On my first day of the sixth grade, I noticed one little girl called Amy on the school bus. “Don’t ________ her,” Lauren said, who sat beside me, “or the others will laugh at you.”

Amy had many physical differences—lots of reasons for other kids to laugh at her. Her eyes weren’t straight. Her glasses were very thick. And she had really ugly teeth.

Every day ________ we drove to and from school, kids would shout insults(侮辱) at Amy. “God, what a ________ face! Stop looking at me!” “Mr. Rolland (the driver)! Amy took off her hat. Make her put it back on!” For a while I shouted my share of insults, just so I’d fit in(合群). After all, I didn’t want them to treat me the same way they treated Amy.

But while I was insulting her, I felt ________ for the girl. I could see that the insults were making her look uglier, because she was so ashamed(羞愧) and alone. Then I wanted to ________ her. I just didn’t know how to stop my schoolmates until the night of our class roller-skating party.

Our whole class was there, including Amy. Amy didn’t know how to skate, but I could see how much she wanted to ________ like the rest of us. So I skated over to her and took her by the hand. We began the journey together around the skating rink(溜冰场). She just smiled, and sometimes she would laugh in ________.

On the school bus the next morning there was much news about Amy and me skating together, ________ nobody insulted her or me. And they didn’t do that for the rest of the year.

After graduation(毕业), I never ________ Amy. However, I never forget her and I’ve always wondered if I changed her life for the better. But I know for sure she has changed my ________. I was no longer influenced by others. I became myself.

The book festival is coming! Do you have some books you don’t want? Your old love may be someone’s new favourite. Bring one book to the Town Library and get another one home for free!

   -Town Library-

Blue Lightning

Sally loved cars more than anything else. This spring she thought of building a go-kart to enter for the Go-Go Race. So she asked her dad for help.

“Well,” he said. “How about this: you do some research first and then come back to me with a design.”

A week later, Sally brought her notes and drawings to Dad. She named her go-kart “Blue Lightning”. Dad looked over her work, thinking. “Well, that’s interesting,” he said. “Have a try. Just build Blue Lightning as you’ve designed.”

Over three weekends of hard work, Sally turned her design into a real, working go-kart and painted it light blue. Dad asked her to take it for a test drive. Sally agreed.

After she did that, Sally drove back to Dad. “Well,” she said. “Now I know why you wanted me to have a test drive.”

“Oh, do you?” he said. “Please share.”

“When I drove fast, there was a lot of pushback,” she said. “I think it’s because of the lightning bolt (闪电) shape.”

“Very good!” Dad said. 

“So, why didn’t you tell me about that problem in the first place?” Sally asked.

Dad laughed. “Where’s the fun in that? If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.”

Sally said, “I see. Anyway, designing is half the fun !”

Dad smiled. “Good. Sometimes, learning happens during the process. We learn how to do something right by doing it a few times first and making mistakes along the way.”

That encouraged Sally and she worked even harder. When she showed Dad her new go-kart, he nodded with pride.

Finally came the race. Sally wasn’t worried about whether she would win—in her mind, she had already won, by building something better than ever before.

People never stop looking for an explanation (解释) on what they lose and gain in life. In 1977, Bridge to Terabithia was published, offering a new answer.

Like other boys in his class, Jesse Aarons’ dream is to become the fastest runner in fifth grade. He has been practicing all summer. But on the first day of school, a girl crosses over to the boys’ side of the playground and outruns everyone. That’s not a very good beginning for a friendship, but Jesse and Leslie Burke soon become best friends. With endless imagination and optimism, Leslie brings happiness to Jesse, who has been lonely and blue.

Together, they create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where they act as king and queen. Unfortunately, a terrible thing happens one morning. Jesse hurts his heart. However, this tragedy (悲剧) makes him understand the courage Leslie has given him.

Having had an unhappy childhood herself, Katherine Paterson, this book’s writer, would usually give her characters a lonely life. Then she would give them rising hope and happiness. But in order to create “ups and downs” and show her own ideas, the writer would take away what those characters had gained, and end the book with a deep theme. Paterson is good at showing characters’ feelings. Readers can feel the sadness when characters lose something beautiful. Paterson writes novels for teenagers, so their language is not hard for Chinese students. Why not try to read the book?

Have you ever heard of The Adventures of Tintin? It is     51     comic books. Georges Remi created the series. Starting out in the late 1920s, he     52     writing them till the 1980s. The books were first written and published in French. Over the years, they have been     53     into many languages and become popular around the world.

Tintin is     54     of the series. He is clever and always wants to learn new things. He travels around the world with his dog Snowy.

In the beginning, Tintin works as a reporter. Later, he becomes a     55    . Many people call him “Sherlock Holmes”. Tintin has a sharp eye for details. And like Holmes, he is a master of disguise.

Most students like junk food（垃圾食品） because it is tasty. Whether it should be allowed in schools or not is still a question. Just as every coin has two sides, junk food in schools has its advantages and disadvantages.

Most junk food is quite cheap, tasty and easy to get. If a child forgets to carry a lunch bag, he or she will go hungry for most of the day. Here, junk food helps him or her to have something to eat. Moreover, it is possible for students to save a lot of time.

Sometimes having junk food instead of a part of one’s main diet is thought to be OK. It doesn’t have a big influence on a person’s health if someone only eats from time to time.

Compared with some junk food with high oil and salt, food like potato chips or juice can be made in school dining halls. So students don’t have to choose unhealthy food from outside.

However, too much oil, salt and sugar in junk food do harm to human bodies. Some of them cannot be broken down in the body. If someone eats too much junk food, it can lead to obesity（肥胖） and other health problems like heart trouble, high blood pressure and so on.

Usually, children have snacks between classes. There is a sudden increase of sugar, so they get a lot of energy and become too active. But when classes begin, the effects（作用） of the snacks begin to reduce, they become slow. This causes low energy levels and lack of concentration（注意力）. It has a bad influence on a student’s performance during classes.

In all, it is important that parents and schools should provide their kids with healthy and balanced food and make them know the disadvantages of junk food. Then they will make healthier choices for themselves.

By drawing pictures on a cup of tea, chabaixi, an old Chinese tea trick, has become more and more popular. Zhang Zhifeng, an inheritor (传承人) of chabaixi, found that many people showed great i    71     in the scenes of chabaixi in the drama.

Chabaixi can create different pictures such as bamboos and mountains. There are many s    72    , from grinding(磨碎) tea, to pouring boiled water, stirring the mixture, and finally drawing the pictures. The important process (过程) before drawing is k    73     as diancha. The quality of diancha matters whether pictures can be s    74     produced later.

“Chabaixi is one of the many forms of tea-making skills in China. The importance of chabaixi is not o    75     this skill is special in the world, but also it gives us a window into people’s lifestyle in the Song Dynasty. The activities at that time in some ways are s    76     to what we have now, ” Zhang said.

Before chabaixi was discovered by TV viewers, the skill was listed as p    77     of China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (非物质文化遗产) in 2017. Zhang Zhifeng started researching the beginning of chabaixi in the 1980s and brought the skill back in 2009 a    78     years of testing and practice. Zhang thought that it was really m    79    , “This skill is key to the tea culture of the Song Dynasty, and it would be a s    80     to let it disappear. This skill must be passed on so that more people can understand its history,” Zhang said.