READING PRACTICE 7


Miss Lin is a florist . She works in a flower shop
_______ my house . There are many beautiful flowers sold
_________ her shop . There are roses , carnations , lilies ,
orchids and many other flowers . Miss Lin sells her flowers
________ bouquets , vases and even in pots . I always buy
flowers for my teachers ________ Miss Lin’s shop during
Teachers’ Day . The flowers cost a bit more than normal days
but I do not mind as Miss Lin always wraps them __________
beautifully for me .
Key : near , at , in , from , up
Aunt Rosie is very fond of flowers . She _______all
kinds of flowers in her garden . There are roses , daisies ,
violets and many other kinds . Aunt Rosie _______after her
plants well . She _________them every morning . She
________out the weeds so that her plants can grow well .
Whenever Aunt Rosie visits her friends , she
__________some flowers along . She always says ,
“ Flowers cheer people up “
Key : has , looks , waters , pulls , brings

The giraffe is a _________animal . It has long legs
and an even longer ___________ . It uses its long neck to
help it get the fresh , juicy ________at the top of a tree . The
giraffe has two short stumps on top of its head . The giraffe is
brownish orange in colour and has black ________on its skin .
Its long legs are very powerful . A giraffe can run quite
___________ , especially when it is being chased . A giraffe is
a harmless creature .
Key : tall , neck , leaves , spots , fast


Christmas falls on the 25
th
of December every ______
On that day , Christians all over the ________ celebrate the
birth of Jesus Christ . Most people celebrate this festival by
buying ________ for family members and friends . The streets
are also very beautifully decorated with ________ , Christmas
trees and lots of lights . Many children believe Santa Claus , a
kind old _________ who lives in the North Pole , will give out
presents on Christmas Day .
Key : year , world , presents , bells , man

The male peacock __________ a colourful bird . Its
body is mostly green and its tail feathers __________ full of
pretty colours . Another colourful bird is the parrot . Although
___________ more common ones are usually white in colour ,
there are some species of parrots that are very colorful . The
chameleon , on the other hand , is not a colourful reptile .
However , it can change _________ colour to suit its
surroundings . When it is among the leaves in a tree ,
__________ is seen as green . The chameleon changes its
colour to avoid being by its enemies .
Key : is , are , the , its , it

Fresh fruits and vegetables are very important
__________ us . These food contain vitamin C that helps our
wounds and broken bones to heal quickly . They ________
keep our gums and skin healthy . Before we cook vegetables ,
we should not soak them for too long ____________ else the
vitamin C will be lost . Vegetables should not be cooked too

long to prevent the loss ___________ vitamin too . Though
fruits and vegetables can be preserved ___________cans and
also be salted , eating fresh fruits and vegetables is still
healthier .
Key : to , also , or , of , in

Coconut trees grow in tropical countries . They are
very ________ plants . Parts of a coconut tree can be made
into everyday items . Its leaves can be used food
__________ . Coconuts are filled with cool and refreshing
__________ . We can grate the flesh of coconuts and squeeze
out the milk . The ___________ is used to cook curry and
desserts . We can also use the trunk of the coconut tree to
make furniture like _________ and chairs .
Key :useful , wrappers , juice, milk , tables

Rambutans , mangos teens and durians are
_________ fruits in Singapore . They can be quite _________
when they are in season . The durian is the most popular and
the most expensive . Many Singaporeans like to eat the
durian . It is their favourite fruit . The durian ___________ is
big and tall . It has small , green leaves and a straight trunk
with many __________ . The flowers are large . The fruits are
of different shapes and sizes . The durian has a hard ,
___________rind . That is why the Malays call it
“ durian “ which means a thorny fruit .
Key : local , cheap , tree , branches , thorny

The banana plant can be used __________ more than one
way . Besides eating the fruit _________ is very delicious , we

can ________ use the other parts of the banana plant . The
leaves can be made _________ food wrappers . They can also
be made into roofs of at tap hoses . The stems ___________
the banana plants can sometimes be used as fences in
villages .
Key : in , which , also , into , of

All living things depend a lot on _________. Plants
provide us with food and shelter . Many animals eat plants like
grass and wheat . We , in turn , kill them for __________ .
Green plants also provide us with _________, something that
we breathe in to live . Plants also provide us with wood so that
we can make them into materials for our __________ . Many
animals like birds , squirrels and insects live in trees . Even
animals in the sea need plants . Seaweed gives out oxygen so
that there is oxygen in the water for the _________ and other
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sea creatures . Seaweed is also food to some of these
creatures .
Key: plants , food , oxygen , house , fish

