Welcome to your handy pricing guide

    This leaflet gives you the prices for Royal Mails UK and International services and Parcelforce Worldwide UK services — whether your item is to the UK or abroad, urgent or you simply want a standard service. To obey national and international regulations governing the carriage of mail, and ensure that mail in transport does not present a danger to the general public, we restrict or ban certain items from our network.

    If you want to find out more about our parcel and letter services, please take a look at the 'our services' booklet for more detailed information. Alternatively, you can find out more by visiting www.royalmail.com or by calling Customer Services on 03457740740. If you are deaf or hearing impaired, we offer a Textphone service on 03456000606.

Following the old saying of "early to bed and early to rise" I used to go to bed at 10 pm and get up early at 6 am to get ready for school. But that day, as it was cloudy, I continued to sleep for long, thinking it to be the early hours of the day.

Suddenly, I heard a loud voice which startled me up and made me sit upright. It was my mother's voice who was knocking and shouting, "Get up honey. It's 6:45 am already! You are getting late for school!" As it was a cloudy day, I hadn't realized that it was almost 7 and continued dozing for long!

But thank fully that day our pick-up person who generally used to come at 6:50 am got late due to the showers and arrived just in the nick of time when I was ready. By the time we reached school it was a quarter to eight and the drizzle from previous night had finally stopped. I entered the classroom fearing the teacher's anger, but saw only a few students had made it to school. Therefore, the principal declared a holiday. "Hurray!" We all cheered in a chorus at the unexpected holiday and decided to walk back home.

    As it had been continuously drizzling since the previous night there was water all over the place and the roads were impassable. Just then, at a distance my sister and I saw little kids playing in knee-deep water in the streets which touched the play button in us. We quickly approached them and merrily jumped and hopped in the pool of water with them. With shoes in our hands we continued parading on the muddy streets. We were thrilled and our hearts were filled with joy at the sight of the green and fresh leaves on the trees; the frogs drew our attention as we tried to catch butterflies.

    We finally reached home busily playing and laughing with mud-spattered uniforms and shoes. We hurriedly changed our outfits, washed up and sat watching TV with a bowl of hot soup! No doubt, I thoroughly enjoyed this day and secretly prayed for many such days in the future! To this day when it pours, the memories of that eventful rainy day bring a smile on my face!

    On Saturday evening, CCTV showed a computer-generated image of the Chang'e 3 lander's path as it approached the surface of the moon, saying that during the landing period it needed to have no contact with Earth. As it was just hundreds of meters away the lander's camera broadcast images of the moon's surface.

    The Chang'e 3's solar panels, which are used to absorb sunlight to generate power, opened soon after the landing. The mission blasted off (发射) from southwest China on Dec. 2 on a Long March-3B carrier rocket. It is named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon and the “Yutu” rover vehicle, or “Jade Rabbit” in English, afternoon the goddess' pet.

    China's military-backed space program has made much progress in a relatively short time, although it is behind the United States and Russia in technology and experience. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe (探测器) to the moon. China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that.

    “They are taking their time with getting to know about how to fly humans into space, how to build space stations, how to explore the solar system, especially the moon and Mars. They are making big advancements, and I think over the next 10-20 years they'll certainly be matching Russia and America in this area and maybe overtaking them in some areas.”

    According to the Guinness World Records, a Sitka Spruce (锡特卡云杉) growing on New Zealand's southernmost island is the loneliest tree on Earth. Not only is it the only tree on Campbell Island, but the nearest other tree can be found over 200 km away on the Auckland Islands.

    Bluff, Campbell Island is one of the harshest places in the world. With strong winds blowing almost all year round and less than 600 hours of sunshine, it's not exactly a good place to live in, which is probably why, except for occasional visits by research scientists, it, has remained deserted for over half a century.

    It is believed that the Sitka Spruce on Campbell Island was planted by Lord Ranfurly, a former governor of New Zealand, sometime between 1901 and 1907. It's not clear why he decided to plant there, but according to some sources he said that the island was not productive, and took the first step to cover it with forestry. His idea was never going to work because of the harsh climate of the area, but somehow the Sitka Spruce survived.

    Apart from its reputation as the loneliest tree on Earth, the Sitka Spruce of Campbell Island has a series of other particularities. First of all its shape makes it look more like a giant cauliflower than a tree. This is believed to have been caused by repeatedly cutting down its trunk every year, for decades. Another interesting thing about the world's loneliest tree is that, though it is over 100 years old, it has never produced cones (球果).

    Who knew a lonely tree growing 200 km away from its nearest cousins could be so interesting?

