2 . I’m a seventeen-year-old boy preparing for my A Level exams at the end of the year. In the society where my peers (同龄人) and I live, we tend to accept the rat race values. As students, we want to get good grades so that we can get good jobs. I enjoy studying and have consistently received A’s in my classes. There was a year when I finished first in my class in the final exams. It was a great accomplishment.

Another one I am pleased with is that I managed to improve the relationship between Mum and Dad. Dad was a successful businessman who was rarely at home. Mum was a housewife who always felt bored and constantly nagged (唠叨) him to let her go to work. Their constant arguing bothered me, so I advised Dad that Mum would be better off with a part-time job. He agreed, and their relationship has improved since then.

My most proud achievement, however, is my successful work in the local old folks’ home. My grandparents had raised me since I was a child. I wept (哭泣) bitterly when they died. Unlike many of my classmates, I do not take part in my school’s community service to earn points. I enjoy my voluntary work and believe I’m contributing to a worthwhile cause. This is where I can help. I talk to the elderly, assist them with their daily life, and listen to their problems, glory days and the hardships they experienced.

Last year, I hosted a successful New Year party for the elderly and they enjoyed a great time. Many expressed a desire to attend another party the following year. When I reflect on my accomplishments, I’m especially proud of my service at the old folks’ home, so I hope to study social work at university and work as a social worker in the future. I wish to be more skilled in attending to the less fortunate and find great satisfaction in it, after all.

3 . How to Revise

Revising is an important part of study. It helps you learn, remember, and apply what you know. It is also a good idea to revise before quizzes and exams. This will help keep materials fresh in your mind.    1    

Find Your Place

To revise for an exam, you must first find a quiet and relaxing environment.     2       It should be in a place where you will not be disturbed.

Take Your Time

It’s a good idea to make revising part of your weekly routine(常规).     3     You should take care to make sure that you study for no more than two hours at a time, and that you take regular breaks every half an hour or so. This will keep you fresh and able to take in information.

Stay Organized

It can be very helpful to set up a system so you will be organized.     4     That way when you have a quiz or exam, you can easily find the right notes to study to help you prepare.

    5    

At the end of every revision, review your notes carefully so that you can be sure that you have understood what you have learned. You may also consider writing out revision cards. You can then use these as a summary(概要)of the subjects that you have studied.

4 . "Long time no see.” is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend’s e-mail, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.

Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation (直译) of the Chinese greeting with wrong English grammar! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too surprised to believe her. Her words were unbelievable at all. So I did research on Google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing “Long time no see.” Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Interestingly, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.

Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan’s movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a worldwide famous Chinese detective (警探) named “Charlie Chan” on wide screens. Detective Chan liked to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. “Long time no see.” was his symbol. Soon after Charlie Chan, “Long time no see.” became a popular expression in America thanks to the popularity of these movies.

Some scholars compare America to a huge melting pot. All kinds of cultures are mixed in the pot together, and they change the color and taste of each other. Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed pot.

You can have some examples from other countries, such as pizza from Italian, sushi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French etc. There is a long list! Since Americans admire Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way, the American’s melting pot keeps adding richness.

If there is one person who has left a deep     1     (impress) on me, it’s my teacher, Mrs Pathak,     2     was my class teacher for three years. In my childhood, how I wished I had a mother or a sister like her. One moment she could be tough (严厉的) and strict, another moment kind and patient. She always asked us to tell     3     truth. For example, if one had not done the homework, he needn’t have lied. She allowed us to make mistakes,     4     (say) we couldn’t be perfect all the time, but we should try.

Another thing she taught me was punctuality (守时). She set a good example with her own behaviour. She was always on time, so we students tried our best to be on time. She surprised us     5     her sense of humor. Her classroom teaching was always     6     (humor). After class, she talked to us and told us jokes.

We     7     (real) felt free to ask questions and Mrs Pathak would give the answers. If she did not know, we all then tried to find out the answers. Whoever     8     (come) up with the answer would be praised and given the prize. Now I sometimes wonder whether Mrs Pathak was pretending just to encourage us     9     (explore) and find answers by     10     (we).

10 . When I was a boy, I spent much time playing alone. I didn’t ______ it too much, though. I lived outside town, next to a forest where oaks (橡树) were my ______. I would sit in their shade and enjoy their peace.

Therefore it was so ______ for me when I was in employment in a ______ processing factory. It wasn’t just the ______ work, long hours, and low pay. It was also seeing trees being cut. The red oak trees were ______ influenced because they made the prettiest hardwood flooring.

One afternoon after a long day’s work, I decided to take a walk in the ______. As I wandered, I was filled with ______ for childhood days. Feeling so down, I dropped my head and that was when I ______ it: a red oak acorn (橡子) that had somehow ______ hungry animals all winter long. Something I’d read once ______ me at that moment — “An acorn ______ a forest eventually if it wants!” I smiled, bent down, dug up a handful of dirt and carefully ______ that little acorn. Then I headed home, no longer ______, for I also realized in our life we all ______ as an acorn, but whether our future is a forest or not is up to us.