Lucy and I are best friends. Our birthdays are on the same day, so every year we have a birthday party     1    . This year we planned to have a costume (服装) party.

While we were writing the     2     my mom came in and asked, “Nancy, what about inviting your new friend Mike?” Mike had been in our class for only a few months,     3     he got better grades in math than anyone else. “Mom, he     4     the same clothes to school every day. Maybe he didn’t have a costume.” Mom said     5    .

The next day, Mom     6     me a box with a shopping card in it. “I think it will be nice     7     you to give this to Mike.” she said. How could we give it to him? We didn’t want to make Mike embarrassed (窘迫的). We discussed for a long time. Finally, Lucy and I had a     8     idea.

On the day of our party, Mike arrived in the old shirt and the same brown pants as usual. Before     9     the birthday cake, Lucy said in a loud voice, “Now it’s time for the great prize game.” It was a math game. None of us were surprised when Mike gave the right     10     first and got the prize box.

Everything went well as planned. Mike wore a new pair of pants and a new shirt the next week. He felt happy. So did we.

Shumei has many pen-friends around the world. She likes     1     to them and receiving their letters in return. She started writing to her     2     pen-friend when she was 10 years old. They have     3     writing to each other for two years now.

She enjoys writing to people from other countries because she finds it very     4     to learn more about those countries and the different things.

She hopes to visit her pen-friends some day, but she will continue writing to them and enjoying their friendship.

She will also try to look for pen-friends from other     5     such as Japan, China and France.

Now more and more young people from all around the world come to China for study or work. Alex, a 21-year-old American,     1     to Nanjing to study Chinese last year. Besides learning in class, the young man     2     speaking Chinese a lot by talking with his friends and watching TV.

A Bright World is one of the programs in Jiangsu TV Station. It’s also one of Alex’s favorite Chinese TV     3    . People can watch it on TV or online. Eleven young men have     4     in Chinese on all kinds of things. They come from different countries,     5     they all live in China.

“One of my friends told me about this show, and I started to love it after watching it     6     just five minutes,” said Alex. “Their talks are fun, relaxing and     7     at the same time.

As a beginner of Chinese, Alex sometimes finds     8     a little difficult to follow the talks. However, he says it’s not much of a problem. He is happy to see     9     people have daily talks in Chinese.

“A Bright World is such a great show,” said Alex, “It helps me with my Chinese and also lets me know     10     about cultures of different countries.”