【推荐1】I was on a train in Switzerland. The train came to a ________ and the conductor’s voice over the loudspeaker delivered a message in German, Italian, and French. I’d made the mistake of not learning any of those languages ________ my vacation.

Everyone started ________ the train and an old woman saw that I was confused and stressed. She could speak some English and told me that a(n) ________ had happened on the tracks(轨道). She asked me where I was trying to get to, then went and talked to some workers, and ________ to tell me that we’d have to hop trains three or four times to get there.

I was really glad she was heading the ________ way because it would have been impossible for me to figure it out on my own. So we went from one train station to the next, getting to ________ each other along the way.

She was really the sweetest woman. It was a 2.5-hour ________ in total, and when we made it to the final destination, we got off and said ________ to each other. I had made ________ just in time to catch my train to Rome. She told me she had a train to catch ________. I asked her how much ________ she had to go and it turned out that her home was two hours back the other way.

She had jumped from train to train and traveled the whole way just to make sure that I made it. To my ________, a woman ________ her whole day sitting on trains and taking her hours away from her home just to help out a confused tourist visiting her country.

No matter how many ________ I visit, I’ll always say the most beautiful country in the world is Switzerland.

Thanks for your message. Yes, I'm having a great time on my student exchange（交流）programme in France. I was a bit _______before I arrived here, but there was no need to be. My host family is really nice.

They try to make me_______at home. The grandmother knows that I miss Chinese food a lot. So she actually learned how to_______Chinese food! She also has a teenage granddaughter about my age who is really_______. She always talks to me in French to help me practise. You wouldn't_______how quickly my French has improved. _______I still make lots of mistakes, it doesn't worry me as it used to.

My biggest_______is learning how to act at the dinner table. As you can imagine, things are very different from the way they are at home. For example, you shouldn't put your elbows（胳膊肘）on the table. _______, I thought that was pretty strange, but now I'm used to（习惯于）it. Another example is that you shouldn't eat anything with your_______except bread, not even fruit．You have to cut it up and eat it with a fork. Another thing is that it's impolite to say you're full. If you don't want any more ________, you should just say, "That was delicious. "I have to say that I find it difficult to ________everything, but I'm gradually（逐渐地）getting used to it. I don't find French customs so ________any more.

I'll write again soon and tell you more about my life in France. Hope you're having a good school year.

Yours,

Lin Yue

Nobody is perfect. Amy’s weakness was for ice cream. One day she went to the shop and _______ all kinds of ice creams she could carry. When she got back home, she emptied her shopping bag onto the kitchen table. _______ there was a knock at the door. “Who is there?” called Amy, hiding her ice creams.

“It’s us—Kate and Laura!” answered her _______. “We’re going to have a walk in the park. Are you _______?”

“No, thank you. I’ve got a cold,” replied Amy. “Oh, poor you!” said Kate. “I’ll bring you some food later. Hope you feel better!” Being _______ at last, Amy looked at her ice creams and made a face. She felt a bit sorry for having told so many _______ to her best friends. Luckily, it wasn’t too late to put things _______. Amy jumped up, put all her ice creams back in her _______ and ran off to find her friends.

“Hello, everyone,” she said shyly _______ she caught up with them. “I’m really sorry, but I told you lies so that I could eat all the ice creams myself. But then I realized what would make me really happy is to ________ the ice creams with you. So who wants an ice cream?”