In my childhood, a boy gives me an important gift. It is a ______.

It is the early autumn of my first year at a junior high school. My old school is far away, and no one knows who I am in the new school ______ I am very lonely(孤独的)and also I am afraid to make friends with ______. Every time I hear other students talking and laughing, I feel ______. I can’t talk to anyone about my ______ and I don’t want my parents to ______ me. Then one day, my ______ are talking happily with their friends, but I am still ______ just sitting at my desk as usual. At that moment, a boy comes into the ______. I don’t know who he is. He passes by me and then turns back. He ______ me and smiles, without a word.

Suddenly I feel the touch of something bright and friendly. It makes me feel happy, lively and ______. That smile changes my ______. I start to talk with other students and make friends. Day by day, I become ______ to everyone in my class. The boy with the lucky smile on his face becomes my best friend now.

I believe that the world is what you think it is. If you think you are ______, you might always be alone (单独的). So smile at the world and it will ______.

In the sea there are many islands (岛). In its warm waters, there are some little ones. We call them “coral (珊瑚) islands”.

A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring (环状物) of land with trees, grass and flowers on it. One part of the ring is open to the water. There is a little round lake in the island.

If you look into this lake, you will see beautiful corals. You may think they’re flowers.

If you look at a piece of coral, you will see many little holes in it. In each of these holes lives a very small sea animal. These sea animals make the coral.

They begin to form (形成) under the water. Year after year, the coral grows higher and higher. At last it grows out of water.

Then the sea brings to it small trees and some other things. After some years, these things change into earth. Sometimes the wind brings seeds to this earth. Sometimes birds fly over it and bring seeds to the island. The little seeds grow. After a few years, there are plants all over the island, and after a few more years there are trees growing there. So you see, these islands form little by little. The workers are very small. Don’t they teach us a good lesson?Can you tell us what the lesson is?

Jacob was a driver. He was sent to pick me up for a three-hour drive to my working place.

As we were driving, he started to tell me his story. His hometown was “Nah Bok”. Because of the pandemic（疫情）, he had to spend six days a week in another town for more work. On his only day off, to have time with his family, he took three different buses for a total of five hours there and back.

My father worked away from home when I was young. Sometimes he was away for weeks or months at a time. I remember at that time, we kids were all waiting to have just a few minutes on the phone to talk with him one by one.

After two hours’ drive, I saw a sign saying Nah Bok. I asked, “Why don’t we stop and say hello?” He looked at me like I was crazy or joking. I repeated it seriously（严肃地）. He was hesitant. He asked if I was sure. I certainly was. It was OK for me to spare（空出）thirty minutes out of my day while this man had to spend more than two hours getting home each time.

Every one of his family was surprised to see him. All the children jumped out, shouting excitedly.

Slow down and listen to people’s stories. Take time when you can to give a gift to somebody else, even if it’s just your time.

The oil paper umbrella is a traditional (传统的) Chinese handicraft (手工艺品). It has a history of over 1, 000 years in China. In early Tang Dynasty, it was brought to Japan and Korea, so it was called the “Tang Umbrella”. Later oil paper umbrellas were brought to some other countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, and each had its own style. However, as steel-ribbed (钢骨的) umbrellas came out in the last century, the hand-made oil paper umbrellas became less used in daily life. They were turned into handicrafts for decorating things.

Yuhang in Hangzhou is famous for making oil paper umbrellas for more than 230 years. They are mainly made of paper, bamboo, a coating (涂层) of Tung oil. They need to take more than 70 steps to make, including making bamboo ribs, pasting (粘贴) paper and choosing painting designs. It takes at least a week to make per umbrella. In 2008, these umbrellas were added to Intangible Cultural Heritage List (非物质文化遗产名录) of China.

A young man called Liu Weixue learned the traditional art of making Yuhang oil paper umbrellas from his grandfather. “I want to bring the art to life.” Liu said. He made the umbrellas better to meet the needs of young people. As the traditional paper was easy to break, he started to use a kind of thicker paper. In a test, his umbrellas were opened and closed for 1, 000 times without breaking. He used a kind of lighter bamboo to make the umbrellas weigh less.

Now Liu hopes the art can be passed on. He goes to local schools to teach students. He also takes part in activities in different places to show the art to more people.

Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens.     46     Why? Because people with big houses may often feel lonely and people with cars may want to walk on the country road in their free time.

It’s the first time I write to you, my children. I have sent you many m    76    . But you always overlooked (忽略) them. So I decide to write the letter to you.

First, let me tell you more about our family. Dear humans, I have many other children besides you. Some of them fly in the sky; some of them s    77     in water; some live in ice-covered places; some run in the grasslands.

Some of them are as s    78     as your fingernails (手指甲), such as bugs; some of them are as big as cars, such as elephants.

They might be very c    79     to you, or even just live in your house. But there are others so far away from you that you may never have the chance (机会) to m    80     them.

You bring them home to be your pets, f    81    , or helpers. You put them in zoos. You kill them for their meat or fur. And you even hunt (猎杀) them just for f    82    . They bring you money and happiness. But they a    83     bring you disease (疾病) and death. I hope you can remember that wild animals are not your f    84    , clothes or furniture (家具). They are not killers, either. They are, in fact, your brothers and sisters. You are equal. You should grow up t    85     happily.

So, grow up, humans. Grow up to be more responsible (负责任的). I hope you and all the wildlife can live happily in my arms.

Yours,

Mother Earth

Many years ago, in a small Indian village, a farmer owed (欠) a lot of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender looked old and ugly, but he liked the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he said that the farmer didn’t need to pay off the debt (债务) if he could marry (与……结婚) the farmer’s daughter.

Both the farmer and his daughter wouldn’t do that, but they were afraid of the moneylender. So he suggested that they let God decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble (鹅卵石) and a white pebble into an empty bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.

If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven (免除). If she picked the white pebble, she didn’t need to marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into prison.

They were standing on a pebble—strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender picked up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp—eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

The girl put her hand into the bag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it she let it fall onto the path which was full of pebbles. So it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

“Oh, how clumsy (笨拙的) of me!” she said. “But never mind. If you look into the bag for the one left inside, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

The moneylender wouldn’t let them know his dishonesty, so the girl needn’t marry the moneylender and her father was free of debt now.

91. 假如你是李华，在学校举行的一次笔友书信活动中，你想把好朋友李雷介绍给你的笔友Benny。请根据以下提示，写一篇英语短文。

I would like to introduce my best friend Li Lei to you. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you want to be friends with him? Please write back soon.

Best wishes,

Li Hua