One night, when I was eight, my mother gently asked me a question I would never forget. “Sweetie, my company wants to promote(升职) me; _____ , it needs me to work in Brazil. This is like your teacher telling that you’ve done well and allowing you to skip a grade(跳级), but you’ll have to_____ your friends. Would you say yes to your teacher?” She gave me a hug and asked me to think about it. I was puzzled. The question kept me_______ for the rest of the night. I had said “yes” but for the first time, I realized the difficult decisions adults had to make.

For almost four years, my mother would call us from Brazil every day.

Every evening I’d anxiously wait for the phone to ring and then tell her every detail of my day. A phone call, however, could never replace her_______ and it was difficult not to feel lonely at times.

During my fourth-grade Christmas break, we flew to Rio to visit her.

Looking at her large_______ apartment, I realized how lonely my mother must have been in Brazil herself. It was then that I started to appreciate the tough choices she had to make on balancing family and work._____ difficult decisions, she used to tell me, you wouldn’t know whether you make the right choice, but you could always make the best out of the situation, with passion and a positive attitude.

Back home, I reminded myself that what my mother could do, I could, too. If she______ to live in Rio all by herself, I, too, could learn to be______ . I learn how to take care of myself and set high but achievable goals.

My mother is now back with us. But I will never forget what the_____ has really taught me. Sacrifices(牺牲)pay off in the end. The separation between us has proved to be a______ for me.

Uncle Li and Uncle Wang are good friends. They live next to each other and their farms are both at the foot of the mountain. So they can help each other. But neither of them likes to use his head. They're both poor though they work hard. Most villagers have built new houses，but they still live in the low and broken houses. They never find out why.

Once Uncle Li went to town to buy some medicine for his wife. In the town he heard the apples in a city were expensive. He told Uncle Wang about it as soon as he went back. They decided to carry some apples to the city. They borrowed some money from their friends and bought nearly 1，000kilograms of apples in the villages and carried them to the city on a tractor. Bad luck!A lot of apples has already been carried there when they arrived. A few days later they had to sell them at a low price （价格）. They felt unhappy and returned to their village.

"I can't understand why we sustained （蒙受） losses in business while others always profit （盈利）"Uncle Li asked one day. "The tractor was too small"Uncle Wang said without thinking. "We'll carry more apples on a truck next time!"I agree!"said Uncle Li. "How foolish （傻的） we were!"

My sister’s ten-year-old son came for a visit at the weekend one hot July. And I had to make him stay inside by joining him in a game. An hour later, I suggested that we relax a while. He slipped out of the room and I was catching a few moments of peace and quiet.

“Look, Alice,” he said happily as he ran over to the chair where I was having a rest. “I found a kite. Could we go outside and fly it?”

Looking out a nearby window, I noticed there was not a breeze (微风) at all. “I’m sorry, Tripper,” I said, sad to see his blue eyes. “The wind is not blowing today. The kite won’t fly.”

“ I think it’s windy enough. I can get it to fly.” He answered, as he hurried out of the back door. Up and down the yard he ran, pulling the kite with a small length of string (绳子). The plastic kite proudly had a picture of Batman. He ran as hard as his ten-year-old legs would carry him, looking back hopefully at the kite. After about ten minutes, he came back in.

I asked, “How did it go?” “Fine,” he said, not wanting to admit (承认) defeat. “I got it to fly some.” As he walked past me to return the kite to the closet shelf, I heard him say under his breath, “I guess I’ll have to wait for the wind.”

At that moment I heard another voice speak to my heart, “Alice, sometimes you are just like that. You want to do it your way instead of waiting for the wind.”

And the voice was right. We wait for the wind only after we have done all we can. We must learn how to depend on it in the first place！

Alfredo Moser is a Brazilian worker who is skilled at repairing machines. His wife says her husband has always been handy (手巧的) at home and made tables and chairs. Alfredo has invented a way of lighting his house during the day without electricity.

He has been using plastic bottles filled up with water and a little bleach (漂 白剂) to provide dark rooms with light for many years. And the idea has now spread across the world. It is predicted that his lighting system, which works using refraction (折射) of sunlight, will be fitted in over a million homes by the end of this year.

Alfredo used normal plastic drink bottles that are often thrown away. The secret of the liquid in the bottles is the bleach added to water, which stops it turning green in the sunlight. Mr. Moser drills a hole in a roof tile (瓦片) and then pushes the bottle in from below, keeping the bottle in place with polyester resin (聚酯树脂). Depending on the strength of sunlight, the light fills his home, and the bottles are just like electric bulbs (灯泡) of between 40 and 60 watts (瓦).

Alfredo came up with the idea for his “Moser light” during one of the blackouts in Brazil in 2002. He said only factories had power in his home city, in southern Brazil during the energy shortage.

The local supermarket and his neighbours’ houses are using Moser lights. He earned a few dollars, but his invention has not made him a rich man. Now a great number of people admire what he is doing!

Traveling to all corners of the world gets easier and easier. We live in a global village, but this doesn’t mean that we all behave in the same way.

How should you behave when you meet someone for the first time? An American shakes your hand while looking into your eyes. In Japan, you should bow, and the more respect you want to show, the deeper you should bow.

Many countries have rules about what you should and shouldn’t wear. In Muslim(穆斯林) countries, women should wear long blouses and skirts. In Korea, you should take off your shoes when entering a house. Remember to place them neatly together where you come in.

In Spain, lunch is often the biggest meal of the day, and can last two or three hours. For this reason, many people eat a light breakfast and a late dinner. In Mexico, lunch is the time to relax, and many people prefer not to discuss business as they eat. In Britain, it’s not unusual to have a business meeting over breakfast.

What kind of stories do you love to read? What about science fiction (科幻小说) that describe imaginary events and people? Aliens and robots are c    76     characters in science fiction. Lets take a look at one of the very first stories about science fiction.

On Jan 1, 1818, a novel by English writer Mary Shelleys c    77     out. In the story, a crazy scientist c    78     a monster (怪物) from dead body parts. The monster was 2.4 meters tall w    79     yellow skin, watery eyes and a black mouth. The story was called Frankenstein, and is believed to be perhaps the first w    80     of science fiction.

Frankenstein was the name of the scientist. The monster he made up had f    81     like humans. He tried to find love from others, but his scary looks made people hate him. Driven mad by this cruelty (残忍), he grew to hate Frankenstein for creating him. He k    82     the scientist’s friends; Frankenstein then died. The m    83     idea of the story is that science can either save or kill us.

The novel has had a great influence upon literature and pop culture s    84     it was published, especially horror stories and films. The most classic adaptation (改编) is the 1931 film Frankenstein. There are also plays, television shows, and comics based on the story. And e    85     video games and toys use the character of the monster.