One day, I was at a wood carver’s(雕刻家的) shop, and Fred Cogelow was his name. If you search for his name on ________, you can see a collection of his wonderful art works.

I really liked the works, but the price made it ________ for me to afford one. Out of curiosity(好奇), I asked, “How long do you need to carve one of these?” After all, Fred wasn’t an old ________ and there were so many works in his shop. I thought that he could make one ________ a day at least with a machine.

“Twenty-six years,” he answered. It was hard to know whether he was joking. I smiled but he looked honest and _____. Then he explained, “People keep asking me how long it ________ to carve one work. When I tell them this, they think how much more expensive my works are than the ones made with a machine. They don’t think about the wasted material(材料) I ________ when I was learning to carve, or the mistakes I made ________ I finally became a good carver, so I tell them twenty-six years. That’s from the moment when I first picked up a carving tool to now, and every ________ I’ve taken since then has gone into my works.”

I greatly admire(敬佩) him. He never gave up in his life. ________ hard work he did and what a strong will he had when facing all of the difficulties!

I got angry quite easily and was not good at communicating with others. Slowly, most of the people around me tried to keep away from me.

One day, as I was getting ready for school, my busy mother handed me a vest(背心). When I saw it, I knew that was my father’s — I was taller and stronger than my father. So as I put on the vest, I felt as if I wasn’t able to breathe! The feeling of anger was rising in my heart. My mother said sorry with a smile, but I was so angry that I let out a shout. Soon, I pulled the vest off my chest(胸口) so wildly that I made a hole in it. Then I put on my own vest and rushed out before she could stop me.

Later, my mother shared these with my father. Instead of saying he would scold(训斥) me, my father just asked my mother to mend(缝补) the vest. Then he wore it to work as usual.

When my mother told me about my father’s action, I sat alone and thought a lot. Just imagining that he was wearing that broken vest in his office the whole day made me feel so terrible. But I had to say, my father did set a great example for me. That night I thought a lot. I promised myself that I would never let anger control my mind any longer.

Of course, there are times when I get angry. However, whenever that happens, I will try to remember my father’s vest.

Nearly everyone likes to talk to a polite person who always seems kind and friendly.     46     The following tips may help you.

Keep a smile. A sweet smile is the best way to show your kindness and start a good conversation. Never forget to smile in front of others.     47    

Be friendly and helpful.     48     If someone refuses your help kindly, smile politely and walk away.

    49     It is easy to say “please”, “thank you” and “sorry”. Whenever you need something from someone, do say “please” to them. If someone has helped you, never forget to say “thank you”. Or if you’ve done something wrong, accept it and say “sorry”.     50     And others might be glad to help you in the future.

If you follow these tips, you will be a polite person.

As an Englishman, I can speak three languages—English, German and French, so do you think the British people are very good language learners? The fact is that they aren’t.

Some statistics(数据) from a survey showed that 62% of the British people only speak English. 38% speak at least one foreign language and 18% speak two or more. Compared with the British people, 56% of the people in other European countries speak at least one foreign language and 28% speak two or more. From this you can see that the British people are not good language learners in Europe.

In Britain, students are not required to learn a foreign language. In UK schools it is common for children to start learning a foreign language at 11. And many of the British students stop learning it at 14. They think it is more difficult to get good marks in languages than in other subjects like science or history.

To solve this situation, the British government is looking for different ways to improve language learning at school. Changing the British attitude(态度) to learning foreign languages may be a hard task but the government decides to try!

The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC，中国共产主义青年团) was born in May, 1922. It is 101 years old this year. Almost every year in May, hundreds of teenagers get together at Tuanyida Square in Guangzhou. It is the place which the CYLC was born in.

In 1932, a special school opened in a small village of Ruijin, Jiangxi. It’s the first school of the CYLC. Its first 124 students arrived in December. They were between 14 and 25 in age. They learned about history, politics (政治), geography and other skills. Every night, the students read books and newspapers. They not only learned knowledge, but also put what they learned into practice.

At that time, the young people who wanted to join the CYLC made the application (申请) form by themselves. They needed to write why they wanted to be a CYLC member and how they would do it. Now the application form is printed in a standard form. The form might be different overtime. However, the spirit of the CYLC has never changed.

Do you know the song of the CYLC? In 1987, Hu Hongwei wrote the lyrics (歌词). He sees young people as a sea of flowers in May and the rising sun. Later, Lei Yusheng composed (作曲) the song. It became the song of the CYLC in 2003.

80. 假如你是刘华，在世界读书日（World Book Day）这一天，学生会对同学们的阅读情况进行了调查（what & why）。请你根据以下信息，给学生会的负责人Alex写一封电子邮件，汇报一下调查结果。写作要点：

I’m very happy to have the chance to tell you the result of the survey in my class on such a meaningful day.

Best wishes!

Yours,

Liu Hua