Around the world, students are happy to have summer vacations. They can enjoy long free days, sunshine or swimming. 【小题1】

Many years ago, students spent summer helping their parents to work on the farm. 【小题2】 A summer vacation gives students quite a few chances (机会) to try different things: interesting clubs, sports, hobbies and so on.

If you’re lucky, during the summer vacation, you can volunteer (做志愿工作), travel or go to a camp. 【小题3】 And it’s really relaxing to do something different and interesting.

【小题4】 You have to stay in the classroom and spend a long hot summer on books and exercises.

Some say that summer vacations make students have less time to study. 【小题5】 All in all, if you work hard, it doesn’t have to mean falling behind in your study.

Summer Holiday Activities

The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival in China. It is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar year. It is a day to remember a great poet, Qu Yuan. He worked hard for the emperor and thought more about people. Some men said bad words about him, so the emperor didn’t believe in him any longer. He went here and there, taught and wrote many poems. He jumped into Miluo River and died over 2, 000 years ago. When people heard the news, they tried to save Qu Yuan in different ways. Fishermen rushed out in long boats, playing drums to drive fish away, throwing rice dumplings (zongzi) into the river to feed fish so that they wouldn’t eat Qu Yuan’s body.

For many years, people keep celebrating the festival by eating zongzi and holding dragon boat races. Maybe dragon boat races are the most exciting part of the festival. On that day, a number of people watch the game. The special boats are more than 10 meters long with colorful “dragon” heads and tails. There are about 20 or 22 players in every boat of a team. Each year there are dragon boat races in the southern places, such as Hunan, Hubei, because there are many rivers and lakes. Now the races are popular in the world.