Every year, Julia’s grandfather gives her and her cousins some money. One day, he thought the children needed to learn how to_______ their money well. So he_______ them a test. After he gave them the money, he said, “There are seven months ________ the New Year. Who will buy the best gift with the money at the end of the year? I want to find out the answer.”

The New Year came. Each child showed their gifts. There were nice cards, flowers and other little things. But Julia arrived with two violins! That _______ everyone. They knew that Julia always wanted to get a violin, but the family was too poor to buy one.

Her grandfather asked her, “_______ did you get enough money to buy two violins?”

Julia said, “I saw a poor (穷的) violinist. I gave him all my money and asked him to _______ me how to play the violin. He was _______ to teach me. After three months, he lent a violin to me and we played the violin in the _______ because there were always many people. Most of them liked our music and gave us money. Then I bought two new violins with the money, one for me, and the other for you _______ I know you like it, too.”

When Julia finished, _______ in the family said Julia’s gift was the best and that Julia was a smart girl.

Mrs. Baker’s sister was ill. She had someone to look after (照顾) her on weekdays, but not at the weekend. So every Friday evening Mrs. Baker often went off to spend the weekend with her sister in a neighboring town. But as Mr. Baker could not cook, he asked his own sister to come to look after him at their home.

This meant that Mr. Baker had quite a busy time on Friday evening. First he had to drive home from work. Then he had to drive his wife to the station to catch her train. And then he had to wait until his sister’s train arrived, so as to take her to his home.

Of course, on Sunday evening he had to drive his sister to the station to catch her train back home and wait for his wife’s arrival.

One Sunday evening, a porter (搬运工) at the station came over and spoke to him, “You are having a lot of fun,” he said, “but one of those women is going to catch you with the other, and then you will be in real trouble (麻烦)!”

Tony went to Japan with some of his classmates last month. After he came back, he wrote about the trip in his travel report. Let’s have a look at it.

    41    . We went there by plane. It was the first time I took the plane. When I looked out of the plane through the window, the high buildings were just like small boxes. When we got to the airport, we all felt excited, but it was too hot and humid,     42    .

First we took the bus to visit Yokohama Boys High School.     43    . The students there were helpful and friendly. They taught us Japanese and we taught them Chinese. We shared our ideas with each other, and it was interesting.

Our host families were also nice and friendly. They cooked delicious Japanese food for us. Then they took us out for dinner. They also took us to clothes stores and two piano concerts.     44    .

In Japan, many people take the bus. The buses are always full.     45    . When I took a train, I found something different — the seats in the train were facing inwards. The train was very clean and quiet. Nobody would talk loudly.

We learned a lot in Japan. We hope we can went there again.

Do you know the two lovely mascots? On September 17, 2019, the two lovely mascots first appeared on TV. Now, let’s see who they are.

Look at the panda! It looks like an astronaut (宇航员). It wears an ice shell and looks fat, so we call it “Bing Dwen Dwen”. It likes ice sports and is good at them. That’s why it is the mascot of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Do you think the red mascot looks like a lantern (灯笼)? It’s “Shuey Rhon Rhon”. When the Chinese New Year comes, people always make or buy red lanterns. Red is the color of hope and good luck. So people hope their dreams can come true in the new year. “Shuey Rhon Rhon” gave players hope and helped them do well in the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games.

Many people in different countries also like the two mascots and they show their love for them on the Internet.