A Goodbye Kiss

My dad was a fisherman, and he loved the sea. He had a boat, but it was ______ to make a living on the sea. It was dangerous too. He worked very hard and stayed out all day and night to catch enough fish for the family.

When the weather was ______, my father didn’t work, and he drove me to school. We talked a lot on the way. Before he ______, he would tell me to be a good boy and give me a big kiss on the face. It was so embarrassing (尴尬的) for me.

I ______ the day. When I was 12 years old, I thought I was too old for a goodbye kiss. We got to school and came to a stop. He had his usual big smile and started to kiss me, but I put my hand up and said, “No, dad.” It was the first time that I talked to him in that way, and he felt very surprised.

I said, “Dad, I’m too old for a goodbye kiss. I’m too old for any kind of kiss.” My dad looked at me ______ for a long time. I never saw him cry before that day. But he really did this time. I sat there without knowing what to say. Then he said, “You are right. You are a big boy… a ______. I won’t kiss you any more.”

It wasn’t long after that when my dad went to the sea and never ______. I was so sad that I wanted one more ______ from my father. But I couldn’t get any.

It was a sunny summer day and I walked back home after school. When I stood in front of the door, I was surprised to find that I lost my key. It was a disaster (灾难) for me, because I only had one key, and my parents were out for several days.

I walked around the community (社区), hoping to find the lost key. But I couldn’t find it. I called my mum and she told me to go to my aunt’s home. My aunt lives in another building of our community. I could stay with her today, but I couldn’t get my key back. The next morning, when I went past the security hut on my way to school, something caught my eyes on the window. It was my key. “Unbelievable!” I was quite surprised when I held the key in my hands.

“Is that yours, kid?” the security guard asked. “Yeah. I lost it yesterday. Who sent this?” I said. The man answered, “I don’t know. Someone picked it up last night.”

I was happy and moved. To pick up a key from the ground and take it to the security hut is not something great, but this kind action was so important to me. I just felt so happy. I won’t be able to say “thanks” to the person because I didn’t know him/her. But I can carry on his or her goodness by learning from the person. From now on, I’m ready to help others.

“The delivery man has your food and is on his way.” This is a piece of information you may receive after you order food online. We know that delivery men bring your food to you. Do you believe that self-driving cars—cars without drivers will bring food to you in the near future? That sounds interesting, doesn’t it?

Now Baidu and Meituan are working together to use self-driving technology (技术) to deliver food. They are going to make some self-driving cars. These companies use the self-driving cars to send group orders. For example, when a company orders food for people working there, a self-driving car will bring all of their orders to the company.

Online food ordering is becoming popular all around China, even in small villages. Till now, about 300 million users use different apps to order food online. Some researchers (研究人员) say that using self-driving cars will be a revolution in the food delivery. They will make a great difference in the future.

Some people think there must be some problems about using self-driving cars to deliver food. For example, self-driving cars can drive well on flat (平坦的) roads, but can they drive well when the road is not flat? People must work out such problems before they can use self-driving cars.

Some people say that we will use self-driving cars in the near future and delivery men will lose their jobs. Do you think so? My answer is “No.” because self-driving delivery cannot bring food to everyone in every city.

Do you want to live a happy and healthy life? Try laughing for no reason (理由) at all. That’s how thousands of people start their day at Laughter Clubs around the world, and many doctors now think that having a good laugh may be a very good way to stay healthy.

Dr Madan Kataria started the first Laughter Club in India, in 1995. “Young children laugh about 300 times a day. Adults (成年人) laugh between 7 and 15 times a day,” says Dr Kataria. “Everyone is good at laughing from the day they were born—it’s the language everyone knows. We want people to feel happy with their lives.” There are now about 500 Laughter Clubs in India and over 1,300 all over the world.

Many doctors are also interested in the advantages of laughter on our health. A 5-year study at the UCLA School of Medicine (医学) in California shows that with laughing, people don’t feel so stressful (有压力的). Laughter is able to make ill people turn out to be healthy.

So, what happens at a Laughter Club? I went to a club near my home to find out. I was very nervous at the beginning of the class, and I didn’t like the idea of laughing with a group of strangers, and I was worried about looking too funny. Our laughter teacher told us to clap (拍手) our hands and say “ho ho ho, ha ha ha...” when we were looking at each other. In fact, our bodies can’t tell the difference between real and not real laughter. Both of them can help us keep healthy.

Surprisingly, it works! After ten minutes everybody in the room was laughing for real and some people just couldn’t stop! At the end of the class, I was surprised by how happy and comfortable I felt. So when you’re under stress, just start laughing. As Dr Kataria says, “When you laugh, you change and the world changes around you.”

All around the world, people drink tea. But in different countries, people have very different ideas about drinking tea.

In China, for example, people always serve (提供) the tea when people get together. The Chinese drink it at any time of the day at home or in teahouses. They like to drink plain tea (素茶) best.

Tea is very important in Japan. The Japanese have a special way of serving tea called the “tea ceremony (仪式)”. It is very old and full of meaning. People do everything in a special way in the ceremony. There is even a special room for it in Japanese homes.

Another tea drinking country is England, and the late afternoon is people’s “teatime”. Almost everyone has a cup of tea then. The British usually make tea in a teapot and drink it with milk and sugar. They also eat cakes, chocolate and a few candies at teatime.

In the United States people drink tea mostly for breakfast or after meals. Americans usually use tea bags to make their tea. It is fast and easy to use tea bags to make tea. In summer, many Americans drink “iced tea”.

39. 假如你是李华，本周日是你班国际生Peter的生日。你打算邀请他来你家度过一个有意义的中式生日。请你根据下面的地图，用英语给他写一封邮件，描述一下从学校到你家的具体路线，并告诉他生日会的具体活动。

提示词语：turn left，go across，opposite，eat noodles，play games

提示问题：●How can you get home?

●What are you going to do at the party?

Would you please come to my home to celebrate your birthday this Sunday? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua