This selection of books and guides offers insight to hidden charm in many favorite cities and destinations and gives you the knowledge to uncover unusual sights to see and places to visit. We hope you enjoy our choices and welcome your comments. Email your feedback to books@ gounusual. com.
The following are taken from these books. You will find much more information about these hotels in the books.
Kakslauttanen Hotel
It is the home of the famous Igloo（冰屋）Village with the unique glass and snow igloos and the world’s largest snow restaurant. In addition , their guests can enjoy the winter activities including watching the Northern Lights visible generally from late August to late April. Guests can sample the peace of sleeping in snow. Their glass igloos are fantastic for lying on your bed at night, watching the Northern Lights in the warm. You can enjoy cold or warm night sleep as required.
Art Hotel in Ronda
Beautifully situated in the oldest paved street of Ronda and surrounded by historic buildings, Art Hotel is decorated with original and historical artwork and atmospheric lighting. There is lots of fun and funky touches, e. g. lights and birds nesting in old basketballs, wall murals（壁画）of Michael Jackson , car tyres converted to occasional tables.
During your stay, all drinks, breakfast and the use of all facilities are included in the price of the room.
Otter Creek Tents
The tents are separated from the rest of the world by a quiet salt-water creek. A coconut plantation dating back to 1886, the secret location preserves the privacy and peace of guests, with the salt water of the creek keeping even the mosquitoes away.
Each tent sleeps 2 in a four-poster double bed and has a western style toilet and bathroom with running water and hot shower. The tents use the dining facilities of the charming “Elsewhere” beach houses and enjoy over a mile of the pristine（处于原始状态的）beach where one can still see the footprints of fishermen , and during the season , possibly the prints of sea turtles.
The Original Icehotel
“Imagine a hotel built from thousands of tons of snow and ice, and rebuilt every winter”--that is ICEHOTEL in northern Lapland, Sweden.
This is the original ICEHOTEL, first created in the early 1990s. It has become the global ambassador for this genre and now licenses ICEBARs around the world too. With 80 ＋ rooms, the property is a huge undertaking to be rebuilt every year, and their expertise inspired other similar properties in North America and elsewhere.People staying in Kakslauttanen Hotel can watch the Northern Lights EXCEPT in ________.
| A．August | B．April | C．December | D．June |
What is special about Otter Creek Tents?
| A．You can sleep in a house made of ice there. |
| B．It is surrounded by a forest. |
| C．You can enjoy the scenes of a beach. |
| D．You can enjoy turtles cooked in a special way there. |
If you want to experience sleeping with snow or ice around, you can choose ________.
| A．Kakslauttanen Hotel and Art Hotel in Ronda |
| B．Otter Creek Tents and Icehotel |
| C．Art Hotel in Ronda and Otter Creek Tents |
| D．Kakslauttanen Hotel and Icehotel |
What’s the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To show us the advantages of staying in hotels. |
| B．To introduce and promote some books. |
| C．To encourage people to travel around the world. |
| D．To explain to us how people manage the hotels. |
“If you run for more than five minutes at any time, you might need a pair of running shoes,” advises Stephen Pribut, a US sports medicine expert. Running shoes are highly technical footwear. They provide stability（牢固）while bearing up to three times the wearer’s body weight. But it’s not easy to find the right pair. Finding the right running shoes is something of an art, or a science and a feel.
The science part begins with the shape of the arch（弓）of your foot, which anyone can find out at home with this quick experiment: Put your foot in water and place it on a piece of brown paper. If you see a “C” shape on the paper when you remove your foot, you have a rare high arch. If the shape looks more like a rectangle, that means you have flat feet. See something in between? That’s a normal arch.
Conveniently for shoppers, shoe companies nowadays divide their shoes in three categories: neutral(for high arches), stability(for normal or low arches) and motion control(for flat arches). So you will know which type suits you.
At this point, most people would just grab an appealing shoe and try it on. But professionals would do a few quality-control tests. First, you bend the shoe toe to heel to see where it bends. If it’s not at the forefoot---where the foot actually bends, be afraid. Then you grip both ends and twist in opposite directions. If you can twist it like a towel, it means there’s zero support. Finally, you squeeze(挤)the heel in both directions. A stable heel won’t cave in.
Now you need to check the mold(模子)that shapes the inside of the shoe: whether it’s wide or narrow in the mid-foot, how it sits on the heel and how roomy the toe box is.
