— I r you to choose the red one.

Letter-writing seems to have  nowadays.

He cannot but remember China as it .

— Yes. She                  give us help whenever we were in trouble at school.

    As a child, a fall left a big scar on one of my eyes. So my scarred, 1 and gray eye lived on with me.

    I walked with my face looking at 2 so people wouldn't see ugly me. Sometimes people laughed at me. I grew up imagining everyone 3 me.

    Yet mother would say, "Hold your head up high and 4 the world." She started when I was young. "If you do so, people will see your 5 soul." She continued this message 6 I wanted to hide.

    Those words have meant 7 things to me over the years. As a 8, I thought mama meant, "Be careful or you will 9 or bump into something because you are not looking." As a youth, though I tried to look down to 10 my shame, I found sometimes when I held head up high and let people know me, they 11 me. Mama's words helped me realize by letting people look at my face. I let them recognize the intelligence and 12 behind both eyes even if they couldn't see it on the 13.

    In high school I did well, 14 on the inside I still felt like a disable person. All I really wanted was to 15 everyone else. When things got really bad, I would cry to mama and she would look at me with 16 eyes and say, "Hold your head up high. Let them 17 the beauty inside."

    My mother's love and encouragement helped me overcome my own 18. I learnt to face the fact and appreciate 19.

    "Hold your head up high" has been heard many times in my home. The gift my mother gave me 20 in another generation. Because each of my children has felt its invitation.

    When I was young, I read many kinds of books, including fairy tales. Most of the books described heroes who were handsome and heroines who were beautiful. So, I believed I had to be beautiful if I wanted to become a great person.

    As I grew up, I began to realize outer beauty was not so important to make someone good. I remember a friend of mine, Janie, who was so beautiful that every classmate wanted to talk with her, but she was very arrogant(傲慢的).

    She believed that she could do everything she wanted because she was so beautiful, but she lost friends one by one. My poor friend! But she learned a good lesson: inner beauty is more important than outer beauty. After she learned that, she changed her attitude and made friends again.

    Whenever I see TV advertisements, I feel that these things make us believe beauty is very important—especially physical attractiveness. Although we say that inner beauty is more valuable, we often look to plastic surgery to make us more beautiful. There seems to be a boom(流行) in plastic surgery. It is surprising to realize the number of people who try it is increasing day by day.

    We know good-looking guys usually get higher scores on job interviews. So, what is real beauty? I want to say that inner beauty is the real one because if someone has beauty in his soul, he looks like a really beautiful person.

    The beauty looked at with eyes doesn't last forever. Instead of concentrating on outer beauty, we should concentrate on inner beauty. The point is that inner beauty is more important than outer beauty. So, if we make the effort to make our minds beautiful, we'll be happier.

    Of the several films Hirokazu has made about childhood and children, this one is the most modest, but no less pleasing for its delicate style and small setting. I Wish was originally called Miracle, and the change is for the better. The two-word title makes you want to know who's wishing for what, while the single word sounds plain and self-praising. This wise and funny film works small miracles in describing such a moment when kids turn from the wishfulness of childhood into shaping the world for themselves.

    The sweetly reflective hero, a sixth-grader named Koichi, starts out by wishing for a volcano to erupt. Not just any volcano, but the one that towers above his town, smoking heavily and giving off ash. An eruption would lead to a withdrawing, which would lead, at least in his mind, to a reunion with his father and kid brother, who've been living in Hakata while Koichi lives with his mother and retired grandparents in Kagoshima. The volcano, knowing nothing of this, refuses to erupt, but Koichi hears of another approach to realizing the desired miracle.

    One of the pleasures of I Wish is watching how kids behave—how Koichi attacks his dinner, for example. Another pleasure is rediscovering how kids think. These kids can be logical and ever so tricky. But children's thought processes can also be fancy. A boy wishes he could play baseball like one of baseball stars, who eats curry for breakfast; so he, too, starts eating curry for breakfast, instead of practicing on the field. Another boy tries to wish his dead dog, Marble, back to life. And what does Koichi finally wish for? I wish you'd see this delightful film to find out.

    All of America's popular music—jazz, country, rock and roll, and hip hop—develops from the Delta blues. Its words gave voice to the lives of workers in the fields of the Deep South. The blues may have something to do with sadness, but singing it is an act of defiance, not despair(绝望). The blues reminds us of our weak points while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go.

    We can still almost touch the origin of this art form. Looking back on the journey the blues took north up the Mississippi River-when African Americans left the South in search of new jobs-photographer Gail Mooney travelled from Chicago clubs down to the Delta to get the stories of blues men and blues women. They are still here today to link us to the music's early days.

