In today's society, everyone is busy and running at a fast pace every day. We feel our time is valuable and needs to be used well. We need cheap meal ideas that can help us save time and money and still provide a healthy and nutritious (有营养的) dinner for us and our family.

    The fast food makers know we have little time and that the idea of cooking dinner after a long day at work is not something we look forward to. So the fast food makers offer us cheap food that requires no cooking, no cleaning, and only 25 minutes to pick up.

    But eating so much fast food will cause body fatness and fast food is not nutritious, so it's not the healthiest choice to consider. There are some very cheap meal ideas that take almost no time to prepare and will make coming home for a good meal more enjoyable.

    The first cheap meal idea is one dish which includes meat, vegetables and rice. This is not only a cheap meal idea, but also it is fast because it can be made in only 20 minutes.

    You can quickly make some pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family in about 30 minutes. If you think it is strange to eat breakfast food for dinner, consider how the same foods give you what you need to go through a whole day.

    Another cheap meal idea to try is a “macaroni and cheese with meat” dish, which only takes around 20 minutes to cook.

If you are interested in these cheap meal ideas, you're welcome to visit our website for details. When you fix one of these or other cheap meal ideas at home, you are taking time out of your busy day to treat yourself and your family in a special way.

    California is one of the richest states in America．It has a large amount of land．And it also has more people than any other states．It has plenty of natural resources （资源），too．

    But everything （A）_______ not perfect there．California has two major problems：earthquakes and forest fires．

    The San Andreas Fault runs through California．（B）As a result of it，the state gets many earthquakes．（C） 其中一些地震非常强烈 For example，there was a strong earthquake in San Francisco in 1906．It destroyed many buildings．And it started a large number of fires．（D）More than 3，000 people died after it ． There have also been many other strong earthquakes．Some people fear that the"big （E）one"will hit someday．They think an earthquake will cause a huge amount of damage （破坏）．

    During summer and autumn，much of California is dry．So forest fires，or wildfires，often start．Those fires can spread （F）rapidly ． They burn many forest．But they can also burn people's homes and buildings．They often kill people．（G）_______ firefighters can put them out．

Reading is a good habit, but the problem is that there's too much to read, and too little time to read every word of it. So ①we need to find good ways to read faster. There are hundreds of skills (技巧) to help you read more in less time. Here are two skills that I think are especially good.

Preview (预看) —if it's long and hard. This skill is especially useful for ideas of heavy reading like long magazine articles (文章) and business reports (报告).

    Here's how the preview goes.

●Read the first two paragraphs (段落) and the last two paragraphs carefully.

●Then read only the first sentence of the other paragraphs.

    This skill doesn't give you all the details (细节, 详情). It stops you spending time on things you don't really want or need to read.

    Skim (略读)—if it's short and simple (简单的). Skimming is a good way to get ideas of light reading like popular magazines or sports and entertainment (娱乐) papers.

    Here's how to skim.

    ●Get your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each line.

    ●Pick up only a few ②key words in each line.

    Everybody skims differently. You and I may not pick up the same words when we skim the same piece, but we'll get a similar (相似的) idea of what it's mainly about.

What were they doing?

    These days, a new kind of restaurant is becoming popular. People who go there can not only enjoy their meals, but also enjoy playing computer games and chatting on the Internet. Wink is the restaurant's name. It is in Los Angeles, and it's about fun and food.

    In Wink, there are no waiters or waitresses around you. The screens have replaced(取代)them. You can order the food you want by touching the screen in front of you and runners will bring it to the tables. You can also play video games with the people at the next table .The screens can show music videos, movies and so on. But mainly they are used to show video games.

    It's an interactive(互动的)restaurant where you will control your meal and your time. The service is fast and the runners know clearly where to go. There will be no waiting for a waiter and no misunderstandings(误解)in the kitchen. Different kinds of food are served at any time of the day. Wink is a place which hosts “room games”, where every table in the restaurant can have a video game competition at the same time.

    The owner of the restaurant hopes that Wink can make it easy for people to be interactive having fun and enjoying a delicious meal.

    The villas(别墅)were very nice. Beautiful houses, wonderful lawns, and nice gardens. This was the kind of housing estate where John Wood preferred to work.

    It was just before eleven o'clock at night. After John drove around for the fifth time, he thought that he had found the right house-No. 4. There was no light and the garage(车库)door was open. John parked his car in the next street and then came into the garage.

    No one would think that a well-dressed gentleman with a white silk scarf and gloves, was really an excellent thief.

    After looking around the house for a while, John got down to work. He searched every room, and before long, his hands were full. He had two necklaces, some gold rings and a purse with a lot of money. He put all the things in his pocket.

    Then he found a small wall safe(保险箱)in the bedroom. John couldn't wait to take the valuable things from the safe and put them into his own pocket！But the thief met a problem; he couldn't open the safe.

    John wiped a few drops of sweat from his forehead, took off his gloves, and placed them on a chair. Again and again, and finally, he opened the safe. He saw something shining-a huge diamond.

    Suddenly, John heard someone opening the front door. It was the owner of the house. John put the diamond in his pocket, ran to the window, climbed out of the house and drove away in the dark.

    Ten minutes later, the police arrived. After searching the house. the police found an important piece of evidence(证据)that could easily tell who was the thief.

    Do you know what the piece of evidence was?