Monday began as usual. It wasn't until the third-graders reached their classroom that they noticed a new ______. She was tall and straight with grey hair and witch's cold eyes, carrying a plant and a book.

"I'm Miss Orville. I've taught for forty-six years," she warned. "I know lots of your tricks, ______ I advise you to try none. You're to be in my charge until your teacher returns. Since I don't know you, let me look at your ______ first. Completed it? Take it out. Now!"

"You call THIS homework?" R-r-rip! A page was torn out and thrown at ______ owner. "Do it again."

Roger opened his schoolbag. ______, it fell off. Books, pencils spilled out. Cards, toys, balls.... "Ah, we've come to play, have we?" She fixed her witch's gaze on him.

The third grade was the last to ______ school. The children looked strangely defeated. Roger pulled his mother. "We don't have a new teacher but a witch named Miss Awful. Hurry, I have much homework!"

Finally, on Friday Miss Orville said, "Your teacher will return. This afternoon will be my ______ class." At lunch, the third grade talked about nothing except how to ______ Miss Awful. Joey suggested, "We could tie a string in front of the door. She'd fall down if she walked over."

"No. She's old," Roger said, "we ______ hurt her like that."

"How about taking off the ______ of that plant?" advised someone.

Roger didn't want to do that, not understanding why. It was a feeling he couldn't explain.

"Well, you worked hard last week," Miss Orville began her class, "Attending school is like a priceless gift. If I've been ______, it was for your benefit. The world needs good citizens. ...."

She stopped suddenly, staring at the plant ______ its leaves. She faced the class, looking sad. "Whoever is responsible, I only wish you to be ______."

After class, she said goodbye to the students. They ran out, some regretful, some silent, others cheerful. Only Roger stayed behind. He ______ her, rubbing his hand up and down his coat. "Yes?" Miss Orville asked. Roger lifted his head straightly. "Flower, f-l-o-w-e-r. Castle, C-a-s-t-1-e. I've learned ______ you taught us." He smiled to Miss Awful whose eyes were wet.

Looking for something special for your child's birthday party? Party People has four party entertainers who'll give your child a party to remember.

	Clarrie the Clown will make your children laugh with the silly things he does. He falls over a lot, but always bounces up again － some people say he has a body like rubber! Clarrie also makes animals with balloons, and the children can take the animals home with them.
	Monty the Magician does clever tricks. He makes things disappear. He pulls flowers out of pockets and eggs out of ears. He even pulls a rabbit from his hat! Monty can do simple tricks for little children or more difficult tricks for older children. Even teens and adults enjoy his show.
	Felicity the Fairy sings songs and tells stories for children as young as three. They love joining in her dances. Leanne the Fairy is good at face-painting. She gives each child a pair of fairy wings to take home!

All of our entertainers can put on a show for 40 or 60 minutes. To book an entertainer, or if you need help deciding which entertainer is the best for your party, click on:

https://www.LondonPartyPeople-85756.com

Have you ever played crossword? It's a popular form of word puzzle. The player is given clues* and the number of letters and then fills in a grid of boxes with the right words.

The history of word puzzles might start from the ancient Rome. Today, many newspapers have a daily or weekly crossword. People also buy crossword books. Yet, the first published crossword puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne. Wynne was from Liverpool in the UK but he lived and worked for a newspaper called New York World. He wrote the first crossword puzzle for the "fun" section of the newspaper on December 21, 1913. Readers loved the puzzle and it became a weekly part of the newspaper. Then other newspapers also began publishing crossword puzzles and they became very popular in the USA.

The very first crossword puzzle didn't look much like the crosswords today. It was shaped like a diamond* and it didn't have any black squares. The squares were numbered and the clues were below the puzzle. It was called a "Word-Cross puzzle".

In the UK, the first crossword was published in 1922. It came out in the page of the London newspaper, The Times in 1930. The Times became famous for its "Cryptic crossword" － a very difficult crossword. To solve a cryptic puzzle, you have to find out the clue itself as well as the meaning, but they are very satisfying.

The crossword puzzles were at first created by hand. Only in 1997 the first computer software program that created crossword puzzles was developed.

Now the New York World is no longer around, but the crossword puzzle along with its popularity still continues.

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D．

The world's nights are getting surprisingly brighter. This is bad news for all kinds of creatures, including humans － as light pollution is becoming worse, taking away the darkness of night almost everywhere.

