【推荐1】Gary took the application form（申请表）downstairs.

“You look very serious this morning, Gary,” said his Mum.

“I was thinking about how to get into the Crossbridge Football Academy（学院）,” said Gary.

“But it is too late now.” said Mum.

“No, I can take the test again in six weeks, but if I pass, I will have to pay. It says so on the form.” said Gary.

“Let me have a look,” said Dad. His dad examined the form. He frowned（皱眉）when he looked at the cost.

“What do you think?” He said passing the form to Gary’s mum.

“Well,” said his mum, “we can afford to pay some of the cost, but not all of it. We could pay half. You could pay the other half. You could get a job, but what about the test? Do you think you can pass it?”

Gary thought for a moment “No problem, Mum,” he said, “I’ll pass the test and I’ll get a job. I am sure I can enter the Crossbridge Football Academy. You’ll see!”

In his room, Gary opened his Maths book and stared at the page in front of him. He closed his Maths book and opened his English book. He read a few pages, then he closed his book. He sighed（叹气）. He knew he didn`t do well in them. He wondered ________.

Crossbridge Football Academy was a large modern school, built on the edge of town. There was a huge football field, a swimming pool and a coffee shop in it. Matt, Joe and Karen sat in the coffee shop there at the end of their first day at the Crossbridge Football Academy. The cafeteria was full of young people laughing and chattering.

“I think they are enjoying themselves,” said Matt.

“Well, I didn’t enjoy myself,” said Joe.

“Neither did I,” said Matt. “Something is missing.”

“Gary is missing,” said Joe.

“It’s not the same without him,” said Karen.

“Oh, your poor children,” said a voice. Rick was standing by their table. “You are all alone and your friend is far away. Gary isn’t coming here. He is so stupid. Just forget him.” Rick walked away with these words.

“We need to do something for Gary,” said Karen.

“I have got a plan,” said Matt.

—Adapted from Mr Football

【推荐3】I have worked as a keeper at the National Zoo for 11 years. Spot and Stripe are the first tiger cubs that have ever been born here. Globally, a third of Sumatran cubs in zoos don’t make it to adulthood, so I decided to give them round-the-clock care at home.

I’ve got two children—the younger one, Kynan, was extremely happy about the tigers’ arriving—but all of us really looked forward to being part of their lives and watching them grow. I wasn’t worried about bringing them into my home with my wife and kids. These were cubs. They weighed about 2.5kg and were so small that there was absolutely no risk.

As they grew more mobile, we let them move freely around the house during the day, but when we were asleep we had to contain them in a large room, otherwise they’d get up to mischief. We’d come down in the morning to find they’d turned the room upside down, and left it looking like a zoo.

Things quickly got very challenging due to the huge amount of energy required to look after them. There were some tough times and I just felt extremely tired. I was grateful that my family were there to help. We had to have a bit of a production line going, making up “tiger milk”, washing baby bottles, and cleaning the floors.

When Spot and Stripe were four months old, they were learning how to open doors and jump fences, and       ★     . It was hard for us to finally part with them. For the first few days, Kynan was always a bit disappointed that the cubs weren’t there.

I’m not sad about it. I’m hands-on with them every day at the zoo, and I do look back very happily on the time that we had them.