Our beautiful daughter Lara had been very unhappy for months, and her action had become more and more radical(极端的). She was ______ all the time and hurtful to the whole family. Her brother couldn’t ______ being in the same room with her. ______ home was no longer a home but a camp under siege(包围).

After careful consideration, we had to send her to a wonderful ______ in northern Idaho. What a beautiful and alive place! The teachers greeting us were like warm clothes on a ______ day. But “I never want to see your face again” were Lara’s parting words. They hurt my heart.

For five months we didn’t ______ Lara — not a card, not a call, nothing. I called the school almost every day.

______, a written letter arrived from Lara, thanking me for her new clothes, I’m sure that was the teacher’s order. I was excited to have it. Gradually, our communication got better, leading to our first ______.

The love and teaching of the ______ were beginning to pay off. Each time we came for a visit we saw more improvement in our ______. I could see her face softening, the anger and the hardness were gone. Her girlish face was beautiful and soft, ______ and caring. And she discovered she had a beautiful voice. With encouragement, she began to ______ every chance she got. The more she sang, the more confident she felt. She ______ began to love herself.

Lara’s graduation from the school was a time of pride and love. She wore a dress knitted(编织) for seven months herself. Her grandmother, her father, brother and I excitedly watched ______ she made her graduation speech.

Lara truly found her ______. She graduated with honors, getting a bachelor’s(学士) degree in music and singing performance.

What’s the huge dog in the picture below?

It is the Dog Bark Park Inn, a bed-and-breakfast (B&B) In Idaho, U.S.A.

The inn is in the shape of a dog. It is lovingly known as Sweet Willy. You can climb the stairs (楼梯) outside Sweet Willy. You can climb the stairs and enter the stomach of the dog. It is actually a bedroom. The inn has two bedrooms. The other bedroom is in the nose of the dog.

The inn is also famous for its delicious food. You can help yourself to some of the special foods of a B&B breakfast. There are also many homemade goodies. The owner makes them with secret recipes (食谱).

Sweet Willy has a friend called Toby. It stands beside Sweet Willy. However, you can’t sleep inside this smaller dog. It’s just for show.

The Dog Bark Park Inn is very special and interesting. Guests often have to book months in advance (预先). So, if you want to stay in this huge dog for a few nights, you had better hurry up and book now!

To change their city’s bad traffic, students at the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia (NIPC) have designed a new type of manned (载人的) plane. It is from a rather usual furniture—a school chair. The group hope to use it to carry people around capital city and even help fight fires.

With eight propellers (螺旋桨) and a school chair for the pilot’s seat, the plane was developed on the outskirts (郊区) of the capital.

“We wanted to solve some problems for our society by making a taxi plane and…inventing for firefighters,” said Lonh Vannsith, 21, the pilot of the plane. They hoped it could reach the upper floors of a building to bring a hose (软管) where a fire truck could not reach.

It took three years of research and development and cost around $20,000 to build. The plane can carry a 60- kilogram pilot and fly for about 10 minutes for a distance of 1 km. When manned, the plane now only rises to as much as four meter. The team plans to improve the design to allow it to take more weights, as well as fly further and more smoothly at a higher level.

“The project faced delay (延期) because of the international transport. Many parts of the plane had to be ordered from abroad,” said Sarin Sereyvatha, who is NPIC’s head of research and development technology.

“Generally, if we make one plane, the cost is expensive but if we make them to sell on the market, the cost will go down,” said Sarin.

In September 1966, I faced my first class of kids in a primary school in Toronto. Mike was one of the street kids, who lived with his old grandmother, not knowing his mother or father.

I took him out for breakfast. I taught him sewing and mending. We shared our lunch. I taught him new skills like using a microscope properly, making a pinhole camera, and classifying rocks and minerals. Mike would then “help” teach the rest of the class these skills. A father-son relationship began to build up between us.

One day Mike secretly told me of his dream—to be a gangster(匪徒)! This was no joke.

Everyone has the same chance to be the best person. Mike had a great gift. I thought if he wanted to be a gangster, I’d do my best to help him become the very best “gangster”.

After making a special arrangement, I took him to the Osgoode Law Library. I said a good gangster must know criminal law, and reading upon law was the only way to learn. He was eager to study.

Each Saturday, I’d drop him off at the law library. Three hours later, I’d return, and we had lunch together. Then I’d take him home. I sure felt like a father. With a promise between us, I was not going to let him, or myself, down.

The following year I moved to another school, which prevented me from continuing to be physically with him. But I provided him with public transportation tickets so he’d continue his regular study at the law library. I still often visited him and took him out for lunch, so I’d keep up with his life.

Soon afterwards I married, and started a new life in London. I lost contact with Mike.

Then, one day in 1995, I was in Toronto on business. Looking up the telephone directory(电话簿), I saw Mike’s surname as “Barristers(大律师)!” How could it be? What are the odds?

Not knowing why, I rang the phone, telling a secretary my name, and was put on hold. A very long fifteen seconds later, a deep gentleman’s voice said, “Mr. Kowalchuk, I’ve really...missed you.” Then there was silence.

My eye swelled up with tears. “Mike, I’m really proud of you, proud of you.”

With an excited voice, Mike answered, “________”

New York City in the United States has an unusual way of cleaning up its polluted Hudson River: oysters（牡蛎）. It is part of a plan to create a healthier ecosystem in the river by increasing the oyster population. Oysters may help to restore the waters and bring back more sea life. How do oysters do it?

Oysters act as natural “water purifiers”. They are filter feeders（滤食动物）. That means they take in water through their gills and filter out the food in it, such as algae（藻类）, which they then eat. A single adult oyster can filter up to 189 litres of water in a day. As they feed, oysters also filter other harmful things out of the water.

One of these is nitrogen, a chemical found in septic tanks（化粪池）. Sometimes nitrogen gets washed into rivers and oceans when it rains. Too much nitrogen in the water causes much algae to grow. The algae uses up the oxygen in the water, which can harm other sea life. Oysters filter nitrogen out of the water and use it to grow their shells.

Oysters also build reefs（珊瑚礁）, which are important to the whole ecosystem. Oysters attach（依附）themselves to hard surfaces underwater like rocks. Then more oysters attach themselves on top of those. As the oysters grow, their shells mix together to form a reef. When the new oysters are placed in the Hudson River, they are attached to metal cages in the water. These become the foundations for new reefs, which will get larger as more oysters build on top of them.

Oyster reefs provide homes for plants and animals. Reefs also help to protect the shoreline. Large reefs reduce the effect of waves coming in from the ocean, and help to reduce flooding and protect the coast.

Over the years, the New Yorkers have done a lot for the river, but it will still take tens of years before the new reefs being created in the Hudson River grow as the reefs that were destroyed long ago, but there are already signs that the ecosystem is healthier.

A．

B．

C．

D．