The Lost City of Pompeii

Every year lots of tourists from all over the world visit Pompeii, Italy. They see the sights—its stadiums(体育馆) and cinemas. And people also visit its ________ and restaurants, where they can buy things and eat something delicious easily. However, the tourists don’t see Pompeii’s people, because Pompeii has no people. No one has lived in Pompeii for many centuries.

Once Pompeii was a ________ city of 22,000 people with crowded streets. Mount Vesuvius, a volcano(火山), was not far from the city. It was dead for centuries, so people thought the volcano was ________. But it wasn’t.

On August 24, AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted (喷发) suddenly. And a huge black cloud ________ twenty miles into the air. When the eruption ________, Pompeii was full of stones and ashes(灰). Almost all of its people were dead.

After a while, the thick ash turned everything black—people couldn’t even see the ________ in the daytime. It was dark everywhere. Some people ________ from the city, while others stayed in their homes. But the city was full of ashes and rocks. Soon stones and hot ashes began to fall on Pompei.

Pompeii was lost for nearly 2,000 years, and then in the year 1861, an Italian named Giuseppe tried to find out the ________ of Pompeii. Slowly and ________ Giuseppe and his team dug to find out more about the lost city. Thanks to excavations(挖掘), which are still going on today, scientists have been able to know clearly what happened on that ________ day.

【推荐1】I was not a confident person before. That’s because I was fat and others often ______ me. As a result, I. became very shy. I was scared(害怕) to say hello to strangers, let alone(更不用说) talk or hang out(闲逛) with them. I was afraid to ask simple questions and speak loud ______ others. It seemed that I felt afraid of ______ in my life. I used to believe that I would be like this all my life.

But one day, my friend Paul’s words changed my mind. He ______ me to change myself. He said, “If you can give it a try, you still have a ______ to make a change. But if you ______ try, your life is only going to get worse. “I was blown away(兴奋起来) by what he said. After all, I had nothing to lose. Why not have a try?

The first thing I did was lose weight. I had a ______ diet(饮食) and did exercise every day. After six months, I lost ninety pounds. This taught me that I could change myself.

A few months later, I heard about a speech competition at my university. I plucked up the courage(鼓起勇气) to sign up for the competition. For the first time, I was able to ______ my story and speak loud in front of dozens of(许多) people.

After the competition, I made a to-do list and started changing in a very short time. I tried my best to ______ the things on the list one by one. When working on them, I became more and more confident.

I am still ______ now. And I will never stop.

【推荐2】“When I was at your age, none of these buildings was here. ”

“The area of these houses used to be forests. ”

Have the elders in your family ______ said such things when they are walking around your hometown with you? I often hear my family and ______ talking about these things. I find it ______ to hear stories of my hometown. The old stories help me to better know about what my hometown used to be like.

I lived in Waynesville ______ I went to college (大学). My college was in Asheville. Since then, I have lived in the city. But I visit Waynesville once a year. Every time I come back, I’m surprised that many changes in the hometown have taken place in just one year. A clothing store on the main street used to be a restaurant. People have ______ a few new roads. Some neighbors have moved away, and there are so many ______ faces. In a word, my hometown has changed in many ways.

The changes make me feel ______. I then realize (意识到) that ______ is always changing whether I’m there or not. I also ______ why the elders in my family and my relatives like to talk about things of the past. That’s because they also realize that everything is changing ______. They try to keep memories of the old days. Of course, no matter (无论) what changes, we’ll always love our hometown. We hope that it can get better.