The mimosa is a common ________ that you can see
in fields . It has small flowers and leaflets . It also has tiny
thorns . However , it behaves quite strangely . When you touch
the ______ of the mimosa plant , they shrink together and
close up . This is why this plant is also known as the “ Touch-
Me -Not “ plant. Another plant that behaves in an odd manner
is the morning glory . Its flowers will close up in the late
________ when the sun is going down . In the morning , when
the sun shines , the flowers will open up . Some of the flowers

will ________ off when you press the base of the flowers .
Many small children like to pluck the _______ and play with
them by shooting the blooms at each other .
Key: plant , leaves , evening , shoot , flowers

caves houses real false
fierce knights news stories
Dragons are not _________ . They are mythical
creatures that can only be found in __________ and legends .
In stories , these fire breathing dragons were very _________ .
They lived in huge , dark _________. Most people were afraid
of them . They usually caught young girls from villages . Brave
soldiers and __________ had to fight with these dragons to
rescue the young ladies .
Key : real , stories , fierce , caves , knights

spins traps colour house
has are eat flies
A spider __________eight legs . Some spiders are
poisonous while others are not . A spider _________ its web
between leaves . It _________ insects in its sticky web . These
trapped insects become food for the spider . A spider is either
black or brown in colour . A black spider is normally a fighting
spider while a brown one is a house spider .
Key : has , spins , traps , are , eat

leaves caterpillars wings flowers
flying beautiful food
gardens
One of the most ___________creatures in the world

are butterflies . Butterflies have long , slim bodies and two
pairs of colourful ________ . Butterflies can usually be seen
flying among flowers ________ during daytime . They lay eggs
and their young are caterpillars. Butterflies and _________
feed on different food.
Caterpillars eat __________ while butterflies feed on the
sweet liquid from flowers called nectar .
Key : beautiful , wings , gardens , caterpillars , leaves

also which who some
few many plenty very
Many archaeologists have found the fossils of
prehistoric animals _________ became extinct long ago .
According to them , _________ of the bones , teeth , claws
and even fur of these amazing creatures are found
underground and in the rocks of the earth . Archaeologists
have made camps in _________ parts of the world trying to
uncover these fossils . These fossils are ______ valuable and
they are _______ very educational . They tell us more about
the creatures that roamed the earth long before man existed .
Key : which , some , many , very , also

store stores is are has have lose
loses
The cactus ________ a weird looking plant . Its trunk
is swollen with water or sap . It _________ very small leaves
that are very sharp . Most cacti ________ found in the desert .
A desert is a very dry place where it seldom rains so the
cactus plant __________ as much water as it can . It does this
to be able to survive during the months when rain is scarce . It

has tiny leaves so that the plant _________ as little water as
possible . Some miniature cactus plants are planted in pots
indoors . They are usually brightly coloured .
Key : is , has , are , stores , loses

sticky slippery unusual common
leaves sweet bitter collect
The pitcher plant is a very __________looking plant .
It has leaves which look like small jugs . These _______
extend from the strong stalks of the plant . The leaves contain
sap that is ________ smelling . Many insects crawl or fly into
the jug-like leaves to _________ the syrupy liquid . However ,
once they get into the leaves , they get stuck as this liquid is
very _________ . The insects then die in the sap . They
become the pitcher plant’s meal .
Key : unusual , leaves , sweet , collect , sticky

hairs skin colour smell
edges part insect plant
The Venus flytrap is another uncommon looking plant.
Its leaf has two parts . The lower ________ looks like a blade
while the upper part is round in shape . They come in a pair .
The surface of the upper part is reddish in _________ , making
it look like a tongue . There are sensitive _________ on the
surface and there are also stiff hairs around the _________ .
When an insect lands on the surface of the upper leaf , the leaf
closes on the insect and feeds on it . After the plant has
finished feeding on the ________ it has caught , the upper leaf
opens up again and waits for its next victim .
Key : part , colour , hairs , edges , insect

