Have you ever complained why life is so tiring? Does the sky sometimes seem to be dark to   (1)  ? Is your study sometimes not successful? Well, dear friends,   (2)   and smile all the time. If you look at the world with your warm heart, you’ll find that the whole world   (3)   at you.

While in school, sometimes you are   (4)   of your lessons, but have you ever noticed the happy smile on your teacher’s face   (5)   you did a good job?

Imagine one day it is fine. Just before you want to go out, it   (6)   starts to rain. Maybe you would feel very sad and start complaining about the   (7)  . But dear friends, why don’t you sit down and listen to the free concert that the nature   (8)   you ? And with the timely rain, crops in the fields will grow better and better, and farmers will have a good   (9)  . Although everyone wants to succeed in what he or she tries to do, sometimes failure can’t be   (10)  . I think failure is not   (11)  . The terrible thing is that we are being afraid of it and   (12)   up hope.

When we face failure, we must have confidence   (13)   ourselves, learn a useful lesson from it and try our best to finish what we have decided to do. As a famous   (14)   goes, “Failure is the mother of success.”

Attitude decides everything. With an optimistic attitude, life will be easy and   (15)  . Let’s smile at whatever we meet and the whole world will smile back at us.

Nowadays, more and more people in society have known the importance of quality education. However, students in middle schools and high schools are still saying that they have too much  (1)   to do.

    In many teachers’   (2)  , homework offers a good way to strengthen the   (3)   the students have learnt in class. It is   (4)   for students to learn only by hearing. Yet they ignore the disadvantages that homework brings. For one thing, too much homework will   (5)  up all the spare time of students. They are   (6)   to enjoy their lives. Some students can do   (7)   but to take exams when they leave high school. For   (8)  , too much homework will do great   (9)   to students’ health both physically and mentally. They spend too much time having classes and doing homework. Little time is left for them to do   (10)   exercise. More and more students are   (11)  . At the same time, they feel quite   (12)   mentally. Their daily life seems to be filled with homework. They feel that they can  (13)  finish it, because every day they have new homework.

    Schools should try to take   (14)   measures to improve the all-round development of students. Schools should think more about the   (15)  of homework. How much time should students spend on homework? It is a question whose answer will have important effects on students.

More than  95 percent of people in the world have    (1)  today, according to the United Nations. Phone calls and messages help us easily make contect with others. It means that we  (2)   write  letters now. But a TV show, Letters Alive《见字如面》 , is   (3)  back this habit.

   Letters  Alive got its idea from a UK program with a same name. Both shows invite famous actors and actresses, but there are no funny jokes or different competitions.   (4)   , it’s just one person walking up to a microphone and reading a letter.

   The letters were written by people from different   (5)  in history . For example, in one episode（集） they read a letter written by famous writer Xiao Hong to her younger brother in 1941.The letter shows that Xiao Hong   (6)  her brother so much and had great hopes for his future.

  “Every letter opens another world for us,”  (7)   Guan Zhengwen, the director of the TV show. It seems that we can   (8)  the real lives and feelings of the writers.

    Since its first episode on Dec5, Letters Alive has been   (9)  praised. Many audience members said that it has provided a   (10)  of fresh air to today’s TV shows.

  This means that cultural vaules and true feelings are the keys to winning praise.

Every school has its own rules. How many   (1)   are there in your school? At some schools, the students   (2)   to wear uniforms on school days. But many students don’t like to wear uniforms. They think the uniforms are the ugliest   (3)   in the world. But the schools don’t allow the students to wear   (4)   own clothes at school. So some students draw cartoons or some famous singers on their   (5)  .

They think it is very   (6)   that everyone wears the same. It is very unfair(不公平的) that the teachers and the students are wearing   (7)  . But most of the students   (8)   the rules. What do you think   (9)   it? Do you   (10)   your school uniforms?

“How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly greeting that people in the United States use. However, “How are you?” is also an unusual question. It’s a question that often doesn’t need an answer. The person who asks, “How are you?” expects to hear the answer “Fine,” even if the person isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question and “Fine” isn’t really an answer. They are common ways of saying “hello” or “hi”.

Sometimes, people don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks “Do you agree?” the other person may be thinking, “No, I don’t. I think you’re wrong.” It isn’t polite to disagree very strongly, so he might say, “I am not so sure.” This is a nicer way to say that you don’t agree with someone.

