When I was about twelve years old, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to tell me about my shortcomings（缺点）. Week by week her list became _________: I was short, and I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, and so on. I tried to stand（忍受）all of these as long as I could. _________, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me quietly, and then asked, “Are the things that she said true or not? Jane, have you ever   _________ what you’re really like? Now you have that girl’s ideas. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are _________. Pay no attention to（别在意）the other things that she said.”

I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I found that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t _________, like being very short, but a good number of them I could. I wanted to change the bad things in me, and for the _________ time I knew something about myself in a very clear way.

I brought the list back to my father. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said, “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself, but sometimes others’ opinions are also important, so you _________ learn how to listen, and not just _________ your ears in anger and feel hurt. When something that is said about you is true, you’ll find that it will be _________ to you. Our world is full of people who think that they know you. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to all of them, ____________ the truth and do what you think is the right thing to do.” I have remembered my father’s advice at many important moments. I have never had a better piece of advice in my whole life.

Yellow Dress

By Janet Lee

Mary had a yellow dress

Bought from the department store.

It looked as beautiful as the moon,

And as bright as the sun.

Mary wore all the time

The yellow dress I felt so right.

Every day from day to night

I saw her in the dress so bright.

“Buy me a yellow dress,”

I cried to Mom and Dad,

“As beautiful and bright

As the dress the girl living near has!”

I cried and cried and cried,

Until they said with sad eyes,

“We need food for your baby sister,

And clothes for your coming brother.”

Since then I’ve learned

Mary’s yellow dress

Is better to dream of

Than to ask for.

People use their mouths for many things. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word “mouth”. But some of them are not so nice.

Sometimes, people say something to a friend or a family member. Later they regret because it hurts that person’s feelings. Or they tell the person something they didn’t mean to tell. The speaker might say, “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.”

Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend is going to say. When this happens, the friend might say, “You took the words right out of my mouth!” Sometimes a person has a bad or sad experience with another person. He might say that experience “left a bad taste in my mouth”. Or the person possibly has a very frightening（可怕的）experience, like having an angry dog running after him. He might say, “I had my heart in my mouth.”

Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. You might say the person “was born with a silver spoon（银勺）in his mouth”. He is the opposite of a person living from “hand to mouth”. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food.

Shang Yang was a politician（政治家）of the Qin state. He was very wise and forward-thinking（有远见的）. He worked out several reform plans for the state, including focusing on farming and giving rewards（奖赏）to soldiers who were successful during war.

But at the beginning, theses reforms were not easily carried out. Only a few people in the state understood Shang’s talent and the advantages（优点）of his plants. Most people had little trust and confidence in him.

To solve this problem, Shang come up with an idea. He ordered some soldiers to put a thin wooden pole at the south gage of the Qin state capital. This attracted many people. Then, in front of the crowd, he said loudly, “People of Qin, whoever takes this pole to the north gate will get a reward of 10 gold pieces.”

It was a simple task and the reward was big. Some time passed and no one stepped forward. They all thought that Shang was joking. Hearing no answer, Shang stepped forward and said, “I will increase the reward to 50 gold pieces.” The words sounded even more unbelievable. Finally, a man from the crowd came forward to take the pole. He put the pole on his shoulders and walked to the north gate. Trust to his word, Shang paid the man 50 gold pieces.

Soon, the people were saying that Shang was a man of his word. When he began promoting（推行）his reforms, the people followed and did not question him.

Under the great reforms, Qin grew strong and united all the states, becoming the first empire of China. Later, people drew the Chinese idiom “立木取信” from this story.

Try to think in English

If you live in an English-speaking country, you may use English for several hours every day. In this passage, we will share some ways that can help.

Think in single words. Look around you. What do you see? In your head, try to name everything around you. As you continue with this, it becomes more of a habit. Describe unknowns objects. Another exercise is describing in your mind objects you don’t know the words for.

Think in sentences. The next exercise is thinking in simple sentences. For example, if you are sitting in a park, you can tell yourself things like “It's such a beautiful day” and “People are playing sports with their friends”. Once this becomes easy, you can move onto difficult sentences.

Do things above every day, little by little. Try to understand the importance of it. When you make the things a habit, then it will appear in your mind without thinking and then, before you know it, you’re thinking in English.

If you live in a place where people     51     English, you may use it for several hours every day. Try to think in single words. Keep     52     the things you see around you, you can have a habit. It’s necessary to describe     53     new that you don’t know the words for in your mind. If you can think in simple sentences     54    , you can move onto more difficult ones. To do things above is     55     every day. When you make things a habit, it may appear in your mind without thinking.

Parents of children away at college often worry about how their children are dealing with their life. Are they eating properly? Are they getting enough exercise? According to a new study, these worries may not be completely wrong. Meg Small, a researcher, says that only one third of college students have a healthy diet.

Fortunately, according to the research, students seem to be healthier on the days when they communicate with their parents. Students at a large US university were asked to complete some surveys. The surveys included questions about how much time students spent talking to their parents and questions about their eating habits and activity levels.

During the two-week survey, it was found that they ate 14% more fruits and vegetables, and were 50% more likely to take part in at least 30 minutes of sports or activities on the days when they communicated with their parents for 30 minutes or more.

Meg Small believes that some parents may directly tell their children to eat better foods and take part in activities, but it is also suggested that even if healthy living was not discussed, the very act of having communicated with their parents can be enough to encourage them to make healthier choices and take better care of themselves.

This study suggests that the more parents communicate with their children, the healthier lifestyles their children will lead. However, it is equally important to get a balance. By calling too often, parents may quite easily appear to distrust their children, while calling too little, or not at all, sends the message that they do not care.

It’s very important that we all recycle. In nature, everything is used again. For example, when an animal dies, it becomes a    61     animal’s food. Nothing is u    62    . But humans have created things like plastic bags which can’t be broken down by nature. Our rubbish kills animals and brings a lot of p    63    . If we c    64     making too much rubbish, the situation will only get w    65    . If nature can’t reuse the rubbish, we must recycle it. We should c    66     up the rubbish we’ve made because nature can’t.

Recycling is a    67     the right thing to do for another reason. The Earth is r    68     in natural materials like water and trees, but these materials are not endless. We use up our natural materials much faster than the Earth is able to reproduce them. For example, each year we cut down more than 6,000 square miles of forest. But it t    69     about 25 years for a new tree to grow.

Recycling can help us s    70     the Earth, so let’s take action right now.

71. 英语课上，老师安排了小组活动，让同学们谈一谈一年来自己的收获与变化。请根据下面表格提供的信息，写一篇发言稿。

Hello, everyone. Back to the life in the last year, I think I have changed a lot and made great progress（进步）in some ways.

Thanks for your listening!