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
before later from and by
be down up with
Teak is one of the world’s hardest ________
strongest wood . Furniture made _______it will last for a very
long time . Teak is found in many parts of the world .
However , good quality teak can only ______found in the
forested hills of Northern Thailand . To cut ______ the teak
trees , forest officers choose and girdle the trees . A deep ring
is cut around the trunk , causing the tree to die . Two years
________, when it is dry , the teak tree is cut down and sawn
into logs .
Key : and , from , be , down , later
Mystery of
Mystery of
a Secret Script
a Secret Script
Chinese scholars study a tongue
only women knew
For at least a millennium , perhaps much longer ,
women in the western part of China ‘s Human province
wrote to one another or kept diaries in Nushu , a secret
language known only to them .
“ With you gone , I feel so slowly , “ lamented a young
woman in a poem to a girl-friend who had married and
moved to her husband’s home . Other women expressed
their bewilderment when their husbands left them to go to
war , or sorrow over the death of loved ones . A few
described their impressions of historical events like the

Opium War with Britain in the 1840s and the Japanese
invasion of China in the 1930s .
Today Nushu , which means women’s calligraphy
, has all but disappeared and is known to only a handful
of elderly women . In an effort to preserve the language ,
scholars in Beijing have been collecting examples and
researching its origins . “ Nushu is important because it’s
the unique language of women, “ says Chen Qiguang , a
Beijing professor . In March , Chen , together with two
other scholars , Zhou Shuoyi and Zhao Limi , will
published a 900-page book titled A Collection of Nushu
Texts , which include 400 examples and translations of
the language .
After five years of studying Nushu , scholars are
still perplexed about its origins . Some think it dates back
2,000 years , Chen , noting that it contains elements of
both ancient and modern Chinese , thinks it is more like
1,000 years old . With at least 2,000 characters , it is a
fairly complex language , and whereas Chinese
ideograms have different meanings , Nushu ideograms
represent sounds .
The women who knew Nushu apparently made
no attempt to conceal it from men , who in any case
probably regarded it as inferior to Chinese . Women were
traditionally excluded from receiving an education and not
taught to write Chinese . The use of Nushu declined in
the 1950s when education opened up to women , and the
Communists sought to root out feudal traditions , which
included what they decided us “ the witches ‘ script . “
Although there are still a few elderly women who

can speak the language , scholars know of only one living
person who can write it ; she is Yang Huanyi , an 83-
year-old peasant from Jiangjong county in Hunan . In
hopes of keeping Nushu alive , a few young women in the
region have now begun to learn it .
BUTTERFLIES
he butterfly is a marvel . It begins as an
ugly caterpillar and turns into a work of
art .
T
Caterpillars eat plants and cause damage to
some crops but adult butterflies feed principally on a
nectar from flowers and do not cause any harm .
Some people collect butterflies for a hobby .
There are collectors capture them with a net and put
them in a jar that has poison in it . The dead butterflies
are the mounted on a board .
The sight of a butterfly floating from flower to
flower on a warm sunny day brightens anyone’s heart . A
butterfly ia a charming and gentle creature .
When cold weather comes , some butterflies
travel great distances to reach tropical climates .
Butterflies are admired throughout the world
because they are beautiful .They can be found on every
continent except Antarctica.
Flowers
The rose , the national flower of England , is
usually thought to be the most typically British flower . It
has frequently been used in poetry as a symbol of
romantic love . The violet is often seen as symbolizing

modesty , and a shy retiring person can be called “ a
shrinking violet “ The daisy is one of the most common
British wild flowers and carries the association of summer
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picnics and making daisy chains , by threading the stalk
of one daisy through a slit made in the stalk of the next ,
and so on . Dandelions and buttercups have bright yellow
petals and are also associated with the summer .
Snowdrops , bluebells , daffodils and primroses are
popular spring flowers, often found growing wild in woods
. Honeysuckle is associated with typical country cottages
, and wisteria with stately homes . Popular garden flowers
include roses , pansies , lupines , dahlias , gladioli ,
chrysanthemums , asters , carnations , irises and
wallflowers . Flowers are used at weddings and funerals
and have certain connotations .For example, carnations ,
especially white ones , are often worn by men at
weddings in the buttonholes of their jackets , and
chrysanthemums and white lilies are associated with
funerals . Rose , Daisy , Iris , Violet and Lily were popular
as girl’s names in Victorian times , but are less common
nowadays .
Orchid
Orchid is sovereign flowers that are enchantingly
beautiful. Orchids usually grow on the trunks of
very high, big trees, located on cliffs where it is
humid and where sunlight is abundant.
There are two groups of orchids, including aerial
orchids (phong lan) and terrestrial orchids (dia lan).
Aerial orchids usually have their roots anchored in

