I have never understood the importance of parties in the classroom. As a mother of two school age children, I believe that public schools should no longer   (1)   classroom parties during the school day.

  (2)   is very important to students in school today. Our school year is already too short. Teachers can only just get all the basics of the courses (课程) into the   (3)   instructional minutes of the day.   (4)  , there is no time for anything useless or silly.   (5)   time is best spent focusing on the primary goal — learning.

And what about food? For health and safety reasons, schools often require that   (6)   for these activities should be bought from a store. This   (7)   a real problem for many families. Biscuits for a class of students, plus drinks and napkins can   (8)  what it costs a family to eat a meal at home. The   (9)  of a classroom party is   (10)   a problem for many people, especially in these difficult times.   (11)  , we all know that our children have eaten enough sugar and junk food without the school   (12)   such unhealthy choices.

All the   (13)   that a party can create is unacceptable! I   (14)   those birthday parties held at home for my children. I would just buy the disposable (一次性的) plates, cups, and napkins   (15)   I didn’t need to do any cleaning up. But even so, I just   (16)   to fit all the party time rubbish into the rubbish bin (垃圾桶).   (17)  the trash thrown out by a school of 16 classrooms and over 400 students. It only adds to the   (18)   of our planet’s environment.

I am not sure when our public schools decided that classroom   (19)  needed to become a part of the school calendar (日历), but I do not see the   (20)  . So I do believe schools should forbid (禁止) classroom celebrations.

Never been on an airplane? Here’s your chance to   (1)   one for just one US dollar, or even for   (2)  if you don’t have the money. Retired pilot Bahadur Gupta will be happy to show you   (3)  . The plane, which never   (4)  , is giving an opportunity to poor people to

  (5)   what it is like to sit in a jet.

When Gupta started his career many years ago, people from his tiny home villages in India   (6)   asked him what it was like to be in an aircraft. None of them had ever

  (7)    areal airplane and they wanted a look at the aviation industry through Gupta’s   (8)  . For security reasons, Gupta was never   (9)   to take his fellow villagers inside an actual aircraft. But saying no always made him feel uncomfortable and   (10)   and he always wanted to do something that would give them a   (11)   of flying.

Finally, in 2003, Gupta sold some land, bought an old airplane and started offering

  (12)   “flights” to the public, charging them only what they could   (13)  .

To make the experience   (14)   real, the “passengers” are given boarding passes and even shown safety   (15)  . What   (16)   the amazing in-flight experience is when the kids

  (17)   slide down the airplane’s emergency landing slide, which many of the most frequent flyers have luckily   (18)   experienced.

The retired pilot says he hopes all his customers can   (19)   fly in a real plane, but in the meantime he is enjoying putting a(n)   (20)   on their faces.

There Really Was a Santa Claus

         Ann worked for a big company. One of the duties of her    (1)   was to go to the post office every day and   (2)   the company mail. One day in December, she    (3)    a beggar making himself up as a Santa Claus   (4)    on the corner of the street. Each day she   (5)   her coins and dropped them in his bowl. He would smile and    (6)    her a Merry Christmas.

         At night the temperature dropped below 0℃, but the Santa Clause    (7)    stood in the cold wind.   (8)   she dropped her coins into his bowl, she handed him a pair of gloves.

         A week later, a(n)    (9)    Santa Claus was standing there. “What happened to the other Santa Claus?” she asked. He told her, “He’s very   (10)    today.” She prayed for his health.

         Later that day, a colleague came into her office   (11)   . “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” “What’s wrong?” she asked. “It’s my ex-husband,” her colleague    (12)   , “I don’t have any money to buy my boys anything for Christmas,    (13)    my ex-husband refuses to send money to them. It breaks my heart that they won’t have anything this year.” The lady   (14)   her colleague, “I’m sure everything will    (15)   . It’s Christmas. Believe in miracles(奇迹).”

         That evening, she told her husband about her colleague’s    (16)   , “I know we don’t have much money to    (17)  , but I’d like to give her fifty or a hundred dollars. We’ll just get ourselves less this year. Last year we couldn’t afford to buy anything for    (18)    but we still had a wonderful Christmas.” Her husband smiled, “Give her one hundred dollars. She needs it more than we do.”

