Giraffes are beautiful, smart and friendly. They have long legs and necks (脖子). They are so tall that they can grow up over 5 meters (米). So how do they sleep or drink?

    You may think it's difficult for them to sleep, but they have no such problems because giraffes don't often stop for a sleep. Giraffes just need to sleep about thirty minutes a day. When they sleep, they don't always lie down (躺下). They usually sleep for minutes at a time, because it's difficult for them to get up again. And it's a great danger to sleep in the wild (荒野). But the giraffes in the zoo sleep for about 4-6 hours every day. They usually lie down when they sleep.

    Drinking water is a big problem for giraffes because their long necks are too "short". To drink water, they must spread (伸展) their front legs in a difficult way. And in this way, other animals like Africa's big cats can easily hunt (猎食) them. So they usually get most of their water from the trees and flowers. Giraffes don't need to drink water very often. They can even drink no water for months!

    Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

    Imagine you are taking a walk on the beautiful beach. Just then, your feet step over something and you hear a crack (噼啪声) —an empty plastic bottle. Things like this are happening more often because of sea rubbish.

    Studies show that 80%of all the waste is from the land. The waste is mainly plastics (塑料制品) which are really hard to degrade (降解). So the rubbish will remain there for a long time. Some of the pollution is caused accidentally. For example, about 10,000 product-filled boxes are lost at sea every year from business ships. Sometimes people just throw things into the water from boats or land. Many large rubbish areas are formed in the North Pacific Ocean.

    Thankfully, the situation isn't ignored (忽视). Groups like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are taking action to help clean the sea. Since 2006, 76 projects have cleared out 3,814 metric tons (公吨) of rubbish from the sea. Methods of rubbish cleaning include using machines to remove (移除) the waste away from the surface of sea water. Besides, special nets are set by the mouths of rivers to stop the rubbish before it reaches the sea. If everyone does his part, sea rubbish seems like a problem that can be solved.

    The Spring Festival is a great festival. It's one of 1 festivals in China. People usually go home to be with their family2 the festival is coming.

    In fact, from Little New Year, people start 3 preparations for the Spring Festival. They want to have 4fresh beginning in the new year. The first thing that people usually do is to clean 5 houses. They believe good cleaning can sweep bad luck away. They also buy food to welcome the festival.

    There is a story about the Spring Festival. A long time ago, a monster called Nian6 people on New Year's Eve. People did not know what to do at first. Finally, they knew Nian was afraid7 red, fire and loud noise. Then they posted red couplets (对联), set off fireworks and played the drums. Later, Nian never came to the village again. Even today, people celebrate the festival in this way.

    During the Spring Festival, people usually visit their family members, friends and wish each other good luck. The traditional ways of 8 the Spring Festival are having a big family dinner on New Year's Eve and watching the Spring Festival Gala. In 2020, the Spring Festival 9 on January 25. Did you10a happy time? Did you do anything special?

Singapore is a city of different cultures. Walking through the streets of Singapore, you can{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (听到)different languages spoken, such as English, Chinese and Malay. People from different cultures live and work peacefully with each other and share their traditions.

In Singapore, cultural differences are shown in building styles, shops and in many other ways. Take food as an {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (例子), each culture has its own place to sell their traditional food, but there are also the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (著名的) hawker markets. Different foods are sold in these {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (繁忙的) markets.

And these are very {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (受欢迎的) with Singapore citizens and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (游客) from around the world. The food is good and very{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (便宜的).

Singapore is also an interesting city. Large numbers of people, ideas, etc, are mixed together {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (在……下面)the same sky. English is used for business, {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (虽然)the official language here is Malay. Now, however, there is a strong Chinese business community and also a growing Indian business community. Singapore welcomes talented people from around the world and {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (希望)they will live there all their lives.

Every year, wildfires destroy millions of hectares of forest land. Homes are damaged, and thousands of people die. Smokejumpers help to stop this. 

Smokejumpers are a special type of firefighter. They jump from planes or are lowered by helicopters into areas that are 1 to reach by car or on foot, such as the middle of a mountain forest. They race to put out fires as fast as they can. 

At a fire site, smokejumpers first examine the land and decide 2 to fight the fire. Their main goal is to stop a fire from spreading or to slow its progress  3 ground—based firefighters arrive. Using basic equipment such as shovels (铲子) and axes(斧头), smokejumpers clear land of burnable material, like dry grass and dead trees. They carry water with them, too, but only a limited amount. 

Most smokejumpers are men. The most important factors are your height and  4 .Smokejumpers employed in the United States must be between 54 and 91 kilograms so they don't get blown away by the strong winds or get 5 when they land. 

The work is dangerous, and the hours are long. But for these firefighters, smoke jumping isn't just a job. They6 being able to jump out of planes, fight fires, and live in the forest. As 28-year-old Russian smokejumper Alexi says, "This is the best job for tough guys. "