CLASSIC TOURS — COACH BREAK INFORMATION
Luggage
We ask you to keep luggage down to one medium-sized suitcase per person, but a small suitcase can also be taken on board the coach.
Seat Allocation(分配)
Requests for particular seats can be made on most coach breaks when booking, but since allocations are made on a first come, first serve basic, early booking is advisable. When booking are made with us you will be offered the best seats that are available on the coach at that time.
Travel Documents
When you have paid your deposit we will send to you all the necessary documents and labels, so that you receive them in good time before the coach break departure date.
Special Diets
If you require a special diet you must inform us at the time of booking with a copy of the diet. This will be informed to the hotel or hotels on your coach break. Certain coach breaks the hotels used are tourist class and while offering value for money within the price range, they may not have the full facilities to cope with special diets.
Accommodation(住宿)
Many of our coach breaks now include, within the price, accommodation with private facilities, and this will be shown on the coach break page. Other coach breaks have a limited number of rooms with private facilities which can be reserved and guaranteed at the time of booking—the additional charge shown in the price panel will be added to your account.
On any coach break there are only a limited number of single rooms. When a single room is available it may be charged more and this will be shown on the brochure page.
Entertainment
Some of our hotels arrange additional entertainment which include music, dancing, films, etc. The presence of the entertainment is at the discretion of(听凭…处理) the hotel and therefore not guaranteed and could be withdrawn if there is a lack of demand or insufficient numbers in the hotel. If you want to sit at the front of the coach, you should ________.
| A．ask when you get on the coach |
| B．arrive early on the departure date |
| C．book your seat well in advance |
| D．avoid traveling at peak times |
It may be necessary to pay extra for _________.
| A．single rooms | B．the best seat |
| C．additional luggage | D．entertainment |
With every booking Classic Tours guarantees you will be able to ___________.
| A．request high quality meals. |
| B．take hand luggage on the coach. |
| C．have a bathroom to yourself. |
| D．see a film if you want to. |
As the saying goes, man struggles upwards; water flows downwards. Water runs downhill from mountaintops to streams to rivers to oceans. But downhill isn’t the only way that water moves .A new study measures how water travels from country to country for human consumption. This flow isn’t the type we usually think about .These scientists looked at the water used to grow and make the products which get shipped from nation to nation as imports or exports. They call this a flow of “virtual water（虚拟水）”.
We typically think about water as the liquid that flows from a tap. However,92％of the water used by people goes into growing crops，according to water researcher Arjen Hoekstra. He recently studied the hidden travels of virtual water used in products made from things like crops and meats .These products are shipped around the world.
For example, consider a sugary soft drink. Hoekstra estimated that to produce one half-liter of the drink requires between 170 and 310liters of the water—about 95％—is used to grow and process the ingredients(原料).Another 4％goes into the packaging and labeling. In Hoekstra’s calculation, when one country produces a half-liter of soda and sells it abroad，it exports as much virtual water as would fill a large refrigerator．
According to Hoekstra’s new report，dry countries like Israel and Kuwait，both in the Middle East,get the majority of their virtual water from other countries，through imported products. More surprisingly, some wetter countries，like the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, also get the majority of their virtual water from other places. That means that most of the water used to grow or produce the products and food consumed in those countries came from other countries.
In the United States most of the virtual water used comes from American sources .In China even less of the water associated with its products.The example of a sugary soft drink in Paragraph 3 is given to show_________.
| A．how drinks are shipped |
| B．how virtual water is exported |
| C．how virtual water is used |
| D．how drinks are made |
In which countries does most part of virtual water come from outside?________
| A．Kuwait and the Netherlands |
| B．China and the United Kingdom |
| C．America and the Netherlands |
| D．Israel and America |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Crops and Virtual Water |
| B．Water’s worldwide travels |
| C．Benefits of Virtual Water |
| D．Import and Export of Water |
The passage is most probably a________.
| A．science news report | B．science fiction story |
| C．newspaper advertisement | D．book review |
“My Best Teacher Ever” Contest
Students
Tell us why, in 300 words or less, your teacher (present or past) is the best teacher ever.
Assay Topic
Who was/is your best teacher ever? What makes him or her the best?
Participation
The contest is open to all students enrolled in grades 2 through 12.
Entries
Word limit: 300
Essays will be judged on the following criteria by Readers editorial staff:
·originally, creativity—40 percent
·clarity of presentation— 40 percent
·grammar, punctuation, spelling —20 percent
All entries should be word-processed, typed, or hand-printed on 8.5-inch by 11-inch paper or submitted as an attached word or text document via email.
Each entry must include the entrant’s name, age, complete home mailing address, phone number, school name, and grade, as well as the submitting teacher’s name, school name, complete school mailing address and email address.
