Serena looked up from her phone when she heard the loud noise. The car she was sitting in started shaking, and her dad began to pull over.

“You two stay here while I _______ the car. We’ll get moving along on our adventure (冒险) in no time!” said Dad.

“Adventure!” Serena laughed to herself. Some adventure this was! A month-long road ride ________ South Dakota in such an old car!

“What’s so interesting on your phone?” her brother Tony asked.

She held out the phone for him to see. “Ally ________ pictures from her vacation. She’s on a real adventure in Florida. Look at the seaside!” Serena continued. “And these are pictures from Drew’s vacation. He’s on a safari (观兽旅行) in Africa! Look, elephants!”

“That’s amazing!” Tony agreed. “You’ll have to take pictures of our ________ too.”

Serena rolled her eyes. “You mean of Dad fixing the car in the middle of ________!”

“But that’s the great thing!” Tony said. “We have no idea what’s going to happen, no idea what surprises might be the next moment. We’re on a _______ adventure.” Serena put her phone down ________ she listened to Tony go on and on. She looked out the window, wondering where they would go. But then she caught Tony by the arm, pointing out the window.

Passing by, just on the other side of the road, were wild horses! The amazing animals walked through the grasses. She’d never seen anything like them so ________ before!

“Well,” Serena said quietly, “I didn’t expect that!” She took her phone and took a picture through the Window.

“________!” Tony agreed. “And all because we got a broken car.” Serena said nothing. She laughed ________. Maybe they were going to have a real adventure after all.

Plants need certain things to live, grow and stay healthy. The following pictures will show you what they need to survive.

You may not realize it, but you do it all the time. That is, begin with the end in mind. You draw up a plan before you build a house. You read instructions before you make a cake. You create an outline before you write a paper. It’s part of life.

Let’s have a begin-with-the-end-in-mind experience by using your imagination. Find a place where you can be alone. First, clear your mind. Don’t think about anything else. Then breathe deeply, and open your brain wide. Now, let’s come to the key part of the experience. In your mind, picture someone walking toward you about half a block away. At first you can’t see who it is. As this person gets closer and closer, you suddenly realize, believe it or not, it’s you. But it’s not you today, it’s you as you’d like to be one year from now. Now think deeply. Ask yourself the following questions:

What have you done with your life over the past year? How do you feel inside? What do you look like? Has your personality grown? Remember, this is you as you would like to be one year from now.

You can go back to reality (现实) now. If you actually tried this, you probably got in touch with your deeper self. You got a feel for what’s important to you and what goals (目标) you’d like to achieve next year.

________ First, you’re at important crossroads in life, and the paths you choose now can influence you forever. Second, if you don’t decide your own future, someone else will do it for you.

As Li Ping, a middle school student in Shanghai, discovered beginning with the end in mind is a powerful way to help turn your dreams into realities:

When I feel stressed, I’ve found it really helps me. I go someplace where I can be alone, and try to see the whole picture of my dream life—and then I begin to think about what I need to get there. This method started when I was a ninth grader, and today I’m making some of those pictures in mind become a reality.

Braille is a special reading and writing system. People who are blind can use it to read by touch. In the Braille letters, raised dots(点) spell out words and numbers. High level Braille even uses short symbols for common words, like when someone texts “ttyl” instead of “talk to you later.”

Recently, researchers have discovered that some people who read Braille by touch use the same part of their brains to read as people who can see do. They studied the brains of blind readers as they touch-read Braille. If brains were organized based on which sense is at work, the researchers explained, the test would mostly find activity in the readers’ parietal lobes(顶叶)—an area of the brain connected with touch. Instead, the researchers also found activity in the area connected with sight.

How would touch information reach a brain area usually used to see? Researchers believe the process connects to our brains’ abilities to change. They explain that in people who are born blind, the area used for seeing goes unused. However, the brain quickly begins to recruit unused areas for new jobs, including language, hearing, and finally reading and math. It does this by forming new connections among the neurons(神经元). This can change how information reaches different areas in the brain.

This ability of our brains to reorganize after an injury(损伤) or other challenge is called plasticity. The brain is most plastic at birth. Research has shown that people born blind use the area of the brain connected with sight during Braille reading more than those who lost their sight later on. However, the brain seems to never lose the ability. A recent study showed that sighted people who read Braille skillfully also showed some activity in the area of the brain connected with sight. They only touched the Braille text without seeing it. It seems that our brains are good at breaking the rules and dealing with information in new ways.

Benjamin sat on the porch(门廊) of the old family house, thinking about his father. After Ethan passed away, Benjamin was the only person in the house. They once lived happily together in the house. But one night, Ethan and Benjamin had a fight. Benjamin walked out of the room angrily, he said no more to his father that night. For days, neither man talked to the other when they came back from work, and they did not even eat together any more. Days became months, the heavy silence between the two men continued. They still lived under the same roof(屋檐), but they did not talk, or even look at each other.

Eight more years passed, still they had nothing to say to each other. Ethan was getting very old. One night, Benjamin looked at his father for the first time in weeks. Father looked tired and lonely in his armchair. He said to himself, “We are together, even though we do not talk. I am lucky to have someone here with me. Without father this could be a cold and lonely house. Thanks for being here with me.” Another winter came, father lying sick in bed. Benjamin drove him to the hospital. After waiting in the hall for hours, Benjamin went in and saw the old man asleep.