    "In our conversations, we talked so much more about other things than their music," says Mooney, whose exhibition of the blues has just begun a US tour this spring. "We talked about their childhoods, their cultural origin, and a time in America when people moved to live in large cities. I would listen, and sometimes I would get a feeling."

    These photos show some of the musicians who worked and studied with blues pioneers—drummer Sam Carr was the son of Robert Nighthawk, while Pinetop Perkins and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith played together with Muddy Waters.

    Already, this generation is leaving us: Little Milton, guitarist and vocalist, and Robert "Junior" Lockwood (who learned from Robert Johnson, the greatest blues man of all) have passed away since Mooney began her project. However, they left many valuable things to us. Turn on your radio and some little piece of the Delta gets passed down again.

    Reading poems is not exactly an everyday activity for most people. In fact, many people never read a poem once they get out of high school.

    It is worth reminding ourselves that this has not always been the case in America. In the nineteenth century, a usual American activity was to sit around the fireside in the evening and read poems aloud. It is true that there was no television at the time, nor movie theaters, nor World Wide Web, to provide diversion. However, poems were a source of pleasure, of self-education, of connection to other people or to the world beyond one's own community. Reading them was a social act as well as an individual one, and perhaps even more social than individual. Writing poems to share with friends and relations was, like reading poems by the fireside, another way in which poetry has a place in everyday life.

    How did things change? Why are most Americans no longer comfortable with poetry, and why do most people today think that a poem has nothing to tell them and that they can do well without poems?

    There are, I believe, three culprits(肇事者): poets, teachers, and we ourselves. Of these, the least important is the third: the world surrounding the poem has betrayed us more than we have betrayed the poem. Early in the twentieth century, poetry in English headed into directions unfavorable to the reading of poetry. Readers decided that poems were not for the fireside or the easy chair at night, that they belonged where other difficult-to-read things belonged.

    Poets failed the reader, so did teachers. They want their students to know something about the skills of a poem, they want their students to see that poems mean something. Yet what usually occurs when teachers push these concerns on their high school students is that young people decide poems are unpleasant crossword puzzles.

    While serious training is important for all dogs, playtime is just as important.  Use these games to help teach your dog how to play.

    Hide and Seek

     Hide and seek isn't just for kids. Dogs can really enjoy this game. Pick up one of your dog's favorite toys or treats. Tell your dog to stay.  When you are ready, call your dog to come to you. If possible, squeak(使吱吱叫) the toy or shake the treats. Reward your dog with praise and the toy/treat when she finds you.

    Fetch

    Many dogs have a natural ability to fetch. Other dogs can be taught how.  Play indoors with a soft toy or outdoors in a fenced-in area with a ball or disc. For dogs that really love to run, try this game of fetch!

    Find the Treat

    Dogs have superior senses of smell, and most love to use their noses to find food. Let your dog use her brain and her nose to find hidden goodies. First, have your dog stay out of sight. Then, hide her favorite treats in different places around the room.  If help is needed, you can lead her around or point to areas for her to explore.

    Whatever the game, safety comes first! Remember to watch your dog for signs of exhaustion or overheating when you are playing. Stop if your dog seems tired or shows signs of anxiety.  When other dogs or people are around, it may create a dangerous distraction(分神).

A. Then, go to find a good hiding place.

B. Try different games to see which your dog responds to best.

C. A good game of fetch can be played almost anywhere.

D. You can include games in training as well.

E. Also be aware of your surroundings when playing with your dog.

F. Encourage your dog to play with other dogs.

G. Bring your dog back in and tell her to "go find!".

    When I called up my mother in the countryside on the phone, she told me snakes came to her home now and then, and  they seemed to have made their home there. I got the chance to distinguish by inventing something (mercy) to catch the snakes.

    No products can help me catch snakes, so I set out (research) the habits of snakes to trap them. I decided on three approaches: firstly, removing their habitat; secondly, (attract) them into  trap, and thirdly cooling them. I used the (freeze) bowl to make the snakes less active,  then collected them. The next day I released them into the wild.

    I have filled  the form and filed my patent (apply) with the Patent Office.

    I am travelling back with my parents from seeing my grandparents then it started to snow. At first, I thought it was fun and everything looked beautifully. I was looking forward to make a snowman in the playground at school the next day when the car slid violently off the road and into channel. My father called the emergency services, but they said that would be a long time before they could reach us. However, we sang songs and told stories to pass the time. Several hour later, the rescue team pulled their car out of the channel. At last, we managed to drive very slowly to home. I would never forget this experience.