33. She was ________ an email from her friend the whole morning, but it didn’t come.

Not long ago, my daughter’s favourite leather shoes were cut by a knife. She cried. I took the shoes to a shoemaker to get them repaired.

The young apprentice (学徒) took a look at the cuts quickly and said, “There is _________ I can do but change the uppers (鞋帮).”

His master looked at _________ and said to me, “If you trust me, I will add more cuts to both of the shoes on purpose for special style.”

I didn’t fully understand him, _________ I decided to leave the shoes.

Two days later, I went there to get the shoes. At the first sight I found there were indeed five or six _________ on each shoe, but all of them were covered by soft red leather sewed (缝) with thick thread (线). The shoes looked more special and interesting than ever. I _________ stop praising (称赞) the master for his skill.

Another time, my wife’s _________ had an opening on the back. My wife checked it carefully, and then said, “I’ll _________ it myself.”

Three days went past, and I was very _________ to see it again: the _________ was sewed up by thin and white thread and it looked like the ice crystal (晶体). She __________ made a lovely snowman and a wooden house on the blouse. I said with praise, “It’s just as beautiful as a piece of __________.”

“I learned from the master. Patches (补丁) can be __________ to look perfect.” replied my wife.

Her words taught me even more: perfection is __________ to achieve in everything; patches are unavoidable (不可避免的), so is human’s life, which will appear in the form of wound, disability or disease. __________ you can’t change that, all you can do and have to do is to cover the wound by patches and try your best to make a most beautiful flower on the wound, and that is __________ life teaches us. Once you understand it, you can enjoy your life better.

Basketball, football and swimming are popular events in the Olympics. But there are also some events that are not as popular. Some are even very strange. Let’s see if you have any knowledge about the following events.

	Tug-of-war This event started in 1900 and left the Olympics in 1920, The team wins if they pull the rope past a certain point first. Interestingly, more than one team from a country can enter in this event. This makes it possible for one country to win several medals.
	Rope climbing It first appeared as an Olympic sport in 1896. The climber who spends the shortest time reaching the top is the winner. The rope used to be 15 meters long. Years later, it was shortened to 8 meters, for some reason. After 1932, there was no rope climbing in the Olympics.
	Race walking In race walking, walkers have to win the race by walking. To make sure that they do not run, race walkers must have one foot on the ground at all times. Race walking has been an Olympic sport since 1904. Men enter in 20 kilometer races and 50 kilometer races; women only race 20 kilometers.

One evening, Anne was at home doing her homework. Matthew was home, but Marilla had gone to the town with the Barrys. Suddenly, Anne looked up and saw Diana standing at the door. She looked very worried.

“What is the matter, Diana?” cried Anne.

“Oh, Anne, do come quickly,” said Diana nervously. “Minnie May is very sick. Father and Mother are away in town and there’s nobody to go for the doctor.”

Matthew quietly got his cap and coat and went for the doctor. The two little girls ran to Diana’s house hand in hand. Minnie May was Liana’s three-year-old sister. She was very sick. Anne saw her and immediately went to work. She had looked after many children before and knew what to do.

“First we must have lots of hot water. Put the fire on. Then I’m going to give her some medicine.” Minnie May did not like the medicine, but Anne did not give up.

All night, Diana and Anne stayed with Minnie May. It was three o’clock when Matthew came with the doctor. But by then, Minnie May was sleeping. Anne told the doctor what she had done. He was very impressed. Later on, he told Mr. and Mrs. Barry, “That little red-headed girl is very smart. She saved that baby’s life.”

The next day at dinner, Marilla told Anne, “Mrs. Barry was here this afternoon. She said you saved Minnie May’s life. She invited you to her house.”

That night, Anne went to the Barry’s. They had a good time, and she felt very happy.

——Taken from Anne of Green Gables

One day, when I finished raising money for a charity and was on the train back home, I put down my phone and started writing thank-you notes to people who helped.

When I got off the train, I felt amazingly good. The next day, I wrote more thank-yous and the same feeling of happiness hit me again. I suddenly had the idea: Why not keep on doing this for every day of the year?

To keep on task, I decided to pick out a different theme for each month. January was charity. February would be neighbours. And many names came to my mind right away.

While writing the notes, I realized I spent too much time on the phone moving from app to app, enjoying other people’s lives. Writing thank-you notes allowed me the time to do something different, paying more attention to my own life.

In the following months, I wrote to my friends, doctors and teachers. In July, my “food” month, I wrote to Julie, who used to cook at my favorite restaurant. It went like this:

Dear Julie,

I find myself missing you lately. Thank you for hosting and cooking beautiful food. Jake and I will never forget the cake you made for our wedding. We talk about it every year.

