Car Hire

    Hiring a self-drive car really adds to the enjoyment of your holiday.There are so many places of interest to visit, and if you enjoy seeing more than just the city center there's no better way to explore than by car.

Hire Charges:

    What's included

    a) Unlimited mileage（英里数）.

    b) Expenses on oil,maintenance and repairs,which will be repaid on production of invoices.

    c) Full insurance except personal accident (see below).

What's not included

    a) Personal accident insurance.

    b) Garaging, petrol, parking and traffic fines.

    Conditions of Hire:

    The shortest rental period at these special low prices is three days.For prices for periods of one or two days you only see our representative at the hotel.

    Car hire must be booked six weeks or more before arrival in London to guarantee a car.But if you have been unable to make a booking in advance please see our representative at the hotel who may still be able to help you.

    The car types on the sheet are examples of the types of cars in each price range,but particular car cannot be guaranteed.

    Upon delivery the driver (s) will be asked to sigh the car hire company's Condition of Hire.

    If you decide to hire a car,just fill in the Booking Form and return it to us.A booking fee of £ 12 as part of the car hire cost is required.

    Should you be forced to cancel your car hire booking after payment in full (two weeks before date of hire),a cancellation charge of £ 12 will be made.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

    In an ideal world, people would not test medicines on animals. Such experiments are stressful and sometimes painful for animals, and expensive and time-consuming for people. Yet animal experimentation is still needed to help bridge vast gaps in medical knowledge. That is why there are some 50 to 100 million animals used in research around the world each year.

    Europe, on the whole, has the world's most restrictive (严格的) laws on animal experiments. Even so，its scientists use some 12 million animals a year, most of them mice and rats, for medical research. Official statistics show that just 1.1 million animals are used in research in America each year. But that is misleading. The American authorities do not think mice and rats are worth counting and, as these are the most common laboratory animals, the true figure is much higher. Japan and China have even less comprehensive (全面的) data than America.

    Now Europe is reforming the rules governing animal experiments by restricting the number of animals used in labs. Alternatives to animal testing，such as using human tissue or computer models, are now strongly recommended. In addition, sharing all research results freely should help to reduce the number of animals for scientific use. At present, scientists often share only the results of successful experiments. If their findings do not fit the hypothesis (假设) being tested, the work never sees the light of day. This practice means wasting time, money, and animals' lives in endlessly repeating the failed experiments.

    Animal experimentation has taught humanity a great deal and saved countless lives. It needs to continue，even if that means animals sometimes suffer. Europe's new measures should eventually both reduce the number of animals used in experiments and improve the way in which scientific research is conducted.

    Today, I had the good fortune to join the students from East Silver Spring Elementary School in Maryland as they walked and biked to school in celebration of International Walk to School Day. I want to thank Principal Morrow and the entire ESS community for welcoming me so enthusiastically.

    Walk to School Day is a great opportunity for me to spend time with parents, kids, and teachers and to present our Safe Routes to School program and the First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative（倡议）.

    As a father, grandfather and former schoolteacher, I know how important it is that we provide students with safe choice to get to school while promoting exercise and healthy lifestyles. That's why I've embraced the Safe Routes to School program so wholeheartedly since I became Secretary of Transportation.

    You know, we're looking at an increasingly sedentary（久坐的）generation of children. One out of every three kids in America is now overweight. And I admire the First Lady's effort to end this within a generation. Safe Routes to School is a natural partner for Let's Move. For more than 10 years, Safe Routes to School has been making it easier for students to walk and bike from home to school. And ESS, where I walked today, is one of the earliest schools to participate.

    We know this program has been enormously effective because of the steady increase in the number of kids walking or biking to school. And as we made our way down the street this morning I was reminded yet again of this program's extraordinary work.

    Look, walking and biking to school is good for students' health. It's good for the environment. And it's good for the entire community's quality of life.

Everybody wins when kids take Safe Routes to School.

    My dad was in the Air Force. When I was a kid, we moved every few years. That meant a lot of good-byes. It also meant getting used to a whole new community and a whole new school each time we moved. I can still feel what it was like to have to walk into the new school—that sinking feeling in my belly, that heaviness in my throat. It would always take time for me to learn how everything worked, what was cool and what was not. It was always a struggle to find where I could fit in.

    Already shy, I didn't have much self-confidence in my friend-making abilities. I was the girl walking in the halls with her head down, panicking. When I spoke, you could hardly hear my soft voice. I was nervous and doubted myself a lot.

    It was very hard not having a history with everyone else. I was an outsider. But what I did have was soccer. Wherever I went, I knew that I could fit in with the soccer ball. The soccer team meant a familiar place and immediate friends for me. I could express myself and feel good about myself on the field. Playing hard helped to get rid of all my nervousness.

    Throughout our lives, our self-respect goes down when we feel like a failure, and it goes up when we feel successful. Doing something well, being praised, and feeling loved goes a long way. We all need to explore opportunities where we can be good at something and feel good about ourselves. Physical activity and sport participation is a terrific way to build up our sense of self-confidence and self-worth.

    In box-office terms, Steven Spielberg is the most successful movie director in the world. Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List ... his movies are cinema classics.

Q: What were you afraid of when you were a child?

A: I was my own monster (怪物). My fancy was unbelievable, so I was afraid of everything. A chair could very quickly change into a mouse. I remember looking up at the sky when I was five. One of the clouds up there looked like a beautiful bird, then suddenly it was a tiger. I ran home crying.

Q: What did your parents feel about that?

A: For my parents my imagination was a real problem, so much so that they seriously considered having me examined by a doctor. After all I was always seeing things that didn't exist (存在) except in my head. My mother and father thought I had something wrong with my mind. I probably did — but it is the gateway to a great career!

Q: What do you consider your greatest career achievement so far?

A: The right to decide my own programs. That was always my only dream, telling my stories without anyone else interfering (干预). It was also why I built my own company.

Q: Which movie did you enjoy making most?

A: That was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, because it was the first time I realized I wanted to be a father. Three years later I had my first son.

Q: Do you make home movies?

A: Yes, I always have a video camera with me. At Christmas it's traditional for my family to see a movie about the family that lasts one hour. We all watch the film together and everyone gets a DVD of it.

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured (使…放心)me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

    Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, "You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same." I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.