Little Spider Encourages King

More than 700 years ago, Scotland was fighting with England. The king of England wanted to_______Scotland. He had a strong army so it was______for Scotland army to fight. Scotland_________many times. Later King Robert of Scotland was caught but luckily he ran away from the English______.

One rainy day, King Robert hid in a cave(洞穴).He thought that he was not good enough to be the king. He was so________that he didn't even see a spider near him. He looked up when he saw the spider _______;it was trying to climb up to its web(网)at the top of the cave______it fell down.

”How _______!”thought King Robert," The spider is_______me. It's not strong enough.’’

He watched while the spider tried again. It fell down a_______time.

”Be careful, little spider," he said.”Life is so hard. You'll never get back to your________.’’

But the spider tried again and again. King Robert watched while_________slowly climbed back to its web. After an hour, the spider reached the web.

”You are really great," the king said. ¨If you can keep trying, I can too. I______carry on fighting.¨

Then the king's army grew stronger and________stopped the English army.

Nobody knows__________this is a true story. Many parents tell it to their children because they want their children to learn a lesson.

I had learned English for 11 years, but I knew few English idioms (习惯用语). When I went to study in America last year, I had trouble communicating with Americans at times.

One day, I asked my roommate Kevin, “Shall we play soccer tomorrow?” He answered, “Let’s play it by ear.” I was so puzzled. “Ear can play soccer?” He smiled and explained, “It means let’s see. The weather report says tomorrow is rainy.”

Last October, I was waiting for bus in a station. Beside me sat a young man. When he knew I was a Chinese, he asked me about the Great Wall. I told him, “The Great Wall is more than 20,000 kilometers long.” The man said, “You don’t say.” I was surprised, “There must be something wrong with him.” I thought. Later, I knew he meant “Really?”

I was once invited to my classmate’s home. His mother said to me, “Break your ice, please.” I wondered, “Where is the ice?” Later my classmate told me she meant I could make myself relaxed in their home.

From, then on, I realized English idioms had special meanings. It was wrong to them word by word.

I was woken up by a strange sound. I saw something moving by my window. I was terrified and ran downstairs. I found my mom in the kitchen, cooking breakfast for my brother. “Mom, did you hear anything? I thought I saw an alien(外星人).” “Are you all right? Just a dream!” Mom answered.

Then I went back to my room. As I walked to the window, I cried. I saw a little alien, no more than three feet tall, with big and black eyes. It tried to run between my legs and escape through the window. Although I was scared, for some reason, I squeezed(挤)my legs together in time to catch it. It took out something and hurt me. I felt a terrible sense of nothingness and fainted(晕倒). Then I woke up.

At first, I could hardly move. I wasn’t sure whether I had had a dream or not. I moved out of the bed slowly and walked downstairs. I saw my mom in the kitchen. She finished cooking the sandwich, wearing her pink clothes. Then I realized it was just a dream because in my dream she was wearing her work clothes.

From then on, I always dreamt about aliens and all the dreams felt so real. At that time, I really thought maybe I had some kind of relationship(关系)with aliens. About two months later, I stopped having such dreams. Later I realized that I used to have those dreams because I always read books or watched TV programs about aliens before I fell asleep!

Have you ever seen a person with a bad attitude? A person with a bad attitude does not speak very nicely to others. The golden rule says that if you have nothing nice to say, you should not say anything.    66    The way your voice sounds when you talk is called your tone of voice(语气). Your tone of voice tells others about your attitude. Your attitude is great when you are happy. You smile.    67    You hold your head up. You make eye contact(接触). On the other hand, you might have a bad attitude when you are angry. You frown(皱眉).    68    You make trouble because you are not happy with the situation.

You are in control of how you act and how you sound.   Do you know that you can say one sentence in two very different ways? Your tone of voice tells others if you have a good attitude or not. Say this sentence -I do not want to wear that, Mom.

    69    Then say the same sentence with grumbling in your voice. Also,   put a frown on your face.   The tones will sound very different. Can you tell the difference? If you say this sentence with grumbling in your voice, you may hear your parents say,”    70    “What they are really saying is that you need to change how you are speaking. They want you to follow the golden rule and speak in a kinder way.

Nathaniel Hawthorne     71     home with a broken heart. He told his wife Sophia that he lost his job. To his surprise, she    72     to him with great joy.

"Now," she said    73    , "you can write your book! When you had your job, you didn't have time to write down     74     you were thinking about. Now, you are free. You can do what you like and make your dream come    75    ! "

"Yes," said the man sadly, "but what shall we live on while I am writing it?"

Then, she took out a small box and opened it. Them     76     a large amount of money.

"I've always believed you are a    77     man," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a great book. So every week, out of the money you gave me for everyday use, I saved a little bit. Now this money can help     78     through the year. "

With her trust and confidence, one of the     79     novels of American literature, The Scarlet Letter(《红字》）,was born.

Some of the famous     80    have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a best friend.