Al was a skilled artist. One night, his older son developed a serious stomachache. Neither Al nor his wife took the condition seriously. But it was actually acute appendicitis (急性阑尾炎), and the boy died suddenly that night.

    Knowing the death could have been prevented if he had realized the seriousness of the situation, Al's emotional health became worse. Worse still, his wife left him a short time later, leaving him alone with his six-year-old younger son. The hurt and pain of the two situations were more than Al could handle, and he turned to alcohol (酒) to avoid the pain. Gradually Al became an alcoholic (酒鬼) and began to lose everything he had. Finally, Al died alone in a San Francisco motel room.

    When I heard of Al's death, I felt sorry for him. “What a complete failure!” I thought. “What a totally wasted life!”

    As time went by, I began to rethink my earlier judgment. I knew Al's son, Ernie, one of the kindest and most caring men I have ever known. I watched Ernie with his children and saw the free flow of love between them. I knew that kindness and caring had long come from somewhere.

    One day I worked up my courage to ask him. “I'm really puzzled by something,” I said. “I know your father was basically the only one to raise you. What did he do so that you became such a special person?”

    Ernie sat quietly and thought for a few moments. Then he said, “From my earliest memories as a child until I left home at 18, Al came into my room every night, gave me a kiss and said, 'I love you, son.'”

    What a fool I had been to judge Al as a failure. He had not left any material possessions (财产) behind. But he had been a kind loving father, and he left behind one of the finest, most giving men I have ever known.

    Most of us have friends as close as family, who, when necessary, we'd call at 3 a.m. for comfort or congratulations because we know they won't get angry about us. They're almost part of us, and we share with them with our troubles and successes. But although I love these Pour Your Heart Out friends, I also need the energy of my Let's Party friends. These friends care on a different level—less stressful, less deep—but they still care.

    And such friendships are important. 'With some friends, you want to be playful rather than deeply opening your heart,' says psychotherapist (心理治疗师) Susie Orbach. 'They feel relaxed and easy that you won't keep talking about your problems or stories, and you also feel the same way. It's healthy to have lots of different friends at different levels of closeness because not only is it impossible to be close to everyone, it's also unnecessary. You need to look at yourself from different angles (角度). This is the only way you can experiment with different parts of yourself.'

    Of course, it's upsetting to be with friends who can't-or-won't -allow you to open up your heart when you really need to find someone to listen to. But if we accept our Let's Party friends for what they want to offer us—fun, laughter, full stop—then we enrich our lives greatly.

    Americans think that everything we British people say sounds smart. We think that they sound low-class, but secretly we think they sound cool. These are just stereotypes about British and American English, but there is some truth in them.

    What is certainly true is that the differences between British and American English continue to interest us.

    When the US was only around 20 years old, people were already saying that British accents sounded more intelligent, according to Erin Moor's book. That's Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, and What Our English Says About Us.

    However, there are many different accents in Britain—Moor says the UK may have just as many regional accents as the US, even though the population is around one-fifth the size. In the UK, accents are much more related to class, but to many Americans, even an accent that British people think is “low class” is thought of as intelligent and superior, according to MPR News.

    American slang has been part of British people's vocabulary for a long time—the amount of American television, movies and music enjoyed in the UK means that British people have been using words like “cool” and “awesome” for years now. But sometimes words from the UK make it to the US—like “gobsmacked”.

    “Gobsmacked” started as slang (俚语) from northern England. “Gob” means mouth, so the word means “surprised as if someone smacked (掌掴) you in the mouth”. Reality television brought it to the US, Moor said. When the singer Susan Boyle became famous for her unlikely great singing voice on the show Britain's Got Talent, she used it all the time. “I'm gobsmacked,” she repeated, and it got popular.

    “Americans love a colourful piece of slang as much as anyone else,” said Moor. And this is just one example of how Britons and Americans can leave each other “gobsmacked” with their different types of English!

    “Helicopter parenting” describes a style of raising children where parents are overprotective and do too much. It describes parents who watch over their kids at home and on the playground like a helicopter. Today, modern technology allows these helicopter parents to watch over from even far away.      

    Julie Lythcott wrote a book titled Break Free of the Over Parenting Trap and Prepare Your Kids for Success. In her book, she gives readers a closer look at this parenting style.      

    Julie Lythcott says she experienced the effects of helicopter parenting firsthand when she worked as dean of first year college students.       But many were unable to take care of themselves. They were turning to parents constantly for guidance, for problem solving, to have them make the choice about something.

So as a parent, what can you do if you want to break the over-parenting “helicopter” cycle?      

    Stop saying “we” when you mean your son or your daughter. All too often a parent would say “we are on the travel soccer team.” Well, no, your son is or your daughter is.

    Stop arguing with all of the adults in our kids' lives. You need to teach your kids to stand for themselves.

    Stop doing your kids' homework.

           Teach them to cross the street, make a meal, and remember to put their own items in their backpacks, which becomes a briefcase one day. When kids have all the skills to take care of themselves, they will be prepared for adulthood.

A. The following are some ways to stop over-protecting your children.

B. She also explains why parents should stop it.

C. Your kids have to do the things they can all by himself.

D. They can give their children directions at any moment from anywhere.

E. Build your kids' skills.

F. The freshmen were very smart and did well in their paper work.

G. Your kid is eager for more freedom, but should you give it to him?

    The Vietnam War broke out. The young husband joined the army and died in the war, leaving behind his wife and kids 1 great pain and sadness.

    Life after the war was 2, often without enough food to eat. People tried to 3 the wife who was still young and beautiful to remarry, but she refused and devoted her 4 life to raising her kids with the best possible care and education 5 sometimes she felt like giving up.

    Time passed by and the kids were 6. The first son moved to America and became an Engineer having a good life.

The son sent home letters 7, together with much money for mom to 8. However, year after year, with the many 9, the son stubbornly refused to travel home to visit Mom.

    When the mother died, the son returned and 10 a big funeral (葬礼) but people did not see him shedding tears. It seemed that he didn't really 11 the loss of his mother.

    Mother 12 a box that she always placed at the top of her bed. During the funeral, the son opened the box and 13 burst out crying, held his mother's coffin (棺材) and screamed 14, “Mom! Mom!”

    Everyone looked at each other and then looked at 15. It was full of $100 dollar bills and a piece of paper. It 16,“Son, My life is almost 17. I don't spend too much money. I 18 you a lot. Every time I 19 a motorcycle passing by, I ran out of the door,20 it wasn't my son. I saved this money for you in case (以免万一) you get sick.”

    This year I was chosen as the vice monitor (副班长) of the class. At first, I was really excited to have been chosen. And I like the monitor, Charlie as well,       has a funny face but works very hard.

    My best friend, Sally, was also happy for me. She said the last vice monitor, Joey, had been very rude and        (kind) to her. She always talked about it, but I usually        (ignore) it.

    Charlie and I have to stay behind after school to make sure the classroom is clean. I came back before Charlie last Thursday. I found Sally at Joey's desk        (cut) up Joey's English textbook. I was        (extreme) shocked. Sally asked me not to tell anyone. After that, she ran out and Charlie came in.

    Charlie saw the book and soon realized        had happened. He asked me what I had seen but I said       . The next day, Joey was crying. She was        (frighten) to tell our teacher because he may think she did it. Sally is happy about this. This makes me angry. Charlie insists that I        (tell) our teacher the truth, but I am concerned        the friendship with Sally. What should I do?

注意：词数：100左右；可适当添加细节，使行文连贯。

Dear Zack,

Yours,

Li Hua