From the very beginning of school we make books and reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation. When children are little we make them read aloud, before the teacher and other children, so that we can be sure they “know” all the words they are reading. This means that when they don't know a word, they are going to make a mistake, right in front of everyone. After having taught fifth-grade classes for four years, I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.

         One day soon after school had started, I said to them, “Now I'm going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of  books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that's enough for me. Also I'm not going to ask you what words mean. “

        The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously, Mr Holt, do you really mean that?” I said just as seriously, “I mean every word of it.

During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk, From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the book was. I said to myself, “It can't be,” and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick , in edition with woodcuts. I said, “Don't you find parts of it rather heavy going?” She answered, Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part. “

        This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is, an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of “understanding” that can be dug out of a book.

    Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.

What to Expect

    The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least Once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.

Accommodation Zones

    Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones 2.3 and 4of the transport system. Most hosts do not live in the town center as much of central London is commercial and not residential. Zones 3 and 4 often offer larger accommodation in a less crowed area. It is very convenient to travel in London by Underground.

Meal Plans Available

·Continental Breakfast

·Breakfast and Dinner

·Breakfast, Packed Dinner

    It's important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast. Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal, bread and tea or coffee. Cheese, fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in England. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by desert, fruit and coffee.

Friends

    If you wish to invite a friend over to visit,you must first ask your host's permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.

Self-Catering Accommodation in Private Homes

    Accommodation on a room-only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long -stay student . However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practice English at home quite as much.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    China's government has been trying all measures to reduce pollution in the past few years. Now people can enjoy a fresh environment everywhere. The following two graphs are adopted from the column of “City Information” on the webpage of Beijing Review.

Graph 1: Olympic Cities Air Quality Report

Graph 2: Chinese National Standard

Notes:

    API stands for Air Pollution Index(指数).

    Particulate matter (PM10) is a major component of air pollution that threatens both our health and our environment. It consists of very small liquid and solid particles floating in the air.

    Sulfur dioxide(SO₂) acts as an acid. Inhalation(吸入) results in labored breathing, coughing, or a sore throat and may cause permanent lung damage.

    Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood had a son called Michael and a daughter called Matilda, who was so quick to learn that her ability should have been obvious even to the most stupid parents. But she was their daughter. To tell the truth, I doubt they had noticed she crawled into the house with a broken leg.

    By the age of one and a half her speech was perfect and she knew as many words as most grown-ups. The parents, instead of praising her, called her a noisy chatterbox and told her sharply that small girls should be seen and not heard.

    By the time she was three, Matilda had taught herself to read by studying newspapers and magazines that lay around the house. At the age of four, she could read fast and well and she naturally began seeking for books. The only book in the whole of this enlightened household was something called Easy Cooking belonging to her mother, and when she had read this from cover to cover, and had learnt all the recipes by heart, she decided she wanted something more interesting.

    "Daddy," she said, "do you think you could buy me a book?

    "A book?" he said. "What do you want a book for?"

    "To read, Daddy."

    "What's wrong with the telly? We've got a lovely telly with a twelve-inch screen and now you come asking for a book!"

    Nearly every weekday afternoon Matilda was left alone in the house. Her brother went to school. Her father went to work and her mother went out playing bingo. On the afternoon of the day when her father had refused to buy her a book, Matilda set out all by herself to walk to the public library in the village. She asked Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, if she might sit a while and read a book. Mrs. Phelps, slightly surprised at the arrival of such a tiny girl unaccompanied by a parent, nevertheless told her she was very welcome.

    "Where are the children's books please!" Matilda asked.

    "They're over there on those lower shelves," Mrs. Phelps told her. "Would you like me to help you find a nice one with lots of pictures in it?

    "No, thank you." Matilda said. "I'm sure I can manage."

    From then on, every afternoon, as soon as her mother had left for bingo, Matilda would walk down to the library, where she spent two glorious hours sitting quietly by herself in a cosy comer devouring one book after another. When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering around in search of something else.

