Johnnie Martin was born in a worker’s family. His parents lived a simple life, saving money for the day when they could send him to a good university. They had dreamed that their son could get a good ____ and live a better life. However, to Johnnie, school lessons seemed like a wall that was impossible to go through.

One day when he was in Grade 11, Johnnie went ____ school psychologist’s office to ask for help.

“Johnnie, I’ve been studying your marks of all the tests at school. I’ve made a ____ study of them,” said the psychologist.

“I’ve been trying hard.” Johnnie was about to ____.

The psychologist put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, “People have different kinds of talents, Johnnie. There are painters who were ____ able to learn maths, and engineers who can’t sing on key. Some day you will find ____ you are good at, and when you do, you will make your parents and all of us very ____ you.”

Johnnie didn’t go to university. He found a job working in the gardens around the town. Soon ____ amazing happened. His customers began to notice that Johnnie had what they called “green thumb”. The plants he ____ grew, and the roses blossomed. People started to accept his ____ for gardening, because he had an eye for colour and light. One day while he was downtown, he happened to ____ an unused dirty land behind the city hall. He volunteered to make it into a garden. That very afternoon as soon as he got the permission, he started the work, ____ he couldn’t afford all the tools or the plants that were ____ for it. People gave him young trees, rose-bushes, benches and many other things. Before long, it had become a beautiful little ____.

Today Johnnie is the head of the business in gardening. Wherever he and his men go, they ____ beauty before the eyes of people.

When Sunday is over, the boring office may be the last place you think of, but the Apple Park in Cupertino, California may give you a different feeling.     

Apple Park is like a huge landed UFO, which covers an area of 708,000 square metres. The round four-storey main building has hundreds of rooms. It covers an area of up to 260,000 square metres. The outer walls are made up of huge pieces of glass. Many of them can be opened like the windows in your home, and the whole building can “breathe” like a human being. With this special ventilated system, it only needs to use air conditioners for three months of the year. There are 75,000 square metres of solar arrays on the roofs of the building. They provide electricity for the whole Park. The Apple Park building is a bright, comfortable and convenient place for all the 12,000 Apple people to work inside.   

Apple Park is not only a fantastic working place. There is a huge dining hall for all the — Apple people to have meals together at once. There is a four-storey cafe, a sports center and a l,000-seat theatre to offer relaxing services. There are 2,000 bicycle parking spaces, so people can ride their bikes to work. The company also provides l,000 bikes for Apple people to get around all over Apple Park. In the middle of the round building is a huge park. Over 9,000 trees, including many fruit trees, are planted to make it a mini forest. It’s an ideal place to make Apple people feel better and more energetic.

Apple Park is a gift for all the Apple people.

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to believe or what to do. According to a report on the World Economic Forum (2016), critical thinking, creativity, and their practical application are widely accepted as the top three skills that young people need to possess in their future career.

A good critical thinker usually takes the following steps before he dicides what to do. Whenever he needs to do something, he would, first of all, reason. He checks why he needs to do it and whether he really needs to do it. Then, analyze. He tries to find out what it really is and the best way to do it. After that, evaluate. He makes sure whether he is able to do it and how to do it well. Finally, he makes the decision and takes action. Take the “Double 11” (a popular online shopping day in China) as an example. A few days before it, he checks carefully what he needs and whether he really needs them, and makes a shopping list. He goes to the online shops to compare the quality and the prices of the things that he is going to buy. He compares the shops that sell these things.

Then he checks whether he can afford them and in which shops he is going to buy them. Although it takes him some time to make the decisions, he would not regret after the shopping.

Then what would happen if he didn’ t think critically before he made the decisions? After the crazy “Double 11”, there were usually a lot of complaints on the Internet. There were regrets about buying more things than they needed. There were complaints about the poor quality and the prices of the things they bought. There were also complaints because they received wrong things or simply received nothing. There were all kinds of regrets and complaints. Why so? They had not thought critically before they made the decisions.

Critical thinking helps you make wiser decisions. It helps you avoid wasting time, money and so on. Therefore, do look before you leap.

Why are some animals pets and others lunch?

In some countries, dogs and cats are commonly considered as pets, while chickens, ducks, and     46     (猪) are food. However, in some other countries dogs and cats are food, and the food animals are pets.

People     47     (分开，将……分成) animals into several kinds to their own needs.   For example,   you may have     48     (朋友) who keep rabbits as pets. Some people     49     (烹饪) rabbits as dishes. People treat a rabbit as a pet because it     50     (带来) them pleasure. They eat it, for they think it is a kind of meat. They kill it because they believe it is     51     (有害的) to plants or people,

People also treat animals differently based on their own cultures. Most of us have dogs as pets. Dogs live in our house, like a     52     (成员) of the family. However, in some cultures, dogs are considered unclean. People     53    （几乎不）ever keep them as pets. In some parts of Southeast Asia, dogs are on the menu.     54    （百万）of dogs are killed every year.

What’s     55    （正确的）and wrong in the way we treat animals?

I am looking forward to your kind reply.

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua