Plant World Garden Centre is located between Torquay and Newton Abbot. The Garden is laid out to represent the five continents of the world. Our inspirational gardens contain countless rare and foreign plants seldom seen outside their native lands.

Our Famous "Gardens of the World"

It was designed , built and planted in 1986 as the first ever " Map of the World Gardens" . It takes visitors half an hour or more to drive along the winding pathways around the "world map" and see which plants grow in which countries. The neighboring rare plant nurseries (苗 圃) enable visitors to take home plants and trees growing there. We give a warm welcome to garden clubs and gardening societies, many of whom make annual visits.

Latest News

Our new Garden website is released! We hope you like our new website which we have tried to fill with interesting information and history about our lovely gardens.

Seeds

We produce and sell over 3 ,000 varieties of flower and vegetable seeds. Many are rare ,and unusual. All of them can be purchased on our sister website : www. plant-world-seeds.com.

Scenic Cafe

Our hilltop cafe offers one of the most incredible panoramas (全景圖 ) of Britain. The menu includes toasted sandwiches and jacket potatoes. In addition ,many home-made cakes are offered, including the famous Devon Cream Teas. We always use local produce whenever possible-our ice creams are from Language , our home-made soups come from Rod & Bens ,and our bottled drinks are supplied by Heron Valley.

Opening Times

We are open 9:30 am - 5 :00 pm, seven days a week, from late March to mid October ( please call first to confirm at the start/end of season) . .

Garden Admission Prices

Day ticket : ~ 3

Season ticket : ? 10

Kids under 12 go free

1.We know that Plant World Garden Centre________ .

A. owns plants from five countries B. has some rare and foreign plants

C. is the largest garden in the world D. allows visitors to take plants home for free

2. From the new- Carden website ,visitors can

A. get information about the past of the gardens

B. purchase over 3,000 varieties of flower seeds

C. buy all kinds of local produce

D. fill the website with their interesting stories

3. Which of the following is true about Scenic Cafe?

A. It encourages visitors to make cakes on their own.

B. It owns the most complete menu in Britain.

C. It provides visitors with a whole view of Britain.

D. It supplies bottled drinks to Heron Valley.

4.If a couple and their l0-year-old son want to visit Plant World Garden for two days, they need to pay ____

A.?9 B. ?6 C. ?27 D. ?12

The Festival of Cultures

August 11 – 14

City Park

The Festival of Cultures is an annual event to celebrate the wide range of cultures found in our great state. People representing 40 cultural groups will share their traditions and customs. Here are just a few of the festival's many activities.

Crafts: See the fine art of basket weaving from Vietnam and Zimbabewe. Watch the delicate art of making paper umbrellas from Thailand and the decorative craft of paper picado, or paper cutting, from Mexico. All craft demonstrations provide a firsthand view of how things are made. You will appreciate the process involved in making these products.

Music and Dance: Experience musical instruments that you have never heard before. Listen to the music of a sho from Japan, a bull-roarer from Australia, a sitar from India, and a chakay from Tailand. You will also be entertained by folk dances from around the world, such as the troika from Russia and the mayim mayim from Israel. From 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on August 14, special folk-dancing classes for children will be offered. Children ranging in age from 6 – 8 can learn the kinderpolka from Germany. Children ranging in age from 9 – 12 can learn the raspa from Mexico.

Storytelling: Listen for hours as professional storytellers charm you with captivating tales. Fables, folktales, and ballads from various countries will be told. By popular demand, Gwendolyn Washington, a famous African American storyteller, is back.

Food: Enjoy irresistible foods from other countries, such as gyros from Greece, seafood paella from Spain, crepes from France, and tandoori chicken from India. These tasty dishes will be difficult to pass up.

The festival of Cultures is sponsored by the World Marketplace. For more information about the festival, call (800) 555 – 0199.

1.In the festival, you are most likely to see the art of making _______.

A. paper.B. umbrellas.C. bamboo beds.D. flower vases.

2. Which of these is a dance from Germany?

A. The troika. B. The raspa. C. The kinderpolka. D. The mayim mayim

3. The underlined word “irresistible” means ________.

A. in large quantities B. with natural tastes

C. not able to be refused D. hot but delicious

4. For a family with children aged 6—12, which day would be the best bargain for visiting the festival?

A. August 11 B. August 12 C. August 13 D. August 14

Paris in springtime was, is and always will be, something rather special. Why not experience it for yourself with this excellent break for four days? This attractive city has something to offer everyone with prices at just ￡ 129. It's of great value too.

Your break begins with executive coach transfer from a regional pick-up point and you travel to Paris via cross-channel ferry and arrive at your hotel in the evening. The Ibis is an excellent quality hotel with private facilities in all rooms: a satellite TV, a radio, a telephone and ban alarm clock.

