C

    O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison（监狱）. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales（故事）were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader's surprise.

My dear son,

    Your letter of last week reached us yesterday, and I only have $13 left at present, which I will send to you with this letter. I may sell the other pig next week and meet the need of what you wanted. I will probably have to wear the old overcoat to meetings again this winter, but that doesn't matter as long as you are getting education(教育).

    I want you to be well educated so that you can go anywhere and spell the hardest word. I want you to be able to go among the Romans or the Medes and Persians and talk to any of them in their own language. I never had any advantages when I was a boy, but your mother and I decided that we would support(支持) your learning no matter how much it may take though it means cutting down our daily living costs.

    I hope you will get your education as cheap as you can, for it is a big job for your mother and me to pay the school fees. I knew education comes high but I didn't know the clothes also cost so much. Now look at that basketball suit, and that bathing suit, and that lawn-tennis suit, I don't care about the money, because you say a young man can't really educate himself successfully and completely without them, but I wish you'd send home what you get through with this fall, and I will wear them through the winter under my other clothes. We have much colder winters here than we used to, or else I am failing in bodily health. Last winter I tried to go through without underclothes, the way I did when I was a boy, but a Manitoba wave came down our way and picked me out of a crowd.

    I am not much of a mean man, so you will have to excuse this letter. We are all quite well, except your old grandpa, whose shoulders badly hurt, and hope this will find you enjoying the same great blessing.

Your father

    In life, there will always be some people or things that deeply touch you, or even change some of your ideas.

    On my way to school, I always see some people w{#blank#}1{#/blank#} in orange color and sweeping the street. They are city cleaners. People always d{#blank#}2{#/blank#} them as beauticians of the city. However, their work is really hard!

    Last week, our school carried out a social practice activity. I f{#blank#}3{#/blank#} a sanitation (环卫) worker Aunt Hu to experience. As we walked, we w{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Aunt Hu went to clean up the rubbish when she saw it. I also c{#blank#}5{#/blank#} some leaves and waste paper into a plastic bag. After five minutes, I felt a little tired. It was very hot. How I wanted to find a cool place to have a rest! But Aunt Hu didn't mean to stop even though there was much sweat (汗) p{#blank#}6{#/blank#} over her face. Just at this time, a banana peel fell on the ground. I looked up and saw that it was t{#blank#}7{#/blank#} by a fashionable girl! I was very angry, but Aunt Hu picked it up silently and put it in the dustbin. At this moment, I was touched d{#blank#}8{#/blank#}. She left the dirt and tiredness to herself and the tidiness to us, but the girl turned a blind eye to her job!

    City cleaners are worth our high regard. Thanks to them, the public environment has become clean and c{#blank#}9{#/blank#}. The news reports how the public respects the touching news of these lovely people. We are glad to see the public's a{#blank#}10{#/blank#} to the little people.

Clouds change every second, bringing nature's{#blank#}1{#/blank#}to us But can you see it?

Cloud spotting, by its name, is just looking at clouds. Some people do cloud spotting to simply relax {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Others do it to try and better understand clouds, from their {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to their names. Ji Yun, 36, is a cloud spotting expert in Beijing. 

In October 2013, Ji got a message from a friend, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}that some rare (稀有的) clouds were heading toward southeastern Beijing. Ji then bought tickets and went on a high-speed train to chase after them. 

"As soon as I got the information, I{#blank#}5{#/blank#}out of my home. After guessing where they were likely to head. I took a train to Tianjin. In the end, I {#blank#}6{#/blank#} in taking several wonderful pictures in the Wuqing district of Tianjin, "Ji said. The cloud took pictures of{#blank#}7{#/blank#}out to be one of the world's top 10 rarest clouds. 

This experience made Ji famous among the cloud spotters. He set up a WeChat group later that {#blank#}8{#/blank#}year to put people with similar hobbies together. They then set up chat groups in 2019 to cover different areas of China. Now, there are plenty of cloud spotting chat groups. Together, they became known as the Sky Enthusiasts Association(天空爱好者协会). Three years after the association was set up, cloud lovers collected every kind of cloud in the International Cloud Atlas. The International Cloud Atlas is a reference (查阅) book made by the World Meteorological （气象）Organization. 

"We created a book with all of these {#blank#}9{#/blank#} photos. And then we published （出版) it in late 2023, " Ji said. "This is a gift to all{#blank#}10{#/blank#}who love clouds. "

My English learning began in primary school. I was happy to say sentences like: "What's your name? "and to answer this question with "My name is Renato". 

I felt I was not a little boy any more because I could understand a foreign language. English was so wonderful for me. For the first time，I was able to understand my favourite English songs. How great it was!

After finishing middle school，my family couldn't pay for my study in an English school. My mother gave me some advice. "What about learning English by reading books and singing songs? "she said. Then I started reading books in English and using songs as a way of learning English. 

Three years later，I found a job and sometimes I talked to some foreign people. One day，I lost my job unluckily. I decided to go back to school to learn English. 

Now，I still love English. I use TV，music and the Internet to learn English. These things help me to improve both my listening and speaking. I hope I will have more chances to use this language in the future. I also hope more people can love it.