1 . Every summer, my parents, my six-year-old brother and I go to stay in a small house by a lake. I like to________ sandcastles (沙雕城堡) on the beach, or throw stones across the water.

On 15 July this year, I was crawling (爬行) along the shore of the lake on my arms and knees,________stones to throw, when my hand and knee felt________long and hard________in the sand. I pulled it out and saw that it was different from the sticks or rocks I found. One end had a point, and the other had a handle, so I pointed it up to the sky and________, “Daddy, I’ve found a sword”!

I felt like a soldier in ancient times. When Daddy________it to an archaeologist (考古学家), she said it was at least 1,000 years old. _________, they now think it’s 1,500 years old.

This month, the archaeologists finally came to ________the rest of the lake and they found a brooch (胸针) that is as________as my sword, and a coin from the 18th century. Then they________the news and I could finally tell everyone at school. I had to give the sword to the local________. Daddy explained that it’s part of___________and it’s important to share it with others.

Now, ________I go swimming in the lake, I will be looking to see ________I can find. It feels like that lake might be a little bit magic. On that day I felt a little bit magic,________.

2 . Owura Kwadwo Hottish teaches computer science in a school. It is a normal school except for the fact that it didn’t have______

Owura became famous after he posted photos of him on the Internet. In the picture. people could see he was teaching his students by______ an entire computer on the blackboard.The photos showed the______level of education for children in Ghana. People were______ that Owura made sure each button was drawn correctly. He would come to school half an hour ahead of______every day. He drew the computer on the blackboard, but at the end of his class, it was______off to start the next class, so he had to______it the next day! Owura’s efforts______when Microsoft took______of his act. They first took him to an international educators’ meeting in Singapore. He made a______about his teaching methods at the meeting and ______a standing ovation(欢呼) after the speech.

______,Owura got the thing he always wanted for his students—some companies______computers to the school. Not a single child in the school had seen a real computer in their lives. Thanks to their teacher’s______the world took care and treat them with ______

Melia and her father had just finished building a tree house in the backyard. Melia, an artist, wanted to decorate the walls, and instead of buying things, she decided to make her own art.

Melia enjoyed making collages (拼贴画). For her tree house, she thought she would use pictures from magazines. She could collect used magazines from neighbors, so the pictures would be free. And to create all her favorite things, she could add pretty leaves, and fruits of pine trees from the yard.

For several days, Melia collected bits of nature to use for the collage. Melia collected magazines from the neighbors. She piled both on the front entry, as her plan was to finish the art over the weekend. Oddly, though, when she added to the piles each day, many of the sticks and leaves were gone, and the pile of magazines was a mess.

“Dad? Mom?” Melia asked. “Have either of you been taking the supplies for my collage off the entry?”

“No, why on Earth would we do that?” her dad answered with a question.

“I don’t know, but what I do know is that someone is ruining my art project! It’s my mission to find out who and why!” Melia declared.

Who would want to steal this stuff? She had a plan. She cleaned up the rest of the leaves and threw the ruined magazines in the recycling bin. She started collecting old magazines again, hoping to set a trap. Even if she had to stay up all night, Melia was determined to solve the case.

Once she had collected a large pile of magazines, Melia formed several piles at the front door. She placed them close to the window so that she could catch the thief. She asked her parents if she could sleep on the sofa. “I know they’re used magazines, but I need them for my art project. I have to solve this case!”

Melia was determined to catch the thief, but she had a difficult time staying awake. Within a few hours, she had nodded off.

Just as the sun was rising, a slight scratching (挠) sound a woke her.

Melia ran back into the house, shouting, “It’s a squirrel (松鼠)! Come and look!”

When my daughter Lily reached the fourth grade, I occasionally allowed her to walk to and from school alone. One warm spring day, a small friend followed her home after school. This friend had short stumpy legs and long floppy ears. She was the cutest puppy I had ever seen. And Lily begged me to keep her.

I didn’t know what to do. I thought about running an ad in the lost-and-found (失物招领处) but I really didn’t want to. It would break Lily’s heart if someone showed up. Besides, her owners should have watched her more closely, I told myself.