“He might die soon,” said the doctor, “You should talk to him now. It will be your last chance.”

Suddenly the old man opened his eyes and looked at his son. He smiled weakly at Benjamin, and Benjamin smiled back. Then Ethan opened his mouth, trying to talk. Benjamin quickly put his hand over his father’s mouth. The old man did not try to talk anymore. His eyes closed again and passed away in peace.

The doctor said, “He wanted to say something before he died. Why did you stop him?” Benjamin answered, “It was my father who first made the decision that we should not talk. I did not want to hear him say he was sorry. I did not want him to ever think he was wrong.”

When he entered the old quiet house that night, everything seemed strange. He said to himself, “This will be a lonely house now.”

There are more and more entrepreneurs(创业家) around the world these days, and some of them even started at a very young age. Entrepreneurs work on solving real problems of real people and on improving the world.     34     They see possibilities while common person only sees problems.

Importance of Entrepreneurs

So the world needs entrepreneurs to solve its problems, but entrepreneurs are also important to the local society too. Why? They create jobs: Without entrepreneurs, we wouldn’t have any jobs.     35     They create change: Because of their great purposes, their ideas and work can often help to change the world. Therefore, we need people who take action, work towards a better future, and create chances for growth in order for our community to move forward.

Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Seen from a more personal level, what makes out an entrepreneur? What qualities do they have?

·Willingness to take risks

Building your own company is risky.     36     When it comes to entrepreneurs, their hunger for challenges is stronger than their fear. They enjoy challenging their comfort zone(区).

    37    

The best ideas are the result of many brains coming together to solve a problem. For that reason, entrepreneurs gladly listen to the opinions of others and ask for advice in order to have the best chances of success.

·Looking for chances

The world is full of challenges and chances. Entrepreneurs have learned to look for chances and to use this to push forward.     38     Instead, they feel powerful to take action.

Dr. Zhang is one of the     45     working for CNSA, the organization that researches outer space in China. The purpose of his work is to help astronauts when     46     Mars. At the moment, he and his team are working at China Mars simulation base (中国火星模拟基地), because the weather and land there     47     those on the surface of Mars. There, they are testing things     48     space suits, tools, greenhouses and so on. Through the work, Dr. Zhang and his team hope to prepare     49     for their first journey to Mars.

International Women’s Day is on 8 March every year. On this day people celebrate the     50     (achieve) of women all over the world, but also continue to fight for women’s equal rights.

International Women’s Day can be traced back to 1908, when women went out onto the streets to say they wanted     51     (short) working hours and better pay. In 1910, there was a meeting about women’s rights, where a woman     52     (call) Clara Zetkin had the idea for an international day for women. The     53     (one) International Women’s Day happened the next year, in 1911.

Why do we need a special day for women? Around the world, most countries have a male leader and most businesses have male leaders. Men     54     (pay) more than women for doing the same job. In many countries, men also do less work at home and get     55     better education. We need change,     56     the changes need to start with girls. We need to change things because being equal is a basic human right.

How is International Women’s Day celebrated? People celebrate     57     remembering and talking about important women from history and today. People also have special events     58     (speak) about all the changes we still need to make. More     59     (important), boys and men celebrate this day too. If everyone works together, we can change things faster.

Pretty, sweet, and always putting on a big smile is how those who know Wang Wanna think of her. On stage(舞台), Wang always takes on a totally different look. For a 27-year-old, half of her life has been spent singing Yueju Opera, which is the most popular opera style following Peking Opera in China. Standing on the stage, she pours herself into the stories, and also adds her own dreams and feelings to the characters she plays.

With the support of her parents, Wang left home at 13 and went to Shanghai to learn Yueju Opera. She said that she did not understand what Yueju Opera was until the second year when she watched Romance of the Western Chamber (西厢记), a Chinese classic. She was deeply touched by the story. That was the moment when she fell in love with the art form she was going to devote herself to. She was trained to play the roles of young men in Yueju Opera since the very beginning and has now grown into an excellent actress in Shanghai Yueju Opera House.

Wang did a lot for Yueju Opera. On the stage, she tried her best to play a good role. “It could be that among people who come into the theater to watch our show, many come for the first time. A small mistake made on the stage might leave them with a bad feeling of Yueju Opera,” she said.

However, compared with other popular art forms such as modern drama and talk shows, Yueju Opera is still not very familiar to most people. As a result, off the stage, Wang made some videos to introduce the art of Yueju Opera to young people online. “I really hope to find a way to open a door for people of my age to fall in love with Yueju Opera,” said Wang.

63. 小说《哈利波特》中的人物“学霸”赫敏曾拥有过一个时间转换器（Time-Turner）。它能将时间拨回至你过去生命中的任意一刻。假设你也拥有了它，你最想将时间拨回至哪一刻？请以“Back to the past”为题写一篇英语文章。内容应包括：

Back to the past

If I could have a Time-Turner, the moment I want to go back most is ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________