If anyone had told me three years ago that I would be spending most of my weekends camping. I would have laughed heartily. Campers, in my eyes, were people who enjoyed insects bites, ill-cooked meals, and uncomfortable sleeping bags. They had nothing in common with me.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

The friends who introduced me to camping thought that it meant to be a pioneer.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}We sleep in a tent, cooked over an open fire, and walked a long distance to take the shower and use the bathroom. This brief visit with Mother Nature cost me two days off from work, recovering from a bad case of sunburn and the doctor's bill for my son's food poisoning.

    I was, nevertheless, talked into going on another fun-filled holiday in the wilderness.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Instead, we had a pop-up camper with comfortable beds and an air conditioner. My nature-loving friends had remembered to bring all the necessities of life.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We have done a lot of it since. Recently, we bought a twenty-eight-foot travel trailer complete with a bathroom and a built-in TV set. There is a separate bedroom, a modern kitchen with a refrigerator. The trailer even has matching carpet and curtains.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}It must be true that sooner or later, everyone finds his or her way back to nature. I recommend that you find your way in style.

A. This time there was no tent.

B. Things are going to be improved.

C. The trip they took me on was a rough one.

D. I was to learn a lot about camping since then, however.

E. I must say that I have certainly come to enjoy camping.

F. After the trip, my family became quite interested in camping.

G. There was no shade as the trees were no more than 3 feet tall.

    The Winter Olympics are also called The White Olympics. At this time, many colorful stamps are published to mark the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out on January 25th,1932 in the United States for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, publishing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule. During the 4th Winter Olympics, a group of stamps were published in Germany in November 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of sportswear. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics.

    In the 1950's, stamps of this kind became more colorful. When the White Olympics came, the host countries as well as the non-host(非主办方)countries published stamps to mark those Games. China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sportsmen began to take part in the White Olympics.

    Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14,500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meeting.

    Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.

    It's a good idea for families to talk about what they would do to escape（逃跑，逃离）a fire. You'll want to talk about escape plans and escape routes，so let's start here.

    An escape plan can help every member of a family get out of a burning house. The idea is to get outside quickly and safely. Smoke from a fire can make it hard to see where things are，so it's important to learn and remember the different ways out of your home.

    If you live in an apartment building，you'll want to know the best way to the stair or other emergency exits. If you're in a room with the door closed when the fire breaks out，you need to take a few extra steps：

    Check to see if there's heat or smoke coming in the cracks(裂缝) around the door.

    If you see smoke coming under the door—don't open the door!

    If you don't see smoke—touch the door. If the door is hot or very warm—don't open the door!

    If you don't see smoke—and the door is not hot—then use your fingers to lightly touch the doorknob(门把手)．If the doorknob is hot or very warm—don't open the door!

    If the doorknob feels cool，and you can't see any smoke around the door，you can open the door very carefully and slowly. When you open the door，if you feel a burst of heat，or smoke pours into the room，quickly shut the door and make sure it is really closed. If there's no smoke or heat when you open the door，go toward your escape route exit.

    Chinese has overtaken French, Spanish and German to become one of the most promising foreign languages for job seekers in the UK. Research shows graduates in Chinese earn an average yearly salary of 31,000 pounds or more.

    Chinese students set themselves up for a different university experience from others who take traditional subjects. While an English student may have as little as six hours of a week, those studying Chinese are in class for most of the day. "I had a lot of friends on other courses who didn't do much in first or second year. You can't play at Chinese. You have to spend hours and hours writing characters," says Hannah, who graduated in Chinese Studies from Sheffield University. "The first year was really difficult. Most of my friends admitted at one point to crying because of the pressure. I was almost told at one point that I might want to reconsider and drop out. "

    So are the evenings in learning characters while your friends are at the student bar really worth its Despite the painful studying experience, most of the graduates think so. They use Chinese in their chosen careers, and would not have been in the jobs they do now without their knowledge of the language.

    Liberty now works for the civil service in Beijing. She earned a place on the Department for International Development graduate scheme with a salary of over 30, 000 pounds within two years. "The degree was absolutely worth it. Looking around at people I know who have studied French or Spanish at university, there's not such a chance to use it in the workplace."

    Hannah has set her apart in the workplace, but she warns ambitious students to think about whether they would really want to live in China in the future." Some people think they are going to learn Chinese and then be a big success, but I think it's important to be quite realistic about that. "

    Daniel stays home on workdays. He starts his personal computer in order to connect with the office which is about three hundred miles away in another city. After work, he puts on his headphones, watches a movie on his home video recorder, or plays baseball on the computer. On many days, Daniel doesn't talk to any other human beings, and he doesn't see any people except the ones on television. Daniel is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very possible. The inventions of modern technology seem to be cutting us off from contact with our fellow human beings.

    The world of business is one area in which technology is separating us. Experts say, for example, that many people will soon be able to work at home. With access to a large central computer, employees such as office clerks, insurance agents, and accountants could do their jobs at display terminals (终端) in their own homes. They would never have to actually see the people they're dealing with. In addition, the way employees are paid will change. Workers' salaries will be automatically paid into their bank accounts, making paper checks unnecessary. No workers will stand in line to receive their pay or cash their checks. Personal banking will change, too. Customers will deal with machines to put in or take out money from their accounts. Many companies and consumers have already changed the way they sell or buy products. E-commerce, or business done on the Internet, is becoming more and more popular. This, therefore, makes it possible for people to do shopping without going out of their homes.

    Another area that technology is changing is entertainment. Music for example, was once a group experience. People listened to music at concert halls or in small social gatherings. For many people now, however, music is an individual experience. Walking along the street or sitting in their living-rooms, they wear headphones to build a wall of music around them. Movie entertainment is changing as well. Movies used to be social events. Now, fewer people are going out to see a movie. Many more are choosing to wait for a film to appear on television or are borrowing videotapes to watch at home. Instead of laughing with others, viewers watch movies in their own living-rooms.

    Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

    A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

    The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

    "Most plastics were never made to be recycled," lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. "

    Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体), which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

    Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.