    Mrs. Phelps, who had been watching her with interest for the past few weeks, now got up from her desk and went over to her. "Can I help you, Matilda?" she asked.

    "I'm wondering what to read next," Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books."

    "You mean you've looked at the pictures?"

    "yes, but I've read the books as well. I thought some were very poor, but others were lovely. I like The Secret Garden best of all. It was full of mystery. The mystery of the room behind the closed door and the mystery of the garden behind the big wall".

    Mrs. Phelps was stunned." Exactly how old are you, Matilda?" she asked.

"Four years and three months," Matilda said." I would like a really good book that grown-ups read .A famous one."

    Mrs. Phelps looked along the shelves, taking her time." Try this", she said at last," It's very famous and very good. If it's too long for you, just let me know".

    "Great Expectations," Matilda read, "by Charles Dickens. I'd love to try it"

    Susan couldn't help it. She and her friends began lunch with cheese. Then they ate cheeseburgers and drank milk. Things seemed fine, but then suddenly Susan's stomach started making noise. Her stomach hurt, and, racing to the restroom, she had terrible gas! She was so ashamed. She had been so excited to go to lunch with her friends that she totally forgot to watch how many dairy products (奶制品) she ate! Susan is lactose intolerant (乳糖不耐受的), and eating too many dairy foods can make her feel really sick.

    Lactose intolerance means that the body can't easily digest (消化) a special sugar called lactose. Unfortunately for Susan and millions of other people with this problem, lactose is found in almost all dairy products — cheese, milk and ice cream.

    Our body uses lactase (乳糖酵素) to break lactose into a simpler form of sugar. Once lactose is broken down, it's easy to digest and it provides great energy for the body. But people like Susan don't have enough lactase to break down all the lactose they take in. So, about half an hour to two hours after eating dairy­rich foods, their stomachs begin to hurt and they have gas, making their stomachs get bigger. Sometimes they even get diarrhea (腹泻) when they eat too many dairy foods.

    So how can someone living with this problem still eat out with his or her friends? Here are some tips. If you're going to eat a dairy­rich food like ice cream, eat something that doesn't have any dairy with it, like a salad or a sandwich without cheese. This will help slow digestion, and your body will have time to create more lactase.

A Dream Chaser in a Wheelchair

    Since the age of three, Chelsie Hill had dreamed of becoming a dancer. That ambition nearly ended in 2010 when Hill was in a car accident, which put the 17- year-old high school senior in hospital for 51 days and left her paralyzed from the waist down. For most people, that would have destroyed any hope of a dancing career. But for Hill, it was the beginning. Far from being a barrier, her wheelchair encouraged her to fight. "I want to prove to everyone including myself that I'm still normal," she said, "whatever normal means."

    Normal for her meant dancing, so Hill did it in her wheelchair alongside her nondisabled high school dance team. Half of her body was taken away from her, so she had to move it with her hands. It took much learning and patience.

    After graduation from high school, Hill wanted to expand her dance network to include women like her. She met people online who were fighting for the dream of dancing against various spinal(脊椎的)injuries, and invited them to dance with her. To reach more people in a larger city, Hill moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and formed a team of dancers with disabilities she called the Rollettes.

    Every year Hill holds a dance camp called the Rollettes Experience for wheelchair users to help them bring out their acting talent. In 2019, 173 participants from ten countries attended. For many, it was the first time they'd felt they belonged. Edna Serrano said that being part of the Rollettes team gave her the courage to get behind the wheel of a car. "I didn't know I could do so many things that my fellow teammates had taught me." she said. "I didn't know I could be sexy. It's so powerful to have my teammates in my life, because they're my teachers. I have more confidence."

    Chelsie Hill attained what many of us never will: her childhood dream. She has been chasing her dream in the wheelchair. She's a dancer. The Rollettes have helped her find something else just as fulfilling.