It rained for a week. Mary spent the days with Colin in his room, talking about India or gardens or Dickens.

He didn’t look ill when she was there, but his face was still white and he never moved from the sofa. Mary was ________ when she looked at her own face in the mirror. She was very different now. Martha noticed, too. “You aren’t as thin and yellow as ________,” she said. “It’s the air of the moor. It’s good for you.”

“If the fresh air is good for me, it ________ be good for Colin, too,” Mary thought.

On the first morning when the sky was blue again, Mary woke up very early. She opened the window and felt the ________ sun on her face.

“I can’t wait!” she said. “I’m going to see the garden!”

She ________ quickly and went outside. She ran towards the secret garden. Dickon was there. He was digging and pulling up weeds. There were many new things to see. Small new ________ were growing on the stems (茎) of the climbing roses. Ten thousand green points were pushing ________ the earth. Then Mary told Dickon about Colin.

“Perhaps we can ________ him to the secret garden,” said Mary. “The doctor said he must have fresh air.”

After lunch, Mary went back to the secret garden and Dickon. She ________ about Colin. They worked in the garden all afternoon.

The sun was going down when Dickon left. Mary ran back to the house. Martha was waiting for her with a sad face.

“Why didn’t you come?” he said in a cross ________. “I was in the garden with Dickon,” said Mary.

“So you like Dickon ________ than me,” he said. “I’ m going to send Dickon away.”

“If you do, I’m ________ going to see you again!” Mary shouted. Colin shut his eyes and began to cry.

“I’m ill,” he said. “And I’m going to die. ________ knows that.”

“I don’t believe it!” Mary said.

“Go away!” Colin shouted and he ________ a cushion at her. “I’m going,” she said. “And I’ m not going to come back! You’re a horrid, selfish boy!” She walked to the door then she turned ________ and spoke again.

“I wanted to tell you about Dickon and his fox cub and his crow. But I’m not going to tell you anything now.”

And she went out and slammed the door.

— Taken from The Secret Garden

If you are looking forward to travelling in Shanghai for a different taste, bus sightseeing trip may be at the top of your list. It offers three different routes to see famous places in Shanghai.

★Please call 021-63515988 to book tickets and you will get them by mail.

★Pick from eight languages to be able to learn more about the city.

★Free cancelled (取消) within seven days.

Gordon Williams’s hobby may seem strange to people when they meet it for the first time. But it is a traditional craft (手艺). He builds model ships inside old bottles.

Gordon has always loved ships, especially sailing ships from the old days. His interest in this hobby began many years ago when he visited a museum in Ottawa, Canada, where there was a show of model ships in bottles. Gordon thought the show was wonderful. But he wondered how the craftsman got the ship through the thin neck of the bottle. Gordon decided to find it out.

He found an old master craftsman who was willing to teach him the necessary skills. First, Gordon takes an old bottle. Then he puts in a layer of putty (一层油灰), carefully shaped and painted it look like the sea. Next, he builds the ship. To get the ship through the neck of the bottle, Gordon holds down the masts (桅杆). Once the ship is inside the bottle, he takes a long, thin tool to raise the masts.

Gordon has completed well over one hundred models. His wish is to build bigger model ships, such as aircraft carriers. This will be more challenging (挑战的), as he will have to build the ship actually inside the bottle. His hobby certainly needs time, patience and a steady hand.

A．	B．
C．	D．

A boy called Mike had many friends, and he was proud of it. Whoever he met, he would like to show off how popular he was at school.

One day, his grandpa said to him, “Mike, I know that you don’t have as many friends as you think. Many of them are not true to you.” Mike thought maybe his grandpa was right. However, he wasn’t sure how he could test whether his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandpa. The old man answered, “I have just exactly what you need. It’s in my room. Wait a minute.” The old man left, soon returning as if (好像) carrying something in his hand, but Mike could see nothing there. “Take it. It’s a very special chair. Because it’s invisible, it will be hard for you to sit on it. However, if you manage to sit on it you can use the chair’s magic power to tell who your real friends are.” Mike took the strange invisible chair to school. At break time he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. “Nobody moves. You’re about to see something amazing,” said Mike. Then he tried sitting on the chair. Having difficulty seeing it, he missed and fell to the ground. Everyone had a pretty good laugh. “Wait, wait,” said Mike, making another try. But again he missed the chair.

