Laughter helps us discover the beauty of life. Whether it is caused by joy or embarrassment (尴尬), laughter is an indispensable (不可缺少的) part of life.

An old photo reminded me of an unforgettable ______. During my trip to New York, I enjoyed some splendid (极美的) scenery and the city’s prosperous (繁华的) urban landscape. All of these things left me good memories. However, on the last day of the journey, I made a ______ that I will never forget.

That evening, my mother sent me to buy some ______ by myself. Singing and smiling, I ran to the supermarket. After taking time to choose something to eat, I put a few things, ______ a bag of bone-like biscuits, into the shopping basket that I had brought from home.

After I came back to the hotel, I asked my mom if she was proud of me. Suddenly she started laughing ______. But I had no idea ______ had made her laugh so much. A few moments later, she told me the bag of biscuits was dog food. She looked at me and ______ the English words on the bag, laughing again. I was also amused (觉得好笑的) by my______ behavior .

After that, I realized that I could never be too ______, especially when overseas. This incident (事件) also taught me a lesson about the importance of learning English well.

As time goes by, I have forgotten a number of things, but this memory is still clear. Life won’t be colorful and valuable ______ we can find beauty in little things like this.

Once, a proud swallow (燕子) lived in a large tree. He liked his colorful feathers (羽毛) and his long tail. One day, he saw a crow (乌鸦) and thought, “How dull this bird is! All his feathers are black.” He looked at himself lovingly and admired his own feathers. Just then, the crow flew and sat on the same branch as the swallow. The swallow said, “All your feathers are black and your tail is so short.”

The crow smiled and said, “But they help me fly.” The swallow said, “So do mine, but look at how beautiful they are!” He spread his wings and flew a little closer to the crow. The crow saw that the swallow had lots of blue feathers and some white and pink ones, too. He looked at his own feathers and thought, “It’s true, the swallow’s feathers are really colorful.”

The crow said, “Swallow, you are right. You have lovely feathers and a long tail, but only in summer. Your beautiful feathers fall off and cannot keep you warm in winters. While you shiver (颤抖) in the cold, my feathers are always there. They keep me warm in the cold winters.”

Don’t be proud of something that is of little use.

Let’s Explore (探究) The Nature!

Are you interested in animals and nature? Want to enjoy your summer holiday and learn something interesting and useful?

Here comes your CHANCE! Youth Explore as prepared you with a THREE-DAY SUMMER PROGRAM! You can take part in many hands-on activities and meet with live animals—giraffes, pandas, tigers, and son on! More information about the program in as follows:

Send your completed form on or before 11th July, 2014 (Friday).

The way we spend our time can be divided into three “bottles”. These are the necessary tasks bottle, the voluntary tasks bottle and the happiness bottle.

Every day, we spend time filling the necessary tasks bottle with useful things, like making money, doing housework, buying food and paying bills. We then fill another bottle with voluntary tasks. These are things that we do for others, but we may not enjoy them. This bottle gets filled with tasks like taking children to activities, cooking family meals, and washing clothes for family. Those bottles are very important. If we don’t fill them each day, our family won’t run properly.

However, we often forget to fill the third bottle — the happiness bottle that we fill with activities that make us happy. Is your happiness bottle sometimes empty at the end of the day? Between doing all the necessary and voluntary tasks, time flies by, and before we know it, it is time for bed. We all have days like that.

This is why each day we have to make an effort to fill our happiness bottle. I fill mine by going to the dancing class. And I always leave classes more happily than when I enter. This week, I had the pleasure of taking part in a guitar practice in my neighborhood. We show our musical talent and practice music for charity. It was a time of fun, friendship and music-making. At the end of the evening, my happiness bottle was filled to the top.

Make sure to fill all the three bottles. Will your activities bring joy to your life? Or are the other two tasks eating up all your time? Try to find ways to achieve a balance between how you fill your three bottles. At the end of the day, hopefully we’ve done all we can to make sure that our happiness bottle is filled.

Can you imagine a cloud floating in the middle of your room? Do you want to know what it feels like to fly like a bird? Here, we have picked out four interesting inventions to share with you.

Talking Gloves

Four foreign students have created a pair of gloves, and it helps people to communicate with people who have hearing and speaking problems. The gloves are equipped with sensors (传感器). They recognize sign language and translate it into text on a smartphone. Then the smartphone changes the text to spoken words. Then you can understand sign language easily.

Google Glasses

Google Glasses are like a computer built into a pair of glasses. Then the glasses allow you to surf the Internet and make calls without even lifting a finger. The glasses also have a camera and GPS mapping system. Users can take and share photos, check maps and surf the Internet just by moving the eyeballs.

Indoor Clouds

That’s a real world. An artist, Smilde managed to create a small but perfect white cloud in the middle of a room using a fog of machine. But it required careful planning—the temperature, humidity (湿度) and lighting all had to be just right. The cloud only lasted for a short while, though.

Wingsuits

The suit realizes your dream of flying like a bird. Well, not exactly flying, but gliding (滑翔) through the air. It increases the surface area of the human body, which makes it easier for people to float in the air. Fliers wearing wingsuits can glide one kilometer in about 30 seconds.

Every country has its own customs and traditions. A custom is a special way of     41     (do) something. A tradition is a custom     42     is passed down over time.     43     (final), these customs and traditions make different cultures in different countries. We should know     44     other people’s customs and cultures. And we should always respect them.

For example, in America, people wear their shoes in their homes. But in some Asian countries like Japan and Korea, people take off their shoes before going inside their homes. In many Asian countries, people use chopsticks     45     Americans and Europeans eat with forks and     46     (knife). But in India and some other countries, people often eat with their hands. There are many other     47     (different). But all of these cultures are special. We should try to know and learn     48     (much) about them.

Of course we Chinese eat with chopsticks as well. But we never use chopsticks to hit     49     empty bowl, or you may be thought to be     50     (polite).

56. “立身必先立德，无德无以立身。”作为祖国的未来，我们应该立德为先，在校内、校外表现优秀。

How to Behave Well

We teenagers are the future of our country. To be a great student is

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________