【推荐1】An artist drew many pictures of beautiful things. But he found that he didn’t draw a “real” picture.

In his search along a road, he met a priest (神父). He asked the priest for help. “I want to draw the most ________ thing in the world. Can you tell me _________ it is? “   

“Faith (信仰) is the most beautiful thing in the world.” answered the priest. But the artist didn’t know how to draw ________.

The artist _______ looking for the most beautiful thing. Later he met a young girl. She told him, “Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. ________ love, the world won’t go around.”

________, the artist met a soldier (士兵). The artist asked him the _______ question. The soldier answered slowly, “ ________ is the most beautiful thing in the world. When people ________the war (战争), there will be faith and love.”

“ ________ can I draw them—Faith, Love and Peace?” thought the artist. He walked and walked, and then he was very surprised to find __________ in front of his own house.

When he went in, he saw love and faith on the _______ of his wife and children. “Our children and I always wait for you and ________ you. We hope you would come back safely. “ His ________ said to him kindly. He sat on his favorite old chair and his heart was at peace. At that moment, he ________ how to draw the “real” picture.

The next day, the artist drew the most beautiful thing in the world and called it “Home”.

Strong support can help you grow

A father and his son went to a kite-flying festival. The son was happy when he saw the sky _______ with colorful kites. He wanted to fly a kite, too. The father then bought a kite for his son.

The son started to fly the kite. Soon, his kite was high up in the sky. _______ the son said, “Father, it seems that the string is stopping the kite _______ flying higher. If we cut it, it will be _______ and fly even higher. Can we cut it?” The father cut the string off of the reel（轴）. The kite started to go higher. This made the little boy happy.

But then, slowly, the kite started to come down. It soon fell to the ground. The son was _______ to see this. He asked his father, “I thought that after cutting the string, the kite would fly _______. Why did it fall down? ”

The father explained, “The string was not stopping the kite from going higher, but was helping it _______ in the sky. You helped the kite go up in the right direction using the string. _______ when you cut the string, it could no longer support the kite.”

We may sometimes feel like there are certain things that are holding us back and stopping us from growing. But in fact, these might be the things that support us the most.

【推荐3】An old man has four sons. They often quarrel with (争吵) each other about ________ things. The old man is always ________ them how easy life will be if they work together, but they never ________ him. One day he decides to ________ them what he really means (意思).

He ________ all the sons together and puts a bundle (捆) of pencils on the ________ in front of them.

“Can you break them?” he asks the youngest son. The boy tries his best to ________ these pencils with his hands. ________ he can’t even bend (使……弯曲) them. The father asks each son to try to break the pencils, but none of ________ can make it.

Then the old man takes one ________ on the table and gives it to his second son. “Now have a ________,” he says. The boy breaks the pencil ________.

“Do you know ________ I mean?” asks the father. “If all of you ________ together, no one can defeat (战胜) you. But if you always quarrel with ________ and do your own things, you will be defeated when you meet a stronger man or difficulties. That’s called “United we stand; divided we fall (合则存，分则败)”.

【推荐2】I’m Alice, a student from China. I decided to study English for two weeks during the vacation, so I chose a language school in London, ________.

It was a great ________! The school was beautiful and the teachers were very nice and welcome. When I studied in the school, I stayed with an English family. The family didn’t speak Chinese, ________ I had to try hard to talk with them. But it was a good way to practise my English. They lived in a beautiful house, only 20 minutes’ bus ride away ________ the school. I loved staying with them, because they were very friendly and they had two daughters who were at my age: Janet and Melissa. Every morning, after breakfast, I took the bus to school.

Lessons started at 9 a.m. and finished at 1 p.m. I learnt ________ and I met people from all over the world. Of course, the only language we used was English. We ________ some sports games and visited some famous places at the weekend.

This was my best vacation. My English got much better and I made a lot of new friends. Now I’m back at school in China and I’m sure my English grades will be much better!