Mr. Barry didn’t want his sofa anymore. Then he put it in the front garden for the rubbish collection to pick up.

His sofa’s name was Darla. Darla was sad that Mr. Barry didn’t want her _______ the house anymore.

She sat in the sun, under the trees, and watched the street. _______ quiet and sunny it was! Darla had never been outside in her whole life. She liked _______ feel of the sun on her.

A little girl _______ red shoes was walking along the street.

“Hello!” said the little girl, “What are you doing here? Is someone _______ house?”

“I’m going to the rubbish tip,” said Darla sadly.

“Oh!” said the girl, “Perhaps no one will mind then, if I sit on you?”

The girl sat on the sofa. She laughed and sang some songs to Darla.

Soon a boy came past. He stopped _______ he saw the girl and Darla.

“You can _______ on it too!” said the girl.

The boy came to sit on the sofa too.

Later some birds and a family of ants arrived. It was nice to sit on a sofa in the garden, _______ they stayed.

Mr. Barry came out of his house. “Why are you all on my sofa?” he asked.

The girl and the boy, the birds and family of ants, all looked up at Mr. Barry.

Then Mr. Barry laughed, “Is there room on that sofa for _______?”

Darla was now an outdoors sofa, and with so ________ new friends, trees and the sun, she was the happiest she’d ever been.

It was my birthday last weekend. On Friday, I called ________ of my friends. “Hello, Jane,” I said. “Would you like ________ to my party on Sunday evening?” “Sorry, Betty,” she said. “I ________. I’ve got a lot of homework to do”. “Then I phoned John. He said, “No, sorry! I ________ running yesterday and hurt my leg.”

I phoned Ben on Saturday. He said, “I’m sorry. My dad ________ work on Sunday. He can’t take me to your house in his car!” Then I phoned Kim. “No, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m with my cousins that day.”

I started to cry. Mum said, “________ cry. Grandma and Grandpa can go to your party that evening.”

________ Sunday evening, I was unhappy but I went to my bedroom and put on my party dress. Then I went outside to the garden and there were so many people there—all my friends, my grandparents and even Kim’s cousins! They all gave me ________ and sang “Happy Birthday” to me. It was ________ nice surprise!

________ did we do that night? We danced and laughed a lot. We had a great time, of course.

7 . Cai Xuzhe dreamed of flying high when he was young. He was a new face on the Shenzhou-14 team. He spent 12 years as an astronaut (宇航员) getting ready for his first trip to space.

Cai _____ born in 1976 in the countryside of Shenzhou City, Hebei Province. He was _____ in planes as a child. _____ he heard a plane flying past, he would run out and look at it till it flew away.

“I am happy and proud but feel more about my duty,” Cai told reporters. Cai and _____ two team members, Chen Dong and Liu Yang, left _____ Sunday on board Shenzhou-14 spaceship to finish the work of building the Tiangong space station. They would have a _____ stay in space.

8 . My name is Laura. Right now, I’m having ________ wonderful time with my classmates! We are at a summer camp in France.

After flying for about twelve ________ , we arrived at Paris on July 25th. I was very excited because it was my first time to visit Paris. Then we went to a local school ________ bus. The teachers and students there were very friendly. They got everything ready to make us feel at home. A girl called Sofia was ________ in Chinese and she tried to speak a few Chinese words like “Ni Hao” and “Xie Xie”. We became good friends and she helped me ________ French. Yesterday we had an acting lesson. The teacher showed us the popular TV show Sherlock. Then we played games and enjoyed ________ .

I find that things are different from those at home when we have meals. For example, when you eat bread, you should eat it with a fork, ________ not with your hands. Also, it’s very rude to leave the table without ________ anything.

________ a music show this evening. I’m going to put on my beautiful clothes and dance with Sofia.

________ interesting trip it is! I miss my parents and I will go back home next week.

9 . Many people like travelling. Now, a new way ______ travelling, called “special forces style tourism”, becomes popular in China. With this new kind of tourism, tourists can ______ a lot of places of interest in a short time. Most of these tourists are college students.

Yu is one of them. He ______ the “special forces style tourism” after he read some travel stories. “I stayed ______ school for several months to get ready for exams. ______ really would like to take a good trip,” said Yu. “Now, it’s time!” ______ some others talked about some of its disadvantages. Another student, Chen Kui ______ that this kind of travelling was not good for everyone. “If you are in a special forces style tourism, you can’t change your ______ as you like. Besides, it will take a lot of energy ______ like this. But I think it’s not the kind of travelling I love. Travelling doesn’t need to be in ______ hurry,” said Chen. “I agree. Taking a trip is to make ourselves happy,” said Chen’s friend Michael.

Great news! Yaya is ________ /bæk/ to China.

Look! There is ________ panda over there. Her name is Yaya. In 2003, she ________ to America. Then she lived there for 20 years. In some ________, she looked thin and unhealthy. Some people were worried and wanted her ________ back home. China tried the best   (尽力）to do that. Finally, Yaya arrived in Shanghai ________ April 27th, 2023.

She is in Beijing Zoo. She ________ dinner now. She looks happy ________ she has lots of fresh food to eat. And people in China love ________ so much. If you are ________ in her life, you can watch some news about her on TV.