A woman in blue jeans stood at the window of     1     expensive shop. Though she hesitated for a moment, she finally went in and asked to see a dress     2     was in the window. The assistant who served her did not like the way she was dressed.     3    (look) at her scornfully, he told her that the dress     4    (sell). The woman walked    5     of the shop angrily and decided to punish the assistant next day. She returned to the shop the following morning dressed in a fur coat,     6    a handbag in one hand and a long umbrella in the other.     7     seeking out the rude assistant she asked for the same dress. Not realizing who she was, the assistant was eager to serve her this time. With great    8    (difficult), he climbed into the shop window to get the dress. As soon as she saw it, the woman said she     9    (not)like it. She enjoyed    10    （she） making the assistant bring almost everything in the window before finally buying the dress she had first asked for.

English is a language     1    (bring) to Britain in the 5th century by Anglo-Saxon settlers from various parts of Northwest Germany. It is convenient to divide English into three periods roughly─Old English, Middle English, and Modern English.

The     2    (early) form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon. Old English developed from a set of North Sea Germanic dialects     3    (origin) spoken along the coasts of Frisia, Lower Saxony, Jutland, and Southern Sweden by Germanic tribes known     4     the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Later, Old English was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the northwest. The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem Beowulf, written by     5     unknown poet. Old English is very different from Modern English and difficult for the 21st-century English speakers to understand.

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the nobility spoke only a     6    (vary) of French called Anglo-Norman. English continued to be the language of the common people. The Norman influence     7    (strong) the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in     8     is now referred to as Middle English. And one of the best-known works from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.

From the late 15th century, the language changed into Early Modern English, often dated from the Great Vowel Shift. English is continuously absorbing foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, causing English to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. By the late 18th century, the British Empire had sped the spread of English through its colonies and geopolitical dominance. Commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art and formal education all contributed to English     9     (become) the first truly global language. As there are many words from different languages, the risk of mispronunciation is high. In 1755, Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of the English Language,     10     introduced a standard set of spelling conventions and usage norms.

I will never forget the day when I went to a coming-of age ceremony. Last month, an unforgettable adult ceremony     1    (hold) for all the senior 3 students in our school. It began at half past two in the afternoon. Decorated by colorful flowers and balloons, the stadium looked     2    (fantastic) beautiful. All of us students were dressed     3     school uniforms with red ribbons on our wrists, showing the energy of youth. We walked into the stadium in high spirits.     4    (accompany) by our parents. Our principal delivered    5    inspiring speech at first, and we received     6    (congratulate) from our teachers. During the ceremony, we expressed our heart-felt gratitude to our parents by    7    (bow) to them. I was moved to tears when I got a photo album from my parents,     8     reminded me of my happy childhood. In the end, we raised our right hands and     9    (make) a serious promise to become reliable and honest citizens. As far as I’m concerned, the ceremony indicates that we should take on more responsibilities to be     10    (independence) and get away from the shelter of our family.