1 . Are you still wondering about which club to choose? The following information about the clubs in our school may help you make a good choice.

2 . A man named Randy liked to look for big trees and old trees. He made maps to show where these trees were. He did not want to cut them down. He wanted people to take care of them.

Randy was told that there was a very tall tree on Vancouver Island. The tree was said to be 314 feet tall. That would make it the tallest tree in Canada. Randy started to find the tree.

But someone else found it first. It was found by a logger (伐木工). Loggers wanted to cut down Canada’s tallest tree and all the trees around it.

Randy made a path in the forest so people could see the tallest tree. The tree was so big and beautiful that it would bring them enjoyment. More and more people wanted to save that forest. Thanks to these people, that forest is now a park. Canada’s tallest tree is still there.

3 . I was hurrying to our basketball game one morning when Hillary Barnes, the most popular girl, in school, stopped me. “Are you the twin who won the art competition?” she asked.

“No, that’s Christine. I’m Katie.” I said.

We were not identical twins; we looked quite different. She could defeat Snow White in a beauty contest! Compared to Christine, I felt like one of Cinderella’s stepsisters.

One Saturday Christine gave me a painting lesson because I was always attempting to be artistic too. But I knocked over the vase of flowers, spilling water onto Christine’s painting. Instead of becoming angry, though, she turned the whole mess into a dreamy masterpiece(杰作). You could look at it five different ways and see five different things. With this brilliant creation, she won First Prize in the art competition. I really envied her, but I knew it wasn’t her fault and I was the one with wild, unmanageable hair and no talent.

Joining Christine’s basketball team was my latest effort to be like her.

On the way to the gym, I’d made up my mind to give my best performance in that day’s game. I made preparations with great enthusiasm. “Christine, here!” I tossed her a ball. But it was too high, she leapt for it, it slipped through her fingers and crashed into the tape recorder that was used to play the national anthem before each game.

I muttered apologies as I picked up the broken pieces of the recorder. Coach looked at the mess and asked, “How are we going to play the song now?”

Christine suggested, “Let Katie sing it! She’s always singing at home.”

Coach asked. “Would you?” I found myself nodding.

Coach announced the national anthem and everyone stood. Standing before a microphone, I looked up to the flag. The notes seemed to flow from deep inside me, and my voice was steady and clear. When I finished, the gym was silent. Then it was filled with applause. As the game started, teammates patted my back and gave me the “thumbs up” sign. Laura Jamison said. “You should try out for the school musical!” I Nodded and said that I might.

The next morning Hillary Barnes stopped me in the hallway and asked, “Are you the twin who sings?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I answered, grinning(露齿笑) as I walked to class.

5 . The driver who cuts you off in traffic. The neighbors who don’t pick up after their dog. Situations such as these get our hearts racing and send our stress levels skyrocketing. Anger isn’t a pleasant feeling. Some of us bottle up the feeling, while others explode in a wild rage (狂怒). Both habits do considerable harm to our bodies, our minds, and our relationships.

“Anger may feel uncomfortable and a lot of people think they have to get rid of their anger,” says Patrick Keelan, a registered psychologist in Calgary, Alberta. “But anger is an emotion built into us to signal that something needs to be addressed. When we take notice of that signal and actually wrestle with the problem instead of turning a blind eye to it, we’re usually much better for it.”

Unfortunately, many of us have been conditioned to keep our emotions hidden. Increasingly, research is suggesting that this can have long-term effects on our health. Investigators at the University of Rochester noticed that people who contain their emotions tend to live shorter lives.

Is it better, then, to scream and howl whenever something makes you mad? That’s probably the reason why “rage rooms” have popped up in many American cities, where folks are invited to let steam off by violently smashing (打碎) stuff in a “safe” environment. However, the research indicates that when people display anger aggressively, it can actually increase the intensity of the anger — and increase the likelihood of aggressive actions in the future. It doesn’t take much imagination to predict how such behavior can affect your relationship with your spouse, your kids, or your colleagues. It also hurts your health. A large 2016 study at McMaster University found that people are more than twice as likely to have a heart attack after an angry explosion.

If we shouldn’t bottle up our angry feelings but aggressive behavior isn’t healthy either, how should we handle things that tick us of? It’s the extreme highs and lows that cause the damage. If you’re able to apply techniques that smooth out some of those peaks and valleys, you can have a gentler ride.

