“Number 7, Jobie Nymble takes the lead,” cried the reporter. “Just one more hurdle (跨栏)!” Cheers went up. “Jobie Nymble from Riverside Middle School takes the first place in the girls’100-meter hurdles!”

“Next Saturday, I will take the _______ home again,” said Jobie, looking at her _______ track spikes (钉鞋). The shoes are old and worn-out, but she didn’t care. They were her lucky shoes _______ she loved them.

“Don’t forget, guys,” said Marisol, one of her teammates. “My birthday party is next _______ at the Lake Park.”

Jobie was full of excitement all week. At track practice, she jumped _______ those hurdles faster than before. And it wasn’t long before everything in her path was a hurdle.

Flowerpots in her front yard.

Sidewalk cracks on the way to the bus stop.

Even her little sister, Teka!

On Friday, Jobie put on her blue shorts, an old track T-shirt from her dad and her lucky spikes. “Great!” She looked at herself _______ in the mirror. She went to the Lake Park for her _______ birthday party. At the party, two of her teammates invited her to try the slide (滑梯). Without thinking twice, Jobie _______ her spikes and rushed toward the slide. When it was time to go home, she came to the place where she had left her shoes.

“They’re gone!” she cried. “My _______ spikes are gone.” Jobie’s teammates helped her look for her spikes in the park but failed.

The next day, Jobie had to fight for the first place in a pair of _______ shoes. When she walked down to the starting line, a familiar (熟悉的) green light at the finishing line caught her eyes. “My spikes!” She saw her worn green _______ not far away. _______ must have found them and set them there.

“Ready? Go!”

Jobie cleared hurdle after hurdle. Closer and closer she got. She was _______ near the finishing line. Just one more hurdle! “Number 7, Jobie Nymble, takes the gold for Riverside Middle School,” shouted the reporter.

Jobie held her lucky spikes and rushed over to her _______ teammates. Her friend Marisol cried out, “Jobie, you broke a record (纪录) for the hurdles! Lucky you!” “Lucky me?” Jobie doubted at first. Then, after a minute she looked down at her new shoes and _______. No lucky spikes.

With joy, Jobie said silently, “Lucky me.”

It was 8:00 am. A group of college students got out of my car to make a video in the park. My job, as the driver, was to stay nearby so that if they need something I could open the car.

I could have two or three hours’ free time, so I decided to go somewhere and do some reading. I found a beautiful park bench. I noticed that a man was sitting on one end, but there was plenty of room (空间) for more than two more bodies. Walking over, I sat on the end seat to have a rest.

The man on the other end looked at me but didn’t move. I quickly found that he may spend the night on the bench. His clothes were dirty, his hair was untidy, and soon I caught a bad smell of body sweat (汗水). I looked at him and smiled, and he smiled back with a mouth of blacked-out teeth.

We both sat there for over an hour quietly. I was reading. He was watching the video making. He then stood up, walked in front of me and bowed (鞠躬). In a little shaky but clear voice, he said, “Thank you.” I looked up at him.

“For what?” I asked in surprise.

He looked at the ground, “Usually people won’t even look at me, let alone sit by me. Thank you for treating me as a man.”

I really didn’t know what to say as he turned and walked quickly around the corner. I was surprised. I didn’t do anything special. I just shared a bench.

To me, he was just someone who wanted a place to rest. That’s exactly what I wanted. We were no different. I finally got to know that my actions truly meant (意味着) something to this poor homeless man. So, treating others in an equal (平等的) way can also make a difference to the world.

Around the world, more and more people think they should love our earth and care about it. Many people now like products (产品) and companies that care about the earth and cause (导致) less pollution (污染). So it’s time for large companies to make a change. Here are some examples.

Shoppers used cheap plastic bags before, and then threw them away. But now most supermarkets and shops usually give reusable shopping bags to them. This causes less waste. They also sell more local products, because it is easy and cheap to carry them from one place to another.

To help cause less air pollution, big car factories are looking for other good ways to reduce the oil consumption (油耗). Cars that use much less oil are very popular. Many companies are also producing electric (电动的) cars. They cause no air pollution at all. What’s more, they are cheaper to run and people don’t need to worry about the oil prices. They are becoming more popular.

The airline companies face a greater green problem. Planes use much more oil than cars. So many airlines are now developing planes that can fly on some other kinds of oil and some of them use only solar panels (太阳能板) to fly! They cause less pollution and cost less. Moreover, the companies are trying to produce lighter planes and choose (选择) much better routes.

Green saves the earth. More and more companies have to show they care about the environment (环境). Many environment-friendly products look nice. However, people still have to be careful when choosing green products. It’s important to make sure the products are as friendly to the environment as the companies say.

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B．

C．

D．

Behind the screen, students are using thin straight pieces of wood to make shadow puppets (皮影木偶) step onto the “stage (舞台)” while the 71-year-old Liu Aibang is singing. The “stage” is actually a cloth screen with light from behind. Those students in front of the stage are playing music on drums, suona and other instruments (乐器).