Mike didn’t give up. He kept trying to sit on the magic chair. Finally, he did it. This time he felt himself in midair. Then he experienced the magic that his grandpa had been talking about. Looking around, Mike saw George, Lucas and Diana holding him up, so be wouldn’t fall. But some schoolmates whom he had regarded as friends had done nothing but made fun of him. Mike was quite thankful to his grandpa, who helped his test who his true friends were.

Taking a bus or underground or paying on the Internet—these activities can help turn China’s deserts into forests if you are using Ant Forest.

Ant Forest is a part in the Alipay mobile payment app. It records users’ low-carbon(低碳的) activities—taking a bus or walking to work, for example, and gives users “green energy”. When the user’s green energy gets high enough, Ant Forest and its partners will plant a real tree for the user.

Ant Forest received the 2019 Champions of the Earth Award, the UN’s highest environmental prize, for encouraging people to live greener lifestyles and protect the environment.

About half a billion(十亿) people have used Ant Forest since it came out in August 2016. Ant Forest and its partners have planted over 122 million trees in China’s driest areas, including parts of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Shanxi. The trees cover a total area of 112,000 hectares. This makes Ant Forest China’s largest treeplanting roject started by a private company.

Executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme said that Ant Forest shows us how we can use technology to solve environmental problems.

Everything was ready when Laurie returned. He brought a note and some money from Aunt March. The afternoon passed slowly. Meg and her mother sewed, Beth and Amy prepared supper and Hannah did the ironing. It was dark when Jo finally arrived home. She had a very strange expression on her face. She put some money in her mother’s hand and said, “This is for Father. Buy something nice for him and bring him home!”

“Twenty-five dollars! My dear, where did you get it?” said Mrs. March in a surprised voice.

“I earned it,” replied Jo, taking off her hat.

Everybody in the room gasped. Jo’s hair was as short as a boy’s.

“Your hair! You cut your beautiful hair!” cried her mother. “It wasn’t necessary to do that!” She touched her daughter’s head and kissed her. “You don’t look like my Jo any more. But I love you the same!”

“Why did you do it?” asked Amy. She couldn’t imagine cutting her own pretty hair.

“I wanted to do something for Father,” replied Jo.

Mrs. March looked at her and smiled. She understood and she was proud of her daughter.

That evening Beth played her favorite hymn before they went to bed. Beth and Amy soon fell asleep but Meg was awake for a long time. She thought Jo was asleep but then Jo sobbed very softly.

“Jo! You are crying!” said Meg. “Are you worried about Father?”

“No, not now”

“Why then?”

“My hair!”

Meg smiled and kissed her sister.

—Taken from Little Women

How much do you know about school life in Singapore?

In Singapore, many middle school students s    81     a lot of time on their studies. People always think that good schooling is the t    82     to success (成功). So, many of these students try their best to get good results in their exams. They have a lot of homework every day and exams are usually big p    83     to them. Sometimes, a few even have to go to evening classes after school.

Schools have many a    84     outside school hours. The students can j    85     in sports and games, music and dance, swimming and rock-climbing. They a    86     join in community service(社区服务).

In their f    87     time, most students like to listen to pop music. Hollywood movies, Hong Kong and Singapore movies are very p    88    , too. Some of them also spend their free time searching the Internet, c    89     with their friends online, playing computer and video games.

They s    90     go to cafes, fast-food restaurants, shopping centers and big bookstores. So life for middle school students in Singapore is not easy but rich and colorful.

96. 假设阳光中学校报英语栏目正在举办题为“The Best Student”征文活动，你将推荐八年级的朋友Suzy，请根据以下图表提示完成一篇短文投稿。

I’d like to recommend Suzy to be The Best Student. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suzy is such an excellent girl. I hope you will make friends with her one day.