Shenzhen's fast development has made it become China's most crowded city!  Here are about 15 million people living on its 1,991 square kilometers. On each square kilometer averagely(平均地) live 7, 500 people. It is 1, 080 more than that in Hong Kong, and nearly 800 more than that in Guangzhou.

    Besides, Shenzhen owns 2 million local vehicles, and about 300, 000 vehicles from other places also run on the local roads every day. The total length of the city's roads is 6, 041 kilometers. It means each resident only owns 0. 58 meters of road!

    As a result, the city is facing serious environment and resource(能源) problem. One of the problems is water shortage. The amount of fresh water for each person of the city is only 25％ of the country's average. What's more, most of the water drunk by Shenzhen people comes from other areas.

    People like to keep different animals such as dogs as pets. But cats are the most popular pets among Americans. So it is not surprising there are many expressions about cats. Do you know any of them? Now let me introduce some to you.

    Some cats like to catch small birds, like canaries. If someone looks very proud or pleased with himself, we say "he looks like the cat that ate the canary".

    Sometimes, a cat likes to play with a small animal it catches. So if you "play cat and mouse with someone", you keep him in a state (状态) of uncertain expectation. For example, a child might repeatedly give something sweet to her little brother, and then take it back when her brother is confused or relaxed.

    A cat will often catch a small animal and show it to its owner. The saying that "looks like something the cat dragged in(把……拖进来)" means something in bad condition.

    "A fat cat" is a person with a lot of money.

    There are many other expressions about cats in America. How interesting! Which kind of cat are you, or which kind would you like to be?

    One of the most famous buildings in the United States is Carnegie Hall, the home of classical and popular music concerts in New York. Carnegie Hall is known not just for its beauty and history, but also for its amazing sound. It has been said that the hall itself is an instrument. It takes the music and makes it larger than life.

    Carnegie Hall is named after Andrew Carnegie, who paid for its construction. He was a wealthy man who also gave a lot of money to schools and public libraries. Construction on Carnegie Hall began in 1890 and the official opening night was on May 5, 1891.

    The hall was owned by the Carnegie family until 1924 when it was sold to Robert E. Simon. The building became very old and in 1960, the new owner made plans to destroy it and build an office block. Isaac Stem led a group of people who fought to save Carnegie Hall and finally, the city of New York bought it for $5 million. It was then fixed up between 1983 and 1995.

    In 1986, people realized that Carnegie Hall had never kept proper records of its history. Advertisements and stories in newspapers about how Carnegie Hall needed help to recover its history led people to send in old concert programmes and information from all over the world. Over 12,000 concert programmes were received and with these it was possible to make a proper record of Carnegie Hall's concert history.

    Because the best and most famous musicians of all time have played at Carnegie Hall, it is the dream of most musicians who want to be great to play there. This has led to a very old joke which is now part of Carnegie Hall's history. Question: "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Answer: "Practise, practise, practise."

    As we know, there are differences between Western culture and Chinese culture. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Let's look at some words about animals and plants. Most expressions in Chinese about the dog, for example, "a homeless dog", "a mad dog", "a running dog" and "a dog catching a mouse", have bad meanings. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. In English, people use the dog to describe good actions. For example, "you are a lucky dog" means you are a lucky person. And "every dog has its day" means each person has good luck sometimes. To describe a person's serious illness, they say "sick as a dog". The word "dog­tired" means very tired.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. But in Western culture, "cat" is often used to describe a woman who is unkind. There are many other examples of how "cat" is used differently as well.

   {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. People think the rose stands for love, peace, courage and friendship. And the rose is the national flower of England, America and many other countries.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. We can learn about many differences in cultures by comparing how some words are used.

A. However, Chinese love cats very much

B. The words about plants and animals are used in good or bad ways in different cultures

C. We can see differences when we pay attention to the way words are used

D. However, westerners love cats very much

E. We can see similarities when we pay attention to the way words are used

F. The rose is regarded as a symbol of love in both China and some Western countries

G. But in Western countries, dogs are considered to be honest and good friends of humans

    Long ago, people did not need money. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    As time passed, people learned to raise animals and crops. Sometimes, families produced more than they needed, so they started to trade (交易) with other families. Later, people began to use money as a means of exchange. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}They used shells, rice, salt, large stones, etc.

    During the 600s BC, people began using coins as money. They soon found that coins were easier to carry than goods (货物) and lasted a long time. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    The Chinese were the first to use paper money, probably as early as the eleventh century. The Italian traveller Marco Polo saw the Chinese using paper money when he visited China in the 1200s. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Today, we have many ways to pay for things. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Often, people prefer to pay for things by card. Paying with a card is easier and safer than carrying around a lot of "real" money.