When I was a child, my father had to do three jobs for a family of seven. Every time I saw him come back late, looking tired, I thought that I would show my thanks to my father for what he did.

Later, my father had a heart problem. One morning, his old car broke down and he asked me to pick him up from the hospital. At that time, I wanted to buy a car for him. I asked my father to go with me to pick a car. When I started talking with the seller, I found my father was interested in a brown car.

Several days later, I asked my father if he could go with me to pick up my new car. As we got there, the seller gave him a key to his new car--the brown one and said that it was for him, from me. My father looked at me in great surprise. I told him that it was my dream when I was a child. I smiled at this man, a great man who had given up everything for his family.

The idea that red means stop and green means go has influenced our lives in more ways than just traffic signals（信号）. We have been taught from a young age that the color red means danger and green means it's okay to move forward. But why were those colors chosen for traffic lights in the first place? For something we have to look at every day, why couldn't they have been prettier colors?

Well, it's important to know that before traffic lights for cars, there were traffic signals for trains. At first, railway companies used red to mean stop, white to mean go, and green to mean warn．As you could imagine, trains ran into a few problems with white meaning go. For example, one train mistook a bright star for a white light and something unexpected happened. Because of that, railway companies finally moved green meaning go and used yellow to mean warn. And it's been that way ever since.

Red has always been a color that mean danger, long before cars were even around．This most likely started because it's the color with the longest wavelength（波长）so it can be seen somewhere farther than other colors.

But, believe it or not, yellow was once used to mean stop. Back in the 1900s, some stop signs were yellow because it was too hard to see a red sign in a poorly lit area. Finally, highly reflective materials（高反射材料） were developed and red stop signs were born. Since yellow can be seen well at all times of the day, school zones, some traffic signs, and school buses continue to be printed yellow.

So next time you are impatiently waiting at a traffic light, don't get so mad at them, they've certainly come a long way.

I was a schoolgirl in Grade 7 when Danny came to my school and became one of my classmates. He was handsome with blond hair, so many girls in my class liked him very much. Every day, his parents picked him up in an old car. We all realized he was from a poor family. I had a poor family as well, but I just hid it from everyone. I was afraid the kids in my class would leave me if they knew the truth.

One day, our teacher, Mr. Sims said that we would have a field trip. We decided to go to Disneyland. My classmates were excited. I sat back and looked at them, knowing that my parents did not have the money to send me. To my surprise, Danny stood up and said simply, “I won’t go with you. My dad hurt his back and lost his job. I am not asking my parents for money.”

“Danny, I’m very proud of you for understanding the situation that your parents are in.” Mr. Sims replied. “But the trip is at the end of the month, we have plenty of time to raise money for it.”

While walking home from school that day, I noticed three boys talking with Danny. I was a little worried that they were giving him a hard time. But as I got closer, I found they were only discussing how to raise money for the trip.

By standing up and knowing he was poor, Danny changed my life, I no longer felt I had to lie about my family’s situation. As for Danny, I will remember his courage and honesty forever.

Here is a story: A man sees a butterfly（蝴蝶）. The butterfly tries to get out of its chrysalis（蛹）. Feeling sorry for it, the man decides to h    76     it. He cuts the chrysalis and the butterfly comes out e    77    . Surprisingly enough, the butterfly is unable to fly. If the butterfly doesn’t struggle（挣扎； 奋斗）to leave the chrysalis, it can’t fly! The struggle d    78     the energy in the butterfly which makes it fly. Similarly, the challenges（挑战）of life bring out the best in young people and make them fly.

When people are young，meeting and overcoming（克服、战胜）challenges will make them s    79     and ready to face life.

When we look at successful people, we see that the most successful of them are people who have had to struggle.

One famous businessman, who now o    80     many big supermarkets, used to carry clothes on his back and sell them from door to door when he was young. A    81     successful man is Dennis. His father died when he was only twenty. He had to bring up a big family. He took up the challenges and overcame them. Today his brothers and sisters are leading s    82     lives.

Sometimes challenges do not appear to us because we keep away from them. So some parents and t    83     actively encourage young people to face challenges. They might organize（安排）some activities for young people which provide them with challenges, like rock-climbing, camping, volunteer work and so on. However, just passing exams will not prepare a person for life. We must meet and overcome challenges. The young people of today will become the leaders of t    84    . For countries to continue to become successful, it is n    85     that the young people learn to meet challenges and overcome them.

86. 时光如梭，转眼大家已经步入九年级，回想过去两年的初中生活，你是否觉得自己改变了许多？请你根据以下提示，以“Some Changes in My Life”为题写一篇英语短文，谈一谈自从上初中后，你在哪些方面发生了变化。

Some Changes in My Life

How time flies! It has been two years since I went to the middle school._______________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________