In Britain ,people often invite friends for a meal , a party or just coffee. People who know each other very well may visit each other’s houses without  an invitation(邀請),but if we invite new friends, usually an invitation is needed. When people invite someone to their homes , they often say ,“Would you like to come for dinner on Saturday ?” Answers are, “Thanks, we’d love to. What time?” or “I’m sorry, We’d love to ,but we have tickets for the concert.” However, it is not polite to say,“No, we wouldn’t.”
Sometimes, the British use expressions that sound like invitations but which are not invitations. For example. “You must come over for a drink sometime .” or “Let’s go out for a meal one of these days.”  These are usually just polite ways of ending a talk . They are not real invitations because they don’t mention an exact time or day. They just show that the person is trying to be friendly and the answers are ,“Yes , that would be nice .” or “OK, yes ,thanks.”
So next time you hear what sounds like an invitation, listen carefully. Is it a real invitation or is the person just being friendly?
【小題1】It’s always necessary for        to visit each other’s houses with an invitation.

Basketball is still a young game. It’s over a hundred years old . In the winter of 1891, a certain college was having some trouble with its boy students. The weather was bad and the students had to stay indoors . As they couldn’t play outdoors , they were unhappy ,and some even got into fights from time to time .
Some of the teachers at the college asked Dr Naismith to invent a game so that the students might have something to play with. It was ont easy to invent such a game, because it had to played indoors , and the court(球場)was not very large.
Dr.Naismith thought for a few days and invented a kind of  ball game .It is a wonderful game with much moving and passing of  the ball .It was played between two teams .To make a score, the ball had to be thrown into the basket ten feet (英尺)above the floor on the wall. At each end of the court there was such a basket .At first, Dr.Naismith wanted to throw the ball into a box, As he could not find boxes of the right size, he had to use fruit baskets instead. That is how the game got its name .
【小題1】How long is it since basketball was invented?

Every country has its favorite food. Italians like to eat pizza. Indians like to eat hot food. Japanese like to eat fish. Often they don’t cook it.
In England, one of the most popular kinds of food is fish and chips. People usually buy it in a fish and chip shop. They put it in paper bags, and take it home, or to their workplace. Sometimes they eat it in the park or on the road. The world’s favorite food is American fast food. If you go to some important cities in the world, you can find people eating hamburgers and chips.
Fish and chips, and Chinese take-away food are very popular in England. But they are less popular in the USA, they eat take-away food, too, like chicken. But the most popular kind of take-away food is the hamburger. It looks like bread with meat in it. Ham(火腿) is a kind of pork, but the hamburger does not have any pork in it. The beef is inside a kind of cake hamburgers. They are delicious. They are also popular in England and Australia.
【小題1】Italians like to eat ___________.
A. fish                B. pizza                    C. hot food
【小題2】 Fish and chips are very popular in ________.
A. England          B. Australia                C. the USA
【小題3】 In different countries people eat ________ food.
A. different                B. the same             C. hot
【小題4】 The hamburger does not have any _________ in it.
A. beef                 B. pork                C. chips
【小題5】 Hamburger is a kind of __________.
A.meat              B. drink                    C. food

The Dragon Boat festival is very popular in China, it usually comes in May or June. On that day, people eat a special food--- rice dumplings. It is known as dragon-boat racing. Dragon-boat racing is the most popular activity during the festival. A dragon boat looks like a dragon, and is painted in red, white, yellow or black. Usually, a dragon boat is 20 to 40 metres long, and needs 20 people to row. Boatmen row the boat in cadence (節(jié)奏) with the drumbeats(鼓點), and a man in the front of the boat waves a small flag to help coordinate(使動作協(xié)調) the rowing.
Dragon-boat racing becomes a popular activity in South China. International(國際的) dragon-boat racing is held in Guangzhou and Hong Kong every year.
【小題1】Which is the most popular activity during the Dragon Boat Festival ?

