My Trip to Xiamen

孙洪梅

I arrived in Xiamen after a 14-hour train ride from Guangzhou. On the train I made friends with a cook who was from Hunan Province. He， good looking， aged 22， made the best train food I had ever eaten. The reason I bring him up here is that he and I spoke for around two hours — mostly in Chinese， but he knew some English phrases， so we talked a bit in English. When I asked him why he was working on the train， he said， “I have to.” He came from a poor village and had to help support his family. He wanted to learn English. I recommended （推荐） Enjoyabc.com and he said he would have a look. Anyway， meeting people like him makes travelling a great experience.

Xiamen is a beautiful city next to the ocean. It is sunny with a cool constant wind. Today， my friend and I went to the seaside and ate barbecue （烧烤）. We had barbecued squid， chicken， cucumber and some other nice food. Then we played on the beach for a while and climbed some small mountains. After that， we followed some local people to a strawberry field. We picked some strawberries for six yuan a pound. Altogether we picked 1.7 pounds.

The sea has such a calming magic （使人寧静的魔力）. Your worries seem to disappear when you see， smell or touch the sea. I am excited about tomorrow's trip as I plan to visit Gulangyu Island and maybe visit a natural spa （矿泉）. If I have time， I also plan to drink tea and do something more relaxing.

I. Answer the following questions.

1. Why did the young cook work on the train？

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2. What does the second paragraph mainly tell us？

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3. Why do you think the writer wrote this passage？

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4. According to the writer， what's his trip like？

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II. Writing Task： My First Trip

Have you ever had your first trip on a bike， a motorbike， a car， a train， or a plane？ What was it like？ Write down your experiences and your feelings about it.

Write an article of about 120 words.

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