Lance ran home after school. His elder brother Nathan had promised to take _______ to the new skate park today. Lance was _______ excited that he got everything ready when Nathan got home. “Who’s that?” Nathan asked, pointing out the _______. Lance _______ and found his friend Haley waiting quietly in front of the mailbox. “_______ is she doing here?” Lance thought _______ a while and remembered that he promised Haley _______ on their science project today, before Nathan’s promise. Skating with Nathan was certainly a _______ idea than working on the project. He could learn some new _______ with the help of Nathan. It would be an ________ experience. But if he canceled on Haley, he could imagine ________ disappointed she would be. Lance decided to work on the project with Haley and told Nathan ________. “Good for you,” his brother said. “And ask Haley ________ she wants to go to the skate park after you two finish the project.” Lance couldn’t believe his ________, “Really? You’d take us?” “Of course, I ________.” Nathan nodded. “And a promise is a promise.”

Do you want to have a nice trip in your spare time? Maybe Jilin Province is a good choice for you. There you can enjoy different places of interest.

One day, Zhou Yu ordered Zhuge Liang to make 100,000 arrows (箭) in ten days. Zhou Yu thought it was impossible, but Zhuge Liang said, “Give me three days.” Then he asked Lu Su to lend him 20 boats, and the soldiers put some scarecrows (稻草人) in line on the boats. He reminded Lu Su not to tell Zhou Yu what was happening.

When Lu Su came again to see Zhuge Liang, he found nothing unusual. Nothing happened on the second day, either. On the early morning of the third day, Zhuge Liang invited Lu Su for a boat ride: The 20 boats were tied together with strong ropes. Zhuge Liang’s fleet went towards the camp of Cao Cao. The surface of the river was covered with thick mist (雾) all over. People could hardly see each other on the river. When Zhuge Liang’s fleet got close to the Cao camp before dawn (黎明), Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to shout and beat drums heavily to pretend an attack (进攻). But Zhuge Liang and Lu Su only sat inside one boat drinking wine to enjoy themselves.

As soon as the Cao camp heard the shouting and drum beating, they mistook it for a surprise attack by the Zhou Yu camp. Since they could see nobody on the river, they had to order 3, 000 soldiers to shoot arrows to stop the unexpected attack. The front of the scarecrows was quickly full of arrows. After a while, Zhuge Liang had his fleet turned around to get the other side of the scarecrows to face the Cao camp. When both sides were full of arrows, the day broke. Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to return. The soldiers shouted in excitement, “Thank you, Cao Cao, for your arrows.” After they got back to their camp, they collected more than 100,000 arrows in total from the scarecrows.

Peter was the richest in town. He had earned (获得) himself a bad name because he was too proud of his money. One day, Peter became blind. Only doing a cornea trans-plant surgery (角膜移植手术) could he see again, but there was no donor (捐献者). Peter had to wait in the hospital sadly.

One afternoon, Peter wanted to sit in the sun, so he felt his way for the little square before the hospital. He raised his head to enjoy the sunshine. However, he saw nothing but the whole darkness. Just as Peter felt hopeless, someone hit him hard all of a sudden. That angered Peter, so he shouted loudly, “Don’t you have eyes? Don’t you see who you hit! I’m Peter!”

The answer was from a little boy, “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t notice, please forgive me!” Peter changed his mind and ordered, “I can forgive you, but you must talk with me!” The ,boy began, “How beautiful! The grass is green, the sky is blue, the flowers are coming out everywhere, and the little trees are also very lovely. The clouds are floating...”

As he was listening, Peter began to envy (嫉妒) that boy. Suddenly, he shouted, “Oh, my God, the little boy is so poor, nothing but a pair of eyes! Why do you give him light?”

“You are wrong!” came the voice of a lady, “My son is too poor to have eyes. What he just described is what I told him!” Peter sat on the square silently, tears (眼泪) coming up in his eyes.

Since then, the city charity (慈善机构) would receive a great deal of money every year from the richest person, Peter.

Long long ago, a poor old couple lived on the coast. One day, an old man came to their village.     51     In return, he gave them a mill(磨粉机) and said, “Say ‘Mill, please grind(磨)’.” and it’ll make whatever you want. To stop it, say ‘Mill, please stop grinding’.”

Soon the old couple had a much better life. They’d been happy people,     52     But the young couple next door were never satisfied. When they saw the old couple wearing good clothes and buying good food, they burnt with envy(羡慕). So one day, the young husband went to the old couple’s house secretly and heard, “Mill, please grind hot chocolate!”     53    

Then the young couple stole the mill from the old couple. With it they rode a horse and set off down the coast, where no one would know them. Along the way, the husband showed proudly and asked, “    54    ” “Oh, I don’t know. Why not salt?” the wife said. “Mill, please grind salt!” he said. “It works!” the wife shouted. But then they noticed the salt went everywhere. “Make it stop.” the wife said. But the husband didn’t know how to stop grinding! “Please, no more!” His words didn’t work.     55     Finally, the young husband threw the mill into the sea as far as he could.

And there it’s been, for hundreds of years, endlessly grinding salt. That’s why the sea is salty.

In order to improve students’ health and reduce students’ pressure, our country made some rules. Here are some of them.

Firstly, homework for middle school students should take no more than 90 minutes. They can finish most of written homework at school so that after school they only spend a little time finishing the rest. Some students can still go to sleep on time even though they don’t finish their homework until bedtime. Then they will have more time to relax. Secondly, mobile phones mustn’t be brought to class because students are easily absent-minded (心不在焉的) from the lesson. Students must control the time on electronic products to protect their eyesight. They shouldn’t lose themselves in the Internet. Thirdly, students are expected to listen carefully and go over lessons in time so that they can master the right methods of learning. Fourthly, parents should often communicate with their children, pay attention to their feelings and help them develop good learning and life habits.

In a word, these rules are helpful to middle school students. If they follow the rules, they can improve their study and health.

There are lots of companies (公司) planning to send people into space     61     the next few years. Space X is one of the most famous companies offering trips to space. So far, it has had over 100 customers. And in April, 2022, it     62     (send) 4 people into space. Now, what can space tourists do while in space? Here are some examples:

Seeing the Earth from Space

Seeing the Earth from a distance has always been a dream. It     63     most people a sense of both achievement and wonder (which is also why people climb the highest mountain and dive the deepest sea on the earth).

Stay in Space Hotel

Hotels are directly connected     64     tourism, right? So if there’s space tourism, there might     65     be space hotels up soon. Orion Span has been planning to send tourists to stay in their “space hotel”, which would hold up to 6 people at a time.

Eating in Space

Eating is not easy in space. Even drinking water     66     (be) difficult. Oh, a quick fact! You aren’t     67     (allow) to burp(打嗝) in Space! Bubbles will come out of your mouth and it might be     68     (danger) to leave them around. Space tourism companies are racing to launch(发射) the     69     (one) tourist flight to the moon. Although there might be a long way to go     70     common people can step on the moon, we will probably see it in our lifetime. And who knows, maybe we’ll even see hotels on the moon.

72. 俗话说“远亲不如近邻”。近日某英文报正在举行题为“My Neighborhood”的征文活动。假如你是李华，住在花园社区，根据以下流程图提示，完成一篇英文征文稿。

My Neighborhood

My name is Li Hua. I live in Garden Neighborhood. It is very beautiful and clean.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________