“Cool” is a word with many meanings．Its old meaning is used to express a temperature that is a little bit cold．As the world has changed，the word has had many different meanings．
“Cool” can be used to express feelings of interest in almost everything When you see a famous car in the street，maybe you will say，“It’s cool．”You may think，“He’s so cool,” when you see your favorite footballer．
We all maximize（擴大） the meaning of “cool”．You can use it instead of many words such as “new” or “surprising”．Here’s an interesting story we can use to show the way the word is used．A teacher asked her students to write about the waterfall（瀑布）they had visited．On one student’s paper was just the one sentence, “It’s so cool．Maybe he thought it was the best way to show what he saw and felt. But the story also shows a lack of words．Without “cool”，some people have no words to show the same meaning．So it is quite important to keep some credibility（可信性）．Can you think of many other words that make your life as colorful as the word “cool”？ I can．And I think they are also very cool．
【小題1】 We know that the word “cool has had ________.

American people like to say “Thank you” when others help them or say something kind to them. People of many countries do so, too. It is a very good habit. You should say “Thank you” when someone passes you the salt on the table, when someone walking ahead of you keeps the door open for you, when someone says you have done your work well, or you have bought a nice thing, or your city is very beautiful. “Thank you” is used not only between friends, but also between parents and children, brothers and sisters. “Excuse me” is another short sentence they use. When you hear someone say so behind you, you know that somebody wants to walk past you without touching you. It’s not polite to break others when they are talking. If you want to speak to one of them, say “Excuse me” first, and then begin talking. You should also do so when you begin to cough or make any noise before others. Let’s learn to say “Thank you” and “Excuse me”.
【小題1】You should say “Thank you” when ______________.

Many Chinese people like American country music(鄉(xiāng)村音樂 ),such as（例如） the songs of John Denver. But still some people don’t know when country music began.
Country music is from the folk music （民間音樂）of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of America. There, people sang while playing the violin and guitar. They sang about everyday life, love and their problems. So the songs were sometimes a little sad.
One of the most popular country music singers is John Denver, who is also quite famous to the Chinese. For Denver, music was a language that could bring the world together. He says music can bring people together. We will understand（理解） each other better through（通過） music. People are different in colour and they may speak different languages, but people are the same in mind and body（在心靈和精神方面）. All of them love music and can understand music.
The world lost a great man when John Denver died in 1997. But his music and words will live on.
【小題1】American country music is from the _______ music of America.

Kitesurfing as a water sport began in the 1980s, but didn't get popular until the end of last century. It is also known as kiteboarding, and in some European countries as flysurfing. Kitesurfing works through wind power(動力) by using a large kite to pull a rider on the water at high speed.
At first, kitesurfing was a difficult and dangerous sport. Now it is becoming easier and safer because of the safer kite design. For an able and strong person, kitesurfing can be a very fun, extremely exciting sport, just like skating on the water with a feeling of flying. It has become more and more popular.
Compared with other water sports, kitesurfing is easier to learn. A beginner can understand how to operate the kite with 5--10 hours of training. And anybody aged from 13 to 65 can learn. It is not expensive to get the equipment for kitesurfing, which costs $1,000 to 82,500. Training lessons range from $200 to $500 for two or three hours. With the development of its equipment progress, kitesurfing is becoming even safer. After some training, you can enjoy its excitement and challenging feeling.
With the rising popularity of kitesurfing, most major seaside cities have kitesurfing clubs. In China, Xiamen is the only place that has the kitesurfing club, which provides professional kitesurfing training and equipments.
【小題1】Kitesurfing has a history of about________years.

What do you think are the most important inventions of the past 2,000 years? The TV? The printing? The telephone? Or the computer? A report shows that these are not the only important inventions. Here are four other important ones.
Paper is one of the most important inventions. You can’t have printing without paper. In 105 AD, Cai Lun invented paper in China. Long before the printing and Internet, Cai Lun’s invention allowed us to write down information, stories and history.
One of the simplest (最簡單) inventions to save life is the toilet. Before toilets, waste ran into the rivers from people’s houses. Illnesses were common (普通的) in big cities, and it was often difficult to find clean drinking water.
Animal food is another invention. Before the invention, most animals were killed every autumn because there was not enough food for them in the winter. After hay (干草) became a kind of common animal food, animals could live through the long winter.
Reading glasses is the fourth invention. People start getting far-sighted (遠視) from the age of 45. Glasses mean that anyone can read, write and do “close work” after that age. Without glasses, the world would be difficult for the people above 45.
【小題1】Cai Lun’s invention of paper makes it possible to ______.