初中英语 阅读理解与完形填空（备战上海中考）Exercise22 A

Working hours are shorter,holidays are longer,and people have more time now than ever before.What do they do with it?

In both Britain and America,people watch TV for many hours each week. In America there is a very big choice. Many rich Americans have camp cars which they canuse for weekends away.Some have holiday houses in the country,and spend as much time as possible on outside activities like fishing and water-skiing. Fewer British people have camp cars or second homes,but many have gardens,where they spend a lot of their free time.Home owners often take time doing jobs round the house. There are a lot of DIY (Do It Yourself) shops all over the country where people can buy everything they need.

Last summer I went through a training program and worked as a volunteer teaching people how to read.My first student Mary was a 44-year-old single mother of three children. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would give her a bus schedule,she told me it would not help because she could not read it.Since she did not know words,she could not write out a shopping list. Instead, she only recognized items by sight.During the training,I tried to help learn how to build her confidence,which encouraged her to continue in her studies.She began to make great progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip,she told me how self-confident she felt.At the end of the program,she began helping her youngest son with his reading.

工作时间更短，假期更长，人们现在比以往任何时候都有更多的时间。他们会用这些时间做什么？

在英国和美国，人们每周看电视很多小时。在美国有一个很大的选择。许多富有的美国人都有露营车，他们可以在周末外出时使用。一些人在美国有度假屋，并尽可能多地花时间在钓鱼和滑水等户外活动上。很少有英国人有露营车或第二套住房，但许多人有花园，他们在那里度过了大量的空闲时间。房主通常会花时间在家里四处工作。全国各地都有很多DIY商店，人们可以在那里买到他们需要的一切。

去年夏天，我参加了一个培训项目，并担任志愿者，教人们如何阅读。我的第一个学生玛丽是一位44岁的单身母亲，有三个孩子。在第一课中，我发现她每周两次步行两英里去最近的超市，因为她不知道该坐哪趟车。当我告诉她我会给她一张公交时刻表时，她告诉我这没用，因为她不会看。由于她不懂单词，所以她无法写出购物清单。相反，她只通过视觉识别物品。在培训期间，我试图帮助她学习如何建立自信，这鼓励她继续学习。她开始取得巨大进步，甚至可以坐公共汽车去超市。在这次成功的旅行之后，她告诉我她有多自信。在节目结束时，她开始帮助小儿子阅读。