8 . Scientists have discovered how plants manage to live alongside each other in places that are dark and shady. Plants in the deep darkness of a thick forest, where natural supplies are not very great in amount, wont attempt to top their neighbors in growth as those in moderate (中度的) shade do. In deep shade conditions, it would be a waste of energy and harmful to survival because green shoots would never be able to top their larger neighbors in growth.

So how do plants prevent such growth in deep shade conditions? The arcanum lies in the clocks inside them, say scientists from the John Innes Centre and the University of Bristol.

They have discovered that when plants notice deep shade, this changes the expression of genes in certain parts of the circadian clock (昼夜节律时钟) — the internal daily timer found in plants and other living things. These clock components perform an additional role in preventing plants from lengthening and overtopping neighbors.

The work identifies a previously unknown role of the circadian clock in controlling plant development, and the findings may have possible effects on both natural plant populations and crops. Professor Antony Dodd of the John Innes Centre said, “The biological clock of plants plays a big part in their development and fitness. This work casts new light on a new role of the circadian clock in adapting plants to competition with other plants in their environments.” “It also gives us new insights into how plants adapt to very deep shade, where resources are very limited,” said Professor Kerry Franklin at the University of Bristol.

This work provides evidence for the stability of the circadian clock in stressful environments, and information that may be useful in developing new generations of crops in a challenging climate.

9 . For many people, the perfect career would be one in which they do what they love to make a living, but in______, not many have either the luck or the luxury to do so, given ______ concerns and other considerations. Freelance (自由职业的) digital cartoonist Lian Zongbo is fully ______ of the risks, but decided to pursue his dream, anyway.

After graduating in 2010, he started as a junior animator in Guangzhou. Struggling for 6 years with childish work, he was looking to do something he was really ______. A huge basketball fan growing up, and good at a ______ of drawing methods, Lian had the idea of ______ his interests and career. In early 2016, he began drawing illustrations based on the NBA and shared them on social media. ______, he didn’t get any feedback.

______ he felt discouraged, Lian refused to admit failure. In January 2017, he received a(n) ______ on his Instagram account that invited him to ______ his works at art shows in the US. Lian happily accepted the offer, seeing it as a(n) ______ to morale (士气). His basketball themed artworks quickly won him a growing number of enthusiasts, including former NBA superstar Dwyane Wade.

His childhood hobby has now turned into a(n) ______ career that has given Lian a more comfortable life. When asked if he has any advice for others who also want to change jobs to ______ their passions, Lian said, “I wouldn’t tell people to abandon their ______   jobs if they are not ready. Rather, I’d tell them to make full use of their spare time to explore their passions. Stick to it and one day your effort will ______.”

10 . We moved there on my third birthday. My first ________ is our neighbor Arlene handing me strawberries from her garden through a hole in the chain-link fence. She and her husband, Bill, lived next door.

One day, my parents asked Bill and Arlene whether they’d watch me ________ they were out on a date. This ________ well for everyone, so it became a somewhat monthly occurrence. Arlene and Bill didn’t have kids. They had a ________ room in their house, which became “my” room. I had a cabinet and boxes of toys and books in that room, Arlene and I would do crafts together. Bill taught me how to ________ the lawn tractor and eventually a car (stick and automatic).

When I was about five, I had an idea. My parents were watching TV when I spit it out: “What if I adopt Bill and Arlene as my ________?” My parents said I could go over and ask them. I ________ on Bill and Arlene’s door, sat down in their living room, and said, “Will you guys be my grandparents?” They started crying and ________ accepted. Soon after, they printed out an adoption ________, and it hung on their living room wall from then on.

I remember being surprised that they took my ________ so seriously —not because I wasn’t serious but because I was just a kid. They could have ________ it off. Thinking of that moment still brings tears to my eyes. There is something truly magnificent about a child offering up her love and ________ being so excited to accept it. Every child in this world ________ enthusiastically responded love.

Arlene passed away in 2013, two days before our adoption anniversary. Bill gave her eulogy (悼词). At the end, he said, “Arlene ________ her husband, Bill. And the greatest joy of her life, her granddaughter, Katie.”

After the funeral, Bill gave me the ring he’d gifted to Arlene on their 25th wedding anniversary. It’s a simple gold band that I wear on my ring finger as a ________ of the kind of love I wish to put into this world.