It’s wise to hold off until the afternoon to make the shoe purchase, to allow for any swelling(肿胀) that your feet do throughout the day. Toes also decide sizing choice. The rule is you need a finger’s width from your longest toe (whether that’s your big one or not) to the end of the shoe.What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Advantages of wearing running shoes fitting you. |
| B．Ways to get to know about the shape of the arch of your foot. |
| C．Advice on how to choose the right pair of running shoes. |
| D．Best time to buy a pair of running shoes. |
If the arch of your foot looks like a “C” shape, you have _________.
| A．a normal arch | B．a high arch | C．a flat arch | D．a low arch |
．The underlined phrase “cave in” most probably means ______.
| A．bend | B．stretch | C．shake | D．crash |
．Why is the late afternoon the ideal time to go shopping for shoes?
| A．We are likely to be more patient in the afternoon. |
| B．Feet usually become large late in the day. |
| C．The toes become longer late in the day. |
| D．The arch of our feet will be in best shape in the afternoon. |
Americans this year will swallow 15,000 tons of aspirin, one of the safest and most effective drugs invented by man. The most popular medicine in the world today, it is an effective pain reliever. Its bad effects are relatively mild and it is cheap.
For millions of people suffering from arthritis(关节炎), it is the only thing that works. Aspirin, in short, is truly the 20th-century wonder drug. It is also the second largest suicide drug and is the leading cause of poisoning among children. It has side effects that, although relatively mild, are largely unrecognized among users.
Although aspirin was first sold by a German company in 1899, it has been around much longer than that. Hippocrates, in anc
ient Greece, understood the medical value of the leaves and tree bark which today are known to contain salicylates(水杨酸碱), the chemical in aspirin. During the 19th century, there was a great deal of experimentation in Europe with this chemical, and it led to the introduction of aspirin. By 1915, aspirin tablets were available in the United States.
A small quantity of aspirin (two five-grain tablets) relieves pain and inflammation(炎症). It also reduces fever by interfering with some of the body’s reactions. The passage is written to .
| A．suggests us using more aspirin | B．reminds us of the side effects of aspirin |
| C．gives us a whole view of aspirin | D．discusses the good effects of aspirin |
According to the author, aspirin .
| A．is very safe | B．first appeared in 1899 |
| C．can be harmful to children | D．can hardly be dangerous |
Generally speaking, the author seems to be .
| A．in favor of aspirin | B．against the use of sapirin |
| C．not interested in aspirin | D．careful in using aspirin |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．How to Use Aspirin | B．Why I Take Aspirin |
| C．The Most Popular Medicine | D．The Side Effects of Aspirin |
Whenever human populations have lived in forest areas, they have always cut down trees which they used for a number of purposes, for housing and ships and served as a source of heating fuel and timber. Growth of cities often meant expansion into forest areas, while even more trees were removed to provide space for agriculture. With the growing demand for paper, vast quantities of trees have also been cut down for paper production. These factors, along with many others, have been contributing to a dangerous phenomenon known as deforestation.
In the last 5,000 years, humans have reduced forest from roughly 50 percent of the earth’s land surface to less than 20 percent. Most of this original, or old growth, forest cover is concentrated in three large areas: the Canadian and Alaskan boreal forest, the boreal forest of Russia, and the tropical forest of the northwestern Amazon Basin and the Guyana Shield. These areas comprise almost 70 percent of the world’s remaining original forest cover. In most places, the rate of deforestation is increasing, with the alarming result of 16 million hectares disappearing worldwide every year.
Loss of forest does not just mean the decline of natural resources. There are several other factors that make deforestation seriously harmful to both the human and natural worlds. One of them is changes in the global climate. For example, forest clearance is releasing substantial volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere as vegetation is burnt or decays. It has been suggested that this is a significant factor in global warming. Moreover, about 10 percent of the world’s tree species are in dang
er of extinction as a result of deforestation. Deforestation also threatens biological diversity through the destruction of wildlife habitats, which endangers a number of animal species and leads to their potential disappearance. Species are particularly easy to extinction in tropical rainforests because many species have few individuals per unit area, which makes reproduction more difficult. Finally, since forests play an important role in storing water and stabilizing soil, deforestation and the resulting change in land use cause soil erosion (腐蚀) and other forms of land degradation.The passage discusses all of the following EXCEPT the ________.
