It is around midnight when Louise wakes up. At first she doesn’t know what wakes her up, but suddenly she hears a noise. It is coming from downstairs(楼下). She is afraid and doesn’t want to get out of her bed because it is dark and she can’t see anything. She decides to go and find whatthe sounds are. She gets out of her bed and goes downstairs. It is very dark, so she has to walk slowly and carefully. She doesn’t want anybody to hear her.

The noise is coming out of the kitchen, so that is where she wants to go first. She puts her head around the door and sees a big shadow(影子). It looks like a tiger. Louise walks slowly into the kitchen, turns on the light and sees…

She sees her cat licking(舔) the milk off the floor. It knocks its bowl over and is now licking everything clean again. That is the noise.

She gets herself a glass of water and goes straight back to bed.

What time does Louise wake up?

Where is the noise coming from?

Why doesn’t she want to get out of bed?

What does she see when she puts her head around the door?

What does Louise see when she turns on the light?

One day, a friend of mine asked me a question, “Do you agree with the idea that life is fair?” His question was a good one. We   (1)   think that life should be fair, but we sometimes feel sorry for   (2)  . In fact, life is not fair and will not be fair.

When we say life isn’t fair, we   (3)   everyone is different. We look different and have different experiences. We can’t expect life to be perfect. Life is   (4)   we make it.

Patrick is an American-born Chinese. He broke his neck in an accident  (5)  the age of 13 and he has been in a wheelchair ever since. But he never   (6)  and went on studying. He overcame(克服) a lot of    (7)   and became the best student in his school. Finally he   (8)   his PhD(博士) program.

Life isn’t fair for Patrick, but he has become   (9)  . Burroughs--an American scientist--was right in saying, “A man can   (10)   many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame(指责) somebody else.”

The noise of the running water from the leaky (漏水的) tap was driving Betty crazy. Betty looked at her watch. It was nearly nine o'clock. She climbed out of bed and stood on a chair by the shelf. Her mother's Mr Fix-It was on the top shelf. Betty stepped down quietly. She read the book quickly until she found the page she was looking for, and then began to read carefully.

Next, Betty opened a box in the kitchen and picked out the tools she needed — a hammer, a wrench, and several small things, it was no easy job for her to do the repair, and she tried several times. Finally, the water tap was in pieces. One by one, she carefully laid them out on the table. That way she would know how they went back. While this was going on, her cat walked over to watch what she was doing.

Betty worked late into the night. At one point, she thought she was done. Oops! A small piece that she had forgotten still lay on the table. Slowly Betty opened the water tap one more time. This time she made sure everything was in place. She turned the water tap on and then off. One... two... three... She waited a full minute. There was no leak! Betty smiled and put the tools back into the box. Then she went back into bed. 

The next morning, Dad was in the kitchen when Betty got up. “Notice anything, Dad?” she asked. He looked around and listened. "Hmm, something’s missing... I can’t find out what it is... Wait, it's too quiet here!" “That's right,” Betty said, “Something is missing. I fixed the water tap. It doesn't leak any more.” “That's my girl,” Dad said, “It’s a good thing you are really like your mother.”

Kris Wu is 25 years old. He is a handsome Chinese-Canadian singer and actor. But did you know he is also a basketball super fan? “It’s been my dream to play in NBA since I was young.” he said.

On Feb.13, his dream came true. He played in the NBA all-star Celebrity game(NBA全民星赛)in Toronto, Canada.in the game ,he made 6 points and 7rebounds(篮球板). He was the first Chinese star to play in this game.

Wu is good at making friends. At the game, he got along very well with the NBA basketball players. Tracy McGrady called his “bro” and they worked well together. He even met Yao Ming and talked with his happily. Other players like Lebron James and Chris Paul were close to him ,too.

 “I am very happy. I hope that I can come again next year, and I will be even better,” he said.

Mr. Green was going on business to Paris for a week. He would go there by train. Before he left, he said to his son,“If anyone asks for me, tell them that your father is out, and will be back in a week.”

“OK, Dad,”said his son. But Mr. Green was afraid that his son couldn’t remember this, so he wrote the words on a piece of paper. His son put the paper into his pocket.

Four days passed, but no one came to see Mr. Green. The boy thought no one would come, so he burnt the piece of paper that evening. The next afternoon, a man knocked at the door.

