1 . Luke is a cute dog, living together with me for five years. We get lots of_______in our area during the summer season. Many forests are badly_________by fires each year. That hot summer, not far from our shelter, a forest______________fire. It was July, and there had been a heat wave going on for three days.

Somehow, Luke rushed towards the forest. There was no longer any hope at that moment to wait for Luke to come back to the____________. In fact, I was waiting for firefighters to tell me that he had____________in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman burst into my office and____________me that Luke had succeeded in saving four cats who had been__________by the flames (火焰). I____________accompanied (陪伴) the fireman to the forest to get him back.___________we got to the scene of the event, we didn’t see Luke. Then we heard the________of a dog barking (吠) in the forest. I______________the barks was Luke’s. The firemen______________the tracks of the dog until they found him barking loudly by the side of an injured________. Thanks to Luke, four cats and a fireman were saved. This true story shows us that pets are loving and caring. We should love and__________them. Little animals can do__________things for humans.

2 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of ________. Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some ________ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it ________ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the ________ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to ________ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________.The sunflower had not ________ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the ________.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. If we ________ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we ________ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the ________ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had ________ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be ________ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to ________ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

4 . A Letter to Mom and Her Mince (肉末)Pies

When I was a little girl, on Christmas Eve, you and I would bake cakes. “Make enough mince pies, because Santa likes them, ” you would tell me.

On Christmas morning, I’d wake up and thrill at the________ before me. At the bottom of my bed would be loads of presents. I’d scream in delight, ________ tearing the wrapping paper. Running downstairs, I would________ that Santa hadn’t just stopped in the________. There were also lots of________ around the Christmas tree.

Many years later, the________ continued. One afternoon________ we were making extra mince pies, it________ hit me that the extra wasn’t for________. I said, “Those extra mince pies were never for Santa, were they? They were________ you!” You never said a word- a smile was your only________.

Christmas changed in 1986, when you suffered a________ brain disease. After________ throughout Christmas, you passed away on December 29.

Only now am I starting to enjoy Christmas again. And while I don’t do the________ any more, I do have mince pies in the house. I leave one out just for you, as if you were________ a part of my Christmas.

6 . Paper cutting is a special form of folk art in China, with a history of nearly 1,500 years. The first paper cutting _______ the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420—589) period. The _______ and spread of paper cutting had a close relationship with Chinese _______ festivals.

In rural areas, paper cutting is _______ a handicraft for women. In the past, every native girl was _______ to master it. _______, professional paper cutting artists were usually males who earned poor incomes by working in workshops.

The main cutting _______ are simple: paper and scissors or cutting knives. It is easy to learn how to make paper cuttings but very difficult to master it with perfection. This is because making paper cuttings _______ much effort, practice, craftsmanship and imagination. Flexibility (灵敏度) is also needed, but any _______ or wiggling (摇晃) will lead to imperfection or __________ damage the whole image.

Wishes for wealth, health and longevity (长寿) are mostly __________ through paper cuttings. For example, during the Spring Festival, the character “Fu” is pasted (粘贴) upside down on the door to express people’s wish for good __________; at a wedding ceremony, a big red paper-cutting with the character “Xi” is a traditional and essential __________; upon the birthday party of a senior, the character “Shou” is often seen and will __________ delight to the whole celebration; a pattern of chubby (胖乎乎的) children hugging fish implies that every year they will be rich in __________.

7 . There are about fifteen hundred languages in the world. But _______ a few of them are very _______. English is one of these. Many people use it, not only in England and the US, but in other parts of the world. About 200, 000, 000 people speak it as their own language. It is difficult to say how many people are learning it as a _______ language. Many millions are _______ to do so.

Is it easy or difficult to learn English? Different people may have different _______. Have you ever _______ the ads of this kind in newspapers or magazines?

“Learn English in six month, or your _______ back... ” “Easy and funny? Our records and tapes _______ you master your English in a month. _______ the first day your ________ will be excellent. Just send... ” Of course, it never ________ quite like this.

The only language that seems easy to learn is the mother tongue. We should ________ that we all learned our own language well when we were ________. If we could learn English in the same way, it would not seem so difficult. ________ what a small child does. He listens to what people say. He tries what he hears. When he is using the language, talking in it, and ________ in it all the time, just imagine how much ________ that he gets!

So it is ________ to say that learning English is easy, because a good command of English ________ upon a lot of practice. And practice needs great effort and ________ much time. Good teachers, records, tapes, books, and dictionaries will ________. But they cannot do the student’s work of him.

8 . Jayce Crowder began noticing when he was in kindergarten that he looked different from his classmates. They had two ______. He had one.

It started when one boy ______ at him, said his mother, Cortney Lewis. He returned home with ______: Why am I different? Why me? Why? Lewis ______ she didn’t know what to do at that point. How could she provide answers to her son’s questions when she had never found those ______ herself?

A few weeks later, Lewis came home from her job and turned on the TV to a ______ story about Trashaun Willis, then 14. He had become an Internet hit after ______ videos of his slam dunks (扣篮), and, like Jayce, he was ______ most of his left arm. At the time, it seemed that ______ Trashaun would simply be an ______ moment for Jayce. He’d see a role model with a similar defect (缺陷). Then a family friend ______ the Des Moines Register, asking the newspaper to help set up a ______ with Trashaun to build Jayce’s ______.

The boys met at Washington Middle School a couple of months later and ______ bonded at first sight, because both of them had the same problem. The day was not spent ______ themselves in self-pity — it was ______ fun. Trashaun also told the boy not to let anyone’s ______ shake his confidence.

______ that meeting, Lewis has seen a(n) ______ difference in her son, who is now in second grade. He recently started wrestling and loves it. Lewis points to Trashaun’s ______. As for Trashaun, his relationship with Jayce made him look forward to helping more kids in the future.

9 . When I decided to leave my home country of Iran to pursue a PhD in Canada, I hadn’t expected that communication would be an issue. In Farsi, I was a(n) _______ speaker. I had taken English lessons in my 20s and scored well on the English test for university _______.

But soon after my _______ in the English-speaking world, I realized how wrong I was. Now I had to be careful and deliberate. I needed to _______ follow the conversation. I needed to _______ it into my native language, reflect and generate thoughts and ideas in _______. Then I needed to find the right English words and put them in the right order to _______. I had a hard time remaining present and focused in _______, because I was constantly thinking about what I would say next. I gradually turned inward and _______, particularly when surrounded by native English speakers. And I worried about my future. After all, effective communication in English is ________ to being included and recognized in many ________ and professional operations.

Later, I ________ to say exactly what I meant in discussions over and over again. Suddenly, a simple idea ________ to me: why not ________ the discussion in writing, in an email to my colleagues? That small adjustment was a game changer, because writing gave me ________ to reflect and comfortably ________ my points in English.

I made a ________ of sitting at my computer and putting my Farsi thoughts into English words, taking my time to ________ clear sentences with accurate vocabulary and ________. With some efforts and a willing heart, I grew more ________ with oral communication, which revived my spirits.

10 . I’ve heard such a story. On a Friday _________, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the subway station, playing his violin. The music was _________, and many people who hurried to go home _________ and put some money into the hat of the young man.

The next night, the young artist took out a large piece of _________ and laid it on the ground. Then he began _________. The music sounded more pleasant. Some people gathered and they found the _________ on that paper, ”Last night, a gentleman put a (n) _________ thing into my hat. Please come to get it back.“ When the people saw that, they felt very curious and _________ what it could be. After about half an hour, a man _________ there in a hurry and said, ”It can’t be true! You... you...“

The young violinist asked, ”Did you __________ something?“ ”A lottery ticket (彩票),“ the man answered __________.

The violinist took out a lottery ticket. “Is it?” he asked.

The man was too __________ to say a word. He __________ a lottery ticket a few days ago. The awards (奖) opened yesterday and he won $ 500, 000. So lucky and excited did he feel that he __________ 50 dollars and put it into the hat when hearing the music. However, the lottery ticket was also thrown into the hat without being __________. After the violinist finished his performance, he found the lottery ticket in his hat. Thinking that the owner would probably return to look for it, he came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.

Someone asked the violinist why he returned the lottery ticket to the man. He said, ”Although I don’t have much money, I live happily; but if I lose honesty, I won’t be happy forever."