Every evening before my elder sister Anna and I went to sleep, we would spend five minutes having ________ party. No matter what went on that day or how mad we were at each other, we would dance. It was a ________ my dad helped start when we were little.

One day, Anna and I had a big argument (争论) about ________ would play with a doll. Before bedtime, we were still ________ with each other.

Our dad ________ the music, “For five minutes, no talking. Just dance. ”he said.

He played the music until we ________ agreed to start dancing. After the five minutes were over, we were laughing so hard that both of us ________ why we were angry.

Since that night, and up until recently, our five-minute dance party was something we returned every evening.

Now Anna and I sat with mom and dad at the dinner table. It was the night ________ Anna moved   to attend college. Mom made Anna’s favorite meal. I was sad because this would be the ________ time, we all ate together. But Anna ate ________. “I have to go and say bye to my friend Jeanie!” she explained and then left.

Looking at the ________ chair, I realized I treasured those daily dance parties with my sister. I couldn’t stop thinking how sad I would be ________. we missed our last dance party.

Some hours passed, and I began to get ready for bed, giving up on the thought that our last dance party would ________. Suddenly I heard a knock on my door. Anna came in. “Julie, you didn’t seriously think I was going to leave tomorrow without dancing one more time, did you? ”

Anna played the music and started dancing. I followed ________ laughing. Though I didn’t want to see my sister ________, the fact that this last dance was as important to her as it was to me made moment even more special.

I was coming home from school on the bus when I got a text message from Mike. He wanted to meet me at the Market Cross at 7 o’clock that evening and it was something urgent (紧急的) . It was a bit unusual. We’d planned to meet after school on Friday to prepare for our birdwatching as usual.

My name’s Don. I’m fifteen and I go to Blueway Comprehensive School. Mike is the same age and goes to the local grammar school, but we’ve been friends since junior school. We’ve been birdwatching together since we were 11. We do it every week, read about it and use the Internet to learn about birds and we’re members of a club for birdwatchers, too.

At 6. 45, I walked to Market Cross. Soon I saw him standing on the side of the road.

“Hi, Mike. What’s this about?” I asked at once.

“After this week of good weather followed by last night’s storm, I thought there might be some good birds about,” he said.

“And were there?” I asked. A smile played over Mike’s face. “Yes, osprey (鱼鹰). ”He said very quietly. “What!”, I shouted. “Osprey, and we’d better keep it secret.” he said again. I sat looking at him with my mouth open.

An osprey is a big hunting bird, which catches fish. There weren’t any in Britain because they’d been hunted too much. In 1954 a pair nested (筑巢) in Scotland. They were protected by a society because lots of people wanted osprey eggs for their collections. We’ve never seen one in our village.

Mike continued, “So, shall we go birdwatching tomorrow morning?”

“But do you think it’ll be there?” I asked.

“Birdwatcher!” he said. By which he meant that if I was a birdwatcher, I should know that nobody could say what a bird would or wouldn’t do at a particular (特定的) time.

“So, are you coming?”

“Oh…oh…alright,” I said, knowing my parents would be very angry. They thought I spent too much time birdwatching.

Are you having a hard time staying focused (专注的) on work?               

①Take care of your physical needs.

The most basic one for focusing is to take good care of yourself. This means getting regular (定期的) exercise. Beyond that, make sure you’re getting good nutrition (营养) which supports your brain’s work. Most of all, get plenty of sleep. When you’re tired, it’s much harder to focus on anything.

②Plan for your “absent-minded behaviours”.

You may try to do something to reduce the stress coming from a task. These things, like mindless snacking, checking emails, checking phone texts, or suddenly getting very sleepy, may also make you absent-minded. So, if you want to get focused, plan for these behaviours.

If you are likely to get sleepy, try moving to a standing desk for a while. Prepare a healthy snack to keep by your desk. If you can’t help reading emails or checking your mobile phone, turn off the notices which are flashing and reminding you all the time.

③Plan regular breaks.

One popular way is the Pomodoro Technique, which calls for 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break, with at least a 15-minute break every two hours. Recently, a new experiment shows that it is best for you to take a 17-minute break after working for 52 minutes.

④Accept yourself for losing focus.

It is true that you won’t always meet your own expectations of focus. Getting angry or sad about it will only make things worse. Instead, praise yourself for whatever work you manage to get done. And being happier may help you succeed.

Jo was the first to wake up on Christmas morning. When her sisters were awake too, they all went down to the kitchen. Their mother wasn’t there but Hannah, their servant, was.

“Your mother went out early.” she said. “A poor boy came to the door asking for food. She sympathized him and she wanted to help him. She went to see his family.”

While they were waiting for their mother to come back, the girls put their presents for her in the basket. Soon they heard the sound of a key in the front door.

“Mother’s here!” cried Jo. “Hide the basket behind the sofa! Quick!”

Then they all rushed into the hall to greet their mother.

“Merry Christmas, Mother!” they cried. “Merry Christmas, little daughters!” Mrs March said in her happy voice. She hugged them all and kissed them. Then she suddenly became very serious.

“Come and sit down, girls. I want to say something before we start breakfast.”

They all sat down at the breakfast table and Mrs March continued.

“I went to see a poor woman this morning. Her name is Mrs Hunel. She lives near here in one room with her seven children. One of them is only a baby. They are cold and hungry because they don’t have a fire or any food. The oldest boy came to ask me for help. Girls, can we give them our breakfast as a Christmas present?”

The sisters looked at the good food on the table. They were all hungry. For a minute nobody spoke. Then Jo said, “I’m so glad you came back before we started eating, Mother!” Meg put the bread on a big plate without saying anything

“Can I help carry the things to the poor children?” asked Beth.

“I want to take the muffins,” said Amy. They were her favourite things.

Mrs March smiled. “Let’s all go together,” she said.

The girls and Hannah put on their hats and they went out into the snowy street.

——Taken from Little Women

You don’t know me unless you read a book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck’s my name, Huckleberry Finn. That book ends like this: my best friend, Tom Sawyer, and I found $12, 000 in gold in a cave. We became rich. We got $6, 000 e    61    .

My mother died long ago and then my dad, Pap, disappeared. He was a    62     drunk and he often beat me. Then a kind old lady called Widow Douglas took me into her home to live. She gave me a bed to sleep in and bought new clothes for me. She read stories to me and taught me how to cat at a table. She sent me to school every day.

I hated those new clothes. I m    63     my old life. I put on my old clothes and ran away and was free and happy, but Tom Sawyer found me and said that i    64     I wanted to join his club, I would have to return to live with the widow. For this reason, I returned to live with h    65    . The months passed and w    66     came. The weather got cold. One morning I woke up and here was snow on the ground. On my way to school I saw some footprints outside the widow’s house. My heart jumped. Pap!

“He’s h    67     about my money,” I thought. “And he wants it!”

When I lit my candle and went up to my room that n    68    , there sat Pap—his own self! I expected to be scared of him now, but I w    69    . I stood looking at him; he sat there—looking at me.

Pap was nearly fifty years old. His black hair was long and uncombed and dirty, He had allowed hair to grow on his face, which was ghostly white. Just looking at the ugly white skin made me feel sick. His clothes? —dirty and torn. His feet showed t    70     large holes in his shoes. His hat was on the floor—an old black hat with a large hole in it.

—Taken from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

76. 假如你叫李华，将代表学校参加扬州市中学生英语演讲比赛，演讲的题目是“Learning to get along with our parents”。请你用英语写一篇演讲稿，内容要点如下：

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today my topic is“Learning to get along with our parents”.

These days, most of us feel it hard to get along with our parents. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That’s all for my speech. Thank you!