“Where is your father?”He asked. The boy put his hand into his pocket at once and looked for the piece of paper. He couldn’t find it. He suddenly remembered he had burnt it, so he shouted,“ No more!”

The man was very surprised,“No more? I met your father last week. When did it happen?”

“Burnt yesterday evening,”the boy answered.

I had hidden the long black bag in the garage for the past two days．Tonight, in the dark, I would finally take it away． If everything went OK, it would be done by morning． But I had to be sure no one, not even my wife, saw me．

It was more difficult to get away from the party than I expected． I said that the children were tired and needed to get to bed． It was partly true． But the main reason for leaving was that I wanted to complete my plan．

First I had to get the kids to sleep． That was never easy at any time and tonight it was even more difficult． The eldest one wanted to know why we left the party early． I told him 10:30 pm was not early． As usual, I read them a bed time story, but I had to stop myself reading too quickly or they would learn my secret．

Silence finally came, and feeling like a thief in the night, I went out of the house and into the garage． Taking one end, I dragged(拖拽) the bag out from its hiding place and took it into the garden． I was worried that my neighbours might see me and call the police．

It was already eleven oˈclock． By the light of the moon I started working, trying to make as little noise as possible． And that was not easy with a saw (锯子) and a hammer．

After much effort, my work was finally completed． I looked down at my watch． It was exactly 4:00 am． Then I went inside to have a shower and get a few hours of sleep． It wouldnˈt be long now before the kids would rush into my room and wake me up to tell me about the new tree-house Father Christmas had brought them this year．

a．Read the kids a story．         b． Had a shower．

c． Worked in the moonlight．     d． Dragged the bag from the garage．

e． Went to a party．

The most difficult thing for the university student Shaun Rogers is to open the classroom door by himself. Shaun can't do this without ___  (1)  ____ because he is only six years old. He's the __  (2)  ___ person ever to study at Rochester University in New York. Shaun began. ___  (3)  ____ at two and by the age of five he had read many books and was able to finish writing his first book. "I love learning," says Shaun. " My hero is the scientist Albert Einstein. He never combed(梳)his hair or ____  (4)  ___ socks."

    Shaun's mother first __  (5)  ___ that her son was different when he kept crying at playschool because he was __  (6)  ___ with the children's games. She started teaching him at home after finding that local schools were not prepared for children who ___  (7)  ____ at Shaun's speed. Now Shaun is studying geography at the ____  (8)  ___ and using the Internet to finish his high school studies. However, some scientists warn that too much study can stop a child from developing normally. "I don't care how clever the kid is. Six-year-olds have to ___  (9)  ____ with their friends," says Dr. Brian Wood. Mrs. Rogers disagreed that all her son's time was taken up by school-work." He loves playing the violin and has many outdoor interests, such as camping, fishing and swimming, just like ____  (10)  ____ boys of his age."

     Tom and Joseph are best friends. They spent their summer vacation traveling in Africa. When they were walking through the desert(沙漠), they started to argue about something. Tom became very angry and slapped(掌击) Joseph in the face.

     Joseph felt hurt, but he didn’t say anything to Tom. Then Joseph wrote in the sand:“Today my best friend slapped me in the face.”

     They kept on walking until they found a small lake. They decided to have a bath. But when Joseph got in the water, he started to sink. Tom jumped in after him and pulled him out. His friend saved his life.

     After he became well again, Joseph wrote on a stone:“Today my best friend save my life.”

     Tom couldn’t understand it,“After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand. Now you write on a stone. Why?”he asked.

     “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand and the wind will take it away,”Joseph answered,“But when someone does something good for us, we must write It on stone so no one can take it away.”

When I arrived in the US, I felt very sad because life in the US was different from life in my country. My first day of school was at Takoma Park Middle School in March last year. I was very nervous in that morning and I didn’t want to get up. When I went to my first class, I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t know what the teacher said. But there were many people who spoke the same language as me, while some of them were laughing at me, because they came before me and they understood the language better than me.

   But there were three girls who helped me. Their names are Maryori, Jezabel and Beverly. As the days passed, I had some new friends and Beverly became my best friend. She always helped me with my study.

   Three months later, the school year ended and I had to come to Blair High School. On my first day of school at Blair, I felt it was different from my first day in middle school because it was a beginning of a new school year and there were many new students. I felt better because I knew that I wasn’t the only new student.

That day I met new friends. For some of them it was their first time at school in the US, so I tried to help them because I knew how new students feel when they go to a new school.