Thank you. We miss you.

Love,

Gina

I was happy to receive a note back from her. Julie replied, “I don’t think I’ve ever received such a touching letter before. I’m going through a hard time right now, and this helps.”

On December 31, I wrote my last card—to Jake, my husband, and our two kids. And I took a picture of us, so I could remember the feeling coming up inside me. Gratitude.

Tomatoes taste great. With a lot of vitamins, they are good for you, too! People all over the world enjoy this amazing fruit.

Not all tomatoes are red. They can be yellow, orange, pink, or white. All tomatoes are green before they are ready to be picked. Then the tomatoes turn their true color. That’s when they’re ready to eat!

Tomatoes first grew in the Americas. The Incas (印加人) grew them over 1,000 years ago. They were introduced to Europe by the Spanish in the early 16th century. The Spanish and Italians seem to be the first Europeans to accept them as food. In France, people grew tomatoes in the garden just to enjoy their beauty. Many people there thought tomatoes would make them sick. It was years before some of them would eat tomatoes.

Tomatoes are fruits. They grow from seeds. They won’t grow in cold weather. But with water, sunlight and warmth, tomatoes grow fast. They can grow in pots or in the ground. As the plant grows taller, people may tie it to a stick. Next is the blooming stage. Flowers appear. The flowers turn into fruit. Some kinds of tomatoes can be picked in about six more weeks. Some tomatoes are large. One kind of tomato can weigh as much as two pounds.

You can eat raw tomatoes. First, wash them. Then, cut them up for salads or sandwiches. Tomatoes can be cooked, too. They can be grilled, boiled, or even fried. Do you use ketchup(番茄酱)? It is made from tomatoes. Tomatoes don’t have a smell. But they taste great in foods around the world. Many dishes from India use tomatoes. Spaghetti sauce and pizza from Italy use them, too. Raw tomatoes are in Mexican salsa.

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Jane was not a confident girl before, because she was fat and others often laughed at her. As a result, Jane became very shy. She was afraid to say hello to strangers. She was afraid to ask simple questions and speak loud in front of others. It seemed that she felt afraid of everything in her life. She used to believe that she would be like this all her life.

But one day, her friend Paul’s words changed her mind. He encouraged Jane to change herself. He said, “If you can give it a try, you will have a chance to make a change. But if you never try, your life is only going to get worse.” Jane was deeply touched by what Paul said. She thought, “Why not have a try? After all, I had nothing to lose.”

The first thing Jane did was losing weight. She had a strict diet and did exercise every day. After 6 months, she lost 90 pounds. This taught her that she could change herself.

A few months later, Jane heard about a speech competition at her university. She plucked up the courage to sign up for the competition. For the first time, she was able to share her story and speak loud in front of many people. In the end, she got a big prize!

After the competition, Jane made a to-do list and started changing quickly. She tried her best to finish the things on the list one by one. When working on them, she became more and more confident.

Jane was still making progress now. And she will never stop.

Gulliver’s Travels tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s doctor. He has the most unbelievable e    81     on his travels. The story is told by Gulliver himself and every journey he makes ends w    82     his ship being broken or attacked by pirates. Each time this happens Gulliver finds h    83     in a strange land with even stranger people.

Its writer, Jonathan Swift, was born into a poor family in Dublin, Ireland. His mother couldn’t afford to raise her children, s    84     she left her children in the care of relatives. His life experiences made a great difference to his w    85    . In his works, he had pity on the poor and hated the rich and powerful.

The book was a s    86     when first published and is still popular today because both young readers and adults e    87     it. This is because it can be enjoyed as a young reader’s fantasy story about travel and adventure and also as a political satire （讽刺）for adults.

In fact, Gulliver’ Travels is a travel book and Gulliver is a great adventurer. He always wants to leave h    88     and travel on the seas another time. All these make the book a classic. So people are never t    89     while reading.

At the end of the story Gulliver finally ends his travels but he is strongly c    90     by them. He learns that there are many different ideas of what makes a civilized（文明的）society and that we must not feel superior（优越的） to others because they are different.

—Taken from Gulliver’s Travels

96. 八（9）班将举行一次主题班会，畅谈一年来自己的收获与变化。请为Tom 准备一份演讲稿，具体内容如下表：

要求：

1）表达清楚，语法正确，上下文连贯

2）必须包括提示中所有要点内容，并适当发挥；

3）词数：100词左右（开头已给出，不计入总词数）；

4）不得使用真实姓名、校名和地名等。

Hello, everyone. I’m Tom from Class 9, Grade 8. Back to the life in the last year, I think I have changed a lot and made great progress in many ways.

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Thanks for listening!