Dear Nancy,
How are you? Now I want to tell something interesting. Last week we had a trip to Mount Tai. On Tuesday we went to Taian by bus, a city at the foot of the mountain. We had a good rest at a hotel. At about one o’clock early the next morning, we began to climb the mountain. It took us about four hours and a half to get to the top. The mountain is covered (覆蓋) with trees. I didn’t see such a beautiful place before.
“Look! The sun is going to rise!” my friend Lim shouted.
We all turned to the east and watched. Soon half of the sky because white, and a big, red ball was rising slowly. A few minutes later, the sky became bright(明亮的).
We stayed on the top and had a good time. After lunch we started going down. We got to the tour hotel at about four in the afternoon. Though we were tired, we were very happy. We came back to school the next day.
Thank you very much for your last letter and the beautiful postcards. Hope to hear from you soon.
Yours
Wu Tong
【小題1】The letter is from ___________to ___________.

When you are about to do something brave, a cheerful wish of “Good luck!” from a friend can be helpful. But if you think you need lots of luck, what else might you do?
In the UK and US there are some strange traditions for bringing yourself a little more good luck. Some are hundreds of years old and some are much newer.
Have you heard the saying “When you wish upon a star”? If you are looking up at the sky on a clear night and you see a sudden flash of light, it is probably a shooting star! Seeing one doesn’t happen very often. The saying goes that if you see one you have been very lucky, and so if you make a wish, it will come true.
Maybe you have heard of the lucky rabbit’s foot. Some people believe that rabbits are lucky animals, so they carry a part of the rabbit, its foot, for good luck. There are all kinds of strange, unclear rules about which of the rabbit’s feet is the luckiest. It is said that this good luck tradition is the oldest one of all. However, as the funny saying goes, “Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit!”
People in Britain love trees. If it is autumn and leaves are falling from the trees, some people try to catch the leaves as they fall because they think each leaf they catch will bring them a lucky month in the following year—they will need to catch 12 falling leaves to have a whole of good luck!
【小題1】From Paragraph 3, we know that ______.

When you finish high school or university, is learning done? The answer is “no”. In many countries, people continue learning all their lives. Why is lifelong learning important? How can it help you? Let’s look at one example of lifelong learning in Japan.
Why is lifelong learning important?
You go to school and learn. You take tests. But learning doesn’t only happen in school. And learning doesn’t stop when you graduate from high school or college. You are learning all the time. For example, learning can happen when you go to a museum. It can also happen when you get a job. You learn when you play a sport or when you take a trip. Learning is life! We never stop learning. Every day, you can improve yourself by learning something new.
Lifelong learning in Japan
In Japan, life learning is very important. People in Japan like to try new learning activities. Except music calligraphy, flower arranging, and foreign languages are some of their favorite classes. The Japanese take classes to improve their skills and learn new things.
Conclusion
When we graduate from school, we can continue to learn. Make lifelong learning one of your goals!
【小題1】Why is lifelong learning important?

Fire can help people in many ways. But can also be very harmful. Fire can heat water warm your houses, give light, and cook food. But fire can burn things too. It can burn trees, houses, animals, or people. Sometimes big fires can burn forests.
Nobody knows for sure how people began to use fire. But there are many interesting, old stories about the first time a man or woman started a fire. One story from Australia tells about a man very, very long time ago. He went up to the sun by a rope and brought fire down.
Today people know how to make a fire with matches. Children sometimes like to play with them. But matches can be very dangerous. One match can burn a piece of paper, and then it might burn a house. A small fire can become a big fire very fast.
Fires kill many people every year. So you must be careful with matches. You should also learn to put out fires. Fires need oxygen. Without oxygen they die. There is oxygen in the air. Cover a fire with water, sand, or in an emergency, with your coat or something else. This keeps the air away from a fire and kills it.
Be careful with fire, and it will help you. Be careless with fire, and it will burn you. 
【小題1】Which is true?

Different colours can affect us in many different ways; that’s according to Verity Allen. In a new programme “Colour me Healthy”, Verity looks at the ways that colours can influence how hard we work and the choices we make. They can even change our emotions and even influence how healthy we are. 
“Have you ever noticed how people always use the same colours for the same things?” says Verity. “Our toothpaste is always white or blue or maybe red. It’s never green. Why not? For some reason we think that blue and white is clean, while we think of green products(產(chǎn)品)as being a bit unpleasant. It’s the same for businesses. We respect a company which writes its name in blue or black, but we don’t respect one that uses pink or orange. People who design（設(shè)計(jì)）new products can use these ideas to influence what we buy.”
During the programme, Verity studies eight different colours, two colours in each part. She meets people who work in the colour industry, from people who design food packages, to people who name the colours of lipsticks. Some of the people she meets clearly have very little scientific knowledge to prove their ideas, such as the American “Colour Doctor” who believes that serious diseases can be treated successfully by the use of coloured lights. However, she also interviews real scientists who are studying the effects of green and red lights on mice, with some surprising results. 
Overall, it’s an interesting show, and anyone who watches it will probably find out something new. But because Verity goes out of her way to be polite to everyone she meets on the programme, it’s up to you to make your own decisions about how much you should believe.
【小題1】What’s Verity’s opinion about colours?

