In 1952, my daddy traveled with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This meant he would  (1)  a lot of time away from home.

As  (2)  came near，he called my mother and   (3)   why he would not be celebrating the holiday with us. Money was tight and he didn't have a way to get back to his  (4)   Though she was   (5)  , Mother knew he was right. When she told us the news, it really  (6)   me, and I went to bed on Christmas Eve with a  (7)   heart.

When we  (8)   up on Christmas morning, Santa had conic. I still remember what gift we   (9)   that year. We were all happy with our gifts, so we went outside to play. As we were   (10)   I looked up and thought I saw my daddy in the distance I ran inside to tell Mother. She did not  (11)  me and told me not to make up stories. My mother  (12)  it just wasn't possible.  (13)   I was sure it was Daddy！I turned to go back outside when I heard familiar footsteps. Daddy was home！As I   (14)   into his arms, Daddy explained that he had tried   (15)   to get home for Christmas, but without success. At last, a group of the workers had decided to drive. But the  (16)   guy lived miles away. So Daddy started   (17)   on Christmas Eve until he arrived home. He had walked all night！

Though the  (18)  that year were wonderful, tile best gift was not found under the  (19)  . Daddy's special surprise made this my most  (20)   Christmas.

When the earthquake hit Japan on March 11, workers in a supermarket in Japan didn’t run away when they felt the shaking. Instead, they held on to the shelves and tried to stop the goods (货物)from falling down.

Reporters from NHK, the country’s largest TV station, stayed calm in front of cameras during the earthquake, even though some were facing real danger.

The earthquake was the most powerful one to hit Japan in the country’s history. But Japan’s reaction(反应) to the accident has shown that it is the most earthquake-prepared country in the world. The calm the Japanese showed during and after the quake has impressed the world.

This is because Japan has “an earthquake culture”. Japanese people are taught how to prepare for and react to earthquakes from a young age.

Schools in Japan organize earthquake practices every month. They make students become familiar with being in an earthquake.

Japan also has a good earthquake warning system(警报系统). Warning were broadcast on television, radio and mobile phones nine seconds after experts(专家) first knew about the quake on March 11

The warning system is unable to predict earthquakes. But it can usually alert people about 15 seconds before they feel the effects. Even 15 or 20 seconds can be enough time to save people’s lives.

We each have a memory. That’s why we can still remember things after a long time. Some people have very good memories and they can easily learn many things by heart, but some people can only remember things when they say or do them again and again. Many of the great men of the world have got surprising memories.

       A good memory is a great help in learning a language. Everybody learns his mother language when he is a small child. He hears the sounds, remembers them and then he learns to speak. Some children are living with their parents in foreign countries. They can learn two languages as easily as one because they hear, remember and speak two languages every day. In school it is not so easy to learn a foreign language because the pupils have so little time for it, and they are busy with other subjects, too.

       But your memory will become better and better when you do more and more exercises.

I grew up in a big family---five brothers, three sisters and I ----with just enough of all the right part to make a childhood well remembered. It was a very strict upbringing.

On the first day of my second grade, my father asked me if I could read well. “Yes, I can,” I said. So he gave me a hand-draw map with street names and directions on how to walk to school. The school was three miles away, and I had never been there by myself.

He handed me the map and my lunch box and said, “Don’t stop and don’t turn back.” I was standing, scared, but he kissed me goodbye and sent me out of the door. On my way to school, I couldn’t help crying, but I continued to walk. I didn’t know how long it would take me to get there, or how many fearful and anxious moments I would have, but I do remember forever how I felt when I came around the last corner, and saw my school.

My heart was filled with relief and joy. I made it! I wished I could tell my father right then that I had make it. When he got home, he said to me, “Hi, did you have fun?” I murmured, “yes.” and waited for him to ask what had happened, but he never did.