How to Save Water

    , but only 1% is easily accessible to you. Water conservation can be simple, and it starts at home. Whether you're taking showers, doing laundry, saving the water in a pool, or choosing your food, there are several strategies that will help you save water.

    Take shorter showers.

    Taking a shower uses roughly one third of the amount of water used in taking a bath. So'skip the bath and take a short shower instead. Take a CD player into the bathroom with you to challenge yourself. . Cutting down your shower time by just two minutes can save 10 gallons of water.

    Make sure you're washing a full load of laundry.

    . Put a full load of laundry in so that you'll be sure not to waste water. When washing your clothes, use the economy mode — this will save you both water and electricity!

    .

    If you have a pool, using a pool cover at night during the warmer months helps to prevent evaporation. In some places, emptying and refilling a pool is under severe restrictions, or even banned, so preserving this precious resource is crucial.

Eat less meat and dairy

    Growing animal feed uses tons of water, not to mention the amount of water used in the rest of the meat and dairy production process. The more meat and dairy you eat, the more animals are needed to keep up with the demand, so try to limit your intake of such foods.

    Defrost frozen food in the refrigerator.

    While it may be faster to soak your frozen food in water, this isn't necessary and wastes water. .

A. Water is a necessary resource for life

B. Water covers 70% of the earth

C. Cover your swimming pool

D Empty your swimming pool

E. Try to finish by the time it is over

F. Try to plan ahead and put the food in the fridge overnight

G. Don't just throw some socks and two shirts in the machine

    When I was in middle school, I tried my best to be popular. However, one afternoon, I had a(n) 1 with my mother, which changed my mind eventually.

    We were sitting in the dining area of a local restaurant. I told her that I wanted to be 2. She asked me why I felt that way. 3, I had never stopped to think about why I felt the need to fit in. I 4 did.

    My mother told me a story. My grandmother made her several 5 sweater vests. Although those were hardly “in style”, my mother really 6 to wear them. What was surprising was that many other female students at my mother's school began 7 sweater vests after a few weeks. My mother had started a 8. What she wore became fashionable because the other students saw the 9 with which she dressed.

    At that time, the information was too much for a thirteen-year-old girl to 10. I didn't believe her. I thought my mother was 11. So I continued to wear the same clothes, seeking popularity as usual — I had not yet seen the 12 at the end of a dark tunnel (隧道)then. However, our conversation that day 13 over and over in my mind.

    I thought long and carefully, and then I 14 that my mother's words might have some 15. I began to check my wardrobe (衣柜) to find which items I'd bought because I truly like them. I also16 my actions, trying to determine how many of them I wore to 17 the crowd. Gradually, I found myself 18 less and less what people thought about me. I was greatly 19.

    The conversation I had with my mother was a 20 lesson for me. Sometimes swimming against the current can only make me stronger.

    One news story about the modem Olympics is about men (pretend) to be women to enter the women's events, People are arguing about how fair is to test woman athletes to make sure they are not men. One side argues that men are (strong), so they will win any women's event. They say that women should be tested to make sure they are not men. The other side argues that this is (fair)to women. They say skill is more important than strength. But has this ever really happened? answer is yes, several times! The most famous case is that of Dora in the 1936 Olympic Games.

    The Olympics (hold) in Berlin, Germany, three years after the Nazis came power. The Nazis wanted to win lots of events, but they had wrong ideas about race. They did not want black or Jewish people in the German team. But many of their best athletes were Jewish. The Nazis did not let these athletes compete. But that meant they might lose events! One event the Nazis thought they might lose was the women's high Jump. So the Nazis sent a male athlete, Hermann Ratjen, (compete) under the name of “Dora”. Did he win? No. “Dora” came fourth. The (win) was a young Jewish woman from Hungary. She jumped 1.60 metres. “Dora” only jumped 1.58 metres. So men do not always win.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），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。

    Early rising has many advantage. First, it helps us to keep health. We all need fresh air, and the air is freshest in the morning. Beside, we can improve our health by exercise regularly in the morning. Second, it can also benefits our study because in the morning we can lean more quickly. Third, it can make us to plan our work for the day. Only without a proper plan can we work well. Early rising can allow us enough time to get ready for your work. So we say that those who always gets up late should make an effort to get up early.

内容包括：

1）介绍中国书法的重要性和练习书法的益处；

2）分享自己练习中国书法的体会。

注意：1）词数100左右；

2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3）开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

Dear Eric,

    I am glad that you are interested in Chinese calligraphy.

Yours,

Li Hua