Christmas，Easter and Birthday parties can be difficult times for grandmothers and parents as they rush around trying to arrange the perfect celebration or making everyone as happy as possible! What's better than a birthday party that makes your grandchild smile throughout or a celebration that impresses relatives and close friends?

That is why Granny Look has supplied in this section，one of the most comprehensive guides to making these special occasions that happen perhaps once a year a real success.

From a selection of Advent Calendars to party planning or Christmas－stocking fillers we have all the possibilities covered so that your children and grandchildren will really have a memorable time with attractive gifts and original ideas.

Bring that festive spirit to all those traditional days，and ensure you are always ready for any possibility. Granny Look's extensive links are bound to make every special occasion an entirely different experience from the year before and allow everyone to feel entertained and content.

CHRISTMAS－STOCKING  FILLERS

LOOK no further！！ Granny Look helps the family to prepare in time for FATHER CHRISTMAS. Give SANTA CLAUS some ideas.He can fill all the children's Christmas－stockings with goodies! Unique Christmas gifts for children－stocking fillers.

A Granny Look favorite!

ADVENT  CALENDARS

All children love the build－up to CHRISTMAS! What is better than choosing one of Granny Look's selection of Advent Calendars! Here you will find a list of websites to buy traditional or fun Advent Calendars for children at Christmas time.

A Granny Look favorite!

BIRTHDAYS

LOOKING for a SPECIAL BIRTHDAY GIFT? Explore Granny Look's selection of PRESENTS，PARTY PLANNING，PARTY TOYS and PARTY GAMES for your Children and Grandchildren's BIRTHDAYS.

Plan and organize the KIDDIE'S PARTIES ahead of time！！

Don't forget the PERSONALISED INVITATIONS!

CHRISTMAS

LOOK and BOOK now！！ Granny Look's selection of CHRISTMAS GIFTS for children.

 Some guides to “What's on in your area”...for the kids.PANTOS，SHOWS，THEATRES...at Christmas time!

UNIQUE Christmas gifts for Children.Spend QUALITY TIME with your Children's Children this FESTIVE SEASON!

21.From the text，we know that “Granny Look” is         .

A.a person who guides you to make your yearly celebration a real success

B.a magazine that helps the family to prepare for special occasions

C.a company that sells all sorts of products on the Internet

D.a website that helps you to prepare for special occasions

22. The purpose of the text is         .

A.to make children have a memorable holiday        B.to show you how to shop on the Internet

C.to give you some information about Granny Look   D.to introduce some goods

23. You will fail to find any information at Christmas when you need         .

A.Christmas cards        B.fun Advent Calendars    C.Christmas gifts D.tickets for theatres

Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity (名人) chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver，according to a report from Oxford University.

The effect of the celebrity role models，who have given cooking a more manly picture，has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality and men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.

According to the research by Prof.Jonatahn Gershuny，who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford，men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking，up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.

Prof.Gershuny said，“The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend.There has been 40 years of sexual equality，but there is another 40 years probably to come.”

Women，who a generation ago spent nearly two hours a day cooking，now spend just one hour and seven minutes—a great fall，but they still spend far more time in the kitchen than men.

Some experts have named these men in aprons as “Gastrosexuals (men using cooking skills to impress friends)”，who have been inspired to pick up a kitchen knife by the success of Ramsay，Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley－Whittingstall，Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.

“I was married in 1974.When my father came to visit me a few weeks later，I was wearing an apron when I opened the door.He laughed，” said Prof.Gershuny.“That would never happen now.”

Two－thirds of adults say that they come together to share at least three times a week，even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table.Prof.Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table—with many “family meals” in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room，and shared by family members.“The family meal has changed a lot，and few of us eat—as I did when I was a child—at least two meals a day together as a family.But it has survived in a different format.”

24. What is one reason behind the trend that men spend more time cooking than before?

A.The improvement of cooks'status.        B.The influence of popular female chefs.

C.The change of female's view on cooking.  D.The development of sexual equality campaign.

25. What does the author think about the time men and women spend on cooking?

A.Men spend more time cooking than women nowadays.

B.Women spend much less time on cooking than before.

C.It will take 40 years before men spend more time at the stove than women.

D.There is a sharp decline in the time men spend on cooking compared with 1961.

26. How did Prof.Gershuny see the family meal according to the passage?

A.It has become a thing of the past.          B.It is very different from what it used to be.

C.It shouldn't be advocated in modern times.   D.It is beneficial to the stability of the family.

27. Which is the best title for the passage?

A.The Changes of Family Meals          B.Equality between Men and Women

C.Cooking into a New Trend for Men      D.Cooking—a Thing of the Past for Women

New Yorkers and visitors to the Big Apple will get to ring in the Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year in the U.S., in style with a fireworks display on the Hudson River set to music written by Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun.

The display is part of the second annual “Happy Chinese New Year: Fantastic Art China” festival held in New York on February 5-10, 2016. The China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), the U.S.-China Cultural Institute and the Cultural Associate of the Committee of 100 announced this year’s events on November 18 at a press conference at the Lincoln Center.

The “Fantastic Art China” festival will feature a larger and more diverse series of artistic and cultural events across New York’s top cultural venues (地点) and landmarks, including the Lincoln Center, Empire State Building and Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

This year’s theme focuses on exploring the complicated relationship between sound and image, said Professor Yu Ding from CAFA, who is also president of Fantastic Art China and in charge of the festival’s design. Lunar New Year, which celebrates the “Year of the Monkey” in 2016, is an opportunity to bring China’s modern art to mainstream America, and the festival serves as  an innovative approach to establishing cultural exchange between China and New York City, Yu said.

