A lady wanted a birthday gift from her husband. For many months, she had liked a beautiful ring, and knowing her husband could afford it, she told him that was all she wanted. On the morning of the birthday, her husband told her how proud he was to have such a good wife, and how much he loved her. He gave her a beautiful gift package. She opened it and found a dictionary. She raised her voice and said to her husband, “With all your money, you give me a dictionary? ” After that, she left him.

Many years passed and the lady was very successful in business. She owned two large companies. She realized her husband was very old, so she thought perhaps she should go to visit him. But before she could, she received a letter telling her that he had died, and gave all of his possessions (财产) to her. She needed to come back and take care of the things.

When she arrived at his house, she was surprised to see the still new dictionary there, just as she had left it years before. With tears in her eyes, she opened it and began to turn the pages. A ring dropped from the dictionary to the floor and a card could be seen. She picked it up and found it was the ring she wanted in those days. And on the card was the date of her birth, and the words “LOVE YOU ALWAYS”.

Please remember sometimes the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, unless they are felt with your heart.

The sky has no color. Then why does the sky look blue?

We know that there is air around the world. When planes fly, they need air to lift their wings. Planes can’t fly very high. That is because the air gets thinner when they go higher.

Looking up above us, you will see the blue sky with white clouds. It is usually light blue. The color would be bluer when you see on the top of a high mountain. And you will see fewer clouds in the sky between you and the sun.

Sometimes the sky doesn’t look blue. When the sun rises and falls, you will see red, orange, and other colors in the sky. Such are the most beautiful moments of the day.

Who can see the colors of the sky high above the earth? The astronauts! They can see those beautiful colors of the sky from the outer space. However, before flying into outer space, they sit in a spaceship high above the earth, and there is no air at all. The sky would be that dark and its color would be black.

Now you may understand that we see colors because the air scatters (散射) the sunlight. Light travels through the air. Without air, there would be no light or colors.

An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Every day Grandpa read books in the early morning. His grandson tried to do everything he could to imitate (模仿) his grandfather.

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read books just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I do understand as soon as I close the books. Why do we read?” The grandfather looked at him and answered, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”

The boy did as he was told, but all the water was out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to run a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the same took place. The old man said, “You’re just not trying hard enough. Try again.” The boy again put the basket into the river and ran very hard, but when he reached his grandfather, the basket was empty again. He said sadly, “See? Grandpa! It’s useless!”

“So you think it’s useless?” The old man said. “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been changed from a dirty old coal basket into a clean one, inside and out. “You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read books, you’ll be changed, inside and out.”

I still remember my teacher, Mrs. White. She looked just     61     Snow White, because she had the same bright eyes and short dark hair.

We used to write a lot. And I would show     62     I wrote to Mrs. White for correction (批改). She would look at my writing and see many mistakes in it. But she never made any red correction and she always gave a star. I was feeling     63     of my writing each time I got a star.     64     my mother was worried about my writing. So one day, when she met Mrs. White at a parent-teacher meeting, Mum asked her     65     she never corrected my mistakes and why she never said no to her child.

Mrs. White said, “The children are just beginning to get     66     (excite) about using words. Spelling and grammar can wait. We can’t stop that interest with a     67     pen.” As it was a long time ago, my mother could only remember the main idea of Mrs. White said about my writing. However, I grew up learning     68     (use) words with loving care and confidence like that.

If Mrs. White had used her red pen     69     (much) often, I probably wouldn’t be telling you about this now. Whenever I look back on those encouraging stars from Mrs. White, I feel they just look like real ones in the night sky, guiding me on my way somewhere.

    70     (thank) to Mrs. White, I have no fear about writing. Also, I’m not afraid.

71. 假如你是李华，Student Times报社“My Hometown”专栏面向学生招募小记者（journalist），请你用英文写一封自荐信。信件内容要包含以下内容：

I hear that your newspaper needs journalists for the column My Hometown. I hope to be a member of the team. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I think I’m the right person you are looking for. I’d be thankful if I could get the chance.

Yours,

Li Hua