Last year I was very lucky to have a week's holiday. So I wanted to spend 1 in the best hotel I could find. That was 2 I chose The Haven in a country park. I thought I would be able to escape problems and pressures of daily life. But, just 24 hours after arriving there, my wife and I 3 problems with the restaurant and security.

    We were ready to return to our room when we saw two policemen 4  closely at the building outside. One of them showed us how 5 in through the windows into our room. It seems that the hotel has no locks on the windows. 6 we were a little worried, our concerns were forgotten 7 when we saw a good-sized bed, a flat-screen TV, a spa bath which more suggested a comfortable stay.

    Things started to go from bad to worse the following morning when I found the restaurant only served low-fat meals: six days of rabbit food and only 8 meat and fruit. What had I let myself in for? Nobody had told us what the food 9 like before we booked. I ordered my breakfast 10 my will anyway, but I had waited forty-five minutes for it to arrive. This was not the service 11 I had expected.

    That afternoon, when we returned from a tour around 12 university nearby, we found that nearly £200 13 from our room. The Haven refused to pay back the money. They claimed that they 14 not be responsible for any loss if our window was not locked.

    My holiday was then a total failure. I thought a "haven" was sure to be a quiet and peaceful place. But in fact, I have experienced 15 stress and worry in that one day than I usually do working in the office for a week.

Just a few days after his 18th birthday, Beijing 2022 gold medal winner Su Yiming received a surprise gift—a letter from Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China.

In the letter, Xi expressed his congratulations(祝贺) to Su and other sportsmen in ice and snow sports for their great achievements(成就) at the Beijing Winter Olympics, hoping what they had achieved would encourage young Chinese to aim(立目标) high.

When Su first stepped onto a snowboard at the age of four, a future as a world-class sportsman seemed to be" a dream too big" for him. Little did he know that he would not only compete for his country but also take home the gold medal. With the great excitement of winning an Olympic gold medal still fresh in his mind, Su wrote a letter to the president, telling him how lucky he felt to have made his dream come true.

Su still remembers what Xi wrote in the reply," The new era is the time for young people to realize their dreams."

"I have always kept those words in my mind," Su said.

"When I made up my mind to be a professional (职业的) snowboarder, I know there is a big difference between my performance and that of the top sportsmen in the world. But I have been working hard to realize my dream. Now my story shows the fact that hard work will pay off." Su said.

Su believes the sky is the limit." Find the thing you love, believe in yourself and do your best. Finally, your dream will come true."

Now Su has his strong wish to win all the competitions in his sporting field.

Stupid but serious

You see a cat sunbathing on the playground. "Hello, kitty!" You smile and walk away. About100 years ago, a scientist saw the same scene(场景). But he stopped and thought. Later, he won the Nobel Prize(诺贝尔奖).

The scientist was Niels Finsen from Denmark(丹麦). He saw a sick cat sleeping in the sun. When the sun moved, the cat moved, too. Why did the cat love the sun so much? To find out the answer, Niels kept watching the cat for days. Amazingly, the cat got better after lots of sunbathing. The sunlight could cure diseases! Then, Niels invented a light to cure human diseases and won the Nobel Prize in 1903.

In fact, many great scientific findings start from "stupid" questions and small things in life.

Scientists may ask: How many lies does a person tell in a day? How many licks(舔)does it take to eat up a lollipop? Why do roses smell good? What can we learn from animal poop(粪便)? And they take it seriously. They watch, think, and do experiments(实验) until they find an answer.

"It's such a waste of time!" You may say.

But think of the great scientist Newton(牛顿). If he just said "Ouch!" and walked away after he was hit by the apple, what might our world be like?

What kind of homework do your teachers usually give you {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the summer holiday? When Sheng Zeqi was a 7th- grade r at Hangzhou No 1 Middle School, her teacher asked her to tell the story of Journey to the West by {#blank#}2{#/blank#} pictures.

Sheng didn't just draw random pictures. She of a game she played with her parents when she was young. She decided to turn Journey to the West into a roadmap. Her map has 81 different locations. They tell the story of the classic novel. She {#blank#}3{#/blank#} some interesting conversations for the novel's characters. She even" borrowed" the character Mei Chaofeng from The Legend of the Condor Heroes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} her tell the story.

Sheng really did a good job in turning the novel into pictures." My parents are both {#blank#}5{#/blank#} and I' ve also enjoyed painting since I was little," Sheng told Xinhua.

China keeps the same time over all the seasons in a year. But it's different in many countries, like the UK and Germany. 

These countries have summer time and winter time. In March, they set (设置) their clocks one hour forward (往前), However, in October or November, they set their clocks one hour back. 

In the Northern Hemisphere (北半球), after March 23, days slowly become longer and the sun comes out earlier. During that time, if people wake up earlier, they can use more sunlight (阳光). It saves electricity (电). In the winter, however, they can sleep more in the morning to save electricity. 

People working in cinemas dislike setting the clock. They say that when people get more sunlight, they don't want to go to dark cinemas. But baseball lovers like it. When they are in summer time, they can play for a longer time because there is more sunlight.

 An aquanaut(潜水员) called Fabien Cousteau drew many people's eyes. He helps to build the world's {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(large) underwater research(研究) station. He wants the building {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(be) an underwater form of the international Space Station (ISS). And it can be used by astronauts from different countries. It's not {#blank#}3{#/blank#} easy thing to do, but the idea receives much support(支持).

 The station, named Proteus, will be at the bottom(底部) of the sea. It will be a place for{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(scientist) to study the ocean.

 Inside the station, there will be bedrooms, laboratories, medical facilities(设施) and the{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(one) underwater greenhouse for growing food. Cousteau says that it will {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(take) three years to build.

{#blank#}7{#/blank#} he is short of money to develop the project, he is trying to raise money.

 Cousteau says that underwater research is even {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(important) than doing research in space, So far, people have known only about one fifth of the ocean floor {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(clear). There are still many possible things waiting {#blank#}10{#/blank#} people to find out. So Cousteau hopes the base will lead to many exciting discoveries.