Mike, my cousin, and I are very close and would share any secret with each other. He is a little naught (顽皮的) sometimes although my uncle, Mike’s dad, is very strict with him.

Last summer, I went to Los Angeles to visit him. My uncle chatted with us outside while he was smoking. And then my aunt called him into the house. He left his cigarette (香烟) on one front door step so he could continue smoking it when he came back.

Mike was curious to see what smoking was really like, so he picked up the cigarette to check it out. He held it between two fingers as if he were an experienced smoker and asked me if I had ever smoked before. “No way,” I said in a loud voice. “Never let my dad know about it, or he’ll beat me up,” he said. I couldn’t believe what he did next. Mike put the cigarette into his mouth and began to smoke. The next thing you know, he was coughing his head off. It looked like he was about to throw up, but he still reached his hand out towards me to offer me the cigarette.“Come on,” he said. “It won’t hurt you. I think smoking is really cool.”

I stood there, having no idea whether I should have a try. Then I remembered the advertisement that I had seen on TV a lady was so addicted to cigarettes that she had got really sick. I did not want my cousin to be like that at all.

I decided to do something and walked towards him.

Just then my uncle came back and couldn't find his cigarette.

2 . The disease had slowed me down. Then my granddaughter sent a cat to me. Honestly speaking, I fell in love with the cute little thing immediately when I first saw her.

“I’ll _______ you Rainbow,” I said with a smile.

The next day I _______some cat food and two toy mice in a pet shop. Rainbow went crazy over those _______: she got them stuck under the desk or the sofa. Then she wouldn’t stop meowing (喵喵叫)_______ I got them back for her. She’d bring the mice to me and demand that I throw them for her over and over again- she never felt bored. She couldn’t feel the pain in my _______.

Rainbow always got into troubles. She kept knocking over my plants or _______ my cups. I had to deal with the “_______”. My back _______ with all the ups and downs of trying to keep up with Rainbow. But what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t bear the _______ of sending her away.

One day, I felt there was something wet on my cheek. Rainbow, licking me, wanted breakfast. “OK, I get the ________,” I said. I tried to lower my body to put her ________ in the bowl on the floor, expecting pain to spread from my back through my body. But it didn’t. I felt ________.

After she finished eating, I bent down and picked up her bowl without having to hold on to the desk. She looked up at me and meowed, as if to say, “See? I’m ________what the doctor ordered!”

Three years later, Rainbow still kept me moving and I began to ________ her play. I didn’t want a cat, but someone knew I ________one.

I hadn’t decided whether to fly home for Thanksgiving yet. I didn’t have the money for the ticket, plus I wasn’t sure I could get enough time off from my job.

All that wondering changed when my mom called. She got right to the point: “Your grandmother isn’t well. Your dad and I decided I should fly out there for Thanksgiving.” Mom was an only child, so that made sense to me. But I was not ready for what I heard next. “We decided you should come along, so I cover your ticket.”

As always, Mom’s plan went off all right. I met her at the airport. Mom was anxious to see her parents, especially her mother, who was really fragile(虚弱). When we finally got to their house, we said hello and then Grandpa helped Grandma lie down again and took us to the living room, telling us we would eat Thanksgiving dinner at noon. He went into the kitchen.

Mom paced(踱步) the floor. I asked her what the matter was. “He can’t cook,” she shook her head. “How’s he supposed to fix a Thanksgiving meal for us?”

I tried to reason with her. “Can’t you smell dinner? Grandma is upstairs resting. Grandpa is the only one who could be cooking.” But we couldn’t see through the kitchen door.

Mom had an idea. “Let’s sneak out(溜出去) the front door and see what’s going on. Then we will know who is really cooking.” Grandpa had trouble hearing, so he didn’t hear us leave. It was a crazy plan. I followed her around the house to the kitchen windows. There we watched Grandpa fill water glasses and make coffee. “When did he learn to make coffee?” Mom asked. Quietly, we ran back around the side of the house and into the living room.

Finally, the kitchen door opened at noon.

“Wow, I can’t believe it! This smells so good,” I said.

4 . Yesterday, after telling my brother, Rhys, and me to stop playing like wild animals, Mom went to take a bath. We were having a pillow fight when_________one hit a vase. Mom_________the loud crash. Wasting no time, she went_________into the room. I was sure that she was going to shout at us, but instead she just knelt by the_________and began to cry.

This made Rhys and me feel pretty_________. We went over and put our arms round her, and she explained to us why she was so upset. In the pieces_________a broken glass rose, one petal (花瓣) gone, which was given by Dad on their first wedding anniversary. Dad had said that if he ever forgot to bring flowers home _________an anniversary in the future, Mom was to look at that one. It was like their love: it would last a_________.

