Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a whole lot of antique（古董）shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.
The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth—so I decided that my approach must be wrong.
I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, “Would you like to buy a chair?” “Twenty pounds,” I said. “OK,” he said. “I'll give you twenty pounds.” “It's got a slightly broken leg,” I said. “Yes, I saw that. It's nothing.”
Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?” I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done.” “I'll buy it,” I said. “What do you mean? You've just sold it to me,” he said. “Yes, I know but I've changed my mind. I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it.” “You must be crazy,” he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair.” “You're right,” I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, ‘Would you mend this chair for me?’” “I wouldn't have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you. Shall we say for a fiver?” He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.
One day, a boy was playing in a garden. He was running after butterflies and trying to catch them. He was very1to see the colorful flowers, too. Then he saw a frog skipping and2As he ran behind the frog, it went into the pond. A cow was eating grass in the garden. He saw how the cow was3grass. A fly then came there and buzzed over the 4It swung its tail to make the fly move away. The child clapped and 5
The boy was enjoying the beauty of nature. He said,＂Nature is6 Its beauty attracts everyone.＂
When he saw a squirrel, he ran after it and7near the bed of roses. He tried to pick some of the roses, but a thorn 8his finger. It was very painful. The boy started9and ran to his mother who was in the10
His mother asked him,＂What is the matter?＂The boy said, ＂The thorn of the rose 11 my finger while I was picking it and now I feel12 pain.＂ His mother said,＂That was your13You should not have tried to pick the flower. The flowers are meant to be14and not to be picked. Besides, natural beauty should never be 15We should help to protect nature.＂The son said,＂I will 16remember what you have just told me, Mom.＂The mother said,＂Let me know what you have 17today.＂ Her son explained,＂We should protect 18living beings, whether animals or19 We should never harm them. We should not harm nature.20we do, it may harm us in the long run, too.＂
The people who built Stonehenge in southern England thousands of years ago had wild parties, eating barbecued pigs and breaking pottery. This is according to recent work by archaeologists — history experts who investigate (调查) how human beings lived in the past.
Archaeologists digging near Stonehenge last year discovered the remains of a large prehistoric village where they think the builders of the mysterious stone circle used to live.
The village is about 4,600 years old, the same age as Stonehenge and as old as the pyramids in Egypt. It is less than two miles from the famous ancient landmark and lies inside a massive manmade circular dirt wall, or "henge", known as the Durrington Walls.
Remains found at the site included jewellery, stone arrowheads, tools made of deer antlers, wooden spears and huge amounts of animal bones and broken pottery. "These finds suggest Stone Age people went to the village at special times of the year to feast and party", says Mike Parker Pearson from Sheffield University in England.
He said many of the pig bones they found had been thrown away half-eaten. He also said the partygoers appeared to have shot some of the farm pigs with arrows, possibly as a kind of sport before barbecuing them.
An ancient road which led from the village to the River Avon was also found. Here, the experts think, people came after their parties to throw dead relatives in the water so the bodies would be washed downstream to Stonehenge.
Parker Pearson believes Stonehenge was like a cemetery where ancient Britons buried the dead and remembered their ancestors. "The theory is that Stonehenge is a kind of spirit home to the ancestors."
The recent discovery of the village within the Durrington Walls shows that Stonehenge didn't stand alone but was part of a much bigger religious site, according to Parker Pearson.
People still come to worship and celebrate at Stonehenge today. They meet there when the sun sets on the shortest day of winter and when it rises on the longest day of summer. But the days of barbecuing whole pigs there and throwing family members into the river are a thing of the past.
passing her exams, she got a new bike from her parents.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1). 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2). 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Mr. Wang and his wife went to the supermarket the last Sunday. They arrived home very lately. On the way upstairs, Mrs. Wang said, "Listen! I can hear someone talk in kitchen." Then they went downstairs and quiet stood there outside the room. "Yes, you are right, "said Mr. Wang. "There are two boy. They are talking!" Then they call out, "Who's there?" And no one answered. Mr. Wang opened the door quickly and turned on the light. The room is empty. When they saw the radio, they laughed. The radio was still on. "Oh, dear, " he said, "I forgot to turn it off when they left."
My friend had a chance to make a trip to Hong Kong on August 15, 2016. He had dreamed visiting it since his boyhood and it was the first time that he (be) there. The following was what he had seen.
(arrive) there, he was impressed by its beautiful scenery and tall buildings. It is said that Hong Kong has the (many) skyscrapers (摩天大楼) in the world. Wherever he went, he saw many smiling faces. People in Hong Kong were kind, easygoing and ready to help others. Much to his surprise, he saw that people there always kept order in public (place). Though crowds of people were waiting for the next train at the subway station, they were talking in such low voice as not (disturb) others.
Chinese and English are the (office) languages of Hong Kong. English (use) in governments, markets, service centers and other fields.
Staying there for a week was a good experience for him, he would never forget.
The Taj Mahal (泰姬陵) is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn't exist, we would easily imagine that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale. Three hundred years ago, there lived an Indian emperor called Shah Jahan. His wife was a beautiful and bright woman whom he loved greatly. Her title was Mumtazl Mahan: its shortened form Taj Mahan means "pride of the palace". In the year 1630 this beloved wife of the emperor died. He was so brokenhearted that he thought of giving up his throne. He decided out of his love for his wife, to build her the most beautiful tomb that had ever been seen.
He summoned the best artists and architects from India, Turkey, Persia and Arabia and finally, the design was complete. It took more than twenty thousand men working over a period of 18 years to build the Taj Mahan, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The building itself stands on a marble platform 29 meters square and 67 meters high. Towers rise from each of the four corners. The Taj itself soars another 61 meters into the air. It is an eight-sided building made of white marble. The emperor planned to build an identical tomb of black marble for himself on the other side of the river connected by a silver bridge. However his son put him into a prison in the palace before he could finish, and for the rest of his life, he could only gaze across river at the tomb of his beloved wife.
