More than 70 years ago, a young man travelled far away to take an entrance exam for a famous music school.   ________ the examination, he tried his best, but the examiner didn’t let him ________.

The young man had little ________, he could only make a living ________ playing the violin on the street. He played ________ well that a lot of people stopped to listen and put money in his violin case.

A hoodlum ________ some money at the young man’s feet. The young man bent down to pick up the money. Then he ________ it to the hoodlum and said, “Sir, your money fell on the ground.” The hoodlum took the money, threw it at the young man’s feet ________ and said, “This money is already yours, so you must take it!” The young man deeply bowed to him and said, “Sir, thank you for your ________! When you dropped your money, I picked it for you. Now my money is on the ground. Can I ________ you to pick it up for me?”

The hoodlum was ________. Finally he picked up the money, put it in the young man’s violin case, and ________ in disgrace. (丢脸的)

The examiner was quietly watching the young man among ________ onlookers (旁观者) . Then he decided to give him a second ________ . He brought the young man back to the school and finally enrolled (录取) him. After several years’ hard work, the young man became a ________ musician.

So when we have difficulties, we shouldn’t accept the food handed out in contempt (轻视) .

For most people, graduation is an exciting day. But my graduation day was not.

I remember that weekend two years ago. Family and friends had travelled to watch our class walk across that stage. But like everyone else in my graduating class, I had watched the economy turn from bad to worse in my fourth year of university. We had degrees (学位), but very few job chances. I knew that the next day I would no longer have a place to live in.

I knew my small university town couldn’t offer me any chances, so I drove to southern California to find work. But what I thought would take a week lasted for two weeks, and then four weeks, and I found myself in the same situation as I was in before.

You know that feeling when you wake up—you are full of fear.

So, what did I do to stay calm? I wrote. Something about putting words on a page made everything a little clearer and a little brighter. Something about writing gave me hope. If you want something enough, sometimes a little hope is all you need!

I turned my scary feelings into a children’s book—about a surprising hero who simply refused to give up his dream.

Then one day, without a writing degree or contact in the writing world, just a lot of hard work, I was offered a publishing deal for my first book! After that, things slowly began to fall into place. I was offered a second book deal. Then, a few months later, I got an interview with a big company and got a good job.

It takes time, but just hold on—things can change when you don’t expect it.

Sir Henry and Captain Good were exhausted and weak from loss of blood. I, too, was more tired than I could remember ever being. We rested, therefore, for many days before we even thought about the future. Then, when we were strong enough to travel again, I said to Ignosi, “You promised me diamonds if I helped you to become king.”

“I did.” he said. “I will keep my promise. But, only Gagool knows where to find them, and I must kill her and the other witches.”

“There has been enough killing,” I said. “Tell the old woman that if she will lead us to the diamonds, you will spare her life.”

Ignosi thought about this for a long time, and then he said, “I will speak to the woman and tell you what she says.”

Ignosi was as good as his word, and he persuaded Gagool to guide us to the diamonds. Three days later, Sir Henry, Captain Good, Foulata—the girl who owed her life to Captain Good and Infadoos were climbing the mountains called the Three Witches. Some warriors carried Gagool. She screamed and cursed continuously, but she knew where the diamonds were. And at last, we came to a deep hole in the ground. It had sloping sides and was not a natural hole. It was the work of miners.

Huge statues guarded the mine. I remembered that King Solomon worshipped some strange gods. “Could these be statues of those gods?” I asked Sir Henry who knew much about ancient history. “It is possible.” he said. The Phoenicians were great merchants and builders. They built King Solomon’s Temple. Perhaps they dug this mine for him. “We want to go into the mine,” I told Gagool, “It is the Place of Death,” she said, “but if you want to enter, then I will lead the way.”

At night, you fall asleep while listening to beautiful music. In the morning, you are woken up by the singing of birds outside. You can enjoy all of these things because of one important organ — the ears.

You may wonder: how do the ears work? The ear has three different parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The outer ear is the part you can see. It collects sound around you. The sound then travels down to the middle ear, the inner ear and then to your brain.

Your ears never stop working, even when you are asleep! Your ears continue hearing sounds, but your brain just ignores (忽略) them. That’s why you might sometimes wake up suddenly in the middle of the night — your brain heard something but you don’t know what it was since you were asleep.

But ears do more than hear. They help you keep your balance, too. In the inner ear, there are organs that are filled with liquid (液体) covered in small hairs. When you move your head, the liquid and hair move, too. They send messages to your brain about the position of your head.

More surprisingly, ears even help with tasting food. Of course, you don’t actually taste food with your ears. But there are nerves (神经) running through the middle ear that connect the tongue to the brain. If something wrong happens to your ears, you might have a hard time telling different flavors apart according to People’s Daily.

The ears are truly important organs with many functions. Everyone should make sure to protect their ears as well as they can.

The CPC is short for the Communist Party of China. It was founded a c    71     ago. That period was a d    72     time in China’s history. The first Party members wanted to save the country and give Chinese people a b    73     life.

The CPC led China to realize the goals of national independence and people’s liberation during the revolutionary times before 1949. It has led the Chinese nation to s    74     up, become prosperous (繁荣的) and grow strong while leading the people to a    75     many “Chinese miracles (奇迹) ”.

Now the CPC is the largest party in the world with over 91 m    76     members. Members of the CPC must wholeheartedly serve the people and be r    77     to devote their lives. They are from all walks of life. They m    78     be your parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents or teachers.

But when danger comes, they stand out and f    79     for the people. You can get to know them through their actions. In the battle against COVID-19, CPC members fight on the frontlines. They put the interests (利益) of the country and people above their o    80    . They take on great duties just as the older generations did.

81. 你们学校网站正在开展以“How to be an excellent student”为题的征文活动，请用英语写一篇短文投稿。

Every student wants to be an excellent student. I want to be an excellent student, too._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________