Most American businesses are open five days a week. American school children attend school five days a week as well. American families {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (usual) have a two-day weekend. The weekend is Saturday {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Sunday.

    Over the weekend, people spend their time {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (do) various things. Many families enjoy weekend together. They may go shopping, go for a drive, or visit friends. They may also send {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (invite) friends and have a party at home. Weekends are also good chances to take trips, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} are usually short ones. They will go to the nearby mountains, parks, lakes or other {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (interest）places to relax them. Some even go camping and picnicking there.

    Many families participate {#blank#}7{#/blank#} sports during the weekend. Running, biking, playing volleyball and swimming are popular in the summer. Skiing and skating are the favorite winter {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (sport).

    Weekends are also a time for American families {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (work) on something in their yards or on their houses. Many families plant flowers and have vegetable gardens. So weekends {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (use) to paint or repair their houses. For most Americans, weekends are very busy.

    British people are working to an older age. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} number of working 70-74-year-olds has doubled in recent years. Around 10% of people in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (they) early 70s now work. This is the {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(high) figure on record. An important reason {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the British work in their old age is that retirement pensions are becoming more difficult to live on. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(consequence) many older people have to work in order to survive.

    Britain {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (see) great changes in the labor market during the last decade, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}far more people working beyond their retirement age. While there are plenty who enjoy remaining in work, many need to earn extra cash because they can not afford {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(retire) early. Older people need decent(体面地) jobs and pensions so that they can make a proper {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(choose) about whether they remain in work. Now they are deciding on a career change later in life and are starting up their own businesses, {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(devote) to something they may have dreamed of doing for years.

    More and more people live in large cities these days,{#blank#}1{#/blank#} means that it is becoming more and more difficult to find space and time for{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (we). But for many people, personal privacy (隐私) is very{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (importance). In many homes, a few minutes in the bathroom is all the privacy that is available.

    Teenagers especially need their own personal space{#blank#}4{#/blank#} home where they can feel relaxed and private. But, of course, not all teenagers{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (be) lucky enough to have a room of their own. Where space is short, they often have to share a bedroom {#blank#}6{#/blank#}a brother or sister. In that case, it's a good idea for them to have a special area or corner of the room to call their own. It is {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (similar) important for young people to have somewhere to keep their personal things. This may or may not be a tidy place and it is not a good idea for parents to try and tell teenagers how{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(organize) their space as this is likely to lead to{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (argue). Parents can, however, make sure that there are enough storage (存储) spaces{#blank#}10{#/blank#}as shelves, cupboard and boxes. This will allow the teenagers to keep their space tidy if they want to.

    Yuan Longping is a great scientist, but his sun-burnt face and his slim, strong body are like those of millions of Chinese farmers, for whom he {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(struggle) for the past five decades. When he was young, hunger was a {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (disturb) problem. Since he graduated from Southwest Agricultural College in 1953, he has devoted his life{#blank#}3{#/blank#}developing a new kind of rice{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(call) super hybrid rice. The rice farmers are now producing crops{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (two) as large as before by planting his super-rice{#blank#}6{#/blank#}makes it possible to solve the problem of hunger.{#blank#}7{#/blank#}, he is not satisfied with his work, he still insists on his work to develop his rice. I think his work is of great{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(important) to the world.

    {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (thank) to his research, the UN has more tools in {#blank#}10{#/blank#}battle to rid the world of hunger. Now Yuan Longping is spreading his knowledge in many other less developed countries.

    We all know that the Friday after Thanksgiving means a mad dash to the shopping centre for ridiculous sales. But how did this bargain shopping get {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(it) start?

    In fact, the first Black Friday had nothing {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (do) with Thanksgiving or shopping. The origin of Black Friday as we know it today started in Philadelphia during the 1950s and 1960s. Crowds of people would come to town the day after Thanksgiving for the annual Army­Navy football game to be held the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (follow) Saturday. Streets and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (store) were always crowded, which was great for business but made easy­pickings for shoplifters (行窃者). Local police called this “Black Friday”. Not only did they have to deal with extra traffic {#blank#}5{#/blank#} shoplifting, but they had to work extra hours and couldn't request the day off.

    The term didn't go national {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the late 1980s, but the {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (explain) changed. While shopkeepers {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (general) suffered financial losses most of the year, the increase of holiday shoppers marked the first day of real profit. In traditional accounting (会计) practices a few years ago, losses {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (record) in red ink, and profits in black ink. So the day after Thanksgiving, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} companies go “into the black” and make a profit, became Black Friday.

    As populations increased in large cities in {#blank#}1{#/blank#} nineteenth century, building subway lines was a way {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(move) people from one area of a city to another quickly and efficiently. The first major subway system, the London Underground, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(start) in 1873 using steam trains. Subways caught on quickly in London. From 1896, it was changed in favor of an electrical system. Today's subways around the world now work on {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(electrical). Passengers can rely on the regular schedule of subway trains while {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(avoid) traffic on busy city streets.

    Two of the world's earliest subways were built in Paris and New York. When the Paris Metro opened on July 19, 1900, citizens were proud of the {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(impress) and beautifully decorated station entrances.{#blank#}7{#/blank#} the first New York subway consisted {#blank#}8{#/blank#} only 14.5 kilometers of track in 1904, today, it is the world's largest subway system.

    Today, subways are still popular with passengers. The Tokyo subway is the {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(busy) in the world, with 3.2 billion riders a year. Close behind {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(be) subways in Moscow(2.4 billion), Seoul (2.1 billion), and New York City (1.6 billion).