Have you ever complained that life is so tiring or that there is too much homework? Does the sky sometimes seem dark to you? Are your studies sometimes not successful? Well, friends, cheer up and smile all the time. If you look at the world with a warm heart, you will find that the whole world smiles at you.
While in school, sometimes you are tired of your lessons, but have you noticed the happy smile on your teacher's face when you do a good job?
If one day it is fine, but just before you go out, it suddenly starts to rain. Maybe you would feel very sad and start complaining about the weather. Dear friends, why don't you sit down and listen to the free concert that the nature offers you? Also with the timely rain, crops in the fields will grow better and better and farmers will have a good harvest.
Although everyone wants to succeed in what he tries to do, sometimes failure can't be avoided. I think failure is not terrible. The terrible thing is that we are afraid of it and give up hope. When we face failure, we must be confident of ourselves, draw a useful lesson from it and try our best to finish what we have decided to do. As a popular saying goes, “Failure is the mother of the success.”
Attitude decides everything, with an optimistic attitude life is easy and pleasant. Let's smile at whatever we meet and the whole world will smiles at us.

Last Friday, for our weekly event, we watched Peking Opera at the Qingdao Grand Theatre. As a young man from the United States, it was my first time to watch live Peking Opera, and it was special.

    Peking Opera, also known as Beijing Opera, is called “京剧 (Jingju)” in Chinese. It is a traditional Chinese opera and has a history of over 200 years. It is an art form that combines music, vocal performance, dance and acrobatics(杂技). The works of Peking Opera are mainly based on Chinese history and traditional stories and customs.

The performance we watched that night was called Meeting the Queen and Hitting the Dragon Robe (长袍) The story is from a Chinese classic literature. Bao Zheng was one of the most well-known ancient Chinese government officials in Chinese history. One day, he met an old lady on his way back home. The old lady claimed herself as the mother of the emperor and had been set up by others. After checking that the old lady was the emperor's mother, Bao Zheng helped her to get back to the capital and she blamed the emperor for all the misery she had suffered. She ordered Bao Zheng to punish the emperor and Bao Zheng hit the dragon robe instead of hitting the emperor in order to save himself from being punished.

When the opera started, we were amazed by the unique sound made by the musical instruments. They were in perfect cooperation with the singing of the performers. Also, the costumes the performers wore were extremely beautiful and attractive as they have several colours and patterns on each one of them. The performers also "told" the story by their movement. For example, a walk around the stage would mean they took a long trip somewhere. Even though it was kind of hard for us to get used to the music and to follow the story, we were glad that we decided to join the event! We look forward to such an event again. It really helps us know more about Chinese culture.

阅读下面材料，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

Dear Edward,   

    How are you doing? I just visited Machu Picchu in Peru today. I've never seen such a great place before. This place is so amazing that I want to share my feelings with you.

When I first got to Machu Picchu, I felt like I was walking in the sky. Even the clouds were just under my feet. Do you know how high Machu Picchu is? I was surprised that it was at about 2,500m. How could people build a city on such a high mountain? It must have been very difficult to move stones there.

Before the Europeans arrived, the Incas (印加人) were the last and the most modern society in the Andes (安第斯山). The Incas were afraid that the Spanish would find them, so they built Machu Picchu on an Andes plain (平地) as a secret city in the 14th or 15th century. As a result, the Spanish never found Machu Picchu.

An American explorer discovered Machu Picchu in 1911. For a long time before that, nobody even knew Machu Picchu was there. After Machu Picchu was found, it was called "The Lost City of the Incas". It is still a mystery why and how Machu Picchu was left and forgotten by everyone.

I just had a wonderful day. Especially, I will never forget the "goodbye boy" who was a local boy dressed in traditional Inca clothes. When we went down the mountain by bus, the boy waved goodbye to us until we were out of sight (视线). He shouted some words at us too, and I guess, it meant, "Goodbye, come back again soon!" Why don't you visit Machu Picchu someday? I am sure you will love this place as much as I do.

                                                                                                                                                                      Yours truly,

                                                                                                                                                                          Lynn

    Your mom tells you to put on your hat and gloves. But as the cold winter season gets closer, it's so cold that even mom's advice does not work.

    That means it's time to put on your qiuku! This is a kind of "thermal underwear(保暖内衣)" or long underpants that keep people warm in the coldest months of the year.

    In Western countries, qiuku is usually known as long johns  but they aren't popular. Long johns in the US are usually two pieces,  a long-sleeved(长袖的) shirt and long pants, worn under other clothing or sometimes even used as pajamas(睡衣).

    Long johns first appeared in England during the 17^th century. We call them long johns because the US boxer John L. Sullivan wore them while he boxed. But this is not a historical fact.

    In the US, it gets quite cold and snowy in many places. And while parents often push kids to wear more clothes and long underwear,  it's very special when young people actually(实际上) put them on.

    Part of the reason might be because it's not very fashionable(时尚的) and another reason might be because people don't spend much time outside during the cold months. So they just deal with the freezing(冰冻的) temperatures when they have to leave the warm building. But in their parents' eyes, staying warm is more important than looking nice.