When we think of food farming, we usually think of green fields in the country outside the city. Sam Chee works on a very different type of farm, in the center of the Canadian city of Toronto. “We grow fruits, vegetables and herbs,” says Sam. “But not many people know the farm is here. You can’t see it from the street. We’re on top of an office building, 50 meters above the ground.”

Rooftop farming is becoming popular in cities like Toronto, New York and London. The roofs of buildings are often just wasted space, but this space can be used for growing good fresh food right in the middle of the city. Sam explains how it works. “We grow everything in big pots and boxes—there are hundreds of them. We catch rainwater to water the plants when the weather is dry.”

The rooftop farm where Sam works belongs to a restaurant called Green Garden, on the ground floor of the building. The farm produces about half the restaurant’s fruits and vegetables. Sam believes that the rooftop farm is what makes Green Garden special. “We help to keep food production local. We don’t need to transport this food from anywhere, and that saves energy. It’s better for the environment.”

The food from the rooftop is fresher too. “When the fruit and vegetables are ripe (成熟), we can pick them and use them right away. They taste better when they’re really fresh,” says Sam.

“I hope that there will be more rooftop farms in the city soon. It could be the farming of the future.”

Rita and Richard have lived next door to each other as long as they can remember. When they were little children, they were good friends, though they sometimes fought over toys or ___________ about what games they would play. As they grew older, they played together less. Rita preferred to be with girls and Richard preferred to play with boys. When they were about fifteen years old, they almost ___________ speaking to each other, not because they had disagreed with each other about anything, but because they belonged to different groups.

Rita had begun to study French, and she liked it. In addition, she liked television programs, and she was ___________ watching football games very much. Her mother used to say, “Rita, I’ve never heard of a girl who likes football as much as you do.” She ___________ did not approve of(赞同) her daughter’s interest. Football, she felt, was for men and boys.

While Rita was working on her French lessons or watching football games on TV, Richard was working for his father in his store after school. He liked selling things to people. His father found Richard is so ___________ that he thought about offering him a higher pay. When Richard wasn’t working at the store, he would like to be with a group of his boy friends who were organizing a sports team.

In fact, it was football that brought Rita and Richard back together. When Richard was going home one afternoon, he looked in the window of Rita’s living room and he saw that she was watching a football game on TV. He walked up and knocked at the door. Rita was ___________ to see him, but she asked him to come in, and they watched the rest of the game together. Rita and Richard are good friends again. They still have different ideas about things sometimes, but they agree with each other that football is the world’s best game.

Judy and her husband, John, loved books. Like many lovers of books, they s    42     walked past a bookshop without stopping to look inside. They often talked of opening their own store one day.

In order to realize their wish, they started by talking to bookshop o    43     and researching book business. One figure(数据) caught Judy’s attention: she had read somewhere that about 20% of books sold were mysteries(推理小说), and many buyers of mysteries spent more than﹩300 a year on books. She and John were mystery readers and had a big collection of such books.

On Halloween 1992, they opened the Mystery Lovers Bookshop and Café near their home. With three children in college, it was i    44     for the couple to spend all the family’s money to start a shop. To cover the $100,000 cost, they used some of their savings, borrowed from relatives and from a bank.

In order to attract(吸引) customers, Judy always had n    45     ways. The shop had a coffee bar and it offered presents to mystery lovers and served dinner for book clubs that met in the shop. She also i    46     many writers to discuss their stories with the buyers to let them understand the stories better. Now after paying taxes, business costs and the six part-time sales clerks, John and Judy together earn about $34,000.

“The job we love may not go hand in hand with lots of money,” said John. “We do this to give an e    47     life to ourselves. This is not about making a lot of money. What matters is that we gain happiness from it.”

A crow lived in a thick forest filled with many birds. The crow was very pleased with his carefree life until he saw a swan one day. The swan was flying over a lake. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. It must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He shared his thoughts with the swan. Actually, “the swan replied, ”I thought so too until I met a parrot. It had brilliant colours of red and blue. No other bird could be happier than the parrot.”

The crow went in search for the parrot, and found it rested on the top of an old rain tree. The parrot explained, “I was very happy until I happened to see a peacock. Compared with the peacock’s feathers（羽毛）, my colours paled. Its rich colours put my coat to shame.”

Curiosity (好奇心) defeated the crow, who decided to look for the beautiful peacock. He finally found the peacock at the zoo. Hundreds of people gathered round to watch the peacock and its beautiful wings. After the crowd left, the crow rested itself onto a rock and said, “Dear peacock,” the crow said; You are so beautiful. Every day, people come just to see you. People drive me away when they see me. You must be the happiest bird on the planet.” The peacock replied, “My beauty had me kept in this zoo. In the years I spent here, I often thought to myself that if I were a crow, I could be enjoying a carefree life outside.” Then after many months of internal struggles (内心的挣扎), the crow came to realize that __________. He was happy because he was satisfied with his life here.”

56. Write at least 60 words on the topic “A special thing in my life”. (以“对我来说特别的一次经历”为题写一篇不少于60个词的短文，标点符号不占格。)