I believe what my grandmother taught me: “Nothing bad happens without something good coming of it.”

For years I didn’t ________ this saying at all. Being optimistic（乐观的）, I thought of it as a “When one door closes another opens” and of thing. Only recently, after a long period of ________ times, I really understand the true meaning of my grandmother’s saying.

The first difficult wave（海浪）came when my first child was born with a heart disease, requiring an open-heart ________ when she was only seven months old. Another was needed when she was two. Our business ________ bad times, just when we were struggle（斗争）with a flood of medical bills. Then my husband started having back pain that left him unable to move for months. Finally our family was under great economic pressure（经济压力）.

We’ve spent a few years rising from the ruins（废墟）of our dreams and hopes, and through it all I’ve ________ begun to understand what this saying bad to teach me. It wasn’t about a chance ________. It wasn’t about doors opening. For me, is about what forms ________ the ruins at our feet.

It’s not a ________ sweeping change in my nature. Instead, it’s the building of small things. Today I face each day with three new abilities: being modest, simple, and thankful. This is ________ I have got from the pounding surf（猛烈冲浪）of the last few years.

The good that comes, is our ability to ________ and adapt（适应）. In the remains left by unlucky things, I’ve learned new skills to deal with my rebuilt world. Over time I am better able to ________ the pounding of the waves. And even enjoy the beauty of the wave.

I would be lying if I didn’t say we have got enough ________, and that I don’t hope for quiet waves. But I know that through it all, my abilities will grow and the good will come.

My Antonia

In the morning, when I was fighting my way to school against the wind. I couldn’t see anything but the road in front of me; but in the late afternoon, when I was coming home, the town looked bleak (阴冷荒凉的) to me. The pale, cold light of the winter sunset did not beautify. When the smoky clouds hung low in the west and the red sun went down behind them, the wind rose again with a kind of bitter song, as if it said, “This is reality, whether you like it or not. All the light and shadow (阴影) of summer, the living mask of green, were lies, and this is what was underneath.” It was as if we were being punished for loving the loveliness of summer.

If I walked slowly on the playground after school, or went to the post office for the mail and stopped to hear the gossip (闲言碎语) about the cigar stand, it would be growing dark by the time I came home. The sun was gone, the lights were shining pale in kitchen windows, and I could smell the suppers cooking as I passed. Few people were abroad, and each one of them was hurrying toward a fire. When one passed an old man, one could see nothing of his face but a red nose sticking out between a frosted beard (胡须) and a long plush cap. The young men jumped along with their hands in their pockets and sometimes tried a slide (滑) on the icy sidewalk. The children, in their comforters, never walked but always ran from the moment they left their door, beating their hands against their sides When I got as far as the Methodist Church (堂), I was about halfway home. I can remember how glad I was when there happened to be a light in the church shinning out at us as we came along the frozen street. Without knowing why, we used to walk on the sidewalk outside the church when the lamps were lighted early for choir practice, or prayer-meeting (祷告会), trembling and talking until our feet were like lumps of ice. The crude reds and greens and blues of that colored glass held us there.

Travel young, travel far

I’m not a full-time traveler. I spend most days working to make a living just like you do. So whenever I have a chance to visit a far-off country. I always jump at it. When I was studying abroad in New Zealand, I traveled all over the country with two friends. We booked everything from whale watching to a private flight over the Southern Alps, and used up all the money we took. Another international student almost looked down her nose at our pricey adventures（冒险）, saying that she had come to New Zealand to study, not to spend all her savings on travel.

My question to her came. Why would you come literally halfway around the world to save your money and keep your nose pressed（压扁的） into a book every weekend? Would you go to China and not visit the Great Wall because it costs money? Would you go to Italy without a visit to the Vatican because it requires a ticket?

I know where I would like my life to go in the coming months and years. But there are no guarantees（保证）that things will go as planned. In fact, nothing will go as planned.

“Oh, I’ll travel when I retire（退休）.” “I’ll travel when the kids are grown.” “I’ll travel when the house is paid off.” How often do we hear others say these? I hear these excuses all the time. But you know what happens? Age. And stress. And, well, life. Life happens, and by the time you retire and your kids are grown and your house is paid off, you have bad knees and weak lungs（肺）and you simply can’t visit all those places you dreamed about in your youth. How sad! I don’t want to end up like that, holding on to youthful travel dreams that will never be reality.

So I often think, what if “sometime later” never came?

So, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford to travel, then you should attack it with curiosity and energy and a sense of adventure.

So travel young, and travel far. Never stop dreaming.

At the end of the day, I’d rather die with a million memories than a million dollars. Money won’t comfort me on my deathbed, but knowing that I lived a full and satisfying life might.

It’s impossible for my children to read this, which is lucky for me, because it would give them support for the argument（争论）“Can we get a dog, or a cat?” Because the research suggests that having one is good for children.

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics shows that children who had a dog in their first year of life were 13% less likely to develop asthma（哮喘） by the time they were six than those from dog-free families. It is believed that children are more likely to develop allergies（过敏）if they grow up in super-clean environments. This study shows other reasons that increase the risk of asthma,but can still show only an association（联系）.

It is reported that 46% of families in the UK have pets, with dogs and then cats the most common animals. The evidence（证据） which shows the advantages of having cats is not always the same, but some research still shows that pets make children healthier. A study of 397 Finnish babies in 2012 found that, during their first year of life, those whose parents had dogs or cats had fewer colds than those from homes without pets. Dogs offered more protection than cats. The researchers think this is because they brought in more dirt from outside to cause the babies’ immune systems（免疫系统）to work well.

The research also shows that having a pet may make children feel more popular and be more understanding.

Pets can also help children to learn about responsibility. Brush the fur, clean the place they sleep, feed them, take more exercise (if you get a dog) and deal with loss — who can forget when their family pet got a car accident?

In a word, keeping pets is really good for improving children’s health and their qualities. However, I still won’t allow my children to keep a pet at home. After all, both dogs and cats poop（大便）at home, and they can carry worms or other parasites. Also, it seems that few children look after the animals they repeatedly asked their parents for.

57. 你校课堂上引进了新科技，可以把老师的语音识别成文字，还可以生成这节课的二维码，学生随时可以观看这节课。请你根据以下提示，以A New Change in Class为题，写一篇短文。内容包括：

A New Change in Class

A new technology is introduced into class in my school. Teachers’ voices can be turned into words. What’s more, a QR code（二维码）will be created after class for students to review the whole lesson anytime. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________