The Water City of Venice

    In 1980s, I went to Italy for business. One day, I sat with my friend in a well-known coffee shop in a neighboring town of Venice(威尼斯), Italy, the city of lights and 1.

    As we enjoyed our coffee, a young man2 glasses entered and sat at an empty table beside us. He called the waiter and placed his order saying, “Two cups of coffee, one of them there 3 the wall.”

    We heard this order with interest and found that he 4 with one cup of coffee but he paid for two.

    When he left, the waiter 5 a piece of paper on the wall saying “A Cup of Coffee”.

    While we were still there, 6 middle-aged men entered and ordered three cups of coffee, two on the table and one on the wall. They had two cups of coffee but 7 three and left. This time also, the waiter did the same. He put a piece of paper on the wall saying, “A Cup of Coffee”.

    It was 8 and perplexing(困惑)for us. We finished our coffee, paid the bill and left.

    After a few days, we had a chance  9 this coffee shop again. While we were enjoying our coffee, a man 10 dressed entered. As he seated himself, he 11 the wall and said, “One cup of coffee from the wall.”

    The waiter served coffee to this man with the customary(惯常的)respect. The man had his coffee and left  12 paying.

    We were amazed to watch all this, as the waiter 13 a piece of paper from the wall and threw it into the rubbish bin.

    Now it was no 14 for us-the matter was very clear. The great respect for the needy shown by the inhabitants(居民)of this town 15 our eyes well up in tears.

    Many years later, when I went to Venice for business again, I did the same thing as my appreciation to this beautiful world.

    Many people like to travel(旅行 ) on vacations. Now more and more travellers in the United States are spending nights at small houses 1inns instead of (代替) hotels. They get a2 for the night and the breakfast for the next morning.

    In the past five3 ten years, these bed-and-breakfast places have become popular in the United States. Many of these America's bed-and-breakfast inns 4old historic(历史上著名的) buildings. Some bed-and-breakfast inns have only5 rooms. Others are much larger. Some inns do not provide(提供) telephones or televisions in the rooms while(而)6do.

    Staying at a bed-and-breakfast inn is much different 7staying at a hotel. Usually the cost is much lower. Staying at an inn is like visiting  8 home. The owners are  9to tell about the interesting places to visit. Many travellers say10 enjoy the chance (机会) to meet local families.

    Ask your foreign friends or teachers whether they experienced" culture shock" upon moving to China. 1 are, they did.

    According to a survey, eighty-five percent of international students have had culture shock. Culture shock is a broad term for the series of personal difficulties that people go through in new places, for the surrounding environment is so different from that where they grow up. It's usually most extreme for those who can't speak the language of the place to which they have 2 or for those who aren't familiar with the social rules, such as what you should do if you meet people for the first time. Both of these things happened to me in China when I moved there in 2011.

    So as you can imagine, naturally, I went through the four well-known3 of culture shock: honeymoon, distress, re-integration and autonomy.

    When I arrived at first, I was 4 and. optimistic, I thought I was well-prepared for this new life in the new country, and I was eager to find out what I was going to experience later. But quickly I became upset by the cultural differences I encountered, missing how things5 back home.

    By the end of my first year, I had totally lost my self-confidence; I was a bitter, clumsy and sensitive person, and I blamed China for making me that way.

    Then, in my second year, I started to6 some language skills, and I found fun activities to do in my spare time, I made great foreign and Chinese friends, and with their help, I tried hard to learn to appreciate the beauty of Chinese history and culture, which was the thing I always wanted to achieve. To my delight, I succeeded in 7 an interest in them. And afterwards, I learned to consider myself a confident and happy laowai.

    Today I'm back in the US, where I'm pursuing a PhD at a university in my hometown. It's been a little 8to readjust to life in my home country, I suffered at first from "reverse" culture shock, experiencing the four stages in the opposite order.

    I started out feeling independent and self-confident, before slowly realizing that I knew my country much less well than I used to. I'd complain loudly about little things, like how I could no longer shout "fuwuyuan!" to get waiters'9 to let them know that I was ready to order in a restaurant.

    But eventually, I came to realize that what I had thought was my "home" had become an entirely new place while I'd been away. That, by itself, was exciting.

    Cartoon films have very few limits(限制). If you can draw something, then you can make it 1on the cinema screen. The use of new ideas and modern computer programs means that cartoons are becoming exciting again for people of 2 ages.

    By the 1970s，the cinema world had decided that cartoons were 3 for children. But soon after that, one or two film makers had some new ideas. They proved that it was 4 to make films which both grown­ups and children would enjoy.

    However, not every cartoon film was 5. The Black Cauldron, for example, failed, mainly because it was too 6 for children and too childish for grown­ups. Film makers learnt a lesson from this 7, and then cartoons were welcomed 8 both children and grown­ups and 9 the film companies began to make large amounts(大量的) of 10.

April Fool's Day

    April Fool's Day is a western festival. No one 1 exactly when and how April Fool's Day began. However, there are some stories about2 it came into being. One story3 like this: in the sixteenth­century France, the start of the new year was on April first. It was celebrated 4much the same way 5 it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night.

    Then in 1562, Pope (教皇) Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people,6 who hadn't heard or didn't believe the 7 in the date, so they8 to celebrate New Year's Day on April first.9played tricks on them and called them "April fools". They tried to make them believe that something false was10. In France today, April first is called "April Fish". Frenchchildren fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' 11. When the "young fool"12this trick, the prankster (恶作剧者) shouts "April Fish！" 

    Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One13trick on April Fool's Day is 14 down to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelaceis untied." School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled (取消).15the trick is, if you fail for the joke the prankster shouts "April Fool！"

    In Britain today, on the first of April, even 16newspapers, radio and TV programs tell big lies. You17 read a science18 showing that doctors have found a way to cure (治愈) AIDS, 19you would probably listen to a piece of news about a UFO20on an island.