Once upon a time, there was a king. He had only one leg and one eye. One day, when the kings was walking through the palace hallway, he saw the portraits（肖像）of ________ ancestors. He thought that one day his children would also remember him through portraits on the walls.

However,_________his disabilities, he wasn’t sure how his painting would turn out. So he ________ many famous painters to his palace and said, “I want a beautiful portrait to be________ in the hallway.”

The painters began to think, “The king had only one leg and one eye. It is ________ to paint his portrait beautifully. If the portrait doesn’t look beautiful, the king may get angry.” They were afraid to be ________, so one by one, they started to make ________ and politely refused to paint a portrait of the king.

________, one painter raised his hand and said, “I will paint a very beautiful portrait and I’m sure you will like it.” The other painters were ________ to hear this. After the painting was finished, it was shown to the king. In the picture, the king was sitting on a horse, on the one-leg side, shooting an arrow with his one eye closed. He did make a perfect picture by hiding the king’s ________ parts.

This story tells us that we should pay attention to good things instead of weaknesses in life.

Late one afternoon in December, my wife, Stacy, and I returned home to find something white in front of our door. It was like fallen snow, but it was strange to see snow in our area. It was a white cat.

“Where did you come from?” I asked him. The cat was friendly, and allowed us to come nearer to him. “Look! He has no collar（项圈）,” Stacy said. “Perhaps he’s a homeless cat.” I hated to think of this little cat staying out in the cold. Stacy and I looked at each other. I knew we were thinking the same. We had a new cat, an early Christmas gift. We already had seven cats, so we had everything to make our new cat feel right at home.

The next day, when we got home from work, a white cat was waiting for us at the door. “Oh,   no!” Stacy said. “The cat got out!” “What’s going on?” I asked and picked him up. “OK, we’ll get you inside.” When I opened the door, I was shocked—there was another white cat sitting on the floor. It was the white cat that we found yesterday. I looked at the cat in my arms, then back at the one on the floor. They looked the same. When I let him down, the second cat ran to the other. They played with each other like old friends. “They must be brothers!” Stacy said.

At last, they became members of our family. Kris and Kringle, our Christmas angels .

I got to the house, but no one came out. I got out of the taxi, walked up to the door, and knocked.

“Just a minute,” answered someone. After a long time, the door opened. A small old woman stood before me. I took her bag and let her take my arm. Then we moved slowly to the taxi. She kept thanking me for my kindness. “It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to be nice to my passengers, because I want others to be nice to my mother, too.”

When we got in the taxi, she asked, “Could you drive through the city?” “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered. “Oh, just do it,” she said. “I’m on my way to a hospice（安养院）. I don’t have any family left.” For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me a building—she and her family once lived there. Sometimes she asked me to drive slowly in front of some buildings, and she would look at them and say nothing.

We got to the hospice. I took her bag to the door. “How much should I pay you?” she asked, “Nothing,” I answered. Without thinking, I gave her a hug. “You make an old woman happy,” she said. “Thank you.”

I didn’t have any more passengers that day. I just thought about that woman. I’m happy that I helped her. It was a small thing, but it was a great moment in life.

Friendship can’t be measured （测量） nor can it be weighed. We stopped a few people on the street to find out what part friendship played in their lives. Here is what they said.

My best friend Mark and I really enjoy spending time playing basketball every evening. Even over 10 years after college, we still get the same amount of joy when playing basketball together.—James, 34

The importance of friendship in my life is more than what I can put into words. My childhood friends recently pulled me through hard times when my father died. —Gemina, 38

I didn’t realize the importance of friendship until it was too late. I didn’t keep in touch with friends, but now I have realized that life is much better with friends around. —Tom, 42

(Are we all learning something from Tom’s lesson in life?)

We all should wake up and realize the true importance of friendship because friends accept you for what you are, not for what you can be. —Jane, 21

(Jane has hit the nail on the head, do you think so?)

My friends and I love sharing a beer each weekend. Everything in the world can change but not our dates with our beers. For me, the importance of friendship lies in enjoying the time we spend together with nothing to worry about. —a policeman (who was on duty at the corner of the street)

With China’s large population and increasing urban（城市的）space, the cost of electricity is rising in cities. So the Chinese government is preparing to send the world’s first artificial（人造的）moon to space.

The man-made moon is, in fact, a satellite. It carries a huge space mirror so that it can throw back sunlight to the Earth. The moon will fly about 500 kilometres above Chengdu, a south-western city of China, and work like the Moon at night. Since it runs much closer to the Earth than the Moon, it’s much brighter and there will be no need to use street lights in the city. According to scientists, Chengdu can save around 174 million dollars in electricity if the man-made moon brightens 50 square kilometres of the city.

For now, the artificial moon is still going through testing. Although it has many advantages, quite a lot of people think that creating more artificial light is harmful to the environment, as light pollution is a growing problem in our modern world. Actually, there is no need to worry. Chinese scientists say the mirror on the moon can be controlled, so they can decide its direction, brightness and so on. They can even turn it off when needed. Moreover, when the man-made moon works, people will see only a bright star above. It won’t be a giant moon as imagined.

Several countries, including China, are all looking to use energy from space, and artificial moons have been under discussion for some time. In 1999, Russia tried sending a space mirror into space, but it failed. And later the project was cancelled, according to the New York Times. And now, it seems that space light has come closer.

Can you remember the first piece of music you bought? If you’re in your 20s, it was     46     (probable) a CD. More than ten years ago, you     47     (go) into a music shop and bought it. Then a part of the money went to the band or the singer—that’s     48     musicians made their money.

Nowadays, however, young people in the UK hardly ever go to the music shops. In fact, there aren’t many music shops left there. Now lots of young people would laugh at the idea of     49     (buy) CDs from music shops. They get music from the Internet without paying. Of course it is     50     the law. However,     51     recent survey found that each teenager has about 800 songs on their phone that are from the Internet without paying.

In this case, some young British bands are trying some interesting ways     52     (make) money. In the past bands could make some money from T-shirts, CDs and pictures     53     they need to be more creative now. Rock band Franz Ferdinand keep people     54     (interest) in their toys, bags, books and even shorts with their own brands.

Some of other big names in British music are joining in. Coldplay produces water     55     (bottle) for their new song. If you want snacks, you can check Robbie Williams’s website—it really sells biscuits.

假如你是李琦，在英国伦敦某学校做交换生学习，住在史密斯夫妇家。今天史密斯夫妇不在家，而你准备外出，请你给 Mrs. Smith 写一张留言条，内容包括：