Years later, I finally got the courage to ask him why he did that and why he didn’t care about what had happened. He just looked at me for a few minutes and then said, “I didn’t have to ask you, because I knew. I followed you the whole way. I saw you jump up and down at the last street corner. I felt what you felt.” Then I understood and cried.

One day last summer, watching the boys and girls trying to catch butterflies I remembered something happened when I was young. When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.

We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening the mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. No musician can sing more beautifully than the birds. I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and in that way would have my own private musician.

I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, the bird flew about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home. I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.

I had left the cage out, and on the second day my new pet’s mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth. The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I about how to feed her baby.

The following morning when I went to see how my bird was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened! I had taken good care of my little bird.

Arthur Wayne, the famous ornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time. Hearing me crying over the death of my bird, he explained what had occurred. “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poisonous berries (干果). She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in cage.”

Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.

B

Guo Jingming is a best-selling author in China. He was born in Zigong, Sichuan Province on June 6, 1983. He is well-known for his essays and fictions, such as On the Edge of Love and Hurt, City of Fantasy, and Tiny Times. His essays and fictions are especially popular with teenagers.

He is also a director and once directed his movie Tiny Times successfully. In June 2013, Guo was awarded the Best New Director at the Shanghai International Film Festival for his first movie Tiny Times. The movie has sold 6.7 million copies.

In 2001, Guo Jingming started to gain fame after winning the New Concept Writing Competition’s top award. Lots of young people got to know Guo Jingming little by little.

A year later, Guo entered the writing competition again and won the top prize for the second time. At the same time, a collection of his prose(散文) On the Edge of Love and Hurt was published.

In 2003, his first novel City of Fantasy came out. It was the novel that made Guo Jingming famous all over the country.

In 2008, Guo was elected to the Chinese Writers’ Association. He became the youngest member of the association. Guo’s Tiny Times series was published between 2008 and 2012.

A

Everyone hopes to have a healthy lifestyle. But do you know what a healthy lifestyle is like? Here are some ways to have a healthy life.

Get active.
This is the most important way of a healthy

lifestyle. Walking, running, playing basketball and other sports will help you keep healthy.

Keep clean.

Keep the places around you clean. Unclean and untidy places can not only make you angry but also make you ill.

Eat healthily.

Our health depends on our food, so everyone should remember to eat healthy food. The healthier food you eat, the healthier you will be.

Live green.

This is the easiest way to live a healthy lifestyle. Plant trees around your house, try your best to use less water, and stop using things if they are bad for the environment.

Cacao, a 16-year-old dog, from Milan, Italy, has become a local celebrity (名人) after he appeared in local papers for his regular habit of taking the bus to his favorite place in the city.

Almost every day for the last few years, Cacao leaves his home and heads for the bus stop on Arrgone Bouleverd. There he sits alongside the other human passengers, waiting for bus 54.

But Cacao will only board the bus if it’s driven by the driver he’s known since he first started his secret trips. After he makes sure he’s got the right driver, Cacao gets on the bus and waits quietly until he reaches his favorite destination — a public park close to Lambrate Station, in north-eastern Milan.

While he is there, he likes to wander around the gardens, walking up and down in the public space for a few hours, enjoying the afternoon sunshine. When he’s tired, he walks back to the station and takes the same bus home.

Cacao’s owner, Nicoletta, a local bar owner adopted Cacao after she saw him wandering the streets. He was a quick learner, however, and in just six months of living with her, Nicoletta had taught him to cross the street on a green light and know to walk only on the pavement. She had so much confidence in his skills that she allowed him to walk around the neighborhood while she was at work.

When Nicoletta first heard about her dog’s unusual habit, she couldn’t believe it. One of her regular customers in the bar said that she had seen Cacao take the bus. Nicoletta then decided to follow her dog, seeing him get on the bus at the station close to her home. She believes he must have memorized the route that they take every Saturday on the way to the markets.

Thankfully, she did not stop Cacao from enjoying his routine, and the driver carried on turning a blind eye to the rules. The happy dog continues to be a regular on the number 54 bus.