—I'm afraid not He is having a meeting. I'll ask him to call you back when he is free.

— Really? How exciting! He is my favorite basketball player.

— I'm afraid you can't. You are a group. I want you to finish it together.

— Wow, I can play with him soon.

— Hi, Jack. I didn't sleep last night. I worked on the Maths problems without a break.

— Oh, it's about 5 minutes' walk from here. ________ me, and I'll show you the way.

— Neither. I live ________ my school so I walk to school every morning.

— I am not sure. I will go ________ I finish my homework early enough.

— You can ________ the new words in a dictionary first. Then try to read it again.

— That is really ________! I haven't seen this before.

— Don't worry, mum. I can take care of myself.

— It says “No smoking”, ________, nobody can smoke here.

— It's a pity. She was so ________ that she could hardly say anything.

— Yes. But I am not surprised at all. He ________ Maths.

— I want to travel ________ the world and take photos everywhere.

Xu Xiake(1587 -1641)was a great geographer during the Ming Dynasty. He spent much of his life travelling and exploring China's 1. Every day, Xu wrote in his diary about what he saw 2his travels.

Xu visited areas 3Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi. These places are 4their karst(喀斯特): areas of limestone eroded over time, producing caves, towers, ridges and other features. Xu also 5local plants, and about how those plants were affected(影响)by wind 6changes in temperature(气温). Xu corrected many mistakes about China's geography. He discovered that the Langcang River and the Nu River were not one, but two separate rivers. He also found flic true source of the Yangtze River was the Yangtze River. For centuries, people mistakenly 7that the source was the Min River.

Xu Xiake travelled through 16 present-day provinces of China. His writing 8became a huge book of over 600,000 characters, The Travels of Xu Xiake. The Travels of Xu Xiake is 9not only for its accurate descriptions(精确的描述)of China's geography, but also for Xu's beautiful writing style. He painted a lifelike picture of the geography of China and expressed his love for nature through his 10. Xu was both a great geographer and a talented writer.

Today is the Club Day of Sunshine Middle School. Many clubs are taking in new students. Here are some of the posters:

Can you cook? This teenager(十来岁的青少年)called Tom can.

And his mum is happy with him. Tom is like any other teenager. He goes to school, does his homework, meets his friends and enjoys doing sports.

But every afternoon between 5: 30 and 6: 30 from Monday to Friday Tom does something different. He cooks dinner for all the family: Mum, Dad, his younger brother Joe and his older sister Emma.

In the past, Tom didn't help out at home at all and his mum wasn't very happy with him. Today, things are different and she is very pleased with him.

Karachi(卡拉奇)is a city in Pakistan. It is one of the hottest places on Earth. In 2015, more than 1, 000 people died there because it became too hot. "It was a very bad time," Shahzad Qureshi, a 15-year-old boy said. "We needed to do something about it.''

Qureshi started a group called Urban(city)Forest. The group plants trees in cities across Pakistan. For its first project, Urban Forest planted about l, 300 trees in a park in Karachi. Qureshi hopes the park will one day become a forest of 50,000 trees.

Since 2015, Qureshi and his team have planted eight urban forests in Pakistan. Six are in Karachi. The trees help cool the air. They are homes for birds and insects(昆虫), too. Some trees grow fruit for people and animals to eat.

In 2017, Qureshi helped plant an urban forest at Karachi Grammar School. First, he met with students to teach them how trees help the environment(环境).Then students planted trees in the schoolyard. The trees make birds and colorful butterflies come to the schoolyard. Students go outside during science class to study the forest.

Many studies about language learning ask the question: What makes a good language learner? There are some things that good language learners do and some things they don't do. 、 Here are some of the most useful suggestions from studies.

First, don't be afraid of making mistakes. People often get things wrong. Good language learners may find out their mistakes and learn from them. Then, learn in groups. People use language to talk with or listen to others. So, a good language learner always looks for chances to talk with other students. Third, take notes during every class. Notes help you to remember the new language. Look at your notes when you do your homework. Fourth, use a dictionary. Good language learners often use dictionaries to check the meaning of words they don't know. They also make their own vocabulary lists. What's more, do extra practice. You can find a lot of English materials online. Do more reading and listening to make your language better. Last, enjoy the process(过程).Good language learners have fun with the language. Watch a TV series of film, listen to songs, play video games or read different books.

It's never too late to become a good language learner.

With the growth of travel economy(经济), study trips outside China become hot in recent years. More and more parents would like their children to go to trips in foreign countries. Last year, parents spent 9,013 yuan(US$1,283)on those study trips for every student according to a report on Shenzhen Daily last Friday. But the number falls to 8,641 yuan(US$1,207)this summer. This year, many parents choose study trips inside China. The trips are about 7 days and cost around 5,000 yuan. Many families are able to pay for them.

When they choose study trips outside China, parents care more about the study parts than before, said Chen Linan, a manager from C-trip(携程网). More and more people are looking for new routes(路线). There are routes such as natural museum trips and British cultural(文化)trips. And the new routes provide students with chances to live at British teachers, homes.

However, parents are not happy with some trips if the study parts are not important enough. They think study parts should come first Yang Yijian, a lawyer(律师)from Beijing, advises that we should make rules for the study trip market, such as how much money parents should pay, who should take care of the students, the students, safety during the trip and so on.

The Ministry of Education(教育部)says clearly that at least 50% of the trip plan should be the study parts, and a trip should be no longer than three weeks for primary school students and six weeks for middle and high school students.