This is a Daoqing Shadow Puppetry class at Longdong University. Except (除了) Liu, the other performers (表演者) of the show are all college students. Starting in the Han Dynasty, Daoqing Shadow Puppetry has been in the national intangible cultural heritage list (非物质文化遗产名录) since 2006. For years, shadow plays were popular with people of all ages. However, with films and TV plays becoming more and more popular in the late 1980s, many performers moved on to other jobs to make a good living. But Liu chose to stay on to protect the art.

One day in 2020, Liu got a phone call from Zhao Zhixue, head of the music school at Longdong University. Zhao told him that the school planned to introduce Daoqing Shadow Puppetry into college classrooms. “We want to make the young student interested in intangible cultural heritage,” said Zhao. Liu was very excited to be a part-time teacher at the college. He came to school twice a week, teaching a two-hour class each time. Liu hopes to train more young people. “Just as true love is not a one-man show, carrying forward cultural heritage needs efforts (努力) from both the old and the young,” Liu said.

London, a European city, is the capital of England. It is a big and famous city with a long history. It has the largest number of museums and libraries in the world. There are many people in this city and most of them are     46     (friend) and helpful. They are always happy     47     (tell) visitors about their city.

The weather in London is nice. In winter it’s not very cold and in summer it’s not very hot because the city is near the sea. However, it is changeable. People often talk about the weather because they can have four     48     in one day. In the morning the weather is warm just     49     in spring. After an hour, black clouds come and then it rains hard. The weather gets cold. Later in the afternoon the sky will be clear, the sun will begin to shine and it     50     (be) summer at this time of day.

There are many places of interest in this city. The Thames (泰晤士河)     51     (run) through London from west to east. It’s interesting to take a trip along the river. This way, you can see almost every place of interest of London in a day. When you take a trip in London with     52     (you) friends, do not miss Big Ben. It is a clock tower on the river. It is one of the landmark     53     (build) in London. The tower is 95 meters high, the bell is 8     54     (foot) in diameter and weighs 13.5 tons. It goes off every 15 minutes.

I think you can have a great time     55     (visit) here. It is really a wonderful place.

How-to videos are one of the best ways of learning how to do something online. If you are looking for a video to show ways of fishing or cooking, they can always help you. But how can you make the best how-to videos? The tips b    56     will help you.

◆Choose the right topic (话题)

F    57     of all, there are different kinds of videos to help people learn how to do certain things. So you must find a topic that people may like. Some great topics for making how-to videos i    58     speaking tips or steps on writing a novel. Cooking ideas and handmade gifts videos will also work fine on social media.

◆Go for less of why and more of h    59    

If the viewers show interest in your video, they’ll find your video is helpful. They don’t have to keep talking about why they must watch the video or why the video topic is important. They are willing to learn how to do something by watching your videos.

◆Use i    60     titles (标题)

You must let the viewers know the topic of your video at once to make them watch the whole one. The best way is to start a how-to video w    61     a title or a picture to make them interested.

◆Speak simply (简单地)

N    62     give the viewers too long instructions (说明). You must make your videos easy to understand. This way, the viewers won’t find it d    63     to follow the steps and will finish the videos quickly.

◆Make sure your video is clear

You can give a lot of steps or ideas on your topic, b    64     it is important to make your how-to video clear. Viewers just want to learn from your videos and finish their work exactly but not spend much time choosing which step to follow.

How-to videos really help a lot. F    65     the tips above and make the best how-to videos in no time.

Fun with apps

What makes smartphones fun and useful? The apps, of course. Besides (除了) some popular ones like WeChat, QQ and Tik Tok, what other apps do you know? In fact, there are many apps that you can have fun with. Check out some of them here.

Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary.com offers (提供) some help to the English learners, even a linguist (语言学家), to make their English language skills better. Why is Vocabulary.com special? That’s because it’s much more than just a dictionary (字典). It has the basic features of a dictionary app—explanations, pronunciations and grammar tips—but it also has a word learning system. This means that you can practise the words you learn through a fun game. The game will help you remember words more quickly. The app knows that even if you look up a word, you may still forget it soon. So it helps you remember words by saying them again and again in the game. It’s like carrying your English teacher in your pocket!

Prisma

Are you a fan of art? Here’s an app just for you. Prisma is a photo-editing app unlike any other. The photo filters (滤镜) on the app can make your pictures look like works of art. What’s more, the filters on Prisma never get old. Prisma offers a new photo filter every day. However, it also gives you freedom to change the filters with image-enhancing (图像增强) tools. Imagine you can have a picture painted by Picasso, too! How amazing!

76. 劳动最光荣，劳动最伟大，劳动最美丽。为了体现劳动的独特育人价值，国家把劳动教育（Labor Education） 纳入中小学国家课程方案。现在你校校报英语栏目English World就开展劳动教育发起征文，假如你是李华，请根据征文要求用英语写一篇短文投稿。

I’m writing this letter to share my ideas of doing housework. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________