Mar. 25, 2009
Dear Helen, 
       Thanks for your last letter. Yes, I'm enjoying myself on my exchange program in France. It's even
better than I thought it would be. I was a bit nervous before I arrived here, but there was no reason to be.
My host family is really nice. They go out of their way to make me feel at home. And you wouldn't believe
how quickly my French has improved! I'm very comfortable speaking French now. Although I still make
lots of mistakes, it doesn't bother me as it used to. My biggest challenge is learning how to behave at the
dinner table. As you can imagine, things are really not the same as the way they are at home. For example,
you're not supposed to put your bread on your plate. You're supposed to put it on the table! I thought that
was pretty strange at first, but now I'm used to it. You're not supposed to eat anything with your hands
except bread, not even fruit! (You have to cut it up and eat it with a fork.) Another thing is that it is very
rude to say you're full. If you don't want any more food, you should just say, "It was delicious." Also, it's
rude to put your hands in your lap. You should always keep your hands, but not your elbows, on the table.
I have to say, I find it difficult to remember everything, but I'm gradually getting used to things and don't
find them so strange any more. I'll write soon and tell you more about life in France. Hope you're having a
good school year.
                                                                                                                                              Yours,
                                                                                                                                               Mei Fei
1. Where is Mei Fei now? 
                                                                                                                                                    
2. Was there any reason for Mei Fei to be nervous before she arrived there? 
                                                                                                                                                     
3. What does Mei Fei think of her host family?
                                                                                                                                                      
4. How does Mei Fei feel while she is speaking French now? 
                                                                                                                                                      
5. What is the biggest challenge she is facing?
                                                                                                                                                      
6. When can Mei Fei eat things with her hands? 
                                                                                                                                                      
7. Why do you want to go there if you have the chance to take part in an exchange program? 
                                                                                                                                                      

1. You get pimples when you are n_____.
2. Then put the b_____ area under cold running water.
3. I want to be a k_____ person.
4. If you want to open the door, p_____ the lock hard first.
5. He h_____ to call the doctor when his grandma fell d_____.
6. The man works in a m_____ r_____ station.
7. What kinds of a_____ do you know of?
8. What is the biggest p_____ a teenager has?
9. Do you b_____ her? What she says is true.
10. You don't bother me in the s_____.

A. long    B. so    C. help    D. in    E. like    F. is    G. biggest    H. than    I. How    J. but
     What is the biggest animal of all? The whale (鲸) 1______. The blue whales are the 2______ whales.
Some blue whales weigh more 3______ a hundred tons (吨). 4______ heavy that is!Just think of a bus.
A bus is big and heavy, 5______ it weighs only about fifteen tons. A bus is about eight metres 6______,
but some blue whales are as long as thirty metres! Though (虽然)whales are 7______ big, they are a gentle
kind of giant (巨物). They live together and 8______ each other. Now we know whales "talk" to each other 
9______ the water. And the giants "speak" 10______ singing birds.

         When his doctor told nine-year-old Michael Milton he would lose his left leg to bone cancer (骨癌) in
1982, one of the first questions he asked was: "Will I still be able to ski?"
         Soon, Milton, who grew up in a skiing family and had hit the hillside from the age of three, saw a video
of a one-legged skier that would change his life. After missing a winter of sport following his operation (手术),
the Australian young man gave it a try.
         By 14, Milton was skiing in his first international competition (国际比赛), the 1988 Winter Olympic
Games at Innsbruck, Austria. Just four years on, he became Australia's first gold medal (金牌) winner in France.
        But trying to make a living from the sport he loved seemed to be a far more icy matter. For year, Milton
had to do his best to make ends meet, mending cars, working as a gardener and in ski shops. At one point he
was so poor that he needed to win a place in an American skiing competition to win enough money for the plane
ticket home.
         But the skier who can hold his own in able-bodied speed-skiing events, thinks overcoming (克服) low
public expectations of what people with disabilities (残疾) can do is a greater obstacle (障碍) than being poor.
It's a problem that he is meeting with all the time.
         He says most people with disabilities don't want to be treated differently than others. "It's the environment
around you that helps you to try. My biggest goal is to raise (提高) the expectations of the public as to what
people with disabilities can do."
         Milton has won 10 Olympic and 11 world championship (锦标赛) medals and in April last year became
the world's first disabled person to ski at more than 200 km/h, reaching a surprising 210.4 km/h. His next goal
is the record of 212.26 km/h held by Australia's fastest able-bodied skier, Nick Kirshner. He'll then be the fastest
Australian skier ever.

1. When did Michael Milton win his first gold medal?

A. In 1988.
B. When he was fourteen.
C. In 1992.
D. 8 years after his operation.

2. What is the biggest problem Milton met with in life?

3. Milton really wants _________ by skiing.

A. to become the fastest skier in Australia
B. to show he is different from other skiers
C. to help other disabled people stand up
D. to make the public give up wrong ideas

4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Milton is skiing for not only himself but also any disabled person.
B. Milton will give up skiing after he reaches more than 212.26 km/h.
C. Few people think that Milton's dream will come true in the end.
D. Thanks to Milton's work, the public environment has become better.

    Years ago, if a person has some problems in his life, he might go home and write in his diary. Now
he might go onto the Internet and write about them in a blog(博客).
Differences between a blog and a diary
     Usually, a person thinks of his diary as a book full of secrets. He does not want to share. But in the
blog, anyone can read what he writes.
     I have a little sister, and sometimes I go onto the Internet to read her blog. She writes about swimming practice and not studying enough for her chemistry exam. When I was her age, I wrote about the same
things, but only in my diary. Then, after I finished .writing, I would put my diary in a secret place because
I was worried that my sister might read it!
Problems with blogging
     The biggest problem with blogging is that anyone can read what you write. If I was angry with a friend
and wrote something bad about her in my diary, she would never know. However, if my sister wrote something bad about a friend, that friend might read her blog and get angry.
Because we do not always think about things carefully before we write about our days, it is easy to hurt
others' feeling in a biog. So we have to be very careful about what we write.
Keeping in touch with friends
     Blogging has both good and bad points, of course. People choose to blog because they know that
their friends will read what they write.
If I was feeling sad one day and wrote in my diary "Nobody cares about me," no one would know about
it. However, if my sister wrote the same sentence in her blog, her best friends would quickly reply and
tell her how much they like her. Blogs help people keep in touch with(保持联系)their friends and know
what the people around them are doing.
     Blogs are a very good way to write about daily life, if people are careful about what they write.
However, I still like writing better in my diary!

1. What's the difference between blogs and diaries according to the passage?
A. Blogs can be read by others while diaries only by writers themselves.
B. Blogs are used by young people while diaries are kept by old people.
C. Blogs are always good while diaries are sometimes bad for writers.
D. Blogs are a good way to write about life while diaries about other things.
2. It is easy to hurt others' feeling in blogs, because people _______.
A. usually write about their daily life there
B. only write something bad about others there
C. don't always think carefully before writing there
D. play jokes there on each other and care about them
3. What is the biggest problem with blogging?
A. Help people keep in touch with their friends.
B. Your friends will quickly reply to your biog.
C. Someone may read your blog and get angry with you.
D. Anyone can read what you write.
 4. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. the writer will choose to blog so that others can keep in touch with him
B. the writer would rather keep diaries than write in a blog
C. the writer has never blogged because he hates blogging
D. the writer doesn't like his sister's writing in a blog
 5. In this passage, the writer thinks that the blogs are_______.
A. a good way to write their daily life if they want.
B. a bad way to write their daily life if they don't care about what they want to write.
C. an easy way to get their friends annoyed.
D. a hard way to make friends.