Contest Deadline
Entries must be postmarked on or before April 26, 2013, or mailed by EST on that date.
Submission
Email your entry with attached essay and entry information (entrant’s name, age, complete home mailing address, phone number, school name, and grade, submitting teacher’s name, email address, school name, and complete school mailing address) to web-contest @ readers.com or mail your entry with attached entry form to this address:
Readers Publishing My Best Teacher Ever Contest
Attn: Anne Flounders 44 South Broadway, 18th Floor White Plains, NY10601
Prizes
One winner will be chosen in each of two categories: elementary (grades 2-6) and secondary (grades 7-12). Winning students will win a $ 50 gift card and may have their essays published on readers.com. Teachers of winning students will win one free classroom subscription to the Readers magazine of their choice. Winning essays will be posted up on signing of a release by students and their agent or guardian. Winning essays will be announced on May 7, 2013, Teacher Appreciation Day, on readers.com, and winners will be notified directly.Essays will be judged on the following criteria EXCEPT _________.
| A．punctuation | B．handwriting |
| C．presentation | D．creativity |
If you become a winner, you _________.
| A．will be awarded $ 150 in cash |
| B．will be informed of your success online |
| C．may have your essay published online |
| D．can have the Readers magazine for free |
According to the text, your essay _________.
| A．should have a total of 300 words at least |
| B．can’t have any mistakes in grammar |
| C．will be judged by some best teachers |
| D．must be mailed on or before April 26, 2013 |
You may never think a documentary film could have aroused so much public enthusiasm in Chinese history. Nowadays everybody is talking about a new 7-part documentary called A Bite of China which was recently broadcast late at night on CCTV I. The documentary describes various gourmet items across the vast Chinese culinary (烹饪) landscape.
According to Taobao, China’s biggest online retail website, just five days after the series began to air, nearly 6 million people went to the site in search of various local specialties, particularly those mentioned in the documentary. More than 7.2 million deals were concluded. A ham producer from Yunnan Province saw his sales grow 17-fold in five days.
However, one can’t help but believe that the documentary’s popularity is probably linked to the endless stream of terrible food security issues that have emerged in recent years. In one well-received article, a netizen wrote, “I wonder how many felt so empty-hearted and sighed after watching the film. Blue-vitriol watered chive, formaldehyde(甲醛) sprayed cabbage, Sudan Red colored salty eggs, restaurants using gutter oil. The list is long…”
A varied and ancient food culture that is famous world-wide and which should have made the Chinese proud ends like this: one can only sigh. Food is the most vital thing in people’s lives. Yet China’s food industry is a typical description of “bad money driving out the good”.The market is huge while the cost of faking and cheating is so low for immoral businessmen; and the punishment is too light. Take the milk industry as an example. Although Sanlu, the company that sold the melamine-adulterated milk powder, was punished, thousands of other dairies didn’t work hard to improve the quality. In order to allow national brands to survive, Chinese authorities are happy to loosen their regulations.
As the documentary shows, people are attracted not to gourmet items like matsutake, a species of rare mushroom grown naturally in remote forests, but to common Chinese dishes like barley, lotus root or tofu. They are what meet our basic needs. This explains why people are so excited about A Bite of China---it is a reminder that there is still a world out there where food is excellent and people have dignity.The underlined word “gourmet items” probably means_______.
| A． delicious food | B．latest technology |
| C． beautiful clothes | D．great inventions |
The second paragraph mainly talks about______.
| A．the content of the documentary |
| B．the producer of the documentary |
| C．The popularity of the documentary |
| D．the history of Chinese gourmet |
We can infer from what a netizen wrote in one well –received article that _____.
| A．the price of food is too high for many common people |
| B．the documentary was made by a world-famous Chinese director |
| C．there is a huge contrast between the ancient food culture and the reality |
| D．none of the television viewers have a knowledge of the Chinese food culture |
According to the passage, China’s food industry is full of faking and cheating because_____.
| A．there are still so many poor people at the present time |
| B．the punishment for unscrupulous businessmen isn’t serious enough |
| C．the Chinese government encourages it to do so |
| D．the food technology is not so advanced as in developed countries |
On Sept 18, they arrived before polling stations even opened, dressed in school uniforms, with book bags over their shoulders—and, for the first time in British history, ballot (选票) cards in hands.
More than 109,000 Scottish teenagers aged 16 to 17 took part in the Scottish independence referendum (公民投票), in which Scotland eventually decided not to become independent.
The age group only made up a small part of the 4.29 million total voters, but they have “demonstrated how the youngest voters can be some of the most enthusiastic in a mature democracy”, commented The Associated Press. Casting their ballots, they were “proud and passionate” to help their nation decide whether to break away from the UK after 307 years in union.
