Giacomo Puccini was born in 1858 and was...

Thanksgiving is an important festival in North America. We interviewed several students from the US and Canada. Here is what they have told us about their Thanksgiving experiences.

Josie from New York, USA

“In America, Thanksgiving is celebrated every year at the end of November. It is to remember the first group of people from Europe to live in America. When they first arrived, they found the environment strange. But they learned to survive after some native American friends showed them how to grow and find food. Thanksgiving is meant to be a traditional celebration.”

Todd from California, USA

“Thanksgiving is the first day of Christmas shopping. That means we have four weeks to buy Christmas presents for our families and friends. For me and my friends, the most important part of the festival is the big football game on TV. The match is watched by millions of people all over America. Thanksgiving is seen as an exciting day for football!”

Ian from Saskatoon, Canada

In Canada, Thanksgiving is held on the 2nd Monday in October. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, many people go to church. Thanks is given for all the good things that happened to them during the year. I always give thanks for the nice big turkey I’m going to have at the family dinner! Like all festivals, Thanksgiving is about food!

Katie from Maritimes, Canada

On Thanksgiving Day, we have dinner with all our cousins, aunts and uncles. It is always very busy. Sometimes we have two Thanksgiving dinners because we go to both our grandparents’ houses. The dinner is usually attended by more than twenty people at each house! My mother and my aunts do all the cooking but the washing-up is done by me and my cousins. And that’s not an easy job! But I don’t mind because Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to give thanks.

1.People in the USA and Canada ____________.

2.Which of the people interviewed feels that Thanksgiving is all about football?

3.Where does the person who thinks that Thanksgiving is a traditional celebration come from?

4.For what reasons do people give thanks at Thanksgiving?

When Albert Einstein was young, he was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty in learning to read.

When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. Albert was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction ---- the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers were difficult for Albert to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something must be hidden behind things.

Albert didn’t like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students couldn’t ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison..

One day Albert told his uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. “You are looking for someone,” he said, “but you don’t know who he is. Call him X. Find him by using your mathematical tools.”

Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus while all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with his friends he thought about things such as “What would happen if people could travel at the speed of his light?”

Albert wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He graduated with honors, but it was a pity that he could not get a teaching job.

1.According to Paragraph 2, we can learn that Albert Einstein ________.

2.Why did Albert Einstein hate school?

3.What does the underlined word ‘complex’ probably mean?

4.We can learn from the passage that ________.

John H. Johnson was born in a black family in Arkansas City in 1918. His father died in an accident when John was six. He was reaching the high school age, but his hometown offered no high school for blacks.

Fortunately he had a strong-willed caring mother. John remembered that his mother told him many times, “Son, you can be anything you really want to be if you just believe.” She told him not to depend on others, including his mother. “You have to earn success,” she said. “All the people who work hard don’t succeed, but the only people who do succeed are those who work hard.”

These words came from a woman with less than a third grade education. She also knew that believing and hard work don’t mean everything. So she worked hard as a cook for two years to save enough to take her son, who was then 15, to Chicago. Chicago in 1933 was not the promised land that black southerners were looking for. John’s mother and stepfather could not find work. But here John could go to school, and here he learned the power of words---as an editor of the newspaper and yearbook at Du Sable High School. His wish was to publish a magazine for blacks.

While others discouraged him, John’s mother offered him more words to live by: “Nothing beats a failure but a try. ” She also let him pawn(典当)her furniture to get the $500 he needed to start the Negro magazine for blacks.

It is natural that difficulties and failures followed John closely until he became very successful. He always keeps his mother’s words in mind.: “Son, failure is not in your vocabulary!”

Now John H. Johnson is one of the 400 richest people in America---worth $150 million.

1.John’s mother decided to move to Chicago because_______.

2.John’s mother________.

3.The sentence “Nothing beats a failure but a try” means _______.

Bolivia has a population three and a half million . About one tenth of the total population are white ; one-fourth are mixed Indians and white ; and more than half are full-blooded Indians . The government and the industries are under the control of the white people .

The Indians today live in much the same way as their ancestors . Most of them are farmers . Many work in the mines , for mining is the most important industry on Bolivia’s . Of all the mining products , tin is the most important , which makes up three-fourths of all Bolivia’s exports . The eastern slopes of the Andes , since there are very few roads there , are fertile but not highly developed . The two primary means of transportation are river boats and porters . East of the hill region are the great plains where tropical plants are grown . A serious problem for Bolivia is the transport of food from the warm regions , where it is grown to the mountainous regions , where most of the people live .

Bolivia gained its independence from Spain about a hundred years ago . It has been slow in developing , but its rich resources promise a better future in it .

1.The majority of the Bolivian population are        .

2.The Indian’s way of life today is       

3.The main product Bolivia exports is       

4.Bolivia has been slow in developing , but it has hope for a better future because of its        .

James sat outside the office waiting for the interview（面试）. He felt so 36    that he didn’t know what to do with37     .The person who had gone in 38      him had been there for nearly an hour. And she looked so confident when she went in. 39      James. He felt 40      that she had already got the 41    . The problem was that he wanted this job 42    .It meant 43     to him. He had 44    it such a lot before the day of the interview. He had imagined himself   45    brilliantly at the interview and 46  the job immediately. But now here he was feeling 47  .He couldn’t48   all those things he had 49 to say. At that moment, he almost decided to get up and 50      .But no—he had to do this. He had spent so much time considering it that he couldn’t 51   like that. His hands were hot and sticky and his mouth felt dry. At last the door of the office opened . The woman who had gone in an hour earlier came out looking very 52   with herself. She smiled sympathetically at James. At that moment James 53  her. The managing director then appeared at the office door. “Would you like to come in now, Mr Davis? I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” James suddenly  54   that he had gone home after all. He got up, legs 55   and forehead sweating and wondered whether he looked as terrified as he felt.