Satellite* observations* made by researchers show Earth's artificially-lit* outdoor area grew by 2% a year from 2012 to 2016. So did night time brightness. Light pollution was even worse than that, according to the German-led team, because satellites cannot observe some of the LED lighting, especially blue light.

"Honestly, I had hoped that with LEDs we were improving the situation, for this new lighting technology has been developed to use less energy. But it turns out quite disappointing. ", said Kyba, the lead author of the study.

"Asia, Africa and South America, for the most part, have seen an increase in artificial night lighting. The cities in developing nations are brightening quite rapidly. Other bright places include greenhouses in the Netherlands and areas of agriculture. More and more places are fixing outdoor lighting because of its low cost and the growth in communities' wealth," the scientists said.

One of the co-authors, Franz Holker of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, said things were already in a terrible situation.

"Many people are using light at night without really thinking about the cost," Holker said. "Not just the economic cost, but also the cost that you have to pay for environmental damage."

The effect from the increasing artificial light is obvious, according to the researchers. People's sleep can be marred, which in turn can hurt their health. The life of birds, fish, insects and bats can be harmed. Plants can have longer growing periods. And people may forget about seeing stars or the Milky Way if the light pollution continues.

Kyba and his team suggest avoiding bright lights whenever possible and using more useful ways to shine light on places such as parking lots or city streets. For example, dim, closely spaced lights can provide better visibility than bright lights that are more spread out.

It was only about ten at night, but it was cold. The cop stopped at doors as he walked along the street, trying each door to be sure that it was closed for the night.

Then the cop suddenly slowed his walk. Near the door of a darkened shop a man was standing. As the cop walked toward him, the man spoke quickly.

"It's all right, officer," he said. "I'm waiting for my best friend, Jimmy Wells. Twenty years ago tonight, I had dinner here with him. The next morning, I was to start for the West to find a good job. We agreed to meet here tonight."

The man near the door lit his cigarette. The light showed a pale, square face with bright eyes, and a little white mark near his right eye.

"It sounds interesting," said the cop. "I hope your friend comes all right. If he isn't here at ten, are you going to leave?"

"I am not!" said the other. "I'll wait half an hour, at least. Good night, officer."

"Good night," said the cop, and walked away.

There was now a cold rain falling and the wind was stronger, but the man waited.

About twenty minutes, a tall man in a long coat came hurrying across the street. He went directly to the waiting man.

"Is that you, Bob?" he asked, doubtfully.

"Is that you, Jimmy Wells?" cried the man at the door.

The new man took the other man's hands in his. "It's Bob! It surely is. I was certain I would find you here if you were still alive. We'll go to a place I know, and have a good long talk about old times."

At the corner stood a shop bright with electric lights. When they came near, each turned to look at the other's face.

The man from the West stopped suddenly and pulled his arm away. "You're not Jimmy Wells," he said.

"You've been under arrest* for ten minutes, Bob. But first here is something I was asked to give you. You may read it here. It's from a cop named Jimmy," said the tall.

The man from the West opened the little piece of paper. His hand began to shake a little as he read.

"Bob: I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigarette I saw it was the face of the man wanted by Chicago Police. Somehow I couldn't do it myself, so I went around and got a plain clothes man to do the job. Jimmy."

I've been fishing in the sea since I was 17. I have my     46     (自己的) fishing boat and men now. At sea, our day starts before the sun     47     (上升). We put our nets into the water behind the boat. After a few hours we pull them in. We have a special     48     (工具) for this because nets full of fish are heavy! How do we keep the fish? First we throw     49     (往回) the ones we don't want. Then we clean the fish and put them into boxes of     50     (冰). When the containers are full we go to sell them at the market. It can't be always safe.     51     (曾经) I was on a boat when a storm came suddenly. The boat sank     52     (在……期间) the storm and we were at the edge of death. Luckily, another boat     53     (拯救) us before we went under. We listen to the weather report, and in rough sea we wear life     54     (夹克衫). Safety is important. It's harder and     55     (更危险的) work than you think, but I love the ocean.

56. 假设你是Daming，你校外教Peter将开设"生命教育"拓展课程，现征求学生的意见。请你根据海报内容给Peter写一封电子邮件，告知你希望开设的一个主题及理由，并谈谈对该主题教学内容的建议。

I'm glad that life lessons will be given this term. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Daming