1 . When Simon Beck creates artwork, he doesn’t use paint or pencils. _________, he takes his snowshoes and _________ and walks to a wide-open area of fresh _________. Mr. Beck makes huge designs in the snow by walking and leaving snowshoed footprints in _________ patterns.

The idea to make a snow picture _________ him after a day of skiing in France. Mr. Beck noticed an inviting area of undisturbed snow and _________ it would be fun to draw a _________ in it.

At that time, Mr. Beck _________ as a mapmaker. . He is also an expert at orienteering (越野识图比赛) an activity in which people race on foot to a destination they must _________ using a map and a compass. Mr. Beck used these __________ to create a perfect star in the snow.

He then __________ more details to the design. The result looked impressive, especially when he viewed it from above on a nearby hill. After fresh snow covered the artwork, Mr. Beck __________ again with a new design. Since then, he has continued to make snow artwork at the ski area.

__________, a snow design takes Mr. Beck 10 hours to make. Because he’s out in the cold all day, he dresses warmly and brings extra __________ in case he gets wet.

Mr. Beck has worked to build a collection of __________ to publish in his book Snow Art, which is popular in the world.

“Sophie would make a good therapy(治疗) dog.”

The day my dog trainer said those words, I didn’t even know what a therapy dog was. I certainly had no idea what features my little dog had that would make her a candidate. But why not, I thought, if we can help people in need of some cheering up?

Last week, I accompanied Sophie to a hospital for our first day on the job. In the year and a half I had spent getting her certified, I had learned what to expect. I would bring Sophie into a patient’s room to be a pleaser, and then we would move on. Of course, Sophie herself couldn’t understand her purpose in all of this, but she was always happy to meet new people, and that was enough.

We walked through the wide automatic sliding glass doors and into the hall, where we were met by a nurse who ran the therapy dog program at the hospital. “Welcome,” Sophie, she said. “I’ll be taking you two around today.”

I followed the nurse down the hall. Sophie trotted (小跑) along at my side, just as she had been trained. “We’re a care unit,” the nurse explained. “Most of our patients are seniors.” I knew how important it was for Sophie to be her gentlest. “She was trained and ready for this, I reminded myself.

Up ahead was an old lady making her way down the hall with a walker. A nurse walked beside her, holding on to a gait belt (步态训练带)to keep her steady. We caught up with them, but the patient remained focused on her walker. As we were passing by at a safe distance, the lady turned her walker towards a chair against the wall. “Okay, we’ll stop for a rest,” her nurse said. Once the lady was settled, she pointed a finger at Sophie, as if to say “Please bring me that dog.”

I picked up Sophie and placed her in the lady’s lap.

“It’s a wonder! We had thought the lady lost the ability to speak,” the nurse told me excitedly.

4 . Once I saw a great man twice. First at dinner, two tables away from us. He _______at everyone, appearing very friendly, until the food was_______ . Then he frowned (皱眉) at the plate , and his face turned from pink to red. The cook was called, and with much   _______Churchill pointed to the food and waved his hands in the air. It was _______that he was showing how the meal should have been prepared.

Late one night, I saw him again. He was drunk. Two men were _______him as he moved unsteadily (跌跌撞撞地) towards his room. It seemed that Churchill actually wanted to go in the opposite direction, but the men guided him to his door.

This was not the way I had expected a _______   to act. At breakfast, I told my father what I _______ . Churchill was impolite; he was not _______.

“And you are _______him?” My father took a deep breath. “More than 50 years ago, this man escaped from prison and returned to England, although there was a ________for catching him. He is one of the greatest speakers in history and has     ________ some of the greatest works since Shakespeare. And you are ________because he was publicly particular (挑剔的) about his food and ________too much. Do you know what Lincoln________when people said unhappily that Grant, the commander of the Union forces, was a drunk?”

“No.”

“He said, ‘I’ll send him a case of whisky if it will help him win the war .’”

My father was silent for a moment, advising me to think. Then he said quietly, “You are becoming a man. You should know that no one is ________. Certainly not heroes.”

6 . I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of corn. On a sudden, I found I was in danger of losing it all by enemies of several sorts. It was hardly possible to keep away from them. The goats and the hares which I called enemies, tasting the sweetness of the leaf, lay in it day and night. As soon as it came up, they ate it so close that it could get no time to shoot up into stem.

I could do nothing but make a fence around it, which I did with a great deal of work because it required speed. However, as my land was small, suited to my crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks’time. Shooting some of the animals in the daytime, I set my dog to guard it at night, tying him up to a post at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night long. So in a little time the enemies gave up and left the place, and the corn grew very strong and well.

But as the animals damaged it before, while my corn was in the leaf, the birds were likely to harm it now. Going along by the place to see how it grew, I saw my little crop filled with fowls, who stood, watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them, for I always had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot than there rose up a little cloud of birds, which I had not seen at all, from among the corn itself.

8 . I always had a nice cup of tea every morning in my country in Indonesia.     1     When I arrived in the early morning for the first time at Sydney airport, the first thing that I looked for was a coffee shop.     2     I jumped into the queue. Then a very friendly girl asked me if she could help me. I said that I would like to have a cup of tea. Then she asked me, “Would you like black or white tea?” I thought she was making a morning joke with me. So I said, “Red tea, please.” With a very unfriendly face she asked me again, “Black or white tea, please?”     3     I didn't know what actually black or white tea was. I only knew that having tea is usually with or without sugar.

    4     I saw a lady drinking tea with milk in it. Then I asked her, “Can I say that you are having a white tea?” She smiled and said, “Yes, you can.” At that moment, I understood that black tea is no milk added and white tea is with milk. How big is the difference of having tea between Indonesian and Australian people!