| A．causes of deforestation | B．consequences of deforestation |
| C．management of deforestation | D．rate of deforestation |
The word “diversity” in the last paragraph probably means “________”.
| A．variety | B．expansion |
| C．development | D．advantage |
Why does the author mention fuel and timber in Paragraph 1?
| A．To explain the rate of deforestation. |
| B．To compare them with housing and ships. |
| C．To show the dangers of deforestation. |
| D．To illustrate the causes of deforestation. |
Which of the following sentences summarizes Paragraph 3 best?
| A．Deforestation threatens biological diversity. |
| B．Deforestation has many harmful consequences. |
| C．Deforestation causes changes in global climate. |
D．Deforestation should be stopped. |
Dear Daughter,
As we drove off from Columbia, I wanted to write a letter to you to tell you all that is on my mind.
First, I want to tell you how proud we are. Getting into Columbia is a real proof of what a great well-rounded student you are. You should be as proud of yourself as we are.
It is in college that you will discover what learning is about. This will be the period where you go from teacher-taught to master-inspired, after which you must become self-learner. So do take each subject seriously, and even if what you learn isn’t critical for your life, the learning skills you acquire will be something you will treasure forever.
Follow your passion in college. Take courses 
you think you will enjoy. Don’t be trapped by what others think or say, but make up your own mind.
Most importantly, make friends and be happy. Pick a few friends and become really close to them – pick the ones who are genuine to you. Don’t worry about their grades, looks, or even person
alities.
Start planning early. I think your plan to study fashion is good, and 
you should decide where you want to be, and get onto the right courses.
Whether it is coursework planning or picking a major, you should take control of your life. I will always be there for you, but the time has come for you to be in the driver’s seat – this is your life, and you need to be in control. Being in control feels great.
So please treasure your college years – make the best of your free time, become an independent thinker in control of your destiny fate, learn and grow through your successes and challenges.
May your years at Columbia be the happiest of your life, and may you blossom into just what you dream to be.
Love,
Dad (& Mom)According to the letter the author’s daughter is ______.
A．scared to be leaving home  |
B．a well-rounded student |
| C．the pride of her university | D．learning to drive a car |
Which advice below is given to his daughter by the author?
| A．Party with friends in her free time. |
| B．Ignore what others think or say. |
| C．choose friends with similar personalities. |
| D．Treasure and make the best of her college years. |
From the passage, we can conclude the father is ______.
| A．worried about his daughter | B．strict with his daughter |
| C．positive about his daughter’s future | D．sad about his daughter’s leaving home |
From the letter we can draw a conclusion that_________.
| A．the daughter will no longer need her father’s help |
| B．the father will also gives the daughter advice on everything |
| C．the father will help the daughter when she meets with trouble |
| D．the daughter will not accept her father’s help in college. |
Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific purpose in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become.
When I was a kid in the New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed, almost nobody worked, and the highways, as a result, were not the desperate steeplechases（障碍赛跑） they have become today. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother—the same house my father was raised in, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek.
The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for an hour of devotion, an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there were no chores that couldn’t wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, different from all the other days of the week, because everyone seemed to be on the same schedule, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else.
Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to consider that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association. In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visiting someone else’s home on Sunday.
But now the question is, “What do you plan to DO this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall to participating in a road race to jetting to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such an answer would feel sepia-toned, an echo from another era.
I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land and tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural cast（特质）still harbors at least remnants of the ethic of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment. The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when _______.
| A．everyone was paying a visit to some relative far away |
| B．everyone seemed to be free and could have some leisure |
| C．Dad was not at work while Mom was busy cleaning the house |
| D．nearly every adult would go to church and children were not at school |
In the fourth paragraph, the writer compares the response “I’m making a Sunday visit to family” to an echo from another era because _______.
| A．people nowadays prefer staying at home on Sunday |
| B．such answers are rarely heard in our modern society |
| C．people in the city dislike being disturbed on Sunday |
| D．visiting someone on Sunday might take a lot of time |
From the last paragraph we may infer that _______.
| A．people in Maine suffer more from economic depression and the changed environment |
| B．people in Maine has abandoned their tradition and lived an absolute new life |
| C．land in Maine is short, thus the relationship between people is tense |
| D．people in Maine always help each other when they are in need |
．Which word we may use to describe the writer’s attitude towards the Sunday today?
| A．Unsatisfied. | B．Anxious. | C．Treasured. | D．Teased. |