The following day, after a continental breakfast (included), the coach takes you on a comprehensive sightseeing tour of the city, during which you will see the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, L'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, in fact almost every famous landmark you have ever heard of. You then leave Paris and take a short drive to the magnificent Palace of Versailles, the home of Louis XIV. The tour ends mid-afternoon back in Paris where you will have the remainder of the day for your leisure. In the evening there is a "Paris By Night" tour that shows you the beautiful buildings with bright lights.

Day three takes you to Montmartre, perhaps the most charming quarter of Paris and home of the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge. In the afternoon you are free to explore this beautiful city as you wish, perhaps a pleasure voyage on the River Seine. In the evening you will have the opportunity to visit the best nightclub in the city. On the final day it's time to go back to the UK via channel ferry.

Included in the price of ?129 per person are the following:

*Return executive coach travel to Paris

* Return ferry crossings

* 3 nights accommodation in a two-bed room in a Central Paris hotel with private facilities

* Continental breakfast during your stay

* Guided sightseeing tour of "Paris By Day" and "Paris By Night"

* Visit to Palace of Versailles (admission not included)

* Tour on Montmartre

* Services of an experienced tour guide at all times

1. The Ibis is a ________in Paris_

A. restaurant B. hotel C. bar D. nightclub

2.The underlined word "quarter" in Paragraph 4 refers to。"______"

A. a period of time B. district C. the fourth part D. exhibition

3. Besides the price of ￡ 129, each tourist will have to spend money on _______

A. the continental breakfast

B. the tour of Montmartre

C. the admission to Palace of Versailles

D. the services of an experienced tour guide

4.During the stay in Paris, the tourists will

A. have half a day free on the third day

B. have a "Paris By Night" tour on the first evening

C. have a pleasure voyage on the River Seine together

D. live in a simple hotel far away from Paris

5.The main purpose of this passage is to ______

A. tell tourists the route to Paris

B. inform people about the cost of traveling to Paris

C. introduce the city of Paris

D. attract tourists to Paris

We offer a full range of services to make your IKEA experience more complete:

Old Kitchen Removing Service

Are you going to buy a brand-new kitchen in IKEA? So how to do with your old kitchen at home? Don’t worry! IKEA is now providing professional dismantling and removing service for old kitchen to you. By this service you can have your new kitchen at home easily. (For service detail and charge please go to the staff of kitchen department.)

Transport Service

Need a way to get your new home-furnishings home? You can rent a transport or hire us to deliver it for you. Just talk to our Customer Service department for details.

Return Policy

As long as the items are undamaged, unassembled and unused, you could return them in their original package within 60days (IKEA FAMILY member within 180days) together with your original receipt/invoice (bank card POS receipt is needed if you have paid this way), we will refund you the same way as you have paid. 

Sorry, we cannot accept exchange or return of food, plants, liquid bathing products, AS-IS products, customized products, kitchen electrical appliance and all products that have already been cut, sewed or painted. “The exchange and return policy above applies only to the products purchased from IKEA stores in mainland China.”

IKEA Restaurant/Café

The restaurant/cafe serves both classic Swedish dishes and local favorites, and is one of the most popular areas of the whole IKEA store. Shopping at IKEA is fun and offers great value, but can also be hard work, so stop by and treat yourself to a refreshing drink and a bite to eat.

1. The underlined word “dismantling” refers to ______.

2. What can we learn from Return policy?

A. Any product bought can be returned if they are undamaged.

B. The store pay back your money in cash whatever way you use.

C. The valid time for return service is within 180 days.

D. The return service only goes for IKEA stores in mainland China.

3.Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

A. Your new kitchen is available in an easy way.

B. The furniture can be transported to your house.

C. They have flexible payment choices.

D. You can enjoy delicious food in IKEA.

4.The passage is probably taken from ______.

1.What’s the purpose of the author in writing the text?

A．To introduce his favorite food to the readers．

B．To introduce some steakhouses in New York．

C．To provide guidance on eating in America．

D．To offer some advice on running restaurants．

2.Which of the following statements is true according to the text?

A．All the four restaurants are open on weekends．

B．Bruno is the owner of Peter Luger’s Steakhouse．

C．The beef in AJ Maxwell’s is from South Dakota．

D．You can enjoy family hospitality in Ben and Jack’s．

3.If you don’t like having dinner indoors，you can go to _____________．

A．Aged—New York City B．Club A Steakhouse

C．Ben and Jack’s on 5th Ave D．AJ Maxwell’s Steakhouse

4.If you have to drive，you are NOT advised to go to ____________．

A．255 5th Avenue，New York B．240 East 58th St．，New York

C．2398 Broadway，New York D．57 West 48th Street，New York

5.What do the four restaurants have in common?

