Vienna is a beautiful old city on the River Danube in the center of Europe. It’s the capital city of Austria and the center of European classical music. In the eighteenth century a lot of musicians came to study and work in Vienna.

In the Strauss family, there were two composers (作曲家) called Johann Strauss: the father and the son. The father, Johann Strauss the elder, wrote and played music for traditional dances, called the waltz. His dance music made him famous all over Europe. The son, Johann Strauss the younger, was also very successful and popular. He wrote over 150 waltzes. In 1867 he wrote The Blue Danube waltz.

Mozart was another very important composer. He was born in Austria in 1756. Before he was six, he played not only the piano but also the violin. His family took him around Europe and he gave concerts in many cities. He wrote hundreds of pieces of music. But he became very poor and died in 1791 when he was only thirty-five. Like Johann Strauss, father and son, he was a great European musician, and many people still think his music is perfect.

Florence Nightingale was born on May 12th, 1820. In 1851, she trained as a nurse. Two years later she went to a British military (军事的) hospital so that she could help British soldiers. Before she arrived, many soldiers died in the hospital because it was dirty. Nightingale worked hard to make the hospital clean and stop soldiers dying. When she returned to England in 1856, she was a national heroine. Nightingale wrote two books about nursing and she also started a school to train nurses. She died in London on August 13th, 1910, when she was 90 years old.

Nobody wants to lose, but we must accept that losing is a part of life. After all, we can’t win all the time. However, we can learn something valuable from every failure (失败). This may help us succeed in the future. So, we must know how to be a good loser.

We must not be afraid of losing. When we lose, just take it with a smile and look on the bright side of it. Failure can’t be avoided in our life. Edison failed 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb (灯泡). When he was asked how he felt, he said that he hadn’t failed 10,000 times but had learned 10,000 things which didn’t work. We must know that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved success although they failed many times.

Losing is not very disgraceful. We must accept our failure and learn to take advantage of it. Remember that it can be helpful. Take action to walk out of it. When we lose, think about what we did and how we can improve. If someone else can help, we’ll be lucky enough. Maybe he or she has been through the same experience before. Many people enjoy helping others solve problems. This can save us a lot of time in learning how to avoid the same mistakes in the future.

We should face our failure when we lose. There is only one winner in every competition. Some win, while some lose. That is a usual way of life. If we offer our congratulations (祝贺) to the winners and share in their happiness, we won’t feel sorry for our failure.

In a word, being a good loser will help us to succeed in life. It might be painful at the beginning, but there are many advantages. Good losers set examples to us, and most importantly, they finally win.

It is not always easy to discover yourself. From a young age, I had a strong sense of who I would become—but an ________ changed everything.

To me, skating was more important than anything else in the world. Nothing else filled my heart with so much joy. I spent twenty-four hours a week developing my skills. I had no ________ life or interests other than skating. But I was rewarded with first place medals in nearly every competition.

Unluckily, during one competition, I fell and was badly injured. The doctor told me that I couldn’t skate anymore. The pain in my back was hard to bear and even basic daily tasks became ________.

My passion (激情) had been taken away. I lost ________ and had no idea what I would become. After eight months of suffering, something had to change. Instead of sitting around and ________ my days, I began to work with local community service projects. By volunteering as a swimming teacher and summer reading assistant for kids, I got an idea of who I wanted to become. After a few months, I found a new interest. Little by little, I stepped out of the shadow and rebuilt my confidence.

Sometimes, challenges in life will get in our way. We can ________ to stay behind or try to get past these challenges. My accident was a challenge that failed to stop me from reaching success. Today, I’m a very confident and optimistic person.

Edgar Snow (1905—1972) was an American reporter. He is best known for his books and articles on Communism in China and the Chinese Communist revolution.

Snow came to China in 1928. He spent over 10 years traveling     27     in China and trying to understand its people. At the same time, he tried to show     28     he learned to the rest of the world.

For examples, Red Star Over China, which came out in the 1930s, is     29     as the first book that introduced China’s revolution to the west. In it, Snow collected firsthand information on the Long March, as well as on the work and lifestyle of members of the Communist Party of China in Shanxi Province.

Many Westerners were introduced to the Party     30     his book. Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor, came to China after reading Snow’s book. He worked     31     to save the lives of Chinese soldiers during World War Ⅰ.

“When the whole world had forgotten us, Snow came to see us and     32     the world what had happened. We will remember Snow’s great help to China forever,” Chairman Mao said during an interview with a German reporter in 1938.

Snow’s     33     is still needed now, as well as in the future, according to People’s Daily. “No writer has spoken more strongly about Sino-US relations than Edgar Snow. And no matter the era, people around the world always need some sort of link,” the paper said.

In 1987, a small company named Huawei was started in Shenzhen. After more than 30 years of development, now, the company     34     (beat) Apple and become the world’s second largest maker of smartphones. It has also become the world’s supplier (供应者) of 5G. In China and even in the world, Huawei is a wonder.     35     it started producing mobile phones not many years ago, it has become one of the most famous phone companies.

But recently, Huawei faces some     36     (difficulty). The US government made a law to stop its sales in America. American officials said Huawei gave information that it collected to the Chinese government. At the same time, the US government planned to stop     37     (sell) parts and services to Huawei. They believed that Huawei’s business would     38     (hurt) this way.

“We have never received such a request from the Chinese government and we have never tried to get into other systems to collect information,” Ren Zhengfei, Huawei’s president said. “The law would have little effect on our company. Huawei has enough ability to deal with the problems,” Ren added.

In an interview several years ago, Ren Zhengfei said, “I started Huawei with only £4000 at the     39     (begin), but now it has become a 100 billion company. The experience was not as romantic as you imagine.”

Facing the law of the US, Huawei     40     (grow). Huawei’s smartphone sales around the world rose 50 percent compared with a year     41     (early) in the first three months of 2023. At the same time, sales from both Samsung and Apple fell. So far, Huawei has grown into the world’s largest telecommunication equipment supplier (供应商), selling in 170 countries. It may beat Samsung as the largest smartphone maker in the near future.