“We expected our first child to be perfect.” Most parents have thought so.

I know that’s what I     (1)  of our oldest son, Joe. He would be perfect. Joe would sail through     (2)  　from learning ABCs to being awarded a Ph.D.

Joe,  (3)  , had other ideas.

He was always a    (4)  kid. He wasn’t the kind of boy who threw    (5)  at passing cars on a freezing winter day or who dropped water balloons on the mailman during the heat of August.

But he wasn’t perfect, especially when it came to that nice little   (6)  that I had about Joe’s sailing through school. From the day Joe started kindergarten he struggled — with scissors and handwriting and math. Always math. He passed each grade with great  (7)  , never at the top of his class.

How I    (8)  friends who had children with the “math gene”. A mom told me her daughter was doing high school algebra(代数) while in the sixth grade. Another mom said her son had just taken first   (9)  in the district’s annual Math Challenge.

After hearing these stories, I would look at Joe and    (10)  : Why didn’t we raise a mathematical talent? How is he ever going to get into   (11)  if he does not get better at math? Needless to say, my motherly   (12)  never really amounted too much. Does it ever? Moms tend to worry and worry, while whatever they’re worrying about usually  (13)  on its own.

During high school, Joe slowly   (14)  at math. He got through algebra I & II, and geometry(几何), our state requirements for math. I felt greatly   (15)  at his little achievement. Then he announced that he’d take pre-calculus (微积分) in his last year of high school, which  (16)  me a lot.

“Why?” I questioned.

“Because I need to keep my skills up”, he explained. “I    (17)  math, but I need to take it.”

“For college,” he added. “I want to do really well in college, Mom. I know it will be    (18)  but I think it’s important that I try my best.”

My oldest son wasn’t perfect. He wasn’t a math talent, either. But he knew what was important: he was focusing on his  (19)  while I was worrying over his past. And that, to me, is even better than being  (20)  .

Just 50 years ago Manx seemed to be on the point of disappearing. “If you spoke Manx in a pub on the island in the 1960s, it was considered provocative and you were likely to find yourself in a fight,” recalls Brian Stowell, a 76⁃year⁃oldislander who has written a Manx⁃language novel, The Vampire Murders, and presents himself in a radio show called Manx Radio spreading the language every Sunday.

The language itself is similar to the Gaelic tongues spoken in the island's neighbours, Ireland and Scotland. A century ago, “Moghrey mie” would have been commonly heard instead of “Good morning” on the island.

“In the 1860s there were thousands of Manx people who couldn't speak English,” says Stowell. “But only a century later it was considered to be so backward to speak the language that there were stories of Manx speakers getting stones thrown at them in the towns. I learnt it myself from one of the last surviving native speakers back in the 1950s.”

Recession in the mid⁃19th century forced many Manx people to leave the island to seek work in England. And parents were not willing to pass the language down through the generations, with many people believing that to have Manx as the first language would affect job opportunities overseas.

There was a fall in the language. By the early 1960s there were perhaps as few as 200 who spoke the tongue. The last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. UNESCO pronounced that the language died out in the 1990s.

Now there is even a Manx language primary school in which all subjects are taught in this language, with more than 60 pupils attending it. Manx is also taught in other schools across the island.

Last summer, I entered the building and boarded the elevator. I usually take the  (1)   , but I was feeling tired that day and didn’t want to move a step. The doors closed, and the elevator moved   (2)  .

Suddenly, I wasn’t moving any more. I looked through the crack between the doors and realized that I was   (3)  on the second floor. I pressed the Help Button to  (4)   “City Elevator Help-Line”, and a ringing came out. “Hello, this is City Elevator. How may I  (5)   you today?” a man asked  (6)  .

“I am trapped!” I shouted at him.

“Well. Are you calling from 44 East 63^rd Street? Also, are you in any pain or discomfort?”

I sat down on the floor and wiped the   (7)  from my forehead. “Yes, that is the   (8)  . You are right and I am feeling very   (9)   .”

“Well. Our closest worker is on East 84^th Street. He will be with you as soon as possible. Would you like me to   (10)  on the line until he comes?”

“No, thanks.” I refused his  (11)   .

For the next hour, I had nothing to do but   (12)  . What would happen if   (13)  came? I’d eat dust for every meal and spend my days counting spider webs on the walls. I was   (14)  to sit alone in a dark and silent elevator. However, I found that the isolation (孤独) was not only tolerable, but also  (15)   . For the first time, I touched my soul (灵魂) and   (16)  what being alone really meant: No Daft Punk, no computer, no SAT books, and no cellphone.

 After an hour, I was just considering staying there for another hour   (17)  the door opened. However, I didn’t   (18)  . “Don’t you want to be   (19)   ?” asked the City Elevator man. “ I don’t know. I just felt so comfortable here,” I said   (20)  .