A．Restaurant style． B．Privacy protection．

C．Minimum expense．D．Seafood service．

Have you got some paper, a pair of scissors and, above all, a desire to decorate your house? Then, we have the perfect holiday artwork for you: Make Star Wars snowflakes (雪花). Remembered as a cherished form of work in classrooms before the holidays, paper snowflakes have drawn many people's attention again.

The designer, Anthony Herrera, just recently released his 2013 collection. "The Star Wars snowflake designs began as just doing designs of characters that I and my daughter wanted to make three years ago," Herrera told us in an email. "The second year I introduced vehicles, and this year I decided to push further by designing battle scenes."

Sometimes, he feels a bit bored with his job. With each year, the designs have got more detailed and various, but the process of creating them remained the same: sketching figures on paper with a pencil until a symmetrical (對稱）pattern comes out, then scanning the designs and cut them with scissors. However, he says he has plenty of ideas for new flakes next year, so no two will ever be the same. Hopefully with Star Wars: Episode VII coming in 2015 he'll have even more work in the future.

Check out your favorite finished versions of Herrera’s flakes (from both 2013 and previous years) and download the pictures beneath them and then get down to creating your own work. A warning: Most designs aren't for the casual flake-maker, so patience you must have.

1. Making paper snowflakes draws many people's attention probably because ______.

A. it is a traditional form of decoration B. it is a course of artwork in school

C. it is a way of killing time in holiday D. it is designed by Anthony Herrera

2. From the text, we know that Herrera ______.

A. can make snowflakes with his daughter's help

B. made more complicated designs before 2013

C. introduced paper vehicles in 2011

D. will make a great variety of detailed paper flakes

3. Herrera is fed up with the job sometimes because ______

A. he has to design detailed and different patterns

B. he has to follow the fixed process of paper cutting

C. he spends much time designing, scanning and cutting

D. he has few ideas for what the next designs will be like

4. By writing the last paragraph, the author tries to ______.

A. offer us more information about Herrera’s paper cutting

B. tell us how to download picture of snowflakes

C. instruct people to be a real creative artist

D. remind us of being patient with Herrera’s designs

It's wonderful to go to another country, complete a volunteer project and feel that you really have a positive influence. But how can you become an international volunteer?

* Plan practically. Contact the organization a few months before leaving and find out if there are materials which are rare and hard to attain for the project. What you often consider plentiful here, such as nails or hammers, is in great need in other parts of the world.

* Do the project together, not on your own. You are a guest in the community. The most successful result is not that you build something and walk away, but that you and the community build something as a team. Share skills and build together.

* Be flexible. Not everything is going to happen as planned. Often the other country doesn't have the right tools, manpower, transportation or funds to get all the needed work done. In a word, they lack infrastructure(基礎設施).

* Contact with the people in the community. Often you will have "downtime" outside of the range of the project. Rather than retreat to the group with whom you traveled, be sure to spend time with the people of the community. Listen to the things about their lives. If you can't speak the language, smiles work wonders. And you will be surprised ― you will find a way to community.

Volunteering is a special and life-long experience for everyone involved. Be prepared that the person who may be changed most is you. It's a joyful, often careful experience which will encourage you to view yourself, your neighbors and your world quite differently.

1. When you volunteer to join in a project, you are advised to .

A. build something and walk away

B. make good preparation in advance

C. avoid involving locals in activities

D. depend on yourself to solve problems

2. According to the author, volunteer will .

A. reduce challenge in the world

B. determine the future of a volunteer

C. change a person's opinion of the world

D. benefit volunteers most in their learning

3. What is the passage mainly about?

A. What prepares you to become a volunteer.

B. Where volunteers are needed most in the world.

C. Why volunteering is popular with young people.

D. How volunteers develop a relationship with local people.

What would you do if you were a fifth grader facing a huge homework load every night, and you found out that there was a machine that would do all the work for you? That's the situation presented to Sam, Kelsey, Judy and Brenton in Dan Gutman's entertaining new book for young readers, The Home Machine.

The four children, all fifth graders in Miss Rasmussen's Grand Canyon School, are as different as any other 11-year-old child could be, but they have one thing in common — all are somewhat separated from their classmates. Sam is a newcomer and has had his share of school trouble before; Kelsey quietly carries her pain at losing her father; Judy's sense of justice always annoys others; Brenton is the smartest child in the school, so smart that even his parents and teachers have trouble keeping up with him. When Brenton and his three classmates are put into the same study group by their teacher, the others discover that Brenton has made a time-saving gadget(裝置) to do homework for him. While the boy is perfectly able to do his homework himself, Sam, Kelsey and Judy can use the help.

Having perfect grades is something new for these three, and as they meet every day to "do homework", they find that they're learning a lot about each other. Such a good thing can't last though, and when a secret man starts trying to get in touch with them, they begin to get nervous. Soon there's an even more frightening problem ― why can't the Homework Machine be turned off?