high, big trees and their branches hang down from
the tree trunks. They have very thin petals, but their
colours are time enduring. Their scent is very mild,
soft, and pure. Terrestrial orchids, on the contrary,
have their roots anchored in the earth or a hollow in
a rock where there is humus or litter. The terrestrial
orchids, with varieties that include bach cap, to tam,
hoang vu, anh kim, hac dinh, loan diem, etc., have
bright colours and mild and flowing scents.
Orchids come from the mountainous regions of the
country, but because of their amiable beauty, they
are present in all the famous flower villages on the
plains. The Dalat Flower Garden is an almost
complete collection of all of the precious and rare
orchids of Vietnam.
Five Senses
ost of the creatures in the world possess the five
senses of sight , hearing , touch , taste and smell .
However , these senses are often more highly developed
in one species than another . Birds have a highly
developed sense of sight . For example , an eagle can
spot a small lizard from high in the air . The lizard would
be undetectable by a human being from the same
distance . Animals that hunt by following a trail on the
ground may have poor eyesight but a keen sense of
smell. For example , dogs see a blurred , gray world
because they are nearsighted and can’t see colours .
However , they can smell thousands of times better than
human beings can .
M

Coral reefs
oral reefs are beautiful gardens under the sea .
The corals may look like branching trees , large
domes , or flower blooms . Many see animals
live among the corals . They paint the gardens bright
shades of orange , yellow and purple .
C
Coral reefs are made of the skeletons of tiny sea
animals called polyps . A polyp’s skeleton grows outside
its body . When the polyp dies , the skeleton is left . Coral
reefs are formed of billions and billions of these tiny
skeletons .
Coral reefs are found mostly in warm , shallow
water . The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is the largest
coral reef in the world . It is about 1,250 miles long .
Our Earth
Our Earth is one of nine planets revolving
around the sun , a fairly small and ordinary star , which
lies in the outer areas of the Milky Way Galaxy . There
are about 250 billion stars in our galaxy , and billions of
galaxies in universe . People have always wondered
about the possibility of intelligent life forms on other
planets . In recent years , this has become serious
scientific speculation . Some scientists believe that there
must be large numbers of stars with planets which could
support living intelligent beings . Perhaps we shall never
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known . The nearest star is 4.3 light years away . A light
year is the distance covered by light ( travelling at almost
300,000 kilometers a second ) in one year . It would take

the fastest Earth spacecraft about 40,000 years to reach
the nearest star . For a number of years radio telescopes
have been trying to pick up signals from outer space , so
far without success . There are , however , millions of
possible radio frequencies , and there is no reason why a
completely alien civilization should not use a different
type of communication , such as X-rays or even a type of
wave we have not yet discovered . Suppose contact were
made with beings 300 light years away . By the time we
had sent our reply , and received their response the earth
would be 600 years older . It would be an interesting , but
rather slow moving conversation !
Elephants
Elephants use their trunks the way people use
their hands . At the end of the trunk are parts that act like
fingers. These allow elephants to do wonderful things .
They pick up their food –parts of trees or may be just a
peanut . They use their trunks to drink water or to spray
the water over their bodies to cool off. Because elephants
do not see well , they use their trunks as “ eyes “ . They
do not walk where their trunks cannot feel the ground .
Carole , a twenty-two-year elephant at the Diego
Wild Animal Park , paints with her trunk . At her trainer’s
order , Carole swings a brush across a canvas . Her
paintings are sold to make money for the park .
What do people in your country think of bats ?
Are they mean and scary creatures , or are they
symbols of happiness and good luck ? In Western
countries , many people have an unreasoned fear of
bats . According to scientist Dr Sharon Horowitz , bats

are beneficial and harmless mammals.
Contrary to popular western myths , bats do not
attack humans and are not blind . Though a few bats may
be infected , they are not major carriers off rabies or give
other dread diseases . Bats help natural plant life by
pollinating plants , spreading seeds and eating insects . If
you get rid of bats that eat overripe fruit , then fruit flies
flourish and can destroy the fruit industry . According to
Dr Sharon Horowitz , they make loving , trainable , and
gentle pets . Not many people , however , are known to
have bats as pets , and bats themselves prefer to avoid
people .
Leonardo
da Vinci
eonardo da Vinci lived in Italy in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries .
L
He was a student in Florence , where he studied
painting , sculpture and design . He began a lot of
paintings , but didn’t finish many of them . His picture of
the Mona Lisa is the most famous portrait in the world .
Leonardo was interested in many things . He
wanted to know about everything he saw . He examined
the human body . He thought that the sun didn’t go round
the earth . He wrote music . He designed a flying
machine 400 years before the first one flew . Many
people didn’t understand his ideas . It is difficult to think
that one man could do so much .
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