I used to have little passion (激情) in my life. But what happened the other day changed my mind. It was then that I learned how ________ it is to have passion in life.

That day I went home in my mom’s car. When mom ________ at a red light, someone on the side of the road caught my eyes. It was a man dressed in rags (破旧衣服). He was homeless. That didn’t ________ me, because I had seen many like him before. Those people usually looked unhappy and hopeless.

But this man was ________ in some way. He was not sitting down with a sad expression. ________, he had a radio in his hand and was dancing happily to the music. The radio seemed to be the most precious (珍贵的) thing he had.

“Mom, why does that man have a radio though he’s homeless?” I asked.

“He bought it,” she replied.

“But why doesn’t he use the money to buy food or clothes? He ________ something that he didn’t need.”

“Well, Sarah, sometimes food and clothes aren’t the most important.”

That man must ________ so much about music that he bought a radio instead of food or clothes. I soon realized that ________ is the key to life.

Since then I have been always thinking of what is ________ important in life. A home, a meal, clothes—these things are only part of life. What we often forget is that we all need a joy, a light on a ________ day. We all need passion which gives us the happiness we need to keep going.

Surprise plays an important role in our lives. Last term my classmates and I gave our teacher a big _________. Our teacher had a bad _________ and coughed a lot. She could hardly speak a sentence. When we looked at her pale face, we _________ the warmth she always gave us. So we decided to do _________ for her. Since Christmas was coming at that time, we planned a surprise for her. I made a postcard and wrote, “I hope you get _________ soon”.

During class break. there were some other things on her desk, like candies and cakes. They all came from my classmates. A note was also lying there saying, “Take care, our _________ teacher.” My classmates and I hid where our teacher couldn’t _________ us, waiting for her appearance.

Finally, our teacher came. Seeing the presents on her desk, she smiled. _________ we were not right by her side, we could feel her happiness. Tears (眼泪) ran down her face. And when she looked up again. In front of _________ were three shining faces smiling back at her. “Thank you!” she whispered (低声地说), holding our hands tightly (紧紧地).

Every one of us __________ needs help. And to me, the best thing to do is to surprise them and cheer them up.

With the development of science and technology, our daily life is becoming more colorful and more convenient. Here are some examples.

We all have our own ways of showing our life to others. Artists use brushes, musicians use songs and writers use stories. Spencer Johnson’s book Who Moved My Cheese? shows changes exist (存在) in our life. Life changes and so do we. We must change ourselves to face the changing life, or we will fail.

Just look at the cycle of the seasons. Trees bud (发芽) in spring and in summer their leaves turn green. In autumn, their leaves start to fall onto the ground. When winter arrives, there are no leaves on trees. Next spring the cycle begins again. We know there are cycles in nature, so we can prepare for them. There are cycles in nature, so there are also changes in our life.

We can enjoy the moments when things are going well and get away from the bad ones. We can take the changes in our life as chances. As we keep changing ourselves, we can keep up with the changes in our life.

Around the world, people have different traditional foods to celebrate different festivals. Traditional foods also show a new year of good luck and good health.

An English Christmas dinner has a meal of turkey, and it also includes pies and plum puddings (李子布丁). In Germany, Christmas is celebrated with bread, cookies and cakes, which are made like Christmas trees. In France, Christmas dessert is a cake filled with butter cream.

In southern parts of India, there is a three-day festival in mid-January called Pongal. It includes rice and a dish of rice cooked with sugar that is shared with family and friends.

Japan celebrates New Year with a seven-day festival. It begins from January 1st. Food is prepared before the festival so people don’t need to cook during the festival. On New Year’s Day, various dishes called Osechi Ryori (御节料理) are served—each dish is a wish for the New Year.

In most Asian countries, the New Year begins with the first full moon of the first Chinese Lunar (阴历的) month. Each place has its special food to welcome the coming year. People in China prepare their food ahead of time to avoid the possibility that using a knife during New Year’s time might “cut luck”. Foods with lucky names are popular, such as fish, which sounds like “surplus (剩余)”.

The earth is our home and we should protect it. So, let’s join hands to make it greener! Green inventions become popular at present. More and more people use used things in their works.

Special furniture

When we’re talking about furniture, we always think of furniture made of wood and plastic. However, Vadim Kibardin created a set of special furniture. It was made of waste paper.

The woven (编织) bag

It’s made of bamboo, which is strong and not easy to break. Sho Shibuya believes that using woven bags can decrease the use of plastic shopping bags.

Woven sports shoes

Emilie Burfeind has created a pair of woven sports shoes. One part of the shoes is made of dog hair collected from dog owners. In Germany, up to 80 tons of dog hair is thrown away every year. The cost of such woven sports shoes is low.

The special iron (熨斗)

Saksham Mahajan thinks that bamboo should be widely used, so the bamboo iron was born. The bamboo iron is different from the traditional iron in both the look and use. It can save energy while smoothing down the clothes.

Service dogs are not just pets. They are usually trained to help people who have difficulty seeing, hearing or walking. But the most common type of service dog is one that helps children with autism (自闭症). David is one of the service dogs. With the help of David, Peter gets better.

Peter was an unlucky boy because he had autism. He was unable to communicate with others, and the outside world seemed frightening (可怕的), and never talked to others, even his parents.

When Peter was ten, David came into his family. Since then, he has changed Peter’s world.

David is big and happy. He stays with Peter and plays with Peter. He is like Peter’s best friend. Now, Peter goes out for a walk with him every day. They go to the shops and other crowded places together. Peter often says hello to other people and smiles at them.

They both like travelling. Peter has a passport. David has a pet passport, too. The winter vacation is coming. ________________

81. 上周你去市科技馆进行了参观，你对“未来机器人与人类生活”主题展厅的一款家庭医生机器人很感兴趣，你打算在本周英语课的值日生报告上向你班同学介绍它。请你以“Amazing Robot”为题，根据下面的要点提示写一篇短文。

Amazing Robot