Every school has notice boards. Let’s see what is on the school boards of a middle school.

Sun bears（马来熊）are the smallest of the world’s eight bear species（物种）. They have a black coat and a white or golden colour on their bodies. Their homes are in the tropical forests（热带雨林）of Southeast Asia. They live in trees and eat both plants and animals. They can grow to be 1.4 meters in height and 65 kilograms in weight. They usually live alone and are happy to spend most of their time by themselves.

Scientists studied sun bears in the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre. They found that although sun bears mostly live alone, they have developed a surprising social skill. They can copy（模仿）other sun bears’ facial expressions（面部表情）as a form of communication. They can even copy exact muscular（肌肉的）movements that other sun bears make—such as making a face.

The ability to copy facial expressions is found in humans, gorillas（大猩猩）, some monkeys and some other animals. But until now, only humans and gorillas have the ability to exactly copy facial expressions. However, scientists found that sun bears can copy facial expressions as well as humans and gorillas. This surprised them because sun bears are alone and they have no close relationship with human beings.

Although they live alone in the wild, the sun bears in the study often played gently with each other. Sometimes they played with faster actions such as hitting and biting. Scientists are still not sure what messages the sun bears were sending to one another.

It was December and the snow was falling quietly outside. The four March sisters were sitting around the fire in their house. Sixteen-year-old Meg was the oldest of the four sisters. She loved pretty clothes. Jo was fifteen. She was very tall and thin. She didn’t care about dresses. Beth was thirteen. She was very shy and quiet and the youngest, Amy looked like a snow princess with her blue eyes and blonde hair. She loved beautiful things.

“Christmas isn’t Christmas without any presents,” Jo said sadly. “I hate being poor!” Meg said, looking at her old dress; “Some girls have lots of nice things, and other girls have nothing at all,” said Amy. “I don’t think it’s fair.”

Then Jo said, “But we haven’t got Father. “ Their smiles suddenly disappeared. Mr. March was far away with soldiers(士兵).

“Mother says we mustn’t spend money for pleasure,” Meg said. “That’s why we can’t have presents.”

“Well, each of us has a dollar to spend,” said Jo. “I’d like to buy a book for myself.”

“I want to spend mine on some new music.” said Beth.

“I’m going to buy a box of drawing pencils. I really need them,” said Amy. She wanted to be an artist.

“Mother didn’t say anything about spending our own money,” cried Jo. “We work hard for it sole’s buy what we want and have a little fun.”

It was true. The two older sisters had jobs. They could make money.

Just then, Beth found her mother’s slippers near the fire.

“Those slippers are very old,” said Jo. “Mother needs some new ones.”

“I have an idea,” said Beth. “Let’s not spend our money on ourselves. Let’s get some presents for Mother.”

Her sisters thought that she was right. They decided to buy some presents for their mother. At that moment, their mother came back home with a letter from their father. When they had dinner happily, the mother read the long letter. The father told the girls to be good to their mother and work hard. He wanted to be proud of them when he came back.

Before they went to bed, Beth played some songs and they all sang.

Our earth is in trouble. Our drinking water is becoming dirtier, and the air is not as clean as before. People and factories are polluting the air, rivers, lakes and seas. You may think there is nothing you can do to help. That’s not true.     46    

Cars burn oil.     47     Some people believe that too much CO₂ is making the earth warmer than ever.     48     This can save some oil and produce less CO₂.

    49     So turn off the air conditioner(空调) when you don’t need to use it. Use lights that save energy. Use fewer things that cannot be used again. When you buy something, consider those made from things that can be used again first.

A lot of water is needed for a shower. So take shorter showers.     50    

Every small action can make a big difference to our earth. Let’s take action to protect it.

When my friend Judy was a young man, he wanted to change the world. When he found it     61     (possible) to change the world, he tried to change his country. When he found he couldn’t change the country, he     62     (begin) to focus on his hometown. When he found he couldn’t change the hometown, he tried to change his family.

Now, as an old man, he realizes the only thing he can change is himself. He keeps doing exercise     63     (shape) himself. Also, he spends as much time as he can     64     (read) different types of books. To     65     (we) surprise, Judy has influenced his family. They influence their neighbours as well. Their influence could have changed the country and he could     66     (real) have changed the world.

My dear friends, please stop     67     (dream) big about your future. Instead, it’s necessary for you     68     (change) yourself little by little and day by day. Then, we have the power to change our     69     (think) and make tomorrow a     70     (good) day than today.

71. 4月23日是第26个世界读书日。读书使我快乐，读书使我明智，读书使我……请根据以下提示信息，以“Reading Makes Me ________”为题，写一篇英文小短文谈谈你的做法和感受。

Reading Makes Me ________

Reading is a lifelong journey and plays an important role in our life. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________