By the end of the week she was part of our family. She was very intelligent and good with Lily. This was a good idea, I thought. We had named the puppy Molly. She followed us everywhere we went. When we went outside, she was one step behind us. When we were back from school or work, she greeted us by wagging her tail and barking cheerfully. When we did chores, she was there to lend a hand, or rather, a paw. It seemed as if she had belonged to us long before.

The following week something told me to check the lost-and-found section in the local paper. One particular ad jumped out at me and my heart pounded with fear at what I read. Someone was begging for the return of a lost puppy near the school. They sounded desperate. My hand shook. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up the phone. But my conscience (良心) was bothering me. I knew in my heart I had to call that number and see if our Molly was the puppy they were desperately seeking. But it was the most difficult thing I’d ever done.

Finally, with sweaty palms, I lifted the phone and dialed. A woman answered. As I described the dog to her in detail, her voice shook with excitement and she wanted to come right over. Within minutes I heard a vehicle pull up at the driveway and some footsteps stop at the door. Head cradled in my hands and heart hammering, a thousand thoughts crossed my mind: I could pretend I wasn’t home or tell her, “I’m sorry, you have the wrong address.” But it was too late: the bell rang and Molly was barking.

Opening the door, I saw a woman with a little girl sitting in a small wheelchair. ________

One summer when I was ten years old,my brother and I received a wonderful gift — tennis rackets (球拍) and balls. We had never had the opportunity to play tennis, so this was exciting. However, there was one problem — the small town we lived in did not have a tennis court (网球场).

One Saturday morning my brother said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea.Let’s take our tennis rackets and balls to the school and hit the balls against the school building.”

“Great idea! Let’s go,” I agreed, not realizing what a lesson we would learn.

When we got to the school ground, no one was around, so we began hitting our balls against the side of the building. “I’ll hit it the first time,” my brother suggested,“then you hit it the next time. We’ll hit it back and forth to each other.” So we began taking turns hitting the ball, getting more confident with each hit. Actually, we became pretty good at returning the ball and we were hitting the ball higher and faster each time. Suddenly, the unexpected thing happened — the ball got out of control and went crashing through one of the upstairs windows, leaving lots of broken glass on the ground. We looked around and no one was in sight except there was a guard sitting there over a distance.

Quietly, I asked, “Now what should I do?”

“Well,” my brother answered, “no one saw us, except that old man down there. And he probably can’t see this far.”

“He probably doesn’t know who we are anyway... Let’s go home,” I added.

As we picked up the rest of our balls and went home, we discussed whether to tell Mom and Dad what had happened. Would we be punished for our mistakes? Would every penny we had saved go to pay for the window? Or just keep it a secret? We thought about all these things all the way.

But that decision was made the moment we walked into the house.

On Monday, my brother and I went to school.

10 . There was once a boy called Mario who loved to have lots of friends at school. However, he wasn’t sure whether or not his classmates were his true friends, so he asked his grandpa. The old man answered, “I have just exactly what you need; it’s in the attic (阁楼). Wait here for a minute.”

Grandpa left, soon returning as though carrying something in his hand, but Mario could see nothing there. “Take it. It’s a very special chair. Because it’s invisible (无形的) it’s rather difficult to sit on, but if you take it to school and you manage to sit on it, you’ll be able to tell who your true friends are.”

Mario took the strange invisible chair and went to school. At break time he asked everyone to form a circle, and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. “Nobody move. You’re about to see something amazing,” Mario said.

Then Mario tried sitting on the chair. He missed and fell straight onto his backside. Everyone had a pretty good laugh. Mario wouldn’t be beaten. He kept trying to sit on the magic chair, and kept falling to the ground... until, suddenly, he tried again and didn’t fall. This time he sat, hovering (悬停) in mid-air.

Looking around, Mario saw George, Lucas, and Diana — three of his best friends — holding him up, so he wouldn’t fall. At the same time, many others he had thought of as friends were doing nothing but make fun of him, enjoying each and every fall.

Leaving with his three friends, Mario explained to them how his grandpa had so cleverly thought of such a good idea. Now he knows that those who take joy in our misfortunes (不幸) when we are in difficulty are not our true friends.