1 . It was not turning out to be the great fishing trip we had imagined. It certainly was not the one Father had promised. All day the rain beat against the roof of our cabin.

Father sat at the window, looking out over the lake. My older brother Jeremy, who had recently turned sixteen years old, lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. I paced the room, occasionally glancing toward Father to see if there was any sign that the rain would let up.

“I wish we’d never come out to this boring place,” Jeremy said.

I stopped pacing and looked at Father. He gave no sign that he had heard, and I hoped he hadn’t. This trip meant a lot to him. He used to come out here with own father.

I started pacing again.

“I mean, if we’d stayed home, at least I could watch TV, go out with my friends or play my guitar,” Jeremy continued.

Silence continued for some time. I kept pacing, imagining the trip I had dreamed of before the bad weather had set in. I saw us in the boat, anchor dropped in a calm bay casting our lines toward shore, the way Father had described it when he was trying to convince Jeremy to come along.

Father stood up and turned to face us. He smiled at me. “Come on, get up, Jeremy,” he said. “Let’s go fishing, boys.” He picked up his fishing rod and the tool box, opened the door, and walked out into the rain.

Jeremy and I watched Father walk down the pathway toward the dock (码头)，the wind whipping (打) at his hair,the rain wetting his clothes. Jeremy shook his head. “He's crazy if he thinks I’m going with him,” he said. “Maybe I would have when I was a little kid, but not now,” he said.

I waited for a while, unsure of what to do, looking out the open door at Father, who was walking onto the dock, facing against the storm. Jeremy couldn’t believe I picked up my rod and walked out into the storm after Father. I couldn’t quite hear what Jeremy said because of the wind in my ears, but I heard his footsteps behind me as he began to follow me out to the boat.

Visiting the city can be really     1     (challenge) when you are six months pregnant (怀孕的) and have a 3-year-old girl. One spring afternoon, we went to a store nearby to buy some food. There was no sign of rain    2     the store was just around the comer, so we went there without     3     umbrella. However, when we were about     4     (leave) the store, the rain started to pour down and the streets    5     (cover) with water within minutes. I noticed a young Chinese couple    6     (stare) at us when we came to a crossroad and were waiting for the light to change    7     (anxious). I figured they were probably wondering     8     a pregnant foreigner was taking her little kid out through the rain. But as we crossed the street, the woman offered me her umbrella. I refused, but she handed it to me and hurried off with her husband.

Though    9     (catch) in the rain unexpectedly, we still treasure the memory and will remember the warmth and    10     (kind) of the Chinese couple forever.

3 . A woman professor was giving a lesson to her students on stress management. As she raised a glass of water, everyone in the class_______they would be asked the “half-empty or half-full” question.

_______, with a smile on her face, she asked the students, “How_______ do you think this glass of water weighs?”

Answers called out _______from 100g to 300g. She quieted the students down and then replied, “It does not matter on the_______. It _______on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right_______. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb. In each case, the weight of the glass of water doesn’t change, but the_______I hold it, the heavier it becomes. Why?“

Lost in_______, all the students kept silent and listened to the professor carefully.

“Our________ and worries in life are like that glass of water. If we________our burdens (负担) all the time, sooner or later, we will feel exhausted.”

What you have to do is put all your burdens down, as________ in the evening as possible. Don’t carry them through the evening into the night; by doing this, we can get ________next morning and are able to move forward.”

“More often than not, life gets terrible when we think too much. And the moment you________your burdens, you’ll find yourself feeling so much more relaxed.”

“So rather than feeling________ and sorry for yourself, start doing something about it. After all, life is too short to waste on anything that is not making you happy.”

4 . If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like “Shakespeare” “Samuel Johnson” and “Webster”, but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn’t even speak English-William the Conqueror.

Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon or Old English, a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.

But this state of affairs did not last. In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating. When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more “foreign” than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man’s ambition.

5 . Many of us live with a roommate at some stage. Sometimes, there can be problems. Who hasn’t had an argument about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish or who should be the one to clear up after dinner? However, living with another person also comes with many benefits.

You know that there’s always someone else around, which can help you feel safer. There is always someone to talk to so you never feel lonely. Besides these obvious benefits, there are some you may not notice. For example, we’re actually more likely to eat healthier food when living with others.

To examine the effect of living alone, Australian university researchers did much research and found that people living alone tended to eat less fresh food, which can have a significant negative effect on long-term health. However, those living with others generally benefited from a more varied diet compared to those living alone.

What could explain these findings? The researchers believe the social and cultural roles played by cooking, food preparation and eating may be important considerations. For example, those living with friends have someone else to go shopping with, and thus they are likely to buy higher- quality fresh food regularly.

Cooking skills may be another factor. If people living alone find they do not have the knowledge required to prepare a particular dish or cook a certain food, they may fall back on ready-made，less healthy food. However, if they live with at least one other person, they may be able to ask for help.

In addition, people living alone can eat whatever they want at any time of the day or night. However, it’s helpful to have someone around who questions your decision to eat frozen pizza at 3 am. In other words, roommates can draw your attention to unhealthy routines.

Yours,

Li Hua

8 . Beethoven was born over 250 years ago, yet his music is still played daily around the world. Beethoven wrote many famous pieces of music, but he’s probably best known for his nine symphonies (交响曲). Before Beethoven died in 1827, he began a 10th Symphony, but never finished. What he left behind were some notes about the piece and a few “sketches” (草图) — short bits of written music.

In 2019, a special team of musicians, computer scientists, and historians was formed. Their goal: to try to complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony to celebrate his 250th birthday. The team wanted to come as close as possible to producing the symphony that Beethoven meant to write.

The team trained an AI to help with the symphony. They turned every piece of music that Beethoven ever wrote into a form the computer could understand. By feeding the program all of Beethoven’s music, the AI could look for the way Beethoven wrote. Other members of the team studied Beethoven’s notes and sketches, and attempted to find out what Beethoven was planning to do.

One early test told the team they were on the right track. They took a few minutes of music created by the AI based on Beethoven’s sketches, and played it for Beethoven experts, musicians, and reporters. No one could tell which parts had been written by Beethoven and which parts the AI made up. Finally, the AI connected the little musical bits into a symphony. It took the team over two years to complete Beethoven’s 10th Symphony-40 minutes’ music.

So Beethoven now has a 10th Symphony. And though Beethoven didn’t write it all, the team feels sure that the music is very much like what he might have written, if he’d had the chance.