Never give up! This is one lesson I learned when I was very young.

At the age of four, not knowing a single word of ________ , I started school. I felt ________ because I couldn’t talk to other kids. Maybe I was _______ because I never got used to talking with others. I only know Spanish, and English is just a mixture （混合）of ________. When the teacher spoke English, the ________ became faster and faster and then became a tornado（龙卷风）ripping through my mind. I was unable to ________. I got so confused（困惑的）and I didn’t know what to do. I sometimes felt like crying, but I kept telling myself never to ________.

I started to learn English hard. At the end of the year, I could understand, read, speak and write English. The next year I ________ my friend Jack. It was his first year of school and he didn’t ________ English like me in the beginning, so I started to ________ him this difficult language. At first it was very ________, but at last he got used to English and picked it up quickly. We ________ learning more and more every year, and now we are both very good English ________.

I also began to teach my younger sisters because I didn’t want them to feel isolated（孤立的）and shy as I did.

This year I am in the eighth grade and have got straight A’s in every class since kindergarten. My ________? I never give up. Now I am learning Japanese. It may be a little ________, but I will keep on learning it. No matter how hard something is, I keep trying until I do it right.

Nothing is difficult in the world if you put your heart into it.

There is an old Italian tradition called “suspended (待用) coffee”. There you pay for two cups of coffee but only take one, so that someone can go into the cafe and enjoy the other coffee for free. This way, no-money people can still enjoy coffee.

Now, this model is catching on in China. It is “suspended fast food. ” Many people think it’s a great way to help someone who is more disadvantaged (劣势的) than us. On the other hand, some people don’t think it’s a good idea. They don’t know if these people taking the meals are really in need of help or just out for a free lunch. Also, how do we know the restaurant owners won’t just pocket (隐藏) the money and give out (分发) the food?

This is really a trust issue. In fact it’s sometimes difficult to decide if we should give a beggar (乞丐) on the street a little money. Maybe they really need our help; it’s also possible that they aren’t really homeless but just don’t want to work.

But all in all, hopefully we can trust those enough to do the right thing.

Five interesting sports

Our most unusual sports from around the world.

Every country has a national sport and some popular sports are now played across the world, However, in most countries, people also play unusual sports, with strange or interesting rules. Here are our top five unusual sports from around the planet.

This race takes place in a small town in Wales, about 200 miles from London. It’s called a marathon (马拉松), but it’s actually 35.4km, not 42.2km like a usual marathon. People race against horses across the hills and mountains. It started in 1981, but a human did not win until 2004.

In Turkey, camel wrestling is a very old sport. The largest camel wrestling competition takes place every year and thousands of people come. In the sport, two camels fight against each other. Sometimes the camels do not want to fight and they run through the crowds, which can be dangerous.

Every year in China, thousands of people watch dragon boat races. A dragon boat is a traditional Chinese boat with a painted dragon’s head on one end. There can be up to 36 people or more racing in each boat in the water. Dragon boat racing is also popular in some other Asian countries.

In this sport, players compete to throw a large piece of wood called a caber as far as they can. There is no rule about the size of the caber, but it’s usually the size of a small tree. It’s an ancient Scottish sport. Visitors to the UK can check it out.

A good chess boxer needs to be both strong and smart. Players play a round of chess, followed by a round of boxing. There are eleven rounds in total. Chess boxing was invented in 1992 by an English comic book writer. The sport is more popular in England and Germany.

A．

B．

C．

D．

In 1839, Qing Dynasty poet Gong Zizhen wrote over 300 poems. Most of them were about s    61     problems. One of them was Miscellanies of the Year 1839（V）（《己亥杂诗》）and it clearly s    62     his strong feelings of saving poor people and doing something for the country.

At first, Gong wrote about what was happening at that time. As an official（官员）of the Qing Dynasty, Gong agreed with Lin Zexu’s decision to s    63     the opium（鸦片）business. However, they failed and Gong had to go b    64     to his hometown.

Then, Gong wrote about the falling sun. In Chinese poetry, to write about the falling sun is to write about the passing of t    65     and the loss of hope. It was clear that the poet was sad to leave Beijing because he had many friends there. He was a    66     sad that he lost the chance to work for the country.

Gong’s sadness was true, b    67     it didn’t last too long. At the end of the poem, Gong used the “fallen blossoms（落花）” to stand for himself. He didn’t s    68     much about his sadness any more. Instead, he told the readers to believe fallen blossoms would nurture（滋养）f    69     growth next spring. As a patriot（爱国主义者）, he still c    70     about the country and would do something for the country in other ways.