People also don’t say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking to other people. For example, many conversations over the phone end when one person says, “I’ve got to go now,” or the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse such as “Someone is at the door,” or, “Something is burning on the stove.” The excuse may be real, or not. The person who wants to hang up simply doesn’t want to talk any more, but it isn’t polite to say so. An excuse is polite, and it doesn’t hurt the other person’s feelings.

Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an opinion, or ending a conversation, people often don’t say exactly what they are thinking. This is one way of being nice to people, and it’s a part of the game of language.

   Almost everyone likes music very much. But do you know who invented music? Who sang the first song? No one knows the answers   (1)   these questions. But we know that music is very    (2)   in everyone's life. Babies and young children love to    (3)   people sing for them. When they get older, they like to sing  the songs themselves. When children go to  school, their   (4)   of music grows. In middle schools, students    (5)   music lessons. And they become    (6)   in pop music. Music will make them   (7)   after a day's hard   (8)  .

  We can    (9)   hear music in shops, buses and houses. We shall try to find out   (10)   about music.

  The following is a radio broadcast (广播).

  Good morning. Today's broadcast brings together music from different places of the world. We   (11)   some American music and pop music for you. In this broadcast we shall study the music. We shall try to find out what music says and how people   (12)  . I will tell you   (13)   they are all good music. The word "music" comes from the word "muse". The Muses are goddesses (女神) of the arts, so music is a kind of   (14)   . It's like speaking, but it's   (15)   .

We can't imagine that without music what our life would be like.

Do you have meals regularly? If the answer is “yes”, it would be great. However, many people are not doing as great as you. According to a new survey, half of British people say that they are too busy to have meals on time.

The survey shows that 50% of British people don’t have meals on time. About 40% of them eat breakfast in less than 10 minutes. One fifth say that they don’t have breakfast or lunch. Instead, they choose to eat snacks to stop themselves from being hungry. About 47% say that they are so busy that they just have a sandwich at their desks. Many people eat snacks to get through the day. As a result, making people eat healthily is not an easy task. It seems that the traditional lunch hour is becoming a thing of the past.

As we all know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But so many people don’t have breakfast every day. Even worse, nearly one in three people combine breakfast and lunch together.

Many people have dinner very late in the evening. About 16% of people say that they often have dinner after 8 pm. That is time for the digestive system(消化系统) to slow down and get ready to sleep! Some people even eat snacks late at night!

Everyday work is very important, of course. But health is much more important.

Many of us enjoy watching animals in the world. But do you know they can also  (1)  us?

Geese, for example, teach a very good lesson about   (2)  . In the fall, Canada geese fly to the warm south to keep themselves   (3)  Canada’s cold winter. They lift off in no order. But  (4)  they form a V shape, with one bird leading the group.

This V shape  (5)  geese save energy. When the front bird moves its wings up and down, the resulting force of the air lifts the next one. This continues down the line. The bird in front has the  (6)   job. When it gets tired, it moves behind, an  (7)   bird moves into the lead. By sharing the role, the group can travel great distances. Geese flying in a V shape can fly 70 percent farther without rest than birds flying alone.

Through the long flying journey, geese communicate with one another. They honk to encourage the birds up front to keep the speed. They also cheer each other up   (8)  working toward a common goal.

What have we learned   (9)  the lovely geese’s experience and skills?

  (10)  together! Whether it is our personal lives or our jobs, we need other people. We need the spirit of teamwork!

Some students from Thailand(泰国) write an article on the website(网页). They ask us to save the elephants in Thailand. They tell us that the elephant is one of Thailand’s symbols（象征）. Their first flag had a white elephant on it. This is a symbol of good   (1)  .

Elephants are   (2)   animals. They can play soccer or music. They can also draw very   (3)  . People say that “ An elephant never forgets.” Elephants can walk for a long time and   (4)  get lost. They can also remember places  (5)  food and water. This helps   (6)   to live.

But elephants are in great danger. Elephants are losing their homes   (7)   people cut down many trees. People also kill elephants for their ivory（象牙）. Today there   (8)   only about 3,000 elephants (over 100,000 before). We must save the trees and not buy things made of ivory. Donˈt forget that Thai Elephant Day is   (9)  March 13^th . Let’s work together and   (10)  the elephants!