When I was little, I used to be afraid of the dark. I always thought that there was a ________ in my closet (壁橱). The house often made strange noises ________.

My fears of the dark ________ me when I was in my early teens. I had a dream. In my dream, I saw this monster. It was right in front of me. Somehow I found the ________. I was so angry with it that I beat it.

________ this dream, my fears of the dark were gone. I’m not afraid of the dark anymore.

Reading is very useful for English learners. Listening, speaking and writing are very ________ when you’re learning English, but reading is also very useful. When you ________, you can both learn some new words and learn how to use them. You can also find a good ________ for writing when you read.

Read something at your right level (水平). Read something that you can more or less ________. If you need to stop every three words to use a ________, it’s not right for you.

Try to increase your vocabulary. Try to guess their ________ if there are 4 or 5 new words on a page. Then took them up in a dictionary after reading and write them down in your notebook. Try to remember them.

Try to read regularly (规律的). Reading for 15 minutes is ________ than two hours every Sunday. Try your best to find ________ to read. For example, you could read for 15 minutes before you go to bed or at lunchtime.

Read what ________ you. Choose a book or a magazine that you like. You can also read newspapers, for example, 21st Century. There is always something ________ in it.

Are you interested in Chinese tea? Here is some information about it. You can call us at 579-3849 if you would like some of them.

Marconi, an Italian inventor, who gave us the radio, probably didn’t know how much his great invention would have done for the world in the years to come. Radio has perhaps done as much as any other communication tool. Things of the world can be reported to people everywhere a few seconds after they happened. Travelers in out-of-the-way places, ships at sea, and even astronauts round the earth are able to keep in touch with each other by radio.

Television is another important invention. It lets us see as well as hear the actor. Since it was invented, TV has done a great deal in the life of people everywhere. Many programs are now televised on TV.

Perhaps the most modern invention is “Telstar”, a “star” moving round the earth. It makes it possible for the people all over the world to be closer than ever before. Now on TV a family in Chicago can watch a car race in Italy, a table tennis competition in Beijing or a volleyball match in Japan as these events are actually happening!

An old woman was carrying a big basket of cabbages on her head to the market on a cold early morning. She hoped to sell them to the people in town.

The mountain road was narrow (狭窄) and the old woman was walking carefully, because she did not want to lose her cabbages.

Suddenly she heard a loud bell and a bicycle came round. It passed her and went very fast down the hill. The old woman had to jump up to one side of the road so quickly that the basket of cabbages nearly fell into the valley (山谷).

She looked up and saw that a young boy was on the bicycle. He was riding on without even looking around to see whether the old woman was all right.

The old woman began to shout, “Come back, little boy! You dropped something!”

When he heard this, the boy stopped the bicycle so suddenly that he nearly fell off. Then he turned and began to push the bicycle back up to the hill. “What is it?” he asked. “What did I drop?” “Little boy,” the old woman answered, “You dropped your manners.”

February 29th comes up on the calendar only every four years. It might be bad news if you were born on February 29th. You have to wait three years between birthdays.

February 29th is called a leap day. And the year with a February 29th in it is called a leap year. 2020 was such a year.

As a verb, the word “leap” means to jump, or to move quickly.

In a leap year, the dates jump over one day of the week. Let me explain. In 2017, the last day of the year, December 31st, fell on Sunday. In 2018, it fell on Monday. In 2019, it fell on Tuesday. But in 2020, December 31st, fell on Thursday. It jumped right over Wednesday.

The reason for a leap year is because our calendar does not follow the Earth’s orbit (轨道) around the sun exactly. Each year, we have a little time left over. So every four years, we put all that time together into an extra (额外的) day.

Some people choose to marry on February 29th because it is an unusual date. But some ancient people would likely tell couples (夫妻) not to do it. Leap years were believed to be difficult, and leap days were unlucky. But to be honest, these have no scientific basis.

The undersea world is very beautiful. Now more and more people want to dive (潜水) in the water to find the secret there. Scuba-diving (水肺潜水) is a new sport today.     31    

You will find many strange animals in the sea.     32     Many sea animals give out light in the dark and some have sharp teeth.

During the day, there is enough light on land. Here, under the sea, everything is blue and green. When fishes swim nearby, you can catch them with your hands. When you have bottles of air on your back, you can stay in deep water for a long time.     33     And you must be very careful when you dive in deep water.

    34     It’s cold, and it’s dark, too. The deeper it is, the less sunlight there is. About 3,000 feet, there is no light at all. It is very dark in the sea. Many fishes have no eyes. Some have big eyes. A few have eyes on one side.

Besides the cold and the darkness, deep sea animals face the danger of other animals. Animals must find food to eat. Many animals eat plants. However, some animals eat meal.    35     They need to find animals as food, and they have to try not to become other animals’ meal.

Light travels at a speed which is about a million times     46     (fast) than that of sound.     47     one second, light travels about 300000 kilometers, but sound travels only 340     48     (meter). You can get some ideas of this difference by     49     (watch) the start of a running match. If you stand far away from the starter (发令员), you can see smoke come from his gun     50     the sound reaches your ears. The fast speed of light     51     (produce) some strange facts. The nearest star is far away. The light which you can see from it tonight     52     (start) to travel to you four years ago at a speed of nearly two million kilometers very minute. The light from some of tonight’s started on     53     (it) journey towards you even before you were born. So, if we want     54     (be) honest, we can’t say, “The stars are shining brightly tonight.” We have to say, “The stars look nice. They shone four years ago but their light has just reached     55     earth.”