         She reached up and held him. Warmth spread   (19)    her body. He held her and realized that there really was a Santa Claus – and he had    (20)   her!

The cultures of the East and the West really distinguish from each other a lot. This is because the culture systems are two separate systems __  (1)  __.

The origin of the eastern cultures is mainly from two countries：China and India. Both of the two cultures are gestated(孕育) by _  (2)  __. In China，the mother river is the Yellow River _  (3)  __ the Indian one is the Hindu River. These two cultures were _  (4)  ___ for several thousand years and formed their own styles. Then in the Tang Dynasty of China，the Chinese culture _  (5)  ___ went overseas to Japan，  (6)  _ into the Japanese society and _  (7)  __ the Japanese culture nowadays. Though a bit different from the Chinese one，it _  (8)  ___ to the same system.

When the two mother rivers gave birth to the eastern culture，another famous culture was _  (9)  __ on the Mesopotamian Plain(美索不达米亚平原)—the Mesopotamian Civilization. This civilization later on developed into the cultures of the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. And these two are well­known as the _  (10)  __ of the European culture. _  (11)  ___ the Chinese culture，the European one also __  (12)  __ waters. When the colonists of England __  (13)  __ in America，their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean. So the American culture doesn’t _  (14)  __ from the European one a lot.

At the same time，the _  (15)  ___ of the language systems adds to the cultural differences .In the East，most languages belong to the pictographic(象形文字的) languages while the Western languages are _  (16)  ___ based on the Latin system，for example，the one I’m using to write this paper.

Other factors like human race difference _  (17)  ___ as well .However，_  (18)  __ the far distance and the steep areas between the East and West，the two cultures seldom __  (19)  _ until recent centuries ._  (20)  ___ they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference(干扰) from the other.

You, of course, know that you will never add very rapidly to your vocabulary by merely coming across words, or by reading, or by talking. You must have a   (1)  .

Here is one   (2)   to get ahead with words in everyday life. It’s the   (3)   thing in the world.

Buy a small pocket notebook. When you   (4)    a newspaper, a magazine, or a book, or listen to TV or radio, and     (5)  a strange word, enter it in your    (6)   . Then look it   (7)   in the dictionary. If you find that it’s a word    (8)   difficult to understand or a highly technical term, just    (9)   it by. But if it sounds like a word   (10)   will be helpful to you, take possession of it, make it your own personal possession. Say it aloud many times. Study its exact meaning, note its root. Be sure, also, to   (11)   from the dictionary the example sentence in which it is   (12)   , if such is given. Then write your own sentence in line with the example in the dictionary.

All this will   (13)   only a few minutes or so,   (14)    it is necessary to make the practice a daily habit. Then the   (15)  in your notebook will grow and grow, as will your command of English.

I am an eleven­year­old primary school boy and all of my teachers complained about my unreadable handwriting．So I started taking my laptop to school and using it instead of paper，books and    (1)  ．At first I thought I was in heaven．Writing essays had become so   (2)  ．Copying notes took seconds．I don’t have to worry about spelling   (3)   and whether I have    (4)    to carry my textbooks．I was always organized，as I could not leave my books at home anymore as they were   (5)    in my machine，so you would think that it was  (6)  as a learning tool．

Unfortunately，soon I completely   (7)   all my ability to write，which is very limiting when still at school．My spelling became worse as I no longer had to think about it  (8)   the computer’s auto corrector．However，this wasn’t what   (9)  me the most．It was the fact that I was no longer learning what I used to in class．The simple act of writing something down was a way of learning for me，and a laptop could never   (10)   that．Exams started to become  (11)  as I no longer knew all the words and phrases，because I    (12)   wasn’t learning it just by typing it down．Also each lesson was at least five minutes shorter because of the time needed to  (13)  at the beginning of the class and pack away at the end of lessons．Finding and learning notes in your computer is also less    (14)  ．Furthermore，a computer does not have the same  (15)    of use as paper，as paper doesn’t have to be fully   (16)  ．Finally I couldn’t focus on my class  (17)   I had the whole Internet at my fingertips．So during lessons I would often search the Internet and have  (18)  ．

As you can see，the   (19)  are far more than the benefits．  (20)  I stopped taking my computer to lessons．Now I perform better at school．