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun’s music is a new edition that will be featured  at several venues, including a major art exhibition at the Javits Center, events at the Lincoln Center and the fireworks display on the Hudson, which will take place on the evening of February 6. Five barges (游艇) on the river will launch the fireworks designed by CAFA that will tell a story about celebration and conservation.

“We Chinese are fond of nature, so the best way to celebrate the Lunar New Year is to salute with the sounds of nature, such as sounds of water, stone and bamboo,” said Tan Dun at the press conference, “And it will be fun to use the music of water during the firework display.”

In addition to the fireworks, a special lighting show at the Empire State Building will illuminate New York City during the holiday.

 Chinese New Year is being recognized as a public school holiday for the first time in New York. Children from the National Dance Institute, which represents 75 schools, will perform traditional Chinese dances at the Lincoln Center and the Javits Center. And, in celebration of the “Year of the Monkey” events will feature a conservation message about the endangered golden monkey in China.

28.  The theme of this year’s celebration is centered on ________.

   A. diversity of Chinese traditional festivals

B. relationship between sound and image of nature

   C. endangered species and environment protection

   D. cultural exchange between China and America

29. The coming “Year of the Monkey” is to be celebrated in New York by ________.

   A. sailing on the Hudson River along with a new-year speech

   B. holding a special concert at the Empire State Building

   C. setting off fireworks and holding a special lighting show

   D. taking a week off and organizing Chinese dance contests

30.  What does the underlined word “illuminate” (in Para. 7) most probably mean?

   A. Lighten.        B. Surround.       C. Decorate.        D. Broaden.

31.  This passage is written mainly in order to ________.

   A. compare some traditional festivals in China and America

   B. attract visitors to America for the coming new-year celebration

C. strengthen the cultural co-operation between China and America

D. report celebration activities for the “Year of the Monkey” in New York

Time for Kids (TFK) gets the great news on the coolest toys for 2014 at the 111th American International Toy Fair.

What’s four days long, bigger than seven football fields, and filled with thousands of toys? It’s Toy Fair 2014!

Each year, hundreds of toy companies from across the country come together in New York City. All kinds of products are shown as a way to know what’s to come in the new year. This year’s trends (款式) include oversize toys. “In 2014, everything is really big and really out there,” says Adrienne Appell, a toy-trends expert.

Toy Fair is the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere (西半球). Toy-store buyers go to the event to decide which toys they may want to sell during the holiday season. Members of the media, like TFK, go to the fair to report back on all the cool trends. Unfortunately, Toy Fair is not open to the public.

This year’s Toy Fair was the biggest in its 111-year history. More than 1,000 toy companies showed products from simple card games to high-tech robots. “Larger Than Life” was a Toy Fair favorite. This trend is all about big toys with a big play value.

Though it is all fun and games at Toy Fair, we saw lots of products making a push towards education, with STEAM. That stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. This trend includes word games. And of course, we saw some super cool, high-tech games. “Technology is always going to influence toys,” says Appell. “This year we saw lots of 3D games, and robots.”

To know more information about the event, click (点击) here to watch the video.

32.  What can we infer from Toy Fair 2014?

A. Toys are becoming more educational than fun. 

B. Robots are great favorites of buyers.    

C. Big toys will be popular this year.

D. Simple card games will disappear on the market.

33.  What’s special about Toy Fair 2014?

A. It is the largest.  B. It is the longest. C. It sells all of its toys.  D. It’s held in New York City.

34. What’s the best title for the text?

A. Kids love toys                     B. Toy-stores in New York City 

C. Technology changes toys  D. Time for toys

35.  The text is taken from a _____.

A.  website       B. newspaper     C.magazine       D. Textbook

Real-life Room Escape Games

Real-life room escape games are a type of physical adventure game in which people are locked in a room with other participants and have to use the things in the room to settle a series of puzzles, find clues (线索), and escape the room within a set time limit.

The games are based off Escape the Room video games, such as Crimson Room and QP-Shot, created by TAKAGISM Inc. by Toshimitsu Takagi in 2005, in which the player is locked inside a room and must explore his or her surroundings in order to escape.   36   Other inspirations include adventure board games and movies. Real-life room escape games are becoming popular in the United States, Japan, and China.   37   For example, some games require you escape prison cells while others require you escape space stations.

  38   Soon, they were exported to North America, Asia and Australia. Examples include the two pioneer companies Hint Hunt and Adventure Rooms.

The games were so successful that new locations began opening up across China, in cities big and small, according to Want China Times. In the southern city of Shenzhen, for example, the first escape game location opened last August.   39   “These real-life escape games can help those who stay at home on their computers and iPads all day to experience real social circles,” Tian Xiaochuan, who owns two room escape game stores in Jinan, told Want China Times.

Earlier this year, The South China Morning Post said the real-life escape games are a hit among “highly stressed students and overworked young professionals.”   40   Some players get so involved that they tear down equipment or decorations inside their “prisons”, as Zhu Yumeng, chief operating officer of Beijing room escape game store Taoquan told China Daily.

    A. Each game adds local themes to settings.

    B. And seven new game locations quickly followed.

    C. They should also be brave enough to face their fears.

    D. Sometimes the excitement becomes a bit much, though.

    E. Weekend or day event escape games have been held in some stores.

    F. Permanent real life escape games in a fixed location were first opened in Europe.

    G. Players must be observant and use their critical thinking skills to escape the room.