Told in different voices as all the children make statements to the Grand Canyon Police, the story develops in an interesting fashion. Gutman is a gifted writer who has written dozens of children's books, each with a funny and impressing table that should be equally liked by boys and girls.

1. What is one common thing that all the four children have to deal with at school?

A. Getting along with their classmates.

B. Doing their homework by themselves.

C. Overcoming difficulties on their own.

D. Catching up with others to get good grades.

2. Which of the following words best describe Brenton?

A. Strange and nervous.B. Quiet and smart.

C. Brave and special.D. Clever and helpful.

3. Why did the children get frightened?

A. They lost touch with each other.

B. They were questioned by a strange man.

C. They had no idea how to stop the machine.

D. They were tracked down by the police.

4. This passage most probably comes from .

A. a student's diaryB. a book reviewC. a school reportD. a science story

Facebook (臉譜網(wǎng)) friends cannot replace the real thing, say psychologists(心理學家).

People are happier and laugh 50% more when they talk face to face with friends or via webcam (web camera) than when they use social networking sites, a study has found.

Dr. Roberts, a famous lecture at the University of Chester, said such websites don't appear to help make true friendships. Based on two questionnaires(調查表), he found there was no link between Facebook use and people with larger groups of friends.

Dr. Roberts, whose work will be presented at the British Psychological Society conference in Harrogate, said, "The bottom lime conclusion is that our relationships are not dependent on the quantity of communication. They depend on quality, and even Skype(一種網(wǎng)絡即時語音溝通工具) is better at increasing the quality of our communication than time on Facebook." Even talking on the phone or texting does not make people feel as good as sharing a smile, the research says. The studies suggest quality, not quantity, of communication is the most important for keeping friends for life.

People find the most satisfying relationships come from a small number of close friends, with an outer "ring" of 10 significant others. With these people, it doesn't matter what type of social media you use for communication. But people who want to "contact the world at large" using Facebook can be disappointed because they spread themselves too thinly, claim researchers.

In a third study, Dr. Roberts asked people to communicate with friends face to face or via Skype and keep a 14-day diary. This was compared with communicating via phone, text messages or social networking sites. People communicating face to face on Skype were 50% more likely to laugh, and they rated themselves as significantly happier.

1. Dr. Roberts's finding that there was no connection between Facebook use and people with many friends was .

A. based on questionnairesB. based on conversations

C. through instant messagesD. through social media

2. What is the idea of the fourth paragraph?

A. Most people contact each other online.

B. Keeping a friend for life is not easy.

C. The quality of communication is important.

D. Skype is better at understanding us than Facebook.

3. What does the underlined sentence in the fifth paragraph probably suggest?

A. They are too excited to express themselves.

B. They limit their social circle to a small range.

C. They spread their information at a low speed.

D. They lack information to introduce themselves.

4. What is Dr. Roberts's attitude towards the use of Facebook?

A. Positive.B. Casual.C. Responsible.D. Unsupportive.

We’re always looking for well-written reviews of books, music, movies, television shows, websites, video games and other products. When writing a review, concentrate on exactly what you liked or didn’t like. Give examples of strengths and weaknesses, be descriptive and provide background information on an author, director, actor or musician, if possible. Find professional reviews in magazines or newspapers and see how reviewers deal with their topic, but be sure to express your own voice in your review.

Grammar Hint for Reviews: When describing a book, movie, album or anything else, use the present tense.

Book Reviews

Discuss an author’s technique, strengths and weaknesses instead of focusing on the plot. Does the story flow? Is there a strong sense of character and place? Did you stay up until dawn to finish it? Is it good reading for teenagers? What influence did it have on you and why? If you’ve read other books by the same author, discuss how this book compares.

Movie Reviews

Think of the major Oscar categories and consider the performances, music, lighting and setting, etc. Do these work together? Did some hold up while others didn’t? If the movie is based on a book, discuss whether one is better than the other and why. If the movie is a remake, compare the film to its original.

Remember that a well-written movie review should discuss strengths and weaknesses. Some readers may not have seen a movie yet, so don’t give away an exciting scene or the ending!

College Reviews

Begin by providing an overview of the college, including location, size and a description of the campus and/or dorm life. Think about all aspects of your college visit. What academic, athletic and after-class programs are available? What are the students like? What makes the college different from others? Every school has strengths and weaknesses. Be objective. Consider what the school has to offer and who might enjoy or benefit the most from attending there.

1.When writing a review, you ________.

cannot refer to any previous review

must express your own views and opinions

must provide some information about the author

needn’t give any examples to support your views

2.Which aspects should be included in all three reviews?

A. Strengths and weaknesses.B. Plot and character.

C. Programs and scenes.D. Location and description.

3. Where can you probably find the passage?

A. In a personal diary.

B. In an official report.

C. In a tourist guidebook.

D. In a popular magazine.