Booking Online and Saving the Environment

　　When you are looking to book a holiday, it is unlikely that you will think about how green your booking decision is, but it is something that you should think about. By“green” we mean the impact on the environment.

　　When looking to book a holiday, you will probably find that you are faced with two main decisions. The first is to go into a travel agency, pick up brochures(宣传册),read through them and go back with just one and book with the travel directly or over the phone. The second is to go onto the Internet.

　　The Internet holds many advantages over the travel agencies. The main one is convenience. You can go online to look at holidays at any time of the day. The travel agents, however, are usually very busy at times when people can actually go, i.e. lunch hours or at the weekend. You could use the telephone, but you wouldn 't be able to see the pictures or the details of the holidays, so you would probably be sent a brochure anyway.

　　There are websites on the Internet that make shopping for holiday deals much easier.These websites are known as price comparison websites. They search through lots of different tour operators, and the results are displayed on one page, from which you can choose.

　　Compared with the travel agencies, booking online is greener. The piles of brochures are definitely not green, and the amount of unnecessary paper used can't be good for the environment. In the days of the Internet, there is really no need for such a large amount of paper to be wasted. So booking online will not only save you time and effort, it will do a lttle bit towards saving the environment, too!

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　Urban Gardening

　　Urban gardening refers to the practice of planting a garden in the city. Apartments, town homes, and other areas with lttle or no land are being used for gardening. This method of gardening is becoming more common as the amount of land for gardening in cities is becoming smaller and smaller.

　　Many types of plants can be grown in containers and baskets. Tomatoes and peppers, for instance, can grow in containers on windowsills (窗台). Plants grown on a windowsill should usually receive at least six to eight hours of sunlight daily. Herbs are often grown in containers or baskets in the kitchen. They do not require much space and can be handy for cooking.

　　People who want to grow more plants may use raised beds which are usually made of wood pieces and filled with a mixture of soil and fertilizers. They can be built on top of any hard surface, including roof tops. People like them because the beds often cost much less than most other methods of gardening.

　　Community gardening could be an option for anyone who does not have space for a garden at home. Most cities that offer this will rent a small plot of land to someone for a fee, or allow them to use it free of charge. Instead of dividing the land into separate plots, some cities allow everyone in the neighborhood to share and work on the same land. This method could be beneficial for people in the neighborhood who share the passion for growing things.

A. the lack of land for gardening

B. new technology

C. government encouragement

D. the increasing population

A. open

B. empty

C. limited

D. occupied

A. water

B. space

C. soil

D. sunlight

A. are efficient

B. are cheap

C. last long

D. contain fertilizers

A. saves more land

B. requires less work

C. increases output

D. connects people

My Science Teacher

➊Usually when people decide to be teachers, they go to college, get a degree, and find a job at a school. They prepare lesson plans, give out homework, and make up tests. To them, it is just a job, a way to make a living. But for my science teacher, Mrs. Cook, teaching is not just her job; it's who she is. She teaches through her heart.

❷She has so much enthusiasm in her lessons. She is the one who goes out late at night to buy 10 pounds of sugar for our experiments. She brings in water from the nearby canal to make her point, and to make us remember the lesson. She makes us think that each new fact could change our lives.

❸Mrs. Cook wants all of us to do well in school. She tries to reach each student. She neither ignores the sleeping kid in the back, nor lets the problem students alone. She shows special concern to slow students, and often helps them after school. None of us can slip away from her attention.

❹Middle school is probably one of the hardest times of our lives. We change friends so often, and fight with our parents constantly. But Mrs. Cook has made this year so much better for us than it could have been. We know that if we had to turm to anybody, it would be her. And I'm not alone in feling this way; she is a role model for our whole class.

❺Science had never been my favorite subject. I had never borrowed science books. I had never performed experiments in my home. But this year, it's the science class that I don't mind waking up for, the test I don't mind taking. I have Mrs. Cook to thank for that. She has taught us so much more than just a single subject.

　Lack of Sleep Is Dangerous

Do you know that if you miss out too much sleep you will die? It's true! If you stay awake for a long, long time, your brain and body will break down.

The unoficial world record for staying awake is 11 days, and it's held by Randy Gardner._ 26 He also had help ftom TV and radio reporters, a sleep researcher and a doctor.

What happened?_ 27 Then his brain started to lose sense. On day 4, he thought a street sign was really a person. On day 6, he began to speak very slowly. On day 9, he couldn't finish sentences. On day 10, Randy thought he saw a forest in the next room. 28 Eventually, after he'd broken the world record, Randy was told to go to sleep. Experiments that keep people awake for dangerously long periods are always stopped before the patients break down.

Rats, however, aren't so well cared for._ 29 That's sooner than if they'd been allowed to sleep but were given no food. They get really thin. But that's not because they stop eating一quite the opposite. Even though these rats are eating food, their bodies can't process it in the normal way. On top of that, their lttle bodies lose more heat than normal, which makes them weak. This means that they need more food to stay at a healthy temperature._ 30_ 

And that's what lack of sleep does for you.

A. In fact, he went a bit crazy.

B. Normally rats wouldn't catch a cold.

C. Towards the end, the health of these rats is failing.

D. When kept from sleeping, they die within three weks.

E. Randy asked two of his friends to stop him falling asleep.

F. First of all, staying awake long made Randy bad-tempered.

Talking Counts!

Most words in a child's vocabulary come from everyday encounters with language. Children_ 3L up language from books, media, and conversations.

You can increase your child's vocabulary and knowledge by having conversations with them. With babies, you can talk to them about what you're doing so they can begin to_ 33 words with concepts. As your baby begins to speak, start asking, “What's that?" when_ 34 to objects or pictures. Elaborate on their__ 35__ answers as a way to have them listening to more words.“Yes, that is a banana! It's__ 36 and smooth."

With young children, you can talk about the things you see in your_ 37, on trips around town, or on television. These conversations help build a child's of his world. When reading, pause to ask questions on the story. Ask,“Why do you think he did that?" or “What do you think is going to happen 39 ?” Tell your children stories from your own life, or about the day they were_ 40_. This helps develop their personal and culturalidentity.

A. link

B. simple

C. secondly

D. neighborhood

E. yellow

F. build

G. understanding

H. pointing

I.pick

J. borm

K. background

L. Next