 I became a gardener when I was twelve. My early  (1)  of gardening may not have originated from my love for nature. It was to  (2)  my parents.

 At that time, we had a big yard in which a beautiful maple tree stood. But my mother often looked with  (3)  at this work of natural art.   Those golden leaves seemed like tons of rubbish her, “something else to  (4)  !”Seeing the neighbors busy with gardening, my father ever thought it a waste of time.

   At that age, I always did something    (5)  to whatever my parents did! If gardening were something they found    (6)  ,I would plant a garden!

   I planted some lily（百合花）seeds in the yard. But they failed to    (7)  .I continued to plant sunflower seeds and roses. Wild    (8)  joy,I found the first rose bloom（开花）.One by one, the flowers bloomed their heads off.    (9)  I was touched by this land of wonder.

    (10)  , my parents showed no interest in my garden. My father even    (11)  at me because he found it was    (12)  to move around my garden to the driveway. To my mother’s     (13)  ,I put her vase my real roses which, in her eyes, were simply weeds    (14)  flowers.

 Regardless of their     (15)  , I kept on planting my garden and     (16)  to enjoy the pleasure gardening. Plants make such good companions: they breathe, they bloom,they    (17)  to care and love.

 It has been many years since I made my first garden out of my desire to     (18)  my parents. Today I become known as Mrs. Greenthumbs, teaching gardening and hosting a gardening show, which makes my parents feel very    (19)  .And now I could say it is my affection for    (20)  they makes me a real gardener.

Jesse Owens was one of the greatest athletes in the history of Olympic sports. He was born in Alabama, the US, on September 12,1913. He lived there with his ten brothers and sisters until he was nine. The family moved to Ohio then. When Jesse was a child, he found out that he was faster than the rest of the kids around him.

In middle school, his track coach, Charles Riley, let him practice before school. Jesse said that this coach’s encouragement went a long way towards helping him to succeed in track and field.

Jesse first showed what he could do on a national stage at the National High School Championships. He tied(平局) the world record in the 100-yard sprint(短跑) at 9.4 seconds and in the long jump.

After leaving high school, Jesse went to Ohio State University for college. While at Ohio State, Jesse was the best track and field athlete in the NCAA. He won eight individual(个人的) championships in two years. At the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Michigan, Jesse tied one world record (the 100-yard sprint) and broke three world records (the 220-yard sprint, the 220-yard hurdles and the long jump) in a period of 45 minutes.

The 1936 Olympic Games were held in Berlin, Germany. Adolf Hitler was ruling the country at that time. Hitler expected Germans to win most of the gold medals in the Olympic Games. Jesse Owen, however, really let him down. He won four gold medals in the games. They were gold medals for the 100-meter sprint, the 200-meter sprint, the 2×100 meter relay, and the long jump.

A

   At a click of mouse consumers can purchase the goods and service they need at online shops. What they have to do is waiting for the goods sent to their homes. We shall all be grateful to the pioneers of online shopping for bringing us such convenience.

   Michael Aldrich ( the UK)

   Online shopping was invented and pioneered by Michael Aldrich in the UK. In 1979 he connected a television via a telephone line to a real-time multi-user transaction(交易)processing computer. He sold mainly Business-to-Business systems. There were a number of significant world firsts with new applications in several business fields.

   Jeff Bezos (the USA)

   Jeff Bezos defined online shopping and rewrote the rules of commerce. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web server and browser(游览器) in 1990. In 1994, Jeff Bezos read an article about how the World Wide Web was growing by 2,300 percent a year. He knew he had to tap into such a great potential for commerce. On July 6, 1995, Bezos launched Amazon. com, which operated out of the garage of his two bedroom home in suburban Seattle, Washington. With almost no publicity, sales took off immediately. The company has now expanded into dozens of product categories, forcing the world's biggest retailers(零售商) to rethink their business models, and finally changing the way people shop.

   Jack Ma (China)

   As a child, Jack Ma was bad at maths but fascinated by English. He travelled to the United States in 1995 as a translator to help a Chinese firm recover payment. The attempt failed. But a friend in Seattle showed Ma the Internet, and an idea began brewing.

   In 1999, Mr Ma gathered 17 friends and founded Alibaba in his apartment in Hangzhou. Alibaba's model was simple: allow small and medium-sized Chinese companies to find global buyers they would otherwise only be able to meet at trade shows. It works brilliantly. Alibaba's sales are now more than those of eBay and Amazon combined.

It was an unforgettable experience. We sat in a boat waiting for Ofai. He was swimming under water. There were many beautiful shells at the bottom. If he could ever find some and bring them _  (1)  ___,he would make a lot of money. It was a good and fast way to become rich. My uncle Harry was with us to take care of us. Suddenly I saw Ofai _  (2)  ___his arms. Then I could see a large shark fish _  (3)  ___under the water. All at once I was _  (4)  ____and held my breath.   

