【推荐1】He was just an ordinary postman who delivered mails across the village day after day. One day, when he looked up in the sky, he almost f    1     — it was a little stone that caught his feet. He found the stone strange but beautiful. He then placed the stone in his bag c    2    . Because of this stone's arrival, his day was lightened. He had a thought— I can build a castle with such beautiful stones.

His life started to be different then. He still delivered mails, but he c    3     every stone he could find along the way. All those dusty stones, in his eyes s    4     brightly like diamonds.

D    5     the daytime he passed along the dreams of others, while at night he had his own dream! No one was willing to join him, but he was still happy because he knew the dream and the castle only b    6     to him.

After 20 years of working day and night, his dream castle was finally c    7    . It was a wonderful castle just as he i    8    .

This is a real story. His name is Xue Waller. The stone castle has become one of the most famous t    9     attractions in France. At the entrance of the stone castle, there is a s    10     on the board— I want to know how far a dream stone can go.

【推荐2】A young couple decided to go camping in the mountains to celebrate their first year of marriage. They took with them all the     1     (thing) they would need — warm clothes, food and a tent.

They went up to the mountains and     2     (find) a fine place to set up their tent. Then they decided to go for a hike to see     3     (much) of the mountains.     4     a long hike, they went back to their camp, made a fire and cooked dinner. F    5    , it was time to go to sleep.

Sometime in     6     middle of the night, the wife woke up her husband and said, "Look up at the sky. What do you see?"

Her husband answered, "I see millions of stars in the sky."

His wife said, "That's right. What does that mean to you?"

The husband said, "Well, if there are so many stars out there, that means there might also be a planet just     7     ours. And if that's true, then there     8     /kʊd/ be life on one of those planets. That's kind of     9     (excite)!"

His wife said, "You are wrong. It means that someone has stolen our tent!"

A traveler came out of the airport. There were many taxis. She looked around carefully and asked every d    1    name. After that, she took one of them. It c    2     five dollars to go from the airport to the hotel. Then the traveler asked the driver to show her around the city for a whole day. For the service, the driver wanted 100 dollars. It was very e    3    , but the traveler said nothing and agreed. The driver took the woman everywhere h    4    . In the evening they went back to the hotel. The traveler gave 100 dollars to the driver and asked the driver f    5     another day’s driving. It was another 100 dollars. The driver was very pleased.

The next day they went to the same places again. In the evening the driver got the money, but he felt a little guilty (内疚的), b    6     100 dollars a day was a lot of money.

‘So you are going home tomorrow. Where are you from?’ said the driver.

‘I come from New York.’ answered the traveler.

‘New York?’ said the driver. ‘I have a sister in New York too. Her name is Susan. Do you know her?’

‘She asked me to give you 200 dollars!’ said the traveller.

【推荐2】Mr. Brown was     1     (worry) that his wife wasn’t hearing as well as she used to. He called his family doctor     2     (discuss) the problem. “Well, it is quite important for you to do a test.” said the doctor. “Stand 40 feet away from her and speak as loud as you can. See if you can be heard. If she cannot hear you, cut the distance (距离) into 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on u    3     you get a reply. This will help us decide if she needs a hearing aid (助听器).”

That evening, Mr. Brown was ready to do the test while Mrs. Brown     4     (cook) dinner in the kitchen. He got 40 feet away from her and asked. “Honey, what’s for dinner?” He waited for her reply but didn’t get any. He moved a little     5     (close) and asked, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” His wife didn’t reply. He then stood 20 feet away from her and asked again. S    6     no reply. He walked to the kitchen door and kept     7     (ask) the same question. He heard nothing. Finally, there was only one thing he could do—standing right behind her. He asked, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” “This is the fifth time I     8     (say), CHICKEN!!” Mrs. Brown shouted in an a    9     voice.

Most often, the problem may not be with others but could be with     10     (we).

There were three rich brothers. They were quite busy, so they had no time to take care of their mother by     1     (they). In order to make their mother happy, they decided to do something great for their     2     (mother) birthday.

The first brother wanted his mother to live comfortably, so he bought her     3     big new house. The second brother bought an expensive and fast new car for his mother in hopes that she could go everywhere by car. The youngest brother bought his mother a parrot. He     4     (know) his old mother loved reading, but she had poor eyesight. The parrot could read poems to her. In this way, his mother wouldn’t feel lonely.

They all thought their mother would be very happy when receiving their gifts and looked forwards to hearing     5     her.

A week later, the three brothers got letters back. The letter to the first brother read, “Although I do like the beautiful new house, it’s too big and I only live in a small part of it. I have to clean the whole house. And my back     6     (hurt) a lot.”

And the letter to the second brother read, “I love the new car very much,     7     I can’t drive it, because my eyes are not really good now. And I think I am too old     8     (drive) it well.”

And the letter to the youngest brother read, “You have given me the best gift. It’s     9     (exact) what I want. Thank you, my sweet son!”

After     10     (read) the letters, the brothers realized that the best gift didn’t mean the most expensive one.