Carrots are grown all over the world. They are easy to plant and easy to harvest. They have a good taste.

When people think about carrots, they usually think they are a kind of long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. In fact, carrots are in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.

Carrots should be grown in a field that does not have water for a long time. The earth also should not be too hard. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the earth and turn it over(翻土). 

Weather, soil condition(土壤状况), and time affect(影响) the taste of carrots. Warm days and cool nights are the best time to grow great delicious carrots.

The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color is, the better the taste is.

Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow carrots the same way as you do during the summer months.

Carrots are prepared and eaten in many different ways. They are cut into thin pieces and cooked with other vegetables or meat. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground.

A Friend Saves Your Life

请阅读下面短文，根据短文内容从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项， 并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

In many countries, tattoos are in fashion (时尚). On TV you can often see a famous actor or musician with a tattoo on his arm or foot. Many sports players have them, too. In the US, tattoos are very popular. Forty percent of Americans aged between 26 and 40 have a tattoo, and 60 percent of customers in US tattoo parlors are women. These people are often professional people like doctor, teachers and lawyers.

However, tattoos are not modern. In fact, they are very old in human history. For example, archaeologists (考古学家) found a human in ice from 5,000 years ago. He had 57 tattoos on his back, ankles, legs, knees and feet. Tattoos were used for many different reasons. In ancient Egypt, people got tattoos because they were “beautiful”. But in ancient Rome, tattoos were negative (负面的) and put on criminals and prisoners. In India, tattoos were religious (宗教的).

In the 16^th and 17^th century, European sailors (船员) arrived on the islands of Polynesia. They saw tattoos for the first time. The people on the islands had tattoos on their shoulders, chests, backs and legs. Often the tattoos were of animals or natural features like a river or a mountain. The European sailors liked them and made their own tattoos, so the idea traveled to Europe. Tattoos in Polynesia are still important today. They show information about a person's history, their island or their job.

So is there a connection (联系) between traditional tattoos and fashionable tattoos? And can you call tattoos a fashion? Chris Rainier is an expert in tattoos and his book Ancient Marks has photos of tattoos from all over the world. He thinks people in modern societies often have tattoos because they are a connection to the traditional world. But tattoos aren't a fashion like clothes or a haircut because you can't put them on and take them off again like a jacket or a hat. They are permanent (永久的) and for life.

    In Britain, people usually begin their talks with weather. For example, they will say“It's a fine day, isn't it?”“Do you think it will rain?”

    Many people believe that they are able to tell what the weather will be like. But they never agree with each other. One man may say, “How cloudy (阴的) it is now! It's going to rain.” Another man will say, “No, it's going to be fine later.”

    People always hope the weather they want. For example, when a farmer needs water, he looks for something to tell him it's going to rain. When a man wants to travel, he is sure the weather will be fine quickly.

    Now almost everyone listens to the weather report. It doesn't always tell us the weather we want, it only tells us what the weather will be like. But sometimes it makes mistakes(错误).

根据短文内容，选择正确答案。

    ①If you have a chance to go to Finland(芬兰), you will probably be surprised to find how "foolish" the Finnish people are.

    ②Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz(奔驰) with the money of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to do, and then walk off without paying. The driver would not show the least sign of being nervous and worried.

    ③The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration(登记) card to the waiter. With such a relaxing check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to get the meals free.

    ④The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the pay. From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.

    ⑤With so many mistakes in everyday life, surely Finland must be a place to those who love to take "petty advantages"(小便宜). But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have done their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest record of the exact hours they put in.

    ⑥As you can see, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real "gentleman". In a society of such high moral(道德) practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?