3 . It was last year in November that my family and I took our first camping trip. My whole family _______, which was the most important part of the trip for me. My siblings(兄弟姐妹) are grown-ups with different _______, which makes it difficult for us to _______ an activity like this.

We had just set up the tent when it suddenly started raining. _______, we had positioned the tent on a high flat surface where _______ could not come into our tent. Even with the rain, I had never been happier.

While we were all _______ the sound of the rain, my mom cooked a warm meal for the family. Over the dinner, my father told us _______ stories about his childhood, which made us burst into laughter. At night, it was a bit cold. My sisters and I grabbed a _______ and chatted about our daily life. Soon, a hot meal and a good _______ warmed us up.

I realized how ________ it was camping under the sound of the rain. I came to understand why my parents were so ________ about camping.

The next day, we ________ our belongings and headed home. I’m very ________ for this camping trip. Not only did I experience the beauty of the forest, but I also learned that even if the ________ is not the best for camping, we can get used to Mother Nature as a family to make unforgettable ________.

Your,

Li Hua

5 . Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son. Suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut,” Joanna noted.

Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up (依偎) against me on the sofa and talk,” said Mark. “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is understanding which time is which.”

Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their mind. “In fact, parents are first on the list,” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. “This completely changes during the teen years,” Riera explained. “They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”

Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental (思想的) break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.

Ali and his younger sister, Zahra, lived with their parents in a poor neighborhood. Their mother was very sick and their father was struggling to find a job, and they had only a little money with which to buy food. As they had not paid the rent for several months, the landlord was breathing down their necks.

One day, Ali took Zahra's shoes to a shoe repairman to be fixed, but he lost them on the way home. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized he had lost the shoes. He was afraid that his parents would be angry and disappointed, so he begged his sister to keep it a secret. Zahra agreed and the two decided to share Ali’s running shoes. Zahra's school hours were in the morning, so she would wear them first. After school, she would rush back and give them to Ali. He could then run to his school, which began in the afternoon. Although he ran as fast as he could, Ali often arrived late and was warned by the school.

Ali heard about a long distance race that was held for the boys in the city.When he learned that the third prize was a new pair of shoes, he decided to take part. He ran home excitedly and promised his sister that he would win her the new shoes.

The day of race arrived. Ali had a strong start, but halfway through the race he began to get tired and his legs began to ache. Getting more and more exhausted he thought only of Zahra and his promise to her. Dreaming of the new shoes he would win for his sister gave him strength, and he stayed right behind the two fastest runners, determined to finish third. Suddenly, as the finish line drew near, another runner collided(碰撞) with Ali from behind and he crashed to the ground.

Ali looked up and saw the other boys rushing ahead.

Filled with delight, Ali walked home quickly.

8 . My father was a strong fisherman. He loved the sea and would stay out until he caught enough to ______ the family.

When we met ______ weather, he would drive me to school with his old track. And after we arrived, he would bend over and give me a ______ on the face and then tell me to be a good boy. I always felt very shy in front of so many other ______. I was already a twelve-year-old young man, but my father still kissed me goodbye!

Then on a rainy day I ______ to tell him my feeling. When we stopped at the school gate, the ______ big smile appeared on my father’s face. I ______ what would happen next. I ______ put my hand up and for the first time said “No” to him. The smile on his face immediately changed into a ______ look. He looked at me for a long time, and tears began to appear in his eyes. I was shocked. I had never ______ him cry! Then he said, “You’re right. You are a big boy... a man. I won’t kiss you anymore.”

Not long after that, my dad went to the sea on a bad day. Most of the ______ stayed at home, but not Dad, because he had a big family to feed. But after that day, be ______ came back. Later his boat was found with its nets half in and half out. He must have ______ a strong wind and was trying to save the nets.

How I wished I hadn’t ______ my father’s kiss! And from this I have learnt that we should take every chance with our family and friends as the last one in our lives. We can have ______ regrets(遗憾)by doing this.

9 . As countless unmade beds and unfinished homework assignments prove, kids need rules. Yet how parents make demands can powerfully influence a child’s social skills, psychologists at the University of Virginia recently found after the conclusion on a study investigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Initially 184 13-year-olds filled out multiple surveys, including one to assess how often their parents employed psychologically controlling strategies, such as threatening to withdraw affection. The kids rated, for example how typical it would be for Dad to suggest that “if I really cared for him, I would not do things that caused him to worry” or for Mom to become “less friendly when I did not see things her way.”

The researchers followed up with the subjects at ages 18 and 21, asking the young adults to bring along a close friend. These pairs were asked to answer questions that were purposefully written to cause a difference of opinion. “We wanted to see whether they could handle a disagreement in a healthy way,” says study leader Barbara Oudekerk, now at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Statistics.

In the October issue of Child Development, Oudekerk and her colleagues report that the 13-year-olds who had highly controlling parents floundered in friendly disagreements at age 18. They had difficulty stating their opinions in a confident, reasoned manner in comparison to the kids without controlling parents. And when they did speak up, they often failed to express themselves in warm and productive ways.

The researchers suspect that controlling parents affect their child’s ability to learn how to argue his or her own viewpoint in other relationships. Although parents do need to set boundaries， dominating strategies imply that any disagreement will damage the bond itself. Separate findings suggest that parents who explain the reasons behind their rules and turn disagreements into conversations leave youngsters better prepared for future disagreements.

The consequences of tense or dominating relationships appear to worsen with time. This study also found that social difficulties at 18 predicted even poorer communication abilities at age 21. Psychologist Shmuel Shulman of Bar-llan University in Israel, who did not participate in the work, thinks these conclusions convincingly reveal how relationship patterns “carry forward” into new friendships.

As a sixth grader, I began noticing how other kids were separating into groups. I wasn’t sure where I belonged. I found it hard to fit in.

Our teacher had assigned “secret friends” for the coming week. She wrote each kid’s name on a piece of paper and threw them into a glass; then we each closed our eyes and catch one piece of paper from the glass on which was the name of a classmate who we were to secretly befriend and support each other over the next five school days. By the middle of the week, everyone, including me, had turned this assignment into a competition to see whose secret friend could leave the best gift. We left cards, pens and even money. It seemed that everyone was getting cool presents from their friend except me.

On the last morning of our assignment, I walked into my classroom and noticed there was a package. I opened the wrapping paper and inside was a box of powder (胭脂). The girls sitting near me laughed at the gift I had received. To make matters worse, the powder had already been opened.

I tried to forget about the embarrassing gift, but when I was in the bathroom during the break, the girls who had seen me open the powder started speaking ill of my secret friend. I quickly joined in: “How terrible”. I heard myself saying “What could my friend be thinking by giving me such a stupid gift? My grandmother wouldn’t even want it.” The girls laughed at my remarks and rushed out of the bathroom. I stayed to wash my hands and let the water run through my fingers as I thought about what I had just said. It wasn’t normal like me to say mean things like that about someone.

Then I saw my classmate Janet come out of a bathroom booth (厕所隔间), tears streaming down her face.

Along with my apologies, I explained the reason.