During my childhood in the 1960s, my parents were always busy with work and meetings. They left early in the morning and came back late in the evening. My sisters, my brother and I were left alone with Grandma. We saw our parents only on Sundays and during the few holidays. The only long period （一段）of time during which the whole family could be together once a year was the Spring Festival. We missed our parents badly, but didn’t say so because we had been told that hard work was everyone’s duty and that we could not have our own small family without a big family.　　  Later I was a hard working student and, during summer or winter holidays, often stayed alone at university to have more time to study. I was always encouraged by my parents, for whom the holiday was less important than “work” and “study”. Holidays were a waste of time and I felt as if I had done something wrong if I took a holiday or did nothing during a holiday.

I spent the most difficult period of my life abroad. But when I joined this company, my boss didn’t seem to think it right for me to work like that. When I called him at home after office hours for business purposes （目的）, he politely told me that he preferred talking about work with me in the office.

When the holiday season came near, he asked me to plan my leave beforehand （提前）. He talked with me about his holiday and also asked about mine. For him, leave was a right.　　  Giving up a holiday for the company is encouraged in China, but is foolish here. I began to think about holidays.

Today my parents are retired （退休）and stay home with a lot of time for their children. But we are all grown- up and live far away. We miss each other, but we cannot afford to see each other very much and they often feel sorry for the fact that they were too busy to be able to take care of us when we were young.

Nowadays, Chinese take long weekends and have paid holidays. But do they use their holidays to enjoy family life? I hope so because my experience in China and Europe has helped me understand that work is not my whole life and that a family is also very important. I do not want to feel sorry in the future as my parents do and I certainly spend as much time with my son as possible. There is nothing wrong with either working hard or taking holidays, but we shouldn’t have one instead of the other. It is important to keep a balance （平衡）between work and play.   

1. What do the underlined words “paid leave” mean?

A. You have to pay when you take a holiday.　　 

B. Someone will pay for your holiday.　　 

C. You are still paid when you have your holiday.　　

D. You can’t leave until you pay for the holiday.   

2. What is the main idea of this passage?

A. Working is the only part of the life.      

B. Traveling is the best way to spend your holiday.　　 

C. Enjoying holidays is as important as working　　 

D. Sharing happiness with your family is more important   

3. The writer talks about her own experience because she hopes that the Chinese will _______.　　  A. plan their holiday beforehand　　  B. get used to long holidays and enjoy themselves　　  C. give up a holiday for their work　　   D. bring business home after work hours

阅读理解

　　I felt very sad not to be able to get the ticket for the film "Titanic" last Friday. I learned in the newspaper that tickets could be bought at the cinema box office in Richland Hills any day between 10:00 and 4:00. Since I work from 9:00 to 5:30, the only time I could go to the cinema was during my 45-minute lunchtime. It is a pity that the cinema is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and Richland Hills is not very good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round trip in 45 minutes.

　　Last Monday, I stood at the bus stop for fifteen minutes waiting for a bus. By the time I saw one come round the corner, there was not enough time left to make the trip, so I had to go back to the office. The same thing happened on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday. On Thursday my luck changed. I got on a bus right away and arrived at the cinema in twenty minutes. But when I got there, I found a long line of people at the box office. I heard one man said he had been waiting in line for over an hour. I found that I would not have enough time to wait in line. I caught the next bus and went back across the town.

　　By Friday I understood my only hope was to take the trip by car. It was expensive, but I felt it would be worth it to see the film. The trip by car only took 10 minutes, but it felt like an hour to me. When 1 reached the cinema, I was delighted to see that nobody was waiting in line. But I quickly found out that it was because they had already sold out the tickets.

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Everyone has their own dreams. They give us courage(勇气) and confidence to keep us going through difficulties. Here     some advice on how to realize our beautiful dreams.     giving up is the key to making our dreams come true. We may fail from time to time,     we can learn from failure(失败)， correct our mistakes and try again until we achieve our goals . For that reason, no matter     difficult problems we meet, we don’t fail unless we give up our hopes. Our life is like a long journey which is not all roses. It sometimes has wind and rain. We believe rainbows(彩虹) will appear after storms.  We will realize our dreams      last if we do our best. Cooperation (合作) is also necessary. Everyone likes a person who is good at cooperating with others . Besides, in our society , most problems can’t be    by one person alone.       is like a small part of a medicine. If one part isn’t     , the medicine can not work well. It’s hard for a person who is away from the society to have a deep understanding of the world . Cooperation is becoming one of     ways for people living in the developing society. As a saying goes, “ one tree doesn’t make a     ” . At the same time , we should learn to examine our abilities because it helps us know about our advantages and disadvantages as well as get a full control of ourselves. Then we may be confident enough to face challenges . Follow the suggestions above, and our dreams are sure to come true.

How green are you? Do you know how to be green?
We all need a healthy environment, but we produce waste every day and it does harm to our environment. Though we are young, we can still do something to help. In fact, even the simplest everyday activities can make a real difference to the environment. Here are some ideas for you.
Reduce
Reduce means “use less”. Don’t waste things. This saves money and reduces pollution and waste going into the environment. Before we buy something new, think whether it is really necessary—or maybe the old one will be just as good! When we do buy things, choose local products if possible, and try not to buy too many things from abroad.
Reuse
Reuse means “use again”. Use things for as long as possible. When we buy things, make sure that they last a long time. We should look after them so that they will last, and we should repair them if we can instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Don’t use a paper cup of a paper bag. It’s better to use a china cup and a lunch box because you can use them again.
Recycle
Recycle means “change things into something else”. Though it takes energy to change something into something else, it’s better than throwing things away or burning them. Find out what can be recycled in your neighbourhood and take part in recycling programmes. We should also buy products made from recycled materials, such as recycled paper, to help save trees.
So please remember these three words: reduce, reuse and recycle.
【小题1】What is the passage about?