The first chocolate was eaten by people in South America hundreds of years ago. In those days, the people did not really eat chocolate. They used the cocoa bean（可可豆）to make a chocolate drink and they enjoyed it very much. Many years later, the cocoa bean was brought to other countries and people came to love the taste of chocolate.
In 1824, John Cadbury opened a small shop in Britain. One of the things he sold was chocolate drink. In 1831, he opened a factory to make chocolate drink. He wanted to encourage people to drink chocolate instead of other drinks. A few years later, a man called Joseph Fry found a way to make chocolate instead of only drinking it. But at that time chocolate was very expensive and only the rich people could buy it. Later, more and more chocolate bars were produced and sold, it became cheaper.
However, at first only plain chocolate （a kind of chocolate without milk and with very little sugar）was produced. Milk chocolate came later and this was made by adding milk to the chocolate. The first milk chocolate bar was made in Cadbury’s factory in 1897. Their most famous chocolate, Cadbury’s Milk Bar, was made in 1905. It has been the most popular chocolate in Britain and around the world for over 100 years. The Cadbury factory is still in Britain and the chocolate produced there is eaten all over the world. Every year, thousands of visitors visit the factory in order to see how chocolate is made.
【小題1】Hundreds of years ago, people first began to drink chocolate in           .

Smiles and tears are part of life. But do you find enough time for smiling? I’m not asking if you experience lots of good times. Of course, we should smile during the happy times. But do you also smile during the difficult times.
Erma Bombeck is famous for her funny books. But she wrote one about a more serious subject –cancer in children. The book is titled, I WANT TO GROW HAIR,ＩWANT TO GROW UP. Erma talks with many children who have cancer and learns important lessons from them. She learns, for example, that cancer survivors know how they should smile at life, though they are receiving chemotherapy.
She tells about the experience of 15-year-old Jessica. Jessica’s leg was cut off at the knee because of cancer. She was learning to wear a prosthesis(假肢). Jessica told about playing soccer. She hit the ball hard with her foot. The ball flew off in one direction while her man-made leg flew another way. Then the brave girl lay on the floor, laughing happily.
As the saying goes, “There’s a time to cry and a time to laugh.” Do you find plenty of time to laugh.
You can smile if you find reasons to smile during the difficult times. Only survivors know how to smile. If you can smile even when you’re in trouble, you will make it. Remember to smile and the whole world will smile with you.

It's still the holiday season and students in the UK are enjoying their winter break (休假).
Tiffany in Guangdong asks us about how British students spend their winter break.
For some, it's a time to study because they have exams next term. Some might have to study. They have to read some books. They use the winter break to catch up with(趕上) their reading. But some students can Let their hair down and celebrate Christmas and New Year with a few drinks.
This holiday is also an important time to chat with the family and maybe get some sleep too. Some lucky students are going away on holiday but it won't be long.
【小題1】 What do the underlined words "let their hair down" mean in this reading?

Homework should be done as soon as you get home from school. If you have after-school activities, the homework should be done first. At the same time, it is fine to allow for a snack break and also to allow for stretching(拉伸的)breaks.
Also, you should remember that it is your duty to do your homework. Next time, when you want to depend on Mom and Dad for help, please try to find the answer yourself, because you will learn much, much more that way.
When you have a question, especially something about a science or math, don't always turn to your teacher! It is a good idea to try to find the answer yourself. If this doesn't work, you can also look at the materials in the back of the book. They may guide you to the pages you should look at to help you understand the problem.
Finally, while doing homework, don't think about or do other things. Keep working. Setting a time limit(限制) often helps with this. Different ages decide different amounts of time. 10-15 minutes is good for a child that's aged 6-8. A time of 20-30 minutes is about right for a child aged 9-12. Kids can keep studying for 30-45 minutes from the ages of 13 to 15. This, of course, depends on your abilities to pay attention and stay on tasks.
【小題1】In the first paragraph, the writer mainly tells us that ______.

.British people are famous for drinking tea. But brother and sister, Sarah and Bobby Green, became young millionaires when they opened a chain of American-style coffee shops in the UK.
Having the idea: It started when Sarah took a weekend trip to New York to visit her brother Bobby. One evening, in a Thai restaurant, Sarah told Bobby how much she wished she could buy American-style coffee in London. Bobby suggested they started their own coffee shop. Sarah fell in love with the idea.
Doing the Research: Back in London, she spent a whole day on the London subway, getting off the train at different stations to taste the coffee. “It was terrible, and I knew there was a gap (空缺) in the market.” In 1995, they opened their first Coffee Republic shop in central London.
Making it work: The first year was very difficult. British people were not used to the names of American coffees, like latte and macchiato. But being successful was their dream and they were not going to give up. Today, there are over 100 Coffee Republic shops all over the country and the company has ￡30 million a year.
Advice for others: Sarah has now written a best-selling book about their experience, called Anyone Can Do It ! She hopes it will help other young people to start their own businesses. She says, “If you think you have the energy, then get out and follow your dream.”
【小題1】What kind of company do they run?