Mrs. Brown lives in a city. She likes growing all kinds of vegetables very much. There is a small garden behind her house. And in spring she usually plants some vegetables in it. Every day, she waters them and looks after them very carefully. When summer comes, they look very nice.

One evening, Mrs. Brown looked at her nice vegetables and said with a smile, “Tomorrow I am going to pick them. Then I will have some delicious vegetables.” After that she went into her house happily.

But early in the next morning, her son ran in and shouted, “Mom! Mom! Come quickly! Our neighbor’s duck is eating our vegetables in the garden.”

Mrs.Brown ran out quickly, but it was too late. All the vegetables were eaten up by the duck. Mrs. Brown sat on the ground and cried, and her neighbor was very sorry, but nothing could change the result.

One day before Christmas, the neighbor brought Mrs. Brown a nice and fat duck, and on the duck’s back was a piece of paper with the words: Enjoy your vegetables!

The elephant is another animal that lives in groups. An elephant herd (群) usually has from twenty to forty members. The elephants in the herd usually depend on each other for help when they are in trouble.

The leader (头领) of the group is usually a clever and strong female (雌性的). She travels at the head of the herd and is followed by the other females and their young. The male elephants follow last. When the danger comes, the male (雄性) elephants make a circle (圈) around the weaker (更虚弱的) animals and protect them. A sick elephant is not left behind to die. If an elephant is sick, the whole herd stops traveling until it gets well. When an elephant is hurt, two others walk on both sides of it and support it with their bodies. A member of the herd may be caught in a trap (陷阱). Then the others try to help it. An elephant herd is just like a human’s family.

Elephants love the young in the group and give them special care and love. For example, they help young animals stay afloat (漂浮着) when the herd crosses a river. They work together to help a baby elephant to get to the safety when it goes to a dangerous place. The way elephants love and care the youngsters is like ours.

When a female elephant gives birth to her young baby, she will go out of the herd and she usually leaves the herd for a short time. However, she takes another female along to act as an “aunt”. The aunt stands beside and helps the mother with her new-born baby. In this way, the whole herd protects its newest member.

That’s the elephant herd. Do you like it?

You need some bread and milk. But half an hour later, you leave the supermarket with a trolley (手推车) full of food.

What games do supermarkets play to make us spend so much money?

The tricks (把戏) usually start before you walk in. Outside the supermarket, anybody who walks past can smell warm, fresh bread. That makes us hungry and ready to buy lots of food, not just bread.

Now you’re inside and, of course, a small basket (篮子) would be fine, but all they have are trolleys. And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products (产品) inside. So we may put other things. In fact, supermarket trolleys are actually getting bigger so that we buy more.

Of course, many people shop in supermarkets because they think everything is cheaper than in other shops. So supermarkets offer very cheap prices on some things but then have higher prices for other products. One new trick is to put red stickers (贴纸) on products. Customers(顾客) usually think red stickers means lower prices so the red stickers is easy to be noticed, even the price is not off! Interestingly, this trick seems to work more with men than with women.

There is a story behind the position (位置) of everything in the supermarket. For example, customers often only go to buy milk. So they put it right at the back and you need to go past hundreds of shelves (架子) full of other products. The position of products on each shelf is also important. For example, the products that children might like are on lower shelves so that kids can see and even reach them.

Except (除了) what you see and smell in a supermarket, what about the music you listen to? In most supermarkets they have soft, slow music. It’s so relaxing that you slow down and spend more time in the store.

So, next time you go into a supermarket, remember these tricks and see if you can come out with just the things you want.

Henry was a kind boy. His father was dead, and his mother was very poor. He had a little sister about two years old. He wanted to help his mother because she could not always make       56     money to buy food for her little family.

One day a man gave him one dollar to thank him     57     finding a watch he had lost. With the dollar Henry bought a box, three brushes and some shoe polish（擦亮剂）. He then went on the street, and said to everyone, “    58     your shoes, please? ”

He was so kind that people began to notice     59    , and to let him clean their shoes. The first day he brought home fifty cents. When he gave the money to his mother, she cried with     60    , “You are a good boy. I didn’t know how I could make enough money to buy bread, but now I think we can live a better life.”

A man from the countryside was very lazy. He just wanted to get everything without working.

One day, while he     61     out on the street in the city, he met his old friend who was an officer(军官). The officer was very happy     62     him because they haven’t seen each other for years. He took out a telephone and said, “Bring a good meal.” To the man’s surprise, a beautiful girl brought the meal right away. How nice the meal was! There were eggs, meat and some other nice food. “How wonderful the telephone is!” The man thought.

After the meal, the officer asked the man, “Do you need anything else? You can     63     me for help.”

“I...I...I want nothing but...no, no.”

But the next day, after the man went back to his hometown, the officer     64     that the telephone was lost.

As soon as the man was back home, he     65     up the telephone and said, “Hello, bring a good meal.” Then he waited, waited and waited. But nothing was brought to him at all.

    66     Some people don’t need much sleep. But they all need to dream, scientists say. Most of us have dreams when we are sleeping. Dreams take up about one quarter of our sleeping time. People have several dreams each night.

Sometimes we always have the same dreams.     67     That may be because the dreamer is worrying about something. Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer.

Some people get new ideas about their work from dreams. They could have been thinking about their work all day.     68    

People have all kinds of dreams. These dreams can be good or bad which also make us feel different. Sometimes we wake up with a good feeling from a dream.     69     Dreams can disappear quickly from memory.

Too many dreams can be harmful (有害的). The more we sleep, the longer we dream.     70     That is why we may have a long sleep and still feel tired after getting up.

76. 你受邀作为八年级代表给学校英语俱乐部的同学们做一次题为“To Be a Better Student”的英文演讲。请根据以下表格提示完成一篇演讲稿。

To Be a Better Student

Good morning, everyone! It’s my great honor to be here to share a few ideas on how to be a better student with you. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That’s all. Thank you for your listening.