He was an old manwho fished alone in a small boat on the sea and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish, the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone with another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his boat empty. The sail looked like the flag of failure forever.

      The old man was thin with deep wrinkles (皱纹) in the back of his neck. His face was terribly brown because of the strong sunlight on the sea every day and his hands had the deep scars (伤疤) from dealing with heavy fish on the lines. But none of these scars were fresh. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful.

      “Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from the sea. “I could go with you again. We've made some money.”

        The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.

      “No,” the old man said. “You're with a lucky boat. Stay with them.”

      “But remember how you went eighty-seven days without fish and then we caught big ones every day for three weeks.”

      “I remember,” the old man said.

     “It was papa who made me leave. I am a boy and I must follow him.”

     “I know,” the old man said. “It is quite normal.”

       "He hasn't mush faith(信心)"                       

     “No,” the old man said. “But we have. Haven't we?”

     “Yes,” the boy said. “Can I offer you a beer on the Terrace?”

    “Why not?” the old man said “Between fishermen.”

    Holmes said， “Somebody sent a letter with five pips (桔核) in it from India， and arrived seven weeks later to kill John's uncle. Then they sent five pips from Scotland and arrived three days later to kill John's father. Now they have sent five pips to John from London!”

    “The letters are all from sea ports. The writer was on a ship when he wrote the letters，” I replied.

    “Very good， Watson! And John's enemy is in London already!”

    “Well， I hope they won't kill young John，” I said.

    But they did. The next morning， we read in the newspaper that a policeman found him die near Waterloo station. Holmes was very angry about it.

    “He came to me for help and those men murdered him! I'm going to find them， if it's the last thing I do!” he said to me， and he hurried out of the house.

    At night， when he came back， he was tired， but pleased， he said， “I know the names of John's enemies! And now I'm going to send them a surprise! This will frighten them!” He took five pips from an orange and put them in an envelope (信封). On it he wrote “S. H. for J. C.”

    “I'm sending the pips to captain James Calhoun. His ship is called the Star. He and his men are sailing back to Georgia， USA.”

    “How did you find him， Holmes?” I asked.

    “Ship's papers，” he said， “I've looked at hundreds of them today. Only one ship， the Star， was in the three ports at the right times， this morning the Star left London to sail back to Georgia. I found out that the captain and two of his men， all Americans， weren't on the ship last night， so I'm sure they killed John. When they arrive in America， they'll get the pips and then the police will catch them!”

    A man sat at an underground station in Washington, D.C., and started to play the violin. It was a cold day in January. He played six Bach（巴赫）pieces for about 45 minutes. It was rush hour and thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

    Three minutes went by and the first person, a middle-aged man, noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed down and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

    After a minute, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk. Then another few minutes went by and someone stood against the wall to listen to him, but the young man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

    During the musician's performance, only six people stopped and stayed for a while, twenty gave him money but continued to walk. When he finished playing, no one applauded（鼓掌）. No one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.

    This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the underground station was organized by The Washington Post（《华盛顿邮报》）as part of a social experiment. One of the conclusions from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music, how many other things are we missing?

Hello! My name is Zhao Junhui. I'm 14 years old. I live in Xiaogan, China. Xiaogan is1 beautiful city and I love it. I study in a middle school. I2 four friends, Lily, Allen, Jack and Alice. They are all very3 to me. So I often play games with4 after school. We are all happy. 

I like the food here. In the morning, I have5 at home. I usually have some noodles (面条) and eggs. And I also have a cup of milk. I like milk very much. But my father6 like it. I have lunch at school with my friends7 12 o'clock. There are many kinds (种) of food. We can eat rice, noodles, jiaozi, vegetables and fruit. In the8 , I have dinner with my parents at home. I can make (制作) tomato and egg rice for my family. I think it's9 for me. 

Do you10 I can be your friend? Please e-mail me @gfimail.com. 

Carol and Linda took a trip to San Francisco last July. They went there to visit Nick. Nick is a friend from their old neighborhood in Rome. He moved to San Francisco five years ago. They went there by train because they wanted to see more of the United States. 

They arrived in San Francisco in the evening. Nick met them at the train station. They were so delighted to see him. He looked the same as before. They gave him a big hug （拥抱）. The next day, they went sightseeing （观光）. They saw the Golden Gate Bridge. They had lunch at Fisherman's Wharf. At Fisherman's Wharf, they saw the fishing boats come in. The next day, they visited the University of California at Berkeley. Nick teaches music there. Carol and Linda liked the school. They thought that it was very big and very beautiful. 

They saw all of San Francisco before they left. Nick took them everywhere! They went back to New Orleans by plane because they didn't have time to go back by train. Nick was sad （伤心的） to see them go and they were sad to leave. 

All in all, Carol and Linda had a wonderful trip. They traveled （旅行） across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They visited all of San Francisco. They had a great visit with Nick. They both wanted to go again next summer!

I like fishing with my parents at the weekend. But my friends always ask me, "How can you sit with   your parents for hours like that?"{#blank#}1{#/blank#} I just smile.

 Last Sunday, I went fishing with my parents by a river. They sat far away from me. I threw some bait(饵) into the river and sat down to watch my float(浮子). Suddenly, I saw it move. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} After an hour I still didn't catch a fish, so I went to see my mom and dad. I thought they might be luckier than me.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}"Let' s fish together," Dad said. "Maybe we' ll be lucky later." I got my things and sat down beside them. We started to have a chat. I told them some interesting things that happened in school. We talked and laughed for the rest of the day. Soon the sun started to set. We didn't have any fish, but we had a great day. I knew my parents better.

 On the way home, I told Mom that I wanted to have fish for dinner. "That's a good idea. We can buy one at the market," she said. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} At that moment, I realized how much my parents loved me.

What can you learn from the passage?(More than 15 words) {#blank#}5{#/blank#}