My childhood left three months ago on a plane to Austria.

It was a ____ day when my baby cousins moved away. My cousins were part of my life; ____ they were not with me, they were on my mind. They brought back the untroubled days of my childhood ____ games and silliness, but they also helped me ____   a responsible adult from an at-times selfish teenager.

My aunt and uncle moved here from Boston with their 1-year-old daughter Yasmeen. They lived in a flat on the side of our house and I was happy to have our family, ____ a baby girl, so close to us. Yasmeen had close friendships with each of my sisters. As she began to walk on her own and talk in full sentences, I realized my great _____ on her. I noticed that she’d copy some of my ____ actions, such as talking with her mother rudely after I had done the same. Yasmeen made me realize what being a good ____ really was.

When Maya was born, Yasmeen found it was difficult to ____ a new baby. She was green with envy of the attention we all paid to her new younger sister, so I did my best to stay with her when she wasn’t noticed. At last Yasmeen ____   enjoy Maya’s presence without envy, as we all did.

My ____ with Yasmeen and Maya has taught me the importance of influential people. I know that I have helped Yasmeen and Maya grow, ____ “the babies” have had an even greater influence on my own life. They have shown me how to be a parent, a sister, a child, and _____, a friend. Our relationship has made me a better person—a more patient person, with the ability to ____ endless questions; an enthusiastic person, able to have fun and be happy with others; a role model, ____ the babies ideas about right and wrong, and a compassionate person, able to forgive and love.

Do you know that in order to grow strange-looking pumpkins, you have to plant seeds from some rotting pumpkins first? When 10-year-old Charlie Jones of Jamestown, Indiana, learned this, he decided to grow his own “ugly pumpkins”. He put in the work to gather, clean, and plant those seeds on his own and decided to sell his crop just in time for fall!

Since ugly pumpkins aren’t usually the first to go, Charlie had no problem getting customers to buy them. After all, they knew the money he made was going to support their county cancer society! At first, the curious boy didn’t plan to do this. His family caught the COVID-19, and with everything in lockdown, he needed a way to pass the time.

His efforts paid off because he ended up with a lot of money! When the time came to sell them, his mom Corrie did some advertising on Facebook, but she didn’t expect his crop to become popular. “This was just amazing, truly amazing, people lining up for ugly pumpkins, “Charlie said later. Within a few weeks, his unusual pumpkins helped him raise $720! At that point, he and his mom went to Boone County Cancer Society and donated all the money to them.

His donation not only showed his kind heart, but also was very helpful to the organization. The director said the found-raising activity has been difficult for them because of COVID-19, so Charlie’s donation made a big difference. Best of all, he plans to do it all over again next year! In his words, “The people don’t stop having cancer, so why should I stop selling pumpkins?”

Have you gotten vaccinated? This question has become a common way to greet others in China since the country produced a number of COVID-19 vaccines(疫苗) in December last year.

China plans to vaccinate 40 percent of its population by June, 2021. At the same time, China is also providing vaccines for other countries. It is exporting(出口) COVID-19 vaccines to 28 countries and giving help to 69 countries in need, Xinhua reported. Most of these countries are developing nations, such as Pakistan, Mongolia and Mexico. The leaders of these countries are taking the lead in receiving vaccine shots. They include Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

According to the World Bank, to vaccinate(接种) their citizens, small and medium-sized developing nations could have ended up a year behind larger developing nations and developed countries. Some wealthier nations have already stored many vaccine doses(剂) for their own citizens. Some of them have ordered enough vaccines to vaccinate their populations two or three times, The Washington Post reported.

For countries that have not yet developed or gotten a vaccine, China may be the only answer, AP noted. China is one of the few nations that can produce vaccines on a large scale(大批量).

China joined COVAX in October 2020, a mechanism(机制) organized by the World Health Organization, to make sure that all members get the vaccines in the future. China has decided to offer 10 million vaccines to COVAX, Xinhua reported.

Before superhero films and lively comedies, filmmakers were lucky if they could get a horse to successfully run across the screen. Eadweard Muybridge invented one of the first film projectors(放映机), the zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope cycled images on a disc very quickly so that characters seemed to be moving. Muybridge’s most famous zoopraxiscope film was about a horse running in one direction.

Soon, films were everywhere. Filmmakers had not worked out how to add sound yet, but their silent films were very popular among the public. Audience(观众) often enjoyed live musical accompaniment(伴奏) or commentary(解说词) from film hosts.

The popularity of films caused some big changes from even more inventors and filmmakers. In 1899, the silent lively cartoon made its first appearance to the public. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces was a short film, it described several characters coming to life. By 1923, filmmakers had worked out how to add sound to films. In more than ten years, almost every film had sounds.

Filmmakers still had difficulty in getting over to make films move closer to reality(现实): most films were still completely in black-and-white. Though Filmmakers had put a lot of efforts into colour films since the late 19th century, it didn’t change a lot until the coloured cartoon film The Wizard of Oz in 1933 became widely popular.

Today, DVDs, Blue-ray discs and online videos allow the film experience to be enjoyed in comfortable bedrooms, offices and even airplanes.

78. 今年一月泰兴市被中央文明办评为“全国文明城市”，假如你是李华，你们学校即将开展以“争做文明城市的文明学生”为主题的英语演讲比赛，请从举止文明、尚德行善和节能环保三个方面写一篇发言稿。

As a student from a civilized city, we can help improve the city and make a difference to it. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In short, if everyone works together, I believe our city must be more beautiful.