A student wrote to me the other day. She said she was having a growing i    1     in listening to music, especially Taylor Swift. But she is also worried about spending so much time listening to music that she will have a h    2     time paying attention to her schoolwork

Listening to music is a great way to use only half of your brain. I enjoy music while washing my dishes or walking to the store. I love singing along while I drive as well. Somehow, our brains can sing and drive s    3     at the same time.

Reading is different. It requires all of your brain’s attention. Have you ever n    4     that people don’t read books while driving? Reading while driving is like asking you to d    5     quickly.   

So, if you’re trying to study, that requires r    6    . And you should pay all attention. But if you’re also listening to catchy music, Taylor Swift’s songs don’t ask for your attention- they grab(抢走) it.

I think you can see the solution to your problem: Don’t listen to music while studying. If you must listen to music, choose something without w    7    , like piano jazz. Play it s    8     in the background.

My favorite background “music” is white noise. Get yourself a w    9     noise app and admire the sound of rainfall while you read your books. Then, when you’ve finished studying, t    10     yourself to Taylor Swift.

Maddie is a middle school student. She loves music very much. One day, Maddie and her classmates wanted to take music class, but they didn’t have instruments. They couldn’t buy instruments because they couldn’t a    1     them. It was a big problem and needed to find a good w    2     to solve it.

Accepting the idea from their teacher, they decided to give a concert to make some money for the instruments. B    3     how did they make instruments for the concert? Aha! F    4    , they came up with an idea after a long discussion. They were able to use things from their homes.

They started to collect newspapers, used boxes, bottles and some kinds of instruments that could produce sound. They used buckets (桶) a    5     drums.

They were now trying with these s    6     instruments. Guided (带领) by Maddie, they were shaking them to a beat (节拍). Then they began to play some pieces of music and practiced them for many t    7    .

It was the concert night! To their great s    8    , lots of people came to buy the tickets and watched their performance. Maddie and her classmates tried their best and did a good job. People were cheering for them and their parents were t    9     photos.                

Now they own their favorite instruments! They are able to play different kinds of music with them. They are so happy and proud of t    10    . Of course they still keep their special instruments.

Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world and becomes the most generous person as well. It all began when Bill and his wife, Melinda, made a b    1     decision. They set up a charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates feel that with success comes responsibility(责任). They want to use their money to help others. That is why they s    2     the charity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spends billions of dollars. It gives money to s    3     so they can go to school. The foundation also gives money to libraries for computers and other materials.

The Gates are also providing money for m    4     research. Their foundation has given over $1 billion to improve the health of people in poor countries. The money is used to fight disease such as malaria(疟疾). Malaria is s    5     widely by a bite from a mosquito(蚊子). The disease kills 2000 kids in Africa each day. In 2008, the Gates Foundation gave $168.7 million to work on the problem of malaria. This money was used to s    6     the work of developing a malaria vaccine(疫苗).

A vaccine is given to people before they get a disease. It protects them a    7     that disease in the future.

A    8     worry of Bill and Melinda Gates is hunger. In many parts of the world people are short of food. They don’t have enough tools and training to i    9     farming. The Gates Foundation is working in these areas.

The Gates Foundation is helping people in the United States too. It works on e    10    . The foundation gives money for school programmes and libraries. It also helps kids pay for school.

The world should give Bill and Melina Gates big thanks for lending a helping hand to those who need it most.

Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930. He was an American astronaut     1    was the first man to set foot on the moon. During his life, he     2     part in two space flights. On July 20, 1969, his second and last space flight was in a famous spaceship which was named Apollo 11. Along     3     his partner, Buzz Aldrin,   Amstrong had a spacewalk and then     4    (land) on the lunar surface. They spent 2.5 hours     5    (explore) and collecting soil and rocks to take back to earth. On July 24th, they returned to the earth safely.