After dinner, the children asked Jacob, their father, if he would tell them a story about a giant(巨人). Jacob smiled and leaned against the _______ stones at the side of the fireplace, and his _______ turned softly deep.

"Once there was a boy who asked his father to take him to see the great parade(游行) that passed _______ the village. The father, remembering the parade from when he was a boy _______, agreed, and the next morning the boy and his father set out _______.

As they approached the parade route, people started to _______ in from all sides, and the crowd grew thick. When the people along the way became almost a _______, the father lifted his son and placed him on his _______.

"Soon the parade began and as it passed, the boy kept telling his father _______ wonderful it was and how great were the colors and images. The boy, grew so ________ of what he saw that he laughed at those who saw less saying, even to his father. "If only you could see what I see."

"But," said Jacob ________ straight at the faces of the children. "what the boy did not look at was why he could see. What the boy forgot was that once his farther, too, could see."

Then as if he had finished the story, Jacob ________ speaking.

"Is that it?" said a ________ girl. "We thought you were going to tell us a story about a giant."   

"But I said," said Jacob. "I told you a story about a boy who could have been a giant."

"How?" shouted the children.

"A giant," said Jacob, "is someone who ________ we are all sitting on someone else's shoulders."   

"And what does it make us ________ we don't remember?" asked a boy.

"A deadweight," answered Jacob.

A wolf moving quietly near a village one evening met a dog. It happened to be a very thin dog. The wolf had not been more hungry than usual. So he began to move slowly toward the dog, while the dog backed away.

“Let me remind you,” said the dog. “How unhappy it would be to eat me now. Look at my ribs(肋骨). I am nothing but skin and bone. But let me tell you something in private. In a few days my master will give a wedding party for his only daughter. You can guess how fine and fat I will grow because of the delicious food left from the table. Then it is the time to eat me.”

The wolf could not help thinking how nice it would be to have a fine fat dog to eat instead of the scrawny object before him. So he went away pulling in his belt and promising to return.

Some days later the wolf came back for the promised party. He found the dog in his master’s yard, and asked him to come out and be eaten.

“Sir,” said the dog. “I shall be glad to have you eat me. I’ll be out as soon as the porter opens the door.”

But the “porter” was a huge dog to be very unkind towards wolves, which the wolf knew by painful experience. So he decided not to wait and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.

How do you feel when your teacher asks you to work on a group project with other students? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?

The program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which aims to evaluate education system worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students, carried out a survey of students' ability to work together in groups. They found that students who do well on tests by themselves are also likely to be better at working with other people.

This finding was true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test scores are high, also did well in working together to solve problems. But this was not the case for every country. Chinese students, who have high scores as well, displayed just average collaborative(合作的) skills.

"One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers focus too much on grades." said Zhao Zhongxin, former vice president of the Chinese Family Education Association. "Students have a lot of exam pressure and they see schools as places for competition."

"However, collaborative skills are very important for preparing students for today's society." he added. "Luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers are realizing the importance of this and are thinking of ways to help students improve it."

Another interesting finding from the PISA survey was that girls can be better than boys at working together. They said girls show more positive attitudes(态度) towards relationships, which means they are more willing to listen to others' opinions.

PISA also found that the classroom environment can influence how well students collaborate. In classes where there are a lot of activities that require communication such as class debates, students might have better attitudes towards collaborating.

Technology is forever changing the way we get our news. Many people now get a lot of their news on electronic devices, instead of traditional media, such as newspapers, television or radio. An increasing number of people also report turning to social media for information.

Now, there is a new technology that could greatly change the way we get the news: computer-created news readers. The news readers-created by machine learning technology, are based on two real-life Chinese newsmen. One is able to present(播出) newscasts in English, the other, in Chinese.

In Xinhua's report, it said machine learning was used to examine video looks and sounds of the two newsmen. The system then created the AI robotic presenters, which look and sound like real people. The AI presenters will be a great improvement to the news team because they "can work 24 hours a day tirelessly" on its website and on social media. And they were able to read the news "as naturally as" a human presenter.

On social media, many Chinese noted that the AI presenters did not seem real. People criticized them for not being more lifelike. On China's Twitter-like service micro-blog, several users wrote that the news readers have "no soul(灵魂)." One user joked, "What if we had an AI leader(of China)?"

Some wondered if AI robots might take the workers' place. "It all depends on production costs, which will determine if we lose jobs?" one micro-blog user wrote. Some people argued that only low-level jobs requiring heavy labor will be replaced by AI robots. Others praised the technology as a way for companies to make money from low-cost labor machines.

Recently Britain's BBC used machine learning to make an AI presenter. It looked like one of its news readers who were speaking different languages. Also, developers working on Amazon's Alexa(a smart speaker system) have worked to create a special news reader voice for the electronic assistant(助理). Such a system could be further developed to provide other kinds of speaking voices for different situations in the near future.

One evening, Tom and Gerry were walking in the street together. They tried to steal something.

It was twelve o'clock.     61     people seemed to be asleep. Quickly, they came to a house. Standing at the front gate, Tom said to Gerry     62     a low voice, "You are waiting here. I'll go to the     63     door and then get into the house." Suddenly a dog ran out of the house and barked at them. They were very afraid and ran away as     64     as they could.

Finally, they stopped at a quiet place. Tom shouted: "Bad luck! Bad luck! I hadn't expected that the dog could understand     65    ."

Kung Fu Granny Zhang is 94 years old. When she was young, she fought robbers (强盗) and protected her villagers. Since then, she     66     a star in her hometown.

Granny Zhang started to learn Kung Fu from her father at the age of four. She     67     to do Kung Fu all year around. And her father     68     her Kung Fu skills even in bed.

Thanks to Kung Fu, Granny Zhang is always in good health. She hardly ever went to hospital before she was seventy years old. Every day, she gets up at 5 o'clock a.m.     69     Kung Fu. After her husband passed away five years ago, she grew vegetables, chopped wood and cooked meals by herself.

Many young kids admire Granny Zhang and come to learn Kung Fu from her. She says, "I     70     practicing Kung Fu and teaching young people as long as I can".

Weather has a strong effect on people.     81    

In August, it is very hot and wet in the southern part of the United States. People there have heart trouble and other kinds of health problem during this month. In the Northeast and the Middle West, it is very hot at some times and very cold at other times. People in these states will have heart trouble after the weather changes in February or March.   

The weather can also influence intelligence. For example, in a 1983 study by scientists, the IQ scores of some college students were very high during a storm, but after the storm, their scores were 10% low.     82     Very hot weather, on the other hand, can lower it. Students in many schools of the United States often do badly on exams in the hot months of the year(July and August).

Weather also has a strong effect on people's feeling.     83     They usually feel cold during these months. They might feel depressed during cold weather. In hot summer weather, on the other hand, fat people may feel unhappy. At about 18℃,people become stronger. Low air pressure makes people feel free, but it also increases forgetfulness. People leave more bags and umbrellas on buses and stores on low pressure days.     84     People feel best at a temperature of about 18℃ with 65percent humidity(湿度).   

    85     This is according to a recent study carried out by scientist from Pennsylvania State University, US. They found that wider noses are more common in warm and wet for long, while narrower noses are more common in cold and dry for long.

86. 在你的成长经历中，你是否与父母在学习或生活上发生过争执？你们是如何解决问题的？请根据提示和要求用英语写一篇100词左右的短文。