mean that they still want more material(物质)things. No. As a matter of fact, what they want is a true family. What does a true family mean? I think it means a place where we can hide ourselves from the outside cold world. From here, we can get warmth, we can get consolation(安慰), and we can get happiness. And one important thing is that we should be stronger and more confident in the outside world because we know that we have a family.

So I think that parents should save their money and sit down to talk with their child. Let them know that they have a true family, so the child and his parents could understand each other more and more. Then, no boy will be regarded as a little boy.

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New York, London, Paris and other big cities are exciting places to live in. There are many good things to see and do. You can go to different kinds of museums, plays and movies. And it’s easy to get to these places by bus, taxi and subway. ① You can also buy things from all over the world.

  But there are serious(严重的) problems in big cities too. It’s expensive to live there. A kilo of potatoes may cost 2-3 euros (about 20-30 RMB) in France. With that money, we can have a good meal in a nice restaurant in China. And ② many, there, people, big, are, too, cities, in. Every year many people move to(流向) the cities to find jobs, to study at good schools and get good medical care (医学救护). So you have to wait in line when you go to many places. Living in these big cities, sometimes you may find it difficult to get a job or find a good apartment to live in. Also it is hard to keep the cities safe(安全) and clean.

Jim is an English boy. He comes to China with his father and mother. They come here to work. Jim comes here to study.

He is in No. 5 Middle School. He gets up early every day and goes to school on foot. He is never late for school. He studies hard. He can read and write English well. He often helps us with our English, and we often help him with his Chinese. After class he likes playing football, swimming, running, jumping and riding. He has many friends here. We are glad to stay with him. On Sunday he often helps his mother clean the house and do the shopping. He likes Chinese food very much.

He likes living here. He likes playing with us very much. We all like him, too.

根据短文内容，按要求完成下列各题。

Note-taking is a skill that can help you do well in all your schoolwork. It can make you (a)___

when you are studying. But unluckily, most students don’t know how to take notes.

If your teacher writes notes on the blackboard, that’s great. You can copy them or write down the most important facts of all in class. Different teachers do things differently. For example, some teachers may focus on lots of dates and facts in class, but they only write the important ones on the blackboard. Other teachers may not write anything down, but they may repeat them.

Don’t try to write down every word in class, or you might (b)___ some important points. Some students really learn better with the help of these notes.

Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher to repeat what you’re missed. If your teacher speaks too fast and you can’t follow what he is saying, you can ask him after class.

Comparing your notes with your classmates’ can be good for your learning. It can also help you and your classmates correct some mistakes.

Note-taking also needs organization. Keep notes for each subject in one place, so that you can find everything easily when a test comes.

Good note-taking takes time. If you decide to recopy your notes every evening, you’ll surely have less time to watch TV. But you’ll save time in the coming test.

A. confident     B. excited        C. frustrated         D. anxious

Different teachers do things differently. Some of them like to write important points on the blackboard; others may repeat them instead of____.