We began crying, and_________to glue it. But Mom said that wouldn’t really fix it.__________ it had been broken, the__________of the “limited edition” had reduced. As Mom slowly began to__________the mess, we tried everything we could think of to__________her up, but even our best funny faces didn’t__________. Tears kept coming down her cheeks.  Everything was picked up. Seeing Mom going back to the bath, I__________her and put both hands on her shoulders.

7 . Quietly sitting there reading, I found myself suddenly listening to the train guard’s announcements (通知). Train travelers will surely agree that when the guard (列车长) makes an announcement, whether it’s the recorded message or the guard’s message, few people listen to it, because it’s often quite dull or hard to understand. This one was different. I noticed that other passengers appeared to be listening, too. Not only that, everyone was smiling!

Why was so much attention being paid to this message? As best I can recall the guard said something along these lines, “Good Morning Ladies, Gentlemen and Children, this is the 7: 35 a.m. from Penrith to Central and you’ll be pleased to know that we are right on time. And what a lovely morning it is in Sydney today. The sun is shining, birds are singing, and all’s right with the world. I trust you have a great day wherever you’re going. Thanks for catching my train this morning and I hope to see you again soon.”

Quite a few people (obviously previous strangers) started talking to one another about the guards excellent message and how good it had made everyone feel. I started thinking about this, and then I found the young guard and said “Were you the guard on the 7: 35 a.m. from Penrith?” The guard seemed a bit stunned at first, replying, “Yes, yes.” “Well, I really appreciate your announcement. Thank you for your extremely good message, which gave me and the other passengers such a good start to the day. Please keep doing it.” I said.

There are two messages for me in what happened that day. Firstly, when people are happy in their work, it shows in what they do and say. Secondly, the story attaches much importance to the benefits that accumulate (积累) from thanking people for something they’ve done, particularly when it’s not expected. Can you imagine the conversation that guard would have when he got home?

It is hard not to thirst for victory in all your efforts when the world seems so competitive, especially if you’re a boy growing up with those values. A boy grew up in a similar environment where winning was all that was valued, and he longed to succeed. The boy was good at running, so he called everyone in the nearby villages for a race. A large group of people from around came to see this exciting event!

The boy had been training hard for this race. He ran among the strongest boys from around the villages, and it looked like heat on a finish line, but the young boy came out victorious! The crowd went wild with joy as they cheerfully waved (挥舞) flags praising him. The boy loved the attention. It made him feel happy and vital (生气勃勃的).

But among the crowd was a wise older man who did not seem as impressed with the boy’s fleets (舰队) as the rest. Just as the boy thought all the races for the day were over, the old man shouted from the crowd, “There is one more race left, the most important one.” The boy was firstly surprised by the additional race, but he was confident he could win any race.

The old man brought two new competitors for the boy, a blind man and a weak old lady. “I can easily win them,” the boy said. When the boy crossed the finish line, the blind man was still at the start, and the old lady had just started to move. The boy got his victory but he noticed that the crowd wasn’t cheering. The boy was shocked. So, he asked the old man what had happened. The old man said, “Let’s start the race again, but all three of you finish together this time.”

The boy raced again.

The wise old man put his hands around the boy’s shoulders.

10 . Reeves is a 7th grader in Michigan. He was honoured as a hero for preventing his school bus from ______ after the bus driver lost consciousness (知觉).

On April 26, the bus driver was taking students home from Carter Middle School when she ______ to experience “some faint (昏厥)”. She attempted to pull over but didn’t make it to where she planned to park and eventually ______ .

The bus began to turn to oncoming traffic. That’s when Dillon Reeves ______ into action. Reeves, who was ______ about five rows back, “got up from his seat, threw his backpack down, ran to the front of the bus, ______ the steering wheel (方向盘) and brought the bus to a stop in the middle of the road, despite the reasonable ______ ,”   Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robert D. Livernois said.

In a video released by authorities at the news meeting, Reeves is seen taking ______ of the steering wheel and then shouting to the other passengers, “Someone call 911. Now!”

The Warren Police and Fire Departments responded (回应) quickly to the scene to ______ to the driver and the students were loaded onto another bus to be ______ taken home. No injuries to the children on the bus were reported.

Warren City Councilman Jonathan Lafferty is calling Reeves a hero. “The City of Warren is very ______ of our 7th Grade Hero Dillon Reeves! This young man reacted quickly when his school bus driver experienced a ______ emergency, bringing the bus to a stop and ______ what could have been a very severe accident. We all admire you for your heroic actions!” he said.

“Dillon, he’s really been a ______ guy this year,” his mother Ireta said. “To do something like this just ______ my heart and touches me.”