1 . Imagine having a magic purple crayon that can bring your imagination to life. That’s exactly what happens in the movie Harold and the Purple Crayon, originally a children’s book by Crockett Johnson.

In the book, Harold is a kid who uses his crayon to draw a fantasy world. If he draws the moon, it shines just like the real thing. If he draws a hot- air balloon, he can float away. In the movie, Harold is a grown-up character in a book who uses the crayon to enter the real world.

Joined by his friends Moose and Porcupine, Harold gets help from a kind family. He returns their kindness by drawing things that make them happy. Of course, the crayon eventually falls into the wrong hands. Harold worries about its being used for bad purposes. He loses faith in his ability to make people happy with his drawings. Luckily, friendship and imagination show him and his friends that anything is possible.

Harold and the Purple Crayon is funny and exciting. Readers of the book will really enjoy seeing the characters come to life on the big screen. It’s perfect for a family movie night and for anyone who enjoys fantasy. It might inspire you to, as Harold says, “Make your life what you want it to be. Use your imagination.”

3 . Here I was, sitting in the roller coaster (过山车) cart of Kingda Ka in New Jersey, the tallest and second fastest roller coaster on Earth. My friends shouted in excitement, while I shakily _______ my hands on my shorts. “How can you be so excited when...”

My words caught in my throat and melted into screams as the roller coaster suddenly _______ forward. It was the fastest _______ I had ever experienced in my life: 128 miles per hour. I screamed at the top of my _______ as fear froze me up from inside. We rapidly moved up the skinny hump (驼峰) rising into the clouds at a ninety degree angle, having crossed the track bringing us forward in mere _______.

_______, close to the highest part of the hump, I _______ a little. My screams became less terrified and more energetic. Once we reached the _______ of the hump, I could almost touch the sky.

And then we were spiraling (盘旋) downwards, curving and twisting and _______ towards Earth at the same speed. ________ I realized it, we had already met the ground. It was a thirty - second - long ride. I managed to ________ the entire ride without a breakdown.

I gasped in surprise. It was over. I had not only survived the ride—I had ________ it. My friend turned to me, her eyes ________. “Are you ready for the next roller coaster?”

My head felt light as we walked away from the ride spinning with something I didn’t ________ recognize. It took me a few minutes to put a name to it — thrill. “I’m ready for anything.”

Until today, that ________ ride that I went on 20 years ago is still kept alive in my memory.

4 . At one time, our growing population was seen as central to wildlife extinction, resource exhaustion, pollution and environmental destruction. But today, our concerns shift to declining birth rates due to increased reproductive choice for women.

This is a positive development, but is often described as a “crisis” in the media, highlighting economic and senior care challenges. Lost in the conversation are the many positive aspects of an aging society, which is the result of people living healthier and longer lives, and common-sense realities like reduced needs for infrastructure (基础设施) and lower ecological impacts. Also lost is the fact that our population still grows by 80 million people every year.

And the consequences of high birth rates are severe. Among them is global warming. In fact, increased emissions (排放) from population growth have canceled more than three quarters of the emissions saved through energy efficiency and renewables over the past three decades.

Yet, no matter how well documented the link between population and climate, lowering our population is notably absent from the conversation on solutions. Instead, the focus is on technology that will supposedly allow our entire growing population to enjoy the energy-intensive lifestyles now enjoyed by the rich, and with no climate impacts.

But “green” technology is not the solution it is advertised to be. Its expansion to the degree needed to power a growing population at a decent standard of living would itself require a shocking investment in fossil (化石) fuels. It also requires massive mining operations, many of which take place on the backs of low-wage workers in Africa where it is driving destruction of rainforests critical to the survival of great apes. Besides, it requires 10 times the land area as fossil fuel plants for the same amount of energy generated.

When global warming threatens to push billions into unsafe temperatures, it is no time to panic that we are adding fewer to those billions. In fact, declining birth rates should be cause for celebration as they signify advances in gender equality and a reduced burden on Earth.

6 . I was a little nervous when I was walking into my first school in America. I had travelled a long way from India to America in order to ________ my mother who had been here for three years. She thought American education would help my ________.

I was afraid about ________ I would manage. I didn’t know anybody in my class. On the first day, I went to my second class because I had ________ my first. I knocked on the door and opened it ________. Everyone’s eyes were ________ me as I entered the room. Without paying attention to them, I went ________ to the teacher and asked if this was the right class. And he answered, “Yes.” He gave me a piece of paper called Course Introduction. Then he asked me to choose ________ I wanted to sit. I chose the seat closest to the door. ________ I didn’t want to pick a seat. In India we had assigned (指定的) seats, so I never needed to ________ about that.

I spent the rest of the class taking ________ from the screen at the front of the classroom. In Indian schools teachers didn’t use ________. We had to take notes as the teacher spoke.

School ended at 2:30 p.m. It was much ________ than in India.

After a day of school life I found the teachers in America had a fun way of ________ difficult things much easier. The teachers in India were ________ in the way they said things. I was thinking that my first day wasn’t so bad.

8 . Children running to school are now more likely to get a table device (平板设备) than a pencil case, according to a study.

Researchers found that 55 percent of children are given a new iPad as they head back to school, compared to only 45 percent who get a new pencil case.

It also showed fewer kids walk to school now, dropping from 81 percent in their parents’ schooldays to just 63 percent now, with a third of kids preferring to use a scooter (滑板车) to make it to the school gates.

And most children now listen to music on the way to school instead of chatting with friends as their parents used to. However, one thing that hasn’t changed about going to school is the excitement.

68 percent of parents said they rushed back to school to be friends they hadn’t seen for the six-week break. Only 23 percent of children rush back to school to chat with friends now.

This is because modern kids chat with friends during the holiday on WeChat or QQ, so they already know what their schoolmates have been up to.

Clothes are another big area for change. Children like to choose clothes on their own now. What’s more, their clothes are always in style.

The after-school life has also changed. More than half of parents had a daily bedtime story in their childhood, while a third of modern children watch daily cartoons on the Internet instead now.

10 . I moved to London instead of Wellington by accident, or rather, because of an accident.

One evening in 2008, a group of joyriders stole our van (面包车), named The Colombian, from a street outside Wellington, New Zealand. When my brother Ant _________ the van parked on the beach, he called the police, who then gave _________ as it drove off. After running a few red _________, the joyriders lost _________ and smashed into a building, _________ the van.

One morning, after the accident, we woke to an email from Ant titled “RIP The Colombian”, _________ what he’d been through the night before while my husband, Dave, and I slept _________ in our flat in Bogotá, Colombia. The police caught the six joyriders. “No _________ were hurt in the making of this drama” were, _________, the last words of the email.

Two years earlier, Dave, __________ my boyfriend, had bought the van before I went to visit him in New Zealand and transformed the back into a mini __________. We spent the summers of 2006 and 2007 on a road trip around the South and North islands.

The Colombian was at the __________ of everything. It had such significance to us that we decided to __________ it—after all, we would be back in New Zealand in a couple of years.

The theft of the van __________ changing the course of my life. It’s hard to imagine what my life would have been like in New Zealand had the van not been __________.