“A shark!” cried my uncle. An anxious expression suddenly _  (5)  ___ on his face. He was thinking of how to save Ofai.We_  (6)  ____at my uncle and waited for him to take_  (7)  ____.

       The fish came near. Now we could see him better. He was of a yellow-brown color and as big as our boat. What could we do to help Ofai? He had been under water for more than an hour. So by now he must be very _  (8)  ____and it was difficult for him to swim fast enough to _  (9)  ___ the trouble. Thinking that Ofai’s life was at great risk, my uncle could _  (10)  ____ it no longer. Without _  (11)  ___he took his knife and jumped into the water. Down he went after the man-eating fish. The shark was _  (12)  ___ straight for Ofai. Then, suddenly, the fish turned. My uncle’s strong arm had   (13)  __ the knife deep into the side of the great fish. The water turned red as blood ran from the shark.

       Now Ofai had time to reach the top. At last he was safe in the boat. But the fish was _  (14)  __.He turned to_  (15)  ___the man who had hurt him. As he swam to my uncle, he opened his great mouth. Again the knife went forward. This time it cut deep into the shark’s nose.

       For a minute the shark lay _  (16)  __.Now Uncle was able to swim to the top. Ofai quickly pulled him into the boat. It wasn’t long before the shark came to   (17)  __.He hit the boat with such a hard _  (18)  __ that the sides were almost pushed in. We rowed as hard as possible and finally we were safe on the seashore.

       It was my uncle’s _  (19)  __ and ability that saved Ofai and all of us. We learned a lesson from this experience that courage _  (20)  __ everything in time of great danger. We will always keep this experience in mind.

I am astonished at the way God knows when to send a special gift of encouragement at just the right time! It might be in a dream, a lost letter, a memory, or something found that we’d forgotten about.

My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. And summer after summer I enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young child. I was from the city and loved the small town where they lived. People knew everyone, their children, their pets, their ancestors.

Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting... she would make sandwiches and we’d have tea parties, plant flowers and carefully tend them. She loved knitting sweaters as well as making beautiful quilts for her grandchildren. I remember the small thimble (顶针) she would place on her finger while doing her needlework.

A few years ago, when Grandma left this earth for her new residence in Heaven, I bid farewell to my loving grandmother. How quickly our lives can change! We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday. I missed her very much, but I noticed it mostly on my birthdays, because there was no card from Grandma. She’d never forgotten my birthday!

On one particular birthday when I was feeling a little low, something happened made me feel as if she was sharing that special day with me. I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow; it was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam（缝）that I carefully opened, and, to my delight, out came a tiny silver thimble!

How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her! Not realizing it had fallen off her finger, I pictured her sewing it into that little pillow that I just happened to fluff（抖松）, to place on my bedspread（床罩）that day. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others I’d collected over the years. What a precious memory of a very special lady who, somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her thimble into my pillow. I heated the kettle and made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always did, and then enjoyed my tea and Grandma’s thimble. What a wonderful birthday that was!

越来越多的汽车进入了我们的家庭,改善了我们的生活,但同时也带来了很多问题,如塞车和车祸,给家庭和社会带来极大危害。作为中学生,我们应该怎样做呢?

请写一篇有关交通安全的短文 (120字左右)

内容包含:

1．遵守交通规则,如走人行道/过斑马线。

2．别在街道或马路上玩耍和踢球。

3．劝父母不能酒后驾车。

你可以适当增加内容,让短文通顺,过渡自然。

参考词汇: sidewalk人行道 zebra-crossing斑马线

As a young boy my family was very poor. I would often help do something for the neighbors to   (1)   a little pocket money.

One day I   (2)   on the door of an elderly woman and asked   (3)   she needed me to clean the yard. She asked why I was not in   (4)  and I showed her my worn   (5)   , which no longer kept me warm. She   (6)   me to work in the yard. When I finished, she looked at me and said, “I suppose you want to be   (7)   now.” She then   (8)   a jar filled with dollar bills and said, “I’m glad you’ve done a   (9)   job today but that is not something you should be doing again. I want you to   (10)   new clothes and get back to school. I also want you to come back to   (11)   me with your report card and I will   (12)  you when I see you have worked hard and have some good   (13)  . Now reach out your little hands and take out as much   (14)  as you can.”

 I put my hands in the jar and   (15)   so much money that it was   (16)  for me to buy what I badly needed. Later, I returned several times to see the woman and she did just as she   (17)   . She looked at my report card and gave me a handful of dollars and some delicious food every time I   (18)   her that I had an “A”.

I was twelve years old when I moved from that neighborhood. I will never forget the huge   (19)  this wonderful lady made over my life with her   (20)  .This is something I hope to do myself in this lifetime over and over again.