A little boy invited his mother to attend his school’s first parent-teacher meeting. This would be the first time that his classmates met his ________. She had large scar (疤痕) that ________ nearly the whole right side of her face. The boy felt ashamed and ________ asked why or how she got the ________.

At the meeting, everyone was happy to meet his mother, ________ the little boy was still embarrassed and hid ________ from everyone. He did, however, overheard a conversation ________ his mother and his teacher.

The teacher asked ________, “Is it okay to ask how you got the scar?”

The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught ________. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of ________, but I went in. As I was running toward his bed, saw piece of wood ________ from the ceiling (天花板), so I stood over him to ________ him. I was knocked senseless, but fortunately, a firefighter came and saved ________ of us.” She touched the burned side of her face. “This scar will last, but to this day, I have never ________ what I did.”

The little boy had never ________ the story of his mother’s scar. He ran toward his mother in tears and held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.

Miss Georgers taught physics in a New York school. Last month she explained to one of her classes about sound, and she decided to test them to see how successful she had been in her explanation. She said to them, “Now I have a brother in Los Angeles. If I was calling him on the phone and at the same time you were 75 feet away, listening to me from across the street, which of you would hear what I said earlier, my brother or you and for what reason?”

Tom at once answered, “Your brother. Because electricity travels faster then sound waves.” “That’s very good,” Miss Georgers answered; but then one of the girls raised her hand, and Miss Georgers said, “Yes, Kate?”

“I disagree,” Kate said. “Your brother would hear you earlier because when it’s 11 o’clock here it’s only 8 o’clock in Los Angeles.”

On a Friday night, a poor young violinist was playing his violin at the entrance of the subway station. He played such great music that people slowed down to listen and put some money into his hat.

The next day, the violinist came to the entrance again. He put down his hat as usual. Besides the hat was a piece of paper with some words on it. It said, “George Black has put an important thing into my hat by mistake. Welcome to claim (认领) it. Soon the people were all interested in the words and wondered what it could be. After a while, a man rushed into the crowd, took the violinist’s shoulders and said, “I knew you would certainly come.” The violinist asked, “Did you lose anything?” Lottery (彩票).” The violinist took out a lottery ticket with Black’s name on it. Black took it and danced happily.

Black was an office worker. He bought the lottery and won a prize of $500,000. But when he gave $50 to the violinist for his wonderful music, the lottery ticket was thrown, too. The violinist was a college student. That morning, he was going to fly to Vienna for higher education. However, when he found the ticket, he put off the flight and went back to the entrance.

Later someone asked the violinist why he didn’t take the lottery ticket to pay for his high education. He said, “Although I don’t have much money, I live a happy life. If I lose honesty, I won’t be happy forever.”

It seems that food deliverymen (送货员) are always in haste. We can see them running every minute, and they seem to have lots of things to do the next minute. They wear blue, red or yellow helmets (头盔) and many of them don’t follow traffic rules. They drive on the wrong side of the road and run red lights. They use mobile phones when they are driving.

However, not everything goes well with food deliverymen. In the first half of 2017, food deliverymen had 76 traffic accidents in Shanghai. This means every two and a half days, a food deliveryman will die or get hurt on the road.

What makes deliverymen so dangerous? The strict rules of the food delivery companies and the worried customers may be the answer. Many companies will fine a deliveryman up to 2,000 yuan if he can’t deliver the food on time, reported China Daily. Fines also go to those who get bad words from customers.

To make sure that deliverymen drive safely, many cities in China asked companies to train their deliverymen on traffic rules and safety. Now in Shenzhen if a deliveryman breaks traffic rules more than twice, then he cannot drive to send food for a whole year.

Chinese people are eating too much salt. On average, people in China eat about 10.5 grams of salt each day, much higher than the 6 grams recommended (建议) by Chinese Dietary Guidelines.

China now has one of the highest salt intakes in the world. To fix this, China issued (发行) the first salt reduction guide for its food industry on April 18, People’s Daily reported.

If the guide is followed properly, the average salt intake for Chinese people will drop by 20 percent by 2030. The guide calls for food companies to lower the content (含量) in their products by improving their production techniques and adjusting flavors.

The salt we take in mainly comes from processed food. For example, a 104-gram can of Lay’s classic potato chips contains about 0.66 grams of salt, which accounts for over 10 percent of the recommended daily salt intake. A 100-gram bag of Kang Shi Fu instant noodles has nearly 2 grams of salt.

A small amount of salt makes food taste better and is important for good health, but eating too much increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke (中风), the Xinhua News reported.

Less salt leads to better health. And there’s no need to worry that food will be less tasty in the future. A study by the Monell Chemical Center in the United States found that it’s easy for people to reduce their salt intake. Although you may think your food is not salty enough at first, your taste buds (味蕾) will gradually get used to it and you will feel that your food tastes the same as it did before.

Country is a traditional kind of music     76     the southern states of America. Nashville, Tennessee is the     77     of country music. Many songs these days are just about     78     life in the US, such as the importance of money and success, but not belonging to a group.     79    , country music brings us back to the “good old days” when people were     80     to each other. It reminds us that the best things in life are free-laughter, friends, family, and the beauty of nature and the countryside.

So far all of us     81     the story of Rabbit-tortoise Race. The rabbit lost the first race against the tortoise. After that the rabbit decided     82     a second race. This time he didn’t sleep and won because he was good at running. However the tortoise didn’t give up. He had a third race with the rabbit. There was a river on the way. While the tortoise     83     across the river quickly, the rabbit still stood there. Of course, the tortoise won. The story doesn’t end here. In the last race they took turns to put each other on the back and reached the finishing point together.

The spirit of teamwork can     84     by us from the story. If we help one another, all of us     85     success.

The next time you go into a bank, a store, or a supermarket, stop and listen. What do you hear?     86     It’s similar to the music you listen to, but it’s not exactly the same. That’s because this music was especially designed to relax you, or to give you extra energy. Sometimes you don’t even realize the music is playing, but you react to the music anyway.

Quiet background music used to be called “elevator(电梯) music” because we often heard it in elevators. But lately we hear it in more and more places, and it has a new name “Muzak”. About one-third of the people in America listen to “Muzak” every day. The music plays for 15 minutes at a time, with short pauses in between. It is always more lively between ten and eleven in the morning, and between three and four in the afternoon, when people are more tired.     87    

If you listen to Muzak carefully, you will probably recognize the names of many of the songs. Some musicians or songwriters don’t want their songs to be used as Muzak, but others are happy when their songs are chosen. Why?     88    

Music is often played in public places because it is designed to make people feel less lonely when they are in an airport or a hotel. It has been proven that Muzak does what it is designed to do. Tired office workers suddenly have more energy when they hear the pleasant sound of Muzak in the background.     89     Supermarket shoppers buy 38 percent more groceries.

    90     They say it’s boring to hear the same songs all the time. But other people enjoy hearing Muzak in public places. They say it helps them relax and feel calm. One way or another, Muzak affects everyone. Some farmers even say their cows give more milk when they hear Muza!

96. 初中生活即将结束，回首三年的初中生活，你在学习和生活中一定取得了不少的进步，比如学科知识、生活技能、人际交往、体育锻炼、良好习惯等方面。请结合自身的亲身经历谈一谈自己在哪些方面取得了进步。