If you ask people of different countries "Could you tell me the way to the post office?" you will get different answers.

    In Japan, people use landmarks（路标）instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, "Go straight down to the corner. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The post office is across from the bus stop. "

    In Kansas, America, there are no towns or buildings within miles. So instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distance. For example, people will say, "Go north two miles. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} "

    People in Greece sometimes do not even try to give directions. They will often say, "Follow me." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Sometimes if a person doesn't know the answer to your question, he or she might say, "Sorry, I have no idea." But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers "I don't know." {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They usually give an answer, but often a wrong one. A visitor can often get lost in Yucatan!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You might not understand a person's words, but maybe you can understand his or her body language. He or she will usually point to the right direction. Go on in that direction and you may find the post office!

    When I was young, my family lived a hard life in the country. The roads in the country are not good. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} One evening we were visiting some relatives and the weather was very bad.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Dad carried me on his back. Mum gave her coat to my brother. We walked together in the rain for more than one hour.

    I was fat at that time and Dad held me for a long time.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} He almost fell down many times. I tried to get down and walk myself, but I couldn't do anything because I was just a little kid.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The rain had come through the leak(有裂缝的) roof and water was everywhere. Mum put bowls all around the house to try to catch the rain. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} She carefully placed us on the remaining dry place. I fell asleep soon. When I opened my eyes, I found Dad and Mum were sleeping in chairs, both having caught a bad cold.

A. As you can imagine they are difficult to walk on.

B. I thought he must be tired.

C  It began to rain on our way back home.

D. Then she put me and my elder brother to bed.

E. We didn't say any word on the way.

F. When we arrived home, the inside of our house was full of rain water.

    Jim is a nice boy. He is 1.7 metres tall. He is from England. Now he lives in China with his mom and dad. One day，he feels sick. He has a headache. He doesn't want to eat anything. So his father takes him to ________ a doctor by car. The doctor says Jim has a cold. He asks Jim to take some medicine and have a good rest at home.

    There is a new park near Andy's home. It's fine today. Andy and his family are in the park now. On their left, there is a café(咖啡馆). On their right, there is a big lake. There are many flowers and trees around the lake. There's a small hill behind the lake. Near the lake, there are two signs(标识). One says, "Don't swim in the lake!" The other says, "No fishing!" But you can go boating on the lake. There is a beautiful garden in the middle of the park. There is green grass and beautiful flowers in it. There are some small shops between the lake and the garden. The park is so nice. Andy and his family like it very much.

    In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the population of the Earth will have grown by 10 people. That may not sound much, but it is about 14,000 people an hour. That is the same as adding most of the population of Germany to the world every year!

    Most of these new people are born in developing countries. These countries are found in much of Africa, South America, and parts of Asia. In the developed countries of Europe and North America, the population is growing very slowly. This is because women in these countries have, on average, only one or two children. In the developing countries, many women have five or more children. In 1950, around one quarter of the world's population lived in the developed countries. By 2050, these countries will be the home to only around one tenth of the world's people.

    In the developing countries, more than one billion people already live below the poverty line (贫困线).These people don't have enough food to eat and they live in poor housing; children get little or no time at school and suffer from many kinds of diseases.

    The United Nations (UN) tries to guess population growth. At the beginning of the 21st century, the world's population was around six billion people. The UN has said that the world's population will level off at 12. 5 billion people by the year 2100. Other people think the world's population will continue to grow, reaching 14 billion people before it becomes stable or even falls.