Smiling is the best way of making friends.

When I was thirteen ________ old, my father found a job in the city. So my family moved there. I also came to a new school near where we live. At first, I didn’t know anyone in my class. I felt very ________, and afraid to make friends with my classmates. I couldn’t talk to anyone about my problem, and I didn’t want my parents to ________ me.

Then one day, something good ________ . I was sitting at my desk in silence while my classmates were talking ________ with each other. At that moment, a ________ came into the classroom. I didn’t know who he was. He passed me and then turned back. He looked at me and, without a word, smiled. Suddenly, I felt happy, lively and ________ . That smile ________ my life. I started to talk with the other classmates and made friends. Day ________ day, I became closer to everyone in my class.

Thanks to the smile, I have moved on to a new life. Now, I believe that the world is what you think it is. So ________ at the world and it will smile back.

Climbing a mountain is hard work. But one step after another finally brings a person to the top. Along the way, he can stop and look around. And the higher he climbs, the more wonderful his view is. If he keeps climbing, he will have a new world in front of him. He will have a new way to see everything.

Now learning a foreign language is something like climbing a mountain. This new language can give you a new view of life. And it is more than a look at the surface of things.

It can open the way into people’s minds and hearts and into a culture that is very different from your own culture. This will make you richer in things that money can’t buy. Even though you never set foot on a ship or a plane, you can be an armchair traveler through books.

The mountain climber stops now and then to enjoy the scenery around him. Reading is just like this. If you are interested in it, you will find fun in books.

In the western world, Chinese takeout (外卖) is popular. It is usually sent to your house in small square boxes, with rice and fortune cookies (幸运饼干). It is a good choice if you feel lazy and don’t want to cook or eat out.

But this kind of Chinese food isn’t very authentic (正宗的). In fact, it is very different from real Chinese food. Now over the years, real Chinese dishes have become more popular in foreign countries as well. Chinese people who live abroad introduced most of these foods.

In the United States, people enjoy eating jianbing and roujiamo. In Russia, tanghulu has become a popular winter snack. Latiao is even popular in overseas (海外的) classrooms. A lot of these foods are like Western foods. This might be why they are appealing to foreigners.

For example, roujiamo looks like a hamburger. Youtiao is kind of like churro (西班牙油条), a snack that is popular in Spain. And tanghulu is similar to candy apples, which are beloved by children in the US and UK.

But what do foreigners really think about all of these authentic Chinese foods? To find out, you can invite some of your friends to have a try of these foods.

Full Moon, Full Feelings

Chinese people have been celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoying mooncakes for centuries. Mooncakes are in the shape of a full moon on the Mid-Autumn night. They carry people’s wishes to the families they love and miss.

There are many traditional folk stories about this festival. However, most people think that the story of Chang’e is the most touching. Chang’e was Hou Yi’s beautiful wife. After Hoy Yi shot down the nine suns, a goddess（女神）gave him magic medicine to thank him. Whoever took this could live forever, and Hou Yi planned to take it with Chang’e. However, a bad man, Pang Meng, tried to steal the medicine when Hou Yi was not at home. Chang’e refused to give it to him and took it all. She became very light and flew up to the moon. Hou Yi was so sad that he called out her name to the moon every night. One night, he found that the moon was so bright and round that he could see his wife there. He quickly laid out her favourite fruits and desserts（甜品）in the garden. How he wished that Chang’e could come back!

After this, people started the tradition of admiring the moon and sharing mooncakes with their families.

Save the Sharks (鲨鱼)!

Many have heard of shark fin (鱼翅) soup. But do you r    56     that you’re killing a whole shark each time you enjoy a bowl of shark fin soup?

When people catch sharks, t    57     cut off their fins and throw the sharks back into the sea. This is not o    58     cruel (残酷的), but also harmful to the environment. Without a fin, a shark can no l    59     swim and slowly dies. Sharks are at the t    60     of the food chain in the sea’s ecosystem. If their numbers drop too low, it will bring danger to all sea life. Many believe that sharks can never be endangered b    61     they are the strongest in their food chain. But in fact, around 70 m    62     sharks are caught and traded (交易) in this industry (工业) every year. The numbers of some kinds of sharks harks have fallen by over 90 percent in the last 20 or 30 years.

Environmental protection groups around the world, s    63     as WildAid and the WWF, are teaching the public about “finning”. They have even asked governments to develop laws (法律) to s    64     the sale of shark fins. So far, no scientific studies have shown that shark fins are good for health, so why eat them? Help s    65     the sharks.