It was Election (选举) Day at Sunshine Middle School. Erica was running for the ________ of students. “If you elect me president,” she shouted, “there will be no more ________! And no more school uniforms!” All the students cheered loudly. Erica was ________, because she had spent a lot of time finding out what the students disliked.

Now it was Michael’s turn. Unlike Erica, he began ________, “I cannot change everything students don’t like about the school, but I ________ to work hard for you.”

“Boring!” Erica thought. She knew she was going to get the ________. When Michael finished, the students clapped. After the students voted, all the votes were counted. At the end of the day, the head teacher ________, “The new president is Michael!”

Erica was really surprised. She could not understand ________ the students voted for him instead of her. She had made promises about all the ________ things. Her best friend, Jenny, came running up to her. “Erica, I’m so sorry,” she said.

“I just can’t believe it,” Erica began. “They must have counted the votes ________. I’ll ask them to count them again!” Jenny ________ her head. “I’m sorry, Erica, there was no mistake. I didn’t want to tell you, ________ all the students I know voted for Michael.”

“I don’t understand,” said Erica. “The kids were ________ at my speech. I told them everything they wanted to hear.” “That’s just it,” said Jenny. “You made popular promises, but everybody knew that ________ wouldn’t be able to keep those promises. They thought you’d say anything to get elected.”

Erica knew one thing ________: next time she wouldn’t make promises she couldn’t keep.

Soon after we arrived, the whole family sat down at the table for dinner. The farmer put me on the table, with some small pieces of bread and meat. I was very afraid of falling off the table. The farmer and his family were happy to watch me eating with my small knife and fork.

But when I started walking across the table to the farmer, his youngest son, a boy of about ten, picked me up by the legs. He held me so high in the air that my whole body was shaking. Luckily his father took me away at once, and angrily hit the boy hard on the head. But I remembered how bad children can be to small animals. So I decided to forgive him. I fell on my knees and asked them not to punish the child any more. They seemed to understand.

Just then I heard a noise behind me. It sounded like twelve machines running at the same time. I turned my head and saw a huge cat, three times larger than one of our cows. The farmer’s wife held it in her arms, so that it could not jump at me. But in fact, because I showed no fear, there was no danger, and the cat even seemed a little afraid of me.

At the end of dinner, a servant (仆人) came in with the farmer’s one-year-old son in her arms. He immediately started crying, because he wanted to play with me. His mother smiled and put me in his hand. When he picked me up and put my head in his mouth, I shouted so loudly that he dropped me. Luckily, I was not hurt, but it showed me how dangerous life was going to be in Brobdingnag.

After eating, the farmer went back to his work in the fields. ▲ , because she put me carefully on her bed and closed the door. I was very tired, and slept for two hours.

—Take from Gulliver’s Travels(《格列弗游记》)

Confidence is very important in daily life. It can help you to develop a healthy attitude. A study shows that the people who are more confident are much happier. They can have more chances to make themselves successful. But how to be more confident?     46       

Speak loudly.     47     Try to speak loud enough so that people can understand you clearly. The high voice can help you become more confident.

Play sports. Doing sports makes you tired but completely relaxed. When you are athletic, you will be full of confidence.

Encourage yourself.     48     Did you finish your homework? Did you tell a joke that made everyone laugh? Give yourself praise for the good things you’ve done.

Get rid of (消除) fear. Fear comes along with failure.     49     Don’t hide your head just because you said something stupid last time. Try to start again and believe you can do better.

    50     If you like singing, sing as much as you can. In some ways, a hobby, can make you outstanding. And it will make you happy and confident.

A man     61     (have) a garden when he was young. He planted a rose and watered it     62     (careful). Before the rose blossomed (盛开), he noticed many thorns (刺) around the bud (花蕾) and he thought, “How can any     63     (beauty) flower come from a plant with so many sharp thorns?” Because of this thought, he lost interest in this kind of plant. Then he gave up     64     (water) the rose. And just before it was ready to blossom, it died.

Good qualities are just like roses. There is a rose in     65     (everyone) spirit. The good qualities planted in us at birth, grow among the thorns—our weaknesses. Many of us look at     66     (we) and we only see our weaknesses. We lose heart, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us.

Someone may not see the rose in himself, so we need     67     (help) him discover the rose. With love, we can     68     (accept) a person into our life, even though we know his true weaknesses. At the same time, we should encourage him to face his weaknesses     69     (brave) and correct them. Then he will blossom many     70     (time). And of course he will become better and better.

71. 三年的初中生活即将结束，我们的点滴成长和进步都离不开家长的细心照顾和支持，老师的辛勤教诲和鼓励，以及朋友对我们的帮助。学校针对毕业班开展了以 “Thank you, ________” 为题的英语征文活动。请先补全标题，如 my father, my mother, my teacher, my friend Tom等，写一篇英语征文投稿。

Thank you, ________

My middle school life is coming to an end. Looking back on the past three years, the person I want to thank most is _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________