I was raised in a house where my sisters and I weren’t trusted by our mother to manage our own appearance. As a result, there were rules, and fashions were usually ignored.

A few years ago, I was back home for a visit. My ________, in her early 70s, asked me into her bedroom. We were about ready to leave for dinner. “I don’t know what to ________,” she complained. “You girls always look so good.”

I stopped in the doorway ________, wondering if I’d misheard. “What do you mean?” I asked her. “You know which clothes to choose.”

“No,” she answered. “I don’t. Can you pick ________ for me?”

I looked at her without saying anything, feeling so ________. This was the same woman who, in 1989, told my younger sister she wasn’t ________ to leave the house wearing a pair of ripped jeans; the same woman who, in high school, called me ________ I was out at a party to ask if my hair was up. “You look ________ with it down,” she told me, before I could answer.

I ________ that my mother—always so strong—had changed. She not only wanted my ________, but needed it.

I pulled a pair of blue jeans from the closet, a light blue sweater from her drawer after walking ________ her bedroom.

“Wear this with your black shoes,” I told her. She did ________.

My mother certainly doesn’t need anyone to ________ her. In fact, she still cares for my grandmother who lives with her. But with that one question, my mother and I started the ________ change that happens with all parents and all children, from caregiver to receiver.

Now, if I’m visiting or we’re together, it’s ________ for her to check with me first before she wears something. It seems like she asks me just to be able to disagree with my answer and pick out something on her own. I just tell her what I think of the way she looks. Sometimes it’s “great”. And sometimes it’s “awful”.

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It’s OK to say you’ve never heard of grime—unless you’re from the UK. That’s because this music was invented in the UK in the early 2000s.

To someone who’s not familiar with underground music, it’s easy to get confused* about hiphop and grime since they are both noisy. And many people didn’t try to tell them apart, until earlier this month when grime singers like Stormzy and J Hus led this year’s MOBO Awards—“Music of Black Origin”—nominations* in the UK.

Grime drew influence from UK electronic music and hiphop, and it mostly shows the thoughts of young people. But different from hiphop, grime singers sing in dialects* with strong accents*, making their songs special.

Lady Leshurr, known as the “Queen of Grime”, said that she once tried to hide her accent, as she didn’t want people to judge her. But one day, she realized that she didn’t need to change herself just to please others. And there’s no doubt that this is the most basic and important thing of grime music: be yourself.

“Also different from the hiphop style, which usually focuses on being rich, grime singers pay more attention to social issues* like the gap between the rich and poor.” Mykaell Riley, the director of the black music research unit told the BBC.

Although still quite young, grime seems to be loved by more and more people. In 2016, the English grime artist Skepta won the Mercury Prize with his album Konnichiwa, beating the famous rock music singers David Bowie and Radiohead.

However, no matter whether grime is one day accepted by the mainstream music world or not, one thing is for sure: in grime, singers always stay true to themselves.

An old man arrived in New York by plane. He came a long way—from eighty miles outside White Horse, Canada. He left the desolate* place for a good reason: to collect his prize. Several days earlier, he had received a colorful document which wrote:

Mr. Peter Finch

Rural Delivery, 33Y

White Horse, Canada

You, Mr. Finch, have won $1,000,000 US dollars

from The American Magazine Company.

A more skeptical* person would have read the small print, but Mr. Finch wasn’t a skeptic. Junk* mail wasn’t junk for him. Since he had no relatives or friends, junk mail was as close to a warm greeting.

Before his journey, Mr. Finch had shown his prize document to the villagers. Everyone was amazed.

He took a taxi from the airport to The American Magazine Company and was led to the receptionist, Betsy Anderson.

“I won the big prize,” Mr. Finch said proudly.

Betsy greeted him. Since they’d already identified all the real winners, obviously Mr. Finch was a loser. But she pretended to carefully check the document.

“I’m afraid you didn’t win, Mr. Finch. I’ve checked the numbers,” Betsy said, “I’m very sorry.”

“But it says that I’ve won,” Mr. Finch replied.

“It’s in the small print. It says that you may have been a winner,” Betsy said.

Mr. Finch didn’t believe it and refused to leave. Betsy had to call the Chairman to come. Mr. Finch told him about how he knew he must have won, and how he had read the magazine for over 50 years. It had helped keep him alive during the cold winters. He told of a thousand uses of the magazine. The American Magazine just couldn’t cheat him, he knew that.

After hours of discussion, the Chairman said they would be happy to pay his air ticket. Indeed, he thought it would be a good idea to do a story on Mr. Finch’s dependence on The American Magazine and would even pay him royalties*.

When Mr. Finch returned home with a photographer and a writer, he became famous. The villagers treated him like a celebrity*. When the story was published, they even bought one hundred magazine copies. Of course Mr. Finch never showed any signs of great wealth. Still, he seemed much happier for having visited New York. He also liked to describe to the villagers the huge building of the famous magazine.

When Mr. Finch, the White Horse Winner, died, he’d always be remembered and his experience filled many dark winters for the people of the desolate area of White Horse.

Lily Bice is an American girl. When she heard families in Texas lost everything because of Hurricane* Harvey, she made     50     decision.

Her parents experienced another hurricane 12 years ago, so they knew people in Texas had difficulty building their new     51     (home) after Hurricane Harvey. They discussed     52     to help the people and Lily heard the discussion. She wanted to play a part in helping those people. So she decided to give away some toys to a girl. “    53     the girl has toys to play with, she will probably feel     54     (happy) than before.” Lily thought. Then she started putting her toys in a bag. All of them provided Lily     55     a lot of fun. Lily wrote something on a piece of paper and put it into the bag. “Dear little girl, are you     56     (excite) about getting these toys? I hope they can be     57     (you) close friends. Have fun with them.”

Lily’s mom, Mellisa Bice,     58     (be) proud of her daughter. She said Lily could feel what the people in Texas were experiencing although the little girl didn’t experience a hurricane. “She     59     (understand) more than a child really does. She likes making things for people to make them happy.” She added.