Many people say that they are working too many hours. They don't have enough time to relax or to stay with their family.

    Work hours are different from one country to another. In France, people spend about 1, 646 hours a year at work. In Japan, however, people work about 2, 159 hours a year. That means a Japanese worker works 513 more hours a year than a French worker.

    Why do people work so many hours？Some people work extra hours because they want to make more money. However, many companies don't pay overtime. Their workers don't get more pay for more work. Some people think it's their duty to work more hours. Some are afraid of losing their jobs if they don't work more hours.

    Many people say that their vacations are too short. In France, people get five weeks of paid vacation a year. In Germany, they get four to six weeks, and in the United States, two weeks. One study shows fewer than half of workers used all their vacation days. In Great Britain, there is a saying, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull(迟钝的) boy. "If that is true, there must be a lot of dull people in the world.

I'm Bob. I work at night from Monday to Thursday. So in the daytime (白天), I often sleep for at least 7 hours. Then I get up, have some food and watch TV. I usually watch TV for more than two hours every day. At 7:00 p.m., I go to work by bike.

But on weekends, my life is different. I usually sleep at night and do different activities in the daytime. For example, last weekend was quite full for me. On Saturday morning, I went to learn dance. I have dance lessons once a week. In the afternoon, I went to play basketball with my friends. We played for three hours and felt excited. I thought it was good for my health. On Sunday morning, I drove to the dentist for teeth cleaning. In the afternoon, I went to the movies with my friend, Tom. I thought the movie was interesting, but Tom thought it was difficult to understand (理解).

    Hello! My name is Cindy Brown. I am thirteen years old. Cindy is my {#blank#}1{#/blank#}name and Brown is my family name. Can you {#blank#}2{#/blank#}"Brown"? Yes, B﹣R﹣O﹣W﹣N, Brown. I am an English girl.I am in China now. I am a student in a middle school in ZhouSan. Do you know {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（I）?

    Zhao Qi is a Chinese girl. She is thirteen years old, too. She is my good {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Her father is a teacher in our school. Her mother is a teacher too. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}she isn't in our school. Zhao Qi always {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（ask）her parents for help. Zhao Qi has{#blank#}7{#/blank#}（a） iPad. Many {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（photo）are in it. Look at this photo! {#blank#}9{#/blank#} the little baby in the photo? Aha, it's Zhao Qi. What are those on the chair?{#blank#}10{#/blank#} are her hats.

Why Live Near the River?

Imagine pioneers traveling west in the 1800s. In those days, it was hard to find running water and shops where to buy things. As time went by, most pioneers had to make their homes near a river so that they could get water easily.

How did rivers help people live in the past?

Back in the pioneer days, people grew their own food, caught their own fish, and collected their own water.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}People also used rivers as roads, traveling on boats. Traders shipped goods (货物) to people from other areas.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

When building many factories right next to rivers for the water's power to make machines work, some people choose to live near a river for working. They use the river to ship large goods, and some of them work at these factories where power factories provide electricity for homes and businesses.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Who wouldn't want to live near a river?

Some people are nervous about living near rivers because rivers can cause floods (洪水). Every once in a while, floodwaters rise higher than a house, ruining (毁坏) many things in the house.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Such waste causes water to smell bad and pollutes the crops (作物) we eat. Water and crops in polluted areas can make people very sick.

How do people decide where to live?

 {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Rivers can provide jobs and fun activities in a beautiful place. However, those living by rivers should be willing to accept possible problems as well.

Several times each year the Queen gives afternoon tea parties at which guests are served tiny cakes filled with cream from her own cows. Cakes and sandwiches are bought in by footmen, yet you never see the Queen touch a thing. She

simply sits beside a big silver plate, pouring cups of tea for everyone and carefully avoiding the cakes.

At cocktail parties the Queen moves from group to group, chatting informally, and manages to make one glass of diet drink to last a whole evening. Tours abroad are difficult because hosts seem to believe the warmth of their welcome must be shown with wonderful state banquets(宴). But the Queen has perfected the art of appearing to enjoy her meal without actually eating much. During one visit to the Pacific islands of Tonga, a specially-prepared dinner was set up in   a hut made of wood and bamboo leaves. Deep holes were dug in the ground, filled with hot stones and baby pigs, and the pigs were slowly cooked with dry heat over several days. The Queen looked uneasily at her plate when she discovered a   whole roast(烤) pig was her serving.

Then she became uneasy when a turkey, some meat, bananas and an apple were also carried in for each guest. So she depended on her old favourite trick of talking with her host, King Tupou IV, carrying on a warm conversation. At the same time she pushed her food around her plate and only ate a piece of turkey and some fruit.

Reporters traveling with her have noticed that the Queen will sometimes seem so interested in a foreign leader's political(政治的) chat that she simply never has time to finish a meal before it is time to get up and make her speech. She will lift her fork, then put it down again to make another point, leaving almost all of her meal untouched.