It was a sunny Sunday. Dennis and his ________ decided to go climbing in the Alps. When they reached one of the famous mountains, many people were already climbing it. Dennis and his friends started climbing and soon reached the top.

Dennis’s friends thought they could ________ there for a while and then go back. At that time, Dennis saw another mountain that only a few people were trying to climb. He told them, “Let’s climb that mountain instead of camping here. It will be more challenging!” ________, a friend replied, “It must be difficult. You see, only a few people are climbing that mountain. It’s ________ for us to reach the top.”

Dennis ________ to take on the challenge and began to walk towards that mountain alone. Two hours later, he reached the top.

Then he began to ________ the people on the mountain. “Why do so few people ________ this mountain?” he asked. “This mountain is not difficult to climb. If people can reach the top of that mountain, they can reach this one!”

An experienced climber smiled and said, “Most people prefer to do what they find ________ rather than take any risks. They think that if they take risks, they will ________ what they already have. Many of them don’t have die ________.

Hearing this, Dennis thanked the experienced climber for explaining the importance of courage in life?’

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner from time to time. And I remember one night when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and badly burned biscuits in front of my dad.

I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reaching for his biscuit, smiling at my mom and asking me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him, but I do remember watching him eating biscuits happily!

When I got up from the table that evening, I heard my mom say sorry to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said.

“Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then.”

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good-night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He took me in his arms and said, “Your Momma put in a hard day at work and she’s really tired. And besides, a little burned biscuit will never hurt anyone!”

As I’ve grown older, I’ve thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. Learning to accept each other’s faults (缺点) is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

Most people who move to a foreign country may experience a period of time when they feel very homesick and have a lot of stress. This feeling is often called “culture shock”. It is important to understand it and learn how to deal with it if you want to adapt successfully to your new home’s culture.

Generally speaking, there are four stages (阶段) that you will experience after you move to a foreign country. The first stage is usually referred to as the “excitement” stage. When arriving in a new environment, you’ll be interested in the new culture. Everything will seem exciting and everyone will seem friendly.

But it won’t be long before you move from the “excitement” stage to the second stage. The excitement you felt before changes to stress. It seems that everything is difficult. The language is hard to learn, friends are difficult to make, and even simple things like shopping have become a challenge. It is at this “stress” stage that you are likely to feel worried and homesick. This is the stage which is referred to as “culture shock.”

However, culture shock doesn’t last for very long. If you are one of those who manage to overcome it, you’ll move to the “recovery” stage. At this stage, you start to understand and accept the way things are done and the way people behave in your new environment.

The last stage is the “home” stage. This is the stage when you start to feel at home in the new culture. You start to learn from your new home and like some aspects (方面) of the new culture better than those of your own culture.

Culture shock is normal. Everyone in a new situation will go through some form of it. Continue to be brave! And overcoming culture shock will be a piece of cake.

91. “双减”之后，为了引导学生合理利用周末时间，最近你校开展了“如何让周末生活更有意义”的征文活动。请你从体育运动、家务劳动和社会活动三方面，用英语写一篇短文投稿，提出你的建议和看法。

Nowadays, we students have some free time on weekends, but how can we make our weekends more meaningful? Here are my suggestions.

In a word, let’s try to plan free time well and make our weekends more meaningful.