“You feel like you’ve got a say, because it is going to be you. You are going to decide what it is like when you’re older,” 16-year-old Erin Cheshire in Glasgow, who voted “yes”, told The Wall Street Journal.
At age 16, Scottish residents are allowed to join the military, get married, and work. Eighteen is the legal drinking age, as well as the UK’s voting age. But in 2013, Scottish law was changed to allow 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland to vote in the referendum. The government pushed for the change because “younger voters are more likely to vote with their hearts, not their heads—and embrace fundamental change by voting for the pro-independence Yes Scotland campaign”, NBC News said.
But when the decision was handed down, some worried that high school students might not be as informed as adult voters. However, many experts said that assumption was wrong.
Professor Jan Eichhorn of the University of Edinburgh insisted that Scottish teenagers were as likely to read newspaper articles and campaign materials as their parents. They would simply get these resources through social media.
“There’s no evidence to suggest that they’re less capable than adults of voting, from a research point of view,” Eichhorn told NPR.
Scotland’s move to let younger teenagers vote in the referendum has led to a discussion about whether the voting age ought to be lowered to 16, both in the UK and the US.
“By 16, most people have about as stable an ideology (思想意识) as they are going to get,” Professor Jason Brennan of Georgetown University wrote for CNN, arguing that the US should also think about allowing younger US citizens to vote. The Scottish independence referendum was held on Sept. 18 ______.
| A．to encourage youngsters to be concerned with politics |
| B．to lower the minimum voting age to 16 for the referendum |
| C．to elect who would be the new leader of Scotland |
| D．to decide whether Scotland would become independent from the UK |
According to the passage, we can learn ______.
| A．It is possible for the USA to lower the voting age to 16 in the future. |
| B．Scotland gained its independence from the UK eventually. |
| C．All the people in Scotland thought highly of the government’s decision to lower the voting age to 16. |
| D．Scottish teenagers aged 16 are allowed to join the military, get married, work and drink alcohol now. |
What doe the underlined word “embrace” (in para.5) probably mean?
| A．Approve of | B．Object to |
| C．Know about | D．Admit to |
What is Jan Eichhorn’s opinion of the Scottish teenagers aged 16 to 17?
| A．They are too enthusiastic to make informed decisions. |
| B．They make no difference to the voting result. |
| C．They are as informed and capable as adults of voting. |
| D．They are unwilling to be involved in the decision of the country’s future. |
Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout and sing. They smile and they kiss. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word mouth. But some of them are not so nice.
For example, if you say bad things about a person, the person might protest and say “Do not bad mouth me.”
Sometimes, people say something to a friend or a family member that they later regret because it hurts that person’s feelings. Or they tell the person something they were not supposed to tell. The speaker might say: “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.” If this should happen, the speaker might feel down in the mouth. In other words, he might feel sad for saying the wrong thing.
Another situation is when someone falsely claims another person said something. The other person might protest: “I did not say that. Do not put words in my mouth.”
Information is often spread through word of mouth. This is general communication between people, like friends talking to each other. “How did you hear about that new movie?” someone might ask. “Oh, by word of mouth.” A more official way of getting information is through a company or government mouthpiece. This is an official spokesperson. Government-run media could also be called a mouthpiece.
Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend was going to say. When this happens, the friend might say: “You took the words right out of my mouth!” Sometimes a person has a bad or unpleasant experience with another person. He might say that experience “left a bad taste in my mouth.” Or the person might have had a very frightening experience, like being chased by an angry dog. He might say: “I had my heart in my mouth.”
Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person, “was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” This rich person is the opposite of a person who lives from hand to mouth. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food.
Parents might sometimes withhold sweet food from a child as a form of punishment for saying bad things. For example, if a child says things she should not say to her parents, she might be described as a mouthy child. The parents might even tell the child to stop mouthing off.
But enough of all this talk. I have been running my mouth long enough.Which of the following can best describe his or her feeling if a speaker feels down in the mouth?
| A．Delighted | B．Regretful |
| C．Disappointed | D．Respectful |
When your car was close to knocking into a truck, you might say “_______”
| A．I really put my foot in my mouth this time. |
| B．I had my heart in my mouth. |
| C．I live from hand to mouth. |
| D．I get to know it by word of mouth. |
According to the passage, which behavior is surely Not welcome?
a. bad mouthing somebody
b. mouthing off about something
c. putting words in somebody’s mouth
d. taking the words right out of somebody’s mouth
| A．abc | B．abd | C．bcd | D．acd |
What do “I” probably (in the last Para.) do?
| A．A host | B．A journalist |
| C．A director | D．A listener |