In the United States the most popular form of folk dancing has been square-dancing since the earlier days. In those days, men and women worked in groups to build a house or harvest crops. When the work was done, they usually danced merrily and happily in a store or in a farm kitchen.

    Nowadays square-dancing is still performed. A square, which has four sides, is formed by four couples. Each couple stands on one side of the square, the man on the left and the woman on the right. That is to say, one square has eight people and they stand facing the center of the square.

    Large or small numbers of people can dance together. Sometimes as many as 800 or 1,000 people may be dancing all at the same time. 

Costumesare worn by those who do the square-dancing. This makes the dancing more colorful to watch. Men may have colored shirts and western trousers they wear only on special days. Women often wear full skirts of different colors with a pretty blouse. In some country areas, everyone wears their best clothes.

    Today in all parts of the US you will find some schools, clubs, or other groups that are square-dancing for fun. They enjoy it very much.

There are a number of special days of the year that are celebrated in different countries. One of the most popular of these, even though it is fairly recent, is Mother’s Day. Mothers have always been highly regarded in all cultures. The Ancient Romans had a festival known as Hilaria, during which children took presents to the temple of the “Mother of the Gods”. The Christian Church adopted this idea and called it Mothering Sunday. However, over the years the custom was gradually forgotten and almost disappeared by the end of the 19^th century.

Born in 1864 in Virginia, USA, Anna Jarvis was a school teacher and believed children should show gratitude to their mothers for all their love and care. Encouraged by a friend, she wrote to thousands of important people---politicians, churchmen, doctors, city officials---and asked them to support her ideas: a special day of the year for thanking mothers.

In 1910 the Governor of West Virginia introduced Mother’s Day into the state. The date chosen was May 10---the second Sunday in May, which is still observed in America today. This date was chosen because May 10 was the date on which in 1908 Anna Jarvis’s mother died. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made May 10 the official date for Mother’s Day throughout the United States.

Soon there was a Mother’s Day International Association and the custom began to be adopted in many countries of the world.

Anna Jarvis, a sad and disillusioned woman died in 1948. The custom she had worked so hard to establish and which had become almost universal had lost its original purpose. It had been taken over by business. As with Christmas, the giving of presents and the sending of cards had become a multi-million-dollar industry. (296words)

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Most people think that making a film is exciting. In fact, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Earlier this year, I worked in a new film. It was about a bomb threat on a big British ship. Two hundred people were needed to act as the passengers in the film. I was one of them.

  Before we left, we were wanted to bring some warm clothes. These were necessary because the ship was going to spend the whole 16 days sailing in bad weather.

  Then the day came and we sailed out of Dover. The boat had on board the film crew, the director, the actors and actresses including Brinksley Meers, who acted the leading role, and us-200 amateur(业余的) extras.

  People came for different purposes. Some wanted to meet Brinksley Meers in person. Others were curious to see how a film was made. A housewife with her three children came for free holiday and a bit of adventure.

  During the voyage, a lot of people were very seasick. And although the work was very interesting, it was also very hard. We often worked all day on one scene, performing it again and again under the hot lights. In the evenings, there were drinks in the bar, but most people were so tired that they went to bed early. The next day often began at 6: 30 in the morning, sometimes with breakfast being filmed.

  When the ship finally returned to port, most people had enjoyed the trip, but were also so tired that they at least needed a week’s holiday. Answer the following questions:

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If you are worried about things and are under a lot of stress at work or school, then you are probably not sleeping well. Worry can keep you awake, and turning in bed until the early hours of the morning when you eventually fall asleep. When you wake up, you don’t feel refreshed, but tired and worn out and unable to face a new day.

Dr. Henry Winkle, in a recent newspaper article entitled Stress and Sleep, indicates that stress / worry and (lack of) sleep are directly related. Dr. Winkle says,“The more we worry, the less we sleep, the more we are unable to deal with stress. If we can find a way to get a good night’s sleep，”he adds,“we can often find the energy to deal with what’s worrying us.”

So, what is a good night’s sleep? Research shows that the amount of sleep which people need in order to keep healthy varies a lot. Seven hours is about the average amount, though strangely enough, sleeping longer often gives you a headache instead of making you feel more refreshed.

Dr. Winkle believes that preparing for sleeping is important. People who work late should try to give themselves a short break and do something restful before going to bed. This could be watching TV or listening to music. Doing some exercise earlier in the day should help you to feel physically as well as mentally tired. A bedtime drink can also help, but coffee or tea should be avoided as they contain caffeine and will keep you awake.“When you put the light out，”Dr. Winkle says,“concentrate on relaxing your muscles, working slowly up from your feet, and you’ll be asleep before you know it.”

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Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart（购物手推车）. They will, in a lifetime, push the chrome-plated contraptions many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who it was that invented them.

Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers lugging（吃力地携带） groceries around in baskets they had to carry.

One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.

On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention.

But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.

After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied.

But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only he could persuade people to give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market and pretend they were shopping! Seeing this, the real customers gradually began copying the phony（假冒的）customers.

As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. But not only did more people come—those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers unconsciously bought a greater number of items than before.

Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s original model. Perhaps that’s one reason Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did before 1937—before the coming of the shopping cart.

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    It is well-known that many animals do not stay in one place. Birds, fish and other animals move from one place to another at certain times. They move for different reasons: most of them move to find food more easily, but others move to get away from places that are too crowded.

    When cold weather comes, many birds move to warmer places to find food. Some fishes give birth in warm water and move to cold water to feed. The most famous migration is probably the migration of the fish, which is called “salmon”. This kind of fish is born in fresh water but it travels far to salt water. There it spends its life. When it is old, it returns to its birthplace in fresh water.

    In northern Europe, there is a kind of mouse. They leave their mountain homes when their homes become crowded. They move down to the low land. Sometimes they move all the way to the seaside, and many of them are killed when they fall into the sea.

    Recently, scientists have studied the migration of a kind of lobster (龙虾). Every year, when the season of bad weather arrives, the lobsters get into a long line and start to walk across the floor of the ocean. Nobody knows why they do this and where they go.

    So, sometimes we know why humans and animals move from one place to another, but at other times we don’t. Maybe living things just like traveling.