One January morning, the captain(船长) got up early and walked down to the beach. It was a cold winter's day ______ the sun still low in the sky. My mother was upstairs with my father, who was now very ill. That year the winter was long and ______, and we knew my father would not see another spring.

I was getting the table ______ for the captain's breakfast. Suddenly, the door of the inn(客栈) opened and a man stepped inside. I had ______ seen him before. He wore a sailor's short sword(剑) by his side, and I noticed he ______ only three fingers on his left hand.

I asked him ______ he wanted and he said, "I'll take a glass of rum(朗姆酒)."   But ______ I could fetch(去取) it, he told me _____   near him. "Is this table for my old friend Bill?" the stranger asked, with a terrible smile.

I told him I did not know his friend Bill and the breakfast was for a man who was ______ at the inn. "We call him the captain," I said.

"______ he have a sword cut on his face?"   he asked.

"Yes."   I said.

"That's Bill." said the stranger. "Is he here?"

Online shopping has become something very common for young people. However, it's not easy for old people. Therefore, buy-for-you shops are becoming popular among the old.

Mr. Li, a 65-year-old man, is crazy about this way of shopping. He says, "I can't use the Internet. After I happened to find a buy-for-you shop, I decided to try. Finally I got what I wanted. I was so happy."

The shopkeeper Mu Lan says she started the business of offline buy-for-you in order to help people like Mr. Li. In only about ten days since the start of the business, she has received more than 20 orders from customers. Mu Lan is not the only one who finds the large need of offline buy-for-you business in the market. In her city, over 300 such shops opened their doors only in April.

In order to attract more customers, they have opened their shops in communities. And they charge a suitable service fee(费用). For example, when buying things that cost less than 200 yuan for customers, they usually get 5 yuan as service fee.

What if there is any problem with the ordered thing, let's say, like a quality problem? The shopkeepers say they will deal with any quality problems if people use their buy-for-you service.

Rabbit Shiny and tortoise(乌龟) Smily were neighbours. One day they were reading a story about their great grandfathers: Shiny's and Smily's great grandfathers decided to have a race. While Shiny's great grandfather went to sleep during the race, Smily's great grandfather won the race by slowly walking towards the finish line.

Smily said, "If your great grandfather didn't go to sleep, my great granddad might never win. So his win was not a real win."

The next day there was a notice in the jungle (丛林) newspaper. It said that there would be a race and the winner would win many prizes. The race started from the bear's house. From there, the runners had to cross the river. But most of the animals could not both run fast and swim fast. So they didn't know what to do. Shiny and Smily made a plan.

Shiny ran, while smily was sitting on his back. He and other animals, like the deer, reached the river side at the same time. But they saw the swift water and stood there because they were worried. None of them liked the idea of crossing the river. Smily quickly got into the water and Shiny sat on his back. Smily started swimming. Soon they reached the other side of the river. Shiny got down from Smily's back and Smily climbed on Shiny's back again. Shiny ran fast. They reached the finish line first.

"Both of them are the winners." The president of the jungle said, "Shiny and Smily helped each other during the race and they won. So let's give them a big hand."

If you live in the United States, the law says you can't have a full-time job until you are 16 years old. At 14 or 15, you can work part time after school or on weekends, and during summer you can work 40 hours each week. Does all that mean that if you are younger than 14, you can't earn your own money? Of course not! Kids who are between the ages of 10 and 13 can earn money by doing lots of things.

Valerie, 11, told us that she made money by cleaning up other people's yards. Lena, 13, makes money by knitting (织) dog sweaters and selling them to her neighbors, and Reisa said she had started taking art classes and showing her work to people. People have asked her to draw pictures for them and they pay her for them. Jasmine, 13, writes articles for different magazines!

Earning is learning. By working to earn your own money, you are learning the skills you will need to succeed in life. These skills can include things like getting along with others, using technology and using your time. Some people think that asking for money is a lot easier than earning it; however, when you make your own money, you don't have to depend on someone else. The five dollars that you earn will probably make you feel a lot better in your hand than the twenty dollars you ask for.

On October 20, 1936, Zhong Nanshan was born in Nanjing Central Hospital. His parents called him "Nanshan" because the hospital where he was born in the south of Zhongshan of Nanjing. Zhong Nanshan loved sports and broke the national record of 400m hurdles(跨栏) with 54.4 seconds at the first national games in 1959.

In those days of fighting against SARS in 2003, he became a brave soldier. He thought it was a war for life with death. Zhong Nanshan, with his excellent medical skills and strong fighting action, became the hero in the people's hearts. On January 21, 2020, as a great team leader, he went to Wuhan with his team members in order to beat COVID-19 (新冠肺炎). Till now, many sick people have been cured (治愈). His family are well-known not only because Zhong Nanshan has got success in Chinese medicine, but also all his family are really good at sports. In 1956, Zhong Nanshan, who was in his third year of university, took part in the 400-metre race in the Beijing university sports meeting and won the gold medal. His whole family are basketball fans. Zhong Nanshan's wife, Li Shaofen, was the main player of the first Chinese Women's Basketball Team. After they got married, they had a son and daughter. His son, Zhong Weide, is now a doctor and the main player of the hospital basketball team. Her daughter, Zhong Weiyue, was an excellent swimmer in China and won the 100m Butterfly championship.

Zhong Nanshan is Chinese people's great hero, but he continues working hard and helps many sick people get well every week. "It's my habit", he said.

66. 在八年级结束之际，八(1)班将举行一次主题班会，要求同学们谈谈一年来自己的收获和变化。请为Simon准备一份80词左右的演讲稿，具体内容如下：

Hello, everyone. I'm Simon. Back to the life in the last year, I think I have changed a lot and made great progress in some ways. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________