A new school year started. Usually at the beginning of the school year, each student would be given a special ________, for which they would be responsible for the whole term. Rita, a quiet girl, hoped for an exciting task. Instead, she received a small box with sand and a small ant. ________ Rita could not help feeling down, she decided to do her best with her new responsibility.

She began to study and ________ the ant, learning about its habitat (栖息地) and needs. She made the box a comfortable home for the ant, and it grew much bigger than anyone expected.

Rita’s efforts caught her science teacher’s attention. He turned her work into a class ________, and Rita became the class expert (专家) on ants. Her hard work helped the whole class learn a lot about ants. In order to study the ants ________, they even built a small ant farm in the classroom.

As the school year passed, Rita’s classmates became more and more ________ in the ant project. They started asking her questions. Rita felt proud to use her knowledge to help them. She even gave a report to ________ the findings of their class project during the school science fair.

At the end of the year, the school praised Rita for turning a small task into something ________. Rita learned that every job, no matter how small, could lead to big success.

2 . “I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” I thought to myself. I thought Jeff was the last candidate (候选人) for president of the Students’ Union. My best friend Tony came to me and said, “I’m sorry. I really thought you should be _______.”

Later that day, I happened to pass Jeff in the school dining hall. I offered him a(an) _______ “congratulations” and walked away to my usual table. To my _______, Jeff put his plate beside mine.

“I’m, …er, er—I’m just wondering _______ you would…er…consider (考虑) coming to work on my team,” he said _______. “You are really smart, and you would be a great partner.”

“I don’t think so,” I replied, feeling _______.

“Well, if you change your mind, we are meeting tomorrow.”

All that right, I thought about the offer from Jeff. Maybe being a part of the election (选举) process would give me a _______ to make important changes at our school. I decided to join them.

My first goal was to _______ an eye-catching advertisement. Within a few days, we completed a poster with Jeff’s pictures showing him in a number of activities. No one could walk through the hallway _______ noticing Jeff’s smiling face.

My next step was to ________ which new activities students would like to have at our school. Many of them wanted a ________ club.

With the information I had collected, Jeff had a conversation with the headmaster. Soon a volleyball team and a football team were ________ to add to our after-school programme.

Many students said, “It’ll be like attending a new school with Jeff as president of the Students’ Union.”

Hearing these words made my heart filled with a ________ of achievement (成就). I had wanted to become president of the Students’ Union to do things for students myself. Now I’ve achieved that and ________ more by working as a member of Jeff’s team. He’s become the most popular candidate and I am a big part of his success. The fact that it has made a change to other people’s lives is the real ________. What a great feeling!

Mrs. Green took a glass of water to the classroom on Monday morning and asked her students,4.“你能够拿住这杯水多久呢?”

The students thought it was very easy. They were excited and started to give different answers. Alice said she could carry it for twenty minutes. Sam said he could carry it for an hour. And Peter joked that he could carry it all day long. The teacher smiled and said, “It’s easier said than done. If I carry it for a few minutes, it’s not a problem. If I carry it for an hour, I may have a sore arm. If I carry it for the whole day, I may go to the hospital. Its weight doesn’t change. 5. But the longer I carry it, the heavier it becomes.” It’s like stress in our daily life. For example, we may feel stressful when facing some important matches. Relax and believe in yourself, and you are sure to find some ways to get over all the difficulties.

If you carry your stress all the time, it will become much heavier and you can’t move on finally. So what should we do to reduce the stress?

8 . 请你根据以下的内容提示，以“Be ready to help”为题，为学校广播站的英语专栏写一篇短文，介绍发生在你班同学李华身上的一件事。

Be ready to help

Last Friday, my classmate Li Hua____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you ever watched the show Everlasting Classics held by China Central Television? An ancient poem called Moss has     1     popular over the night through this program. It was written by Yuan Mei, a famous poet, more than three     2     years ago. However, this poem has not been well-known since it was     3    . During the Spring Festival, Liang Jun with his students from a small village school in Guizhou Province     4     on the stage of the show and had an excellent performance. It made the audience (观众)     5    , shocked and also moved. Let’s enjoy this simple but touching poem.

Moss

Where there’s no shine

On its own green moss thrives fine

Though as tiny as a grain is its flower

It learns from peony to bloom with spirit.

Liang Jun said, “My students didn’t have lots of resources (资源) to get enough information and knowledge to     6     or to learn about the whole world, but I believe they have tried their     7     to love everything.” Liang wanted to encourage all of his     8     by singing this poem and he was the composer (作曲人). “Even if we don’t have the most, we can still bloom, and we should never look down on     9    ”. Teacher Liang Jun gave the seeds of hope to the children, so the seed was planted in every     10     heart and opened flowers in their life.