Do you know oil platforms (石油钻井平台)? They pump out (大量生产) oil from under the ocean (海洋). There can be over 100 people living and working on an oil platform. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    The people on oil platforms do a number of different jobs. There are engineers, cooks, doctors, cleaners, etc. But the roughnecks (石油钻井工人) have the hardest job. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}It's hard, dangerous work.

    There are no weekends on oil platforms. Usually, people work every day for two weeks. Then they go back to land to have two or three weeks off from work.

    The people on oil platforms can play games and watch TV when they don't work or sleep. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}There's not much space, and you can't just go for a walk.

    Oil platforms are dangerous places. Everyone needs to work carefully.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}An accident (事故)on the platform Deepwater Horizon in 2010 killed eleven people and a lot of oil went into the ocean.

    After that accident, some people said that oil platforms were just too dangerous.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}So we still need people to work in these difficult, dangerous places.

    Friends are very important in everyone's life because friends are always there when we need them. It's great to have many friends, and I can't think about my life without my friends.

    My best friend is Lisa. When I first met her, I was five. She is one year older than me. Now she is in the same class with me, in the 8th grade. She is tall and quite thin. She has long curly blond hair and blue eyes. Lisa and I like doing a lot of things together and talking about different things. She always helps me with my math and I sometimes help her with her English and history, I had to do a report(报告)on science once, but I didn't understand(理解) what the teacher said. The next day, I read it in front of the class. But the teacher told me that my report was wrong and my classmates laughed at me. I felt very bad about myself. Lisa was the only one who didn't laugh at me. She tried to be nicer than anybody else and made me happy.

    Lisa is friendly and everybody loves her. I am happy to have a friend like her.

Information Card

    Let's have a look at American students' school life. On school days, American students usually get up at 7:00 a.m. Most students walk or take a yellow school bus to school. Some students ride bikes. After they arrive at school at about 8:30 a.m., they meet their friends and talk about their activities. They put their backpack in a small cupboard(衣柜）and take out only one book, some writing paper and a pencil for each class. In the middle school, they take only five or six subjects each term. They usually go to the same class every day, and they have homework for every class.

    At noon, the students eat lunch at school. They often have meat, vegetables, fruit and some drinks. But some students like pizza, hot dogs or hamburgers better. At 13:00 in the afternoon, they begin to have classes. Their classes are always over at 15:00. Then they join the school clubs or play sports. They go back home at about 5:30 p.m.

Information Card

    Flowers have habits or ways of doing things, just as people have. Would you like to hear about some of these?

    There is one habit that almost all flowers have. They turn to the light. If plants are kept in a room, the flowers turn to the window. Some flowers shut up at night. It seems that they go to sleep. They open again in the morning. Tulips（郁金香）do this.

    One morning Lingling was looking at some tulips. When one of them opened, a bee flew out. He stayed too late last night, and so was shut up in the flower. He might be hard at work all day getting honey. He stopped to rest in the tulip, and was shut in when it closed. He had a fine bed that night. Lingling wondered if he slept any better than he would have slept in the hive（蜂巢）!

    It is widely accepted that television is playing an important part in people's lives. But, there is a heated discussion as to whether television does good or harm.

    Television keeps one learning more about present events, allows one to follow the most re­cent developments in politics and science, and offers various programs which are .both instructive and exciting. The most distant countries, the strangest customs and the most attractive scenes of nature are brought right into one's room or house.

    However, some people insist that television is bad rather than good. They argue that it has brought about many serious problems. The major one is its effects on young people. Children are now so used to getting their information and entertainment from television that their ability to read and write as well as physical ability has been greatly weakened. Even worse than that, vulgar(庸俗的) advertisements and poor programs may develop their bad tastes, shape their view points badly towards human life to such a degree that their minds might be destroyed.

    In a word, television has both advantages and disadvantages. Whatever effects it has, one point is certain, television in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the use to which it is put that decides its value to society.

Should We Keep Animals In Zoos?

    Zoos are popular places in communities around the world. They're places where people can learn about wild animals by seeing them up close. Some people  though, believe zoos aren't good for animals. They think wild animals should only live in the wild.

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    Wild animals have been kept in cages for thousands years. Over time, people began speaking out about the practice of keeping animals in zoos. The rise of animal rights movement and groups have led many to question whether or not zoos are right.

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    Zoos provide care for animals that they wouldn't receive in the wild. Animals are fed a healthy diet in zoos. Also, zoos have veterinarians who provide medical care for hurt or sick animals that would often be left to die in the wild. In some cases, zoos help animals to live longer.

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    Though many animals live longer in zoos, some mammals live longer in the wild. Elephants live near twice as long in the wild as they do in zoos. Scientists believe the causes for this include elephants in zoos becoming stressed and depressed when they are forced to live in small spaces.

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    It may seem like a good thing that zoos set animals back into the wild, but there are often problems with this practice. Zoo animals don't learn hunting skills since they are fed by zookeepers. They also have no idea to stay away from predators, cars or hunters in the wild.

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    How much do zoos actually teach people about animals? A 2014 study showed that only 1000 out of 3000 children who visited a zoo learned something new. Groups such as PETA believe the biggest thing children learnt at zoos is that it's fine to keep animals in cages instead of in the wild.