“I will think of it.” It is easy to say this; but do you know what great things have come from _____? We cannot see our own thoughts, or hear, or taste, or feel them; but we do feel the _____ our thoughts have!

Sir Isaac Newton was seated in his garden _____ a summer’s evening. He was thinking about something else when he saw _____ fall from a tree. He began to think. In trying to understand why the apple fell, he _____ how the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars were kept in their places.

A boy named James Watt sat quietly by the fireplace, watching the lid (盖子) of the tea kettle as it moved up and down. He began to think; he wanted to _____ why the steam in the kettle moved the heavy lid. From that time he went on thinking and thinking; and when he became a man, he _____ the steam engine successfully. From then on it could do the work of many horses _____.

Next time when you see a steam boat or a steam mill, remember that it would _____ have been built without the hard thinking of someone.

Boys, when you have a ______ lesson to learn, don’t feel discouraged, and help yourselves before asking someone to help you. Think, and by thinking you will learn how to think to some purpose.

One night, a little swallow(燕子) flew over the city. He was very ________ and wanted to have a good sleep in the city. When he saw the Statue of the Happy Prince (王子), he flew down and got ready to sleep below the feet of the Happy Prince.

Just as he was putting his head under his wing, some ________ fell on him. He thought it was raining. But when he looked up, he found the sky was ________ clear and bright that he could see lots of stars. Suddenly, he saw some tears were running down the Prince’s golden face.

“________ are you crying?” asked the swallow.

“In a little street, there’s a poor house. From one of the windows, I see a woman ________ at a table. She’s sewing clothes for ________ women to wear. In a bed in the corner of the room, her little boy is sick. He’s asking for oranges, but his mother has only water to give him, so he is crying. The boy is so thirsty ________ the mother is so sad. Little swallow, will you please take her the ________ from the top of my sword (宝剑)?”

“It is very cold here and I am leaving for a warm place, but I will stay with you and do as you ask.”

The swallow took the bright red jewel from the Prince’s sword and flew away with it in his mouth. He flew into the woman’s room and ________ it beside the woman’s needle.

After he flew back, he told the Prince what he had done. “It’s strange,” he added. “It’s so cold but I feel quite ________ now.”

“That’s because you have done a good thing,” said the Prince. The little swallow began to think about this, and then he fell asleep.

There are some ways to improve your English, but I think the most important thing is to make English all around you. Here’s some advice for you.

Listen to the radio in English. If there are no English radio stations where you live, listen to one on the Internet.

Watch TV and movies in English. If you have English channels on your TV, watch them. If there are no English channels, you can buy some DVDs of English movies.

Speak English to your friends. You can find a friend who is good at English and speak English with him as much as possible. You’d better find friends whose native language is English. Ask your friend to correct you when needed.

Study or travel to an English-speaking country. Of course the best way to improve your English is to live in English environments. You’ll find yourself surrounded（围绕）with the language everywhere. It can be a more difficult and expensive choice, but you may find it to be a very valuable and helpful experience.

“Zero calories (卡路里) and no weight gain (体重增加)” Diet soft drinks are often advertised in this way. But are they really a good choice?

Some people think diet soft drinks are healthier because they don’t have sugar or calories. They think drinking these drinks can help them lose weight.

In fact, diet soft drinks do have some sugar, although very little. Usually, if there is 0.5 grams of sugar or less in a 100-gram drink, it can be described as a diet soft drink.

Although they have little sugar, diet soft drinks still taste sweet by using artificial sweeteners (人工甜味剂). They have very few calories.

But when you eat sweet-tasting things like sugar, it hits your brain and makes you want more. Your brain tells your body to prepare itself for more sugar. When you drink a diet soft drink, the brain received the “sweet signal (信号)” but no sugar arrives. Since the brain is fooled, it still craves (渴望) more sweets.

Some people drink diet soft drinks instead of water. This is not a good choice. Diet soft drinks can damage (损害) your teeth and affect your appetite (影响食欲). The additives (添加剂)in these drinks are not good for you either.

Joe Brown had a shop. He sold (卖) meat in his shop. One Thursday a woman came into his shop at five to one. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “I need some more meat for my dinner tonight.” Joe had only one piece of meat in his shop. He took it out of the fridge and said, “This is $6. 50.” “That piece is too small.” the woman said, “Haven’t you got anything bigger?” Joe went into the room behind his shop, put the piece of meat into the fridge, took it out of again and closed the door with lots of noise. Then he brought the piece of meat to the woman and said, “This piece of meat is bigger and more expensive. It’s $8. 75.” “Good,” the woman said with a smile, “give me both of them.”

Mind maps are a great way of showing a picture of information that you need to learn. You can use mind maps for all kinds of learning. They work very well for vocabulary when you are learning a new language.

1. Draw a circle in the middle of the page and write the key word in the middle. For example:

2. Think of some word groups for “transport” and think of headings for each one. For example: air transport land transport sea transport

3. Look at each group and try to add more groups. For example, in “land transport” there are two sub-groups: λ road λ rail

4. When you can’t make any new groups, add a line for each word you know. Write the words along the lines.

5. As you learn new vocabulary, add it to the mind map.

6. To make the mind maps even better, use color to show important ideas or parts of the map.

Do you see many signs around you? Do you know the signs are an important part of our daily life? They can be in pictures or in words to give people information. What do people think are good signs? If you are thinking about making signs for others, what should you know?

The most important thing is that signs should be simple and easy to understand. It is important to use clear language. On the other hand, the words should be easy to write and you just need to write down what you want to do. “Keep off the grass” is a very good example. It means “Don’t touch or walk on the grass”.

Nowadays, there is a saying that “A picture paints a thousand words”. Perhaps that’s why we are seeing more and more signs in pictures, or a combination(结合) of pictures and words. However, that’s the difficult part, because picture signs may have different meanings in different countries.

Do you play Ant Forest? It is an online game on Alipay(支付宝). Players collect “energy” by doing something environment-friendly. They can grow and water their own “trees” with the “energy”. When the “trees” are big enough, Alipay with some other companies will plant real trees in the desert(沙漠) area of China. Every year millions of trees are planted in this way.

This is part of China’s tree-planting program. It hopes to stop the desert from becoming larger. Since 1978, China has planted over 66 billion trees in the north. It is known as “the Great Green Wall”. For example, Saihanba in Hebei Province was once a desert, but now it has become the biggest man-made forest in China.

“China is making the world much greener than before. It sets a good example and has many lessons to share with the world,” said the United Nations Environment Program.

71. 假如你是李华，你的英国朋友Dave对中国文化很感兴趣，想到中国旅行感受中国文化并学习一些中文。你想邀请他来你的家乡——安徽一游。并给他学习中文提一些建议。请你根据以下提示用英文给他写一封电子邮件。

I know that you are interested in Chinese culture and I’m glad you are planning a trip to China. Why not come to Anhui, my hometown, to have some fun? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Welcome to Anhui! I’m looking forward to seeing you here!

Yours,

Li Hua