D

   Stuffy Pete sat down on a bench in the New York City Park. It was the third bench to the left as you enter the park from the east.

    Every Thanksgiving Day for nine years, an Old Gentleman had come to find Stuffy there at one in the afternoon. He led Stuffy to a restaurant and watched him eat a big dinner. He was trying to make it a tradition.  

    Stuffy had just come from a dinner so big that he had almost no power to move. How he expected that gentleman would not come this year! Then his eyes grew wider and his breath stopped.

    The Old Gendeman was thin and tall, dressed all in black. He wore eye-glasses. His hair was whiter and thinner than it was last year. His legs did not seem as strong as they had seemed the year before, but he moved, straight and proud, to Stuffy and toward the tradition that he was building.

    "I am glad to see everything's fine with you. For that blessing you and I can give thanks on this day of thanksgiving. If you will come with me, my man, I will give you a dinner that will surely make your body feel as thankful as your mind," said the gentleman. The words themselves were almost a tradition

    Stuffy was very full, but he understood that his desire for food on Thanksgiving Day was not his own. It belonged to this kind gentlemam.

    The gentleman led Stuffy to the restaurant and to the same table where they had always gone. He sat at the table, watching.

    The turkey and all the other food were gone almost as quickly as they appeared Stuffy saw the look of happiness on the gentleman's face. He continued to eat to keepit there.

    In an hour the battle was finished.  

    "Thank you for my Thanksgiving dinner," Stuffy stood up heavily.

    They said goodbye, as they did each year, at the door.

    Stuffy went around the first corner, stood for one minute, and fell. He was picked up and taken to a hospital.

    An hour later , the Old Gentleman was brought to the same hospital.

    "That nice old gentleman over there," a doctor was talking to another. "Do you know what's wrong with him? He's almost dead for the need of food. A very proud old man, I think, He told me he hadn't eaten anything for three days."

    Mandy Harvey is a 29-year-old singer from Florida. She lost most of her ability to hear when she was 18.

    Harvey became a singer in her teens. _________ But she decided to start singing after she learned how to feel a song's beat through the wooden floor of a stage or theater. She watches carefully to make sure her musical instruments are tuned correctly and she is singing in the correct pitch.

    Harvey is now a professional singer. But not many people in the United States had heard of her until Tuesday night. That changed when she appeared on the television show “America's Got Talent”The show has four judges who watch people perform and decide if they should continue in the competition.

    Harvey said, "I gave up singing after I lost my hearing. But I want to do more with my life than just give up." As she was singing, one camera cut away to capture images of people in the theater. Many were seen crying. At one point, everyone stood up and cheered. By Wednesday afternoon, a video of Harvey's performance had been played 46 million times.

    Why? Shortly after she finished singing, Simon Cowell, one of the judges, gave her a golden star into the air. That meant Harvey could move on to the final round of the talent competition. Cowell said," I've done this a long time, and that was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen and heard."

    Many people wrote online that Harvey's performance was encouraging, and they will not give up on anything they want to do, either.

There are different opinions about who invented the umbrella. Some people say that the people of ancient Egypt invented it, some say the Romans invented it and some say Luban's wife invented it in ancient China. There's even an interesting story about its invention in China.

Luban was the most famous craftsman(工匠) in ancient China. One day, Luban and his wife were taking a walk and enjoying the beautiful view. Suddenly it began to rain. Both of them were wet when they went back home. Luban's wife said, "If there is something that can protect people from the rain when they are walking outdoors, it will be wonderful." Then Luban said,"That's easy. I will build many pavilions(亭子)." His wife replied, "That's a good idea, but it is not convenient.Is it possible to make a movable pavilion, which could always follow the people?"She thought about it all day and night.

One day, she saw some kids playing in the rain, and each kid held a big lotus leaf over the head to protect themselves from getting wet. That gave her great inspiration. Then, she made the first umbrella in ancient China.

Since the umbrella was invented, it has been part of people's lives in every corner of the world. Right now, there are many kinds of umbrellas, such as beach umbrellas, kid umbrellas and market umbrellas.

How many umbrellas are made every year in the world? Maybe millions or even more. One interesting thing is that most umbrellas in the world are made in China. Shangyu in ZhejiangProvince alone has more than 1,000 umbrella factories and it is called"China's Umbrella City".

There is a famous house in a village. In the house, there are 1000 mirrors(镜子). A happy little dog knows about this place and 1 there. When he gets there, he runs 2 to the door. He 3 the house with a big smile. Then he sees 1000 happy little 4 smiling. When he leaves the house, he thinks," This is a 5 place. I will come back."

In the same village, there is another little dog. He is always unhappy. After he hears about the house, he decides to 6 the house. He goes into the house slowly. He puts his head down when he looks at the 7 . He sees 1000 unfriendly dogs looking at him. He 8 at them and sees 1000 dogs shouting back at him. When he leaves the house, he feels 9 and thinks," This is a bad place. I will 10 go back here again."

Life is like a mirror. When you smile at it, it will smile back at you.

Hello! I am Dale. This {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (be) my bedroom. You can see a key, a map, a jacket, two {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (cup) and a quilt in it. What's this {#blank#}3{#/blank#} English? It's a key. It's black. I use it in {#blank#}4{#/blank#} morning and in the evening. What's that in {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (England)? It's a blue map. That is a jacket. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} color is it? It's brown and white. It isn't {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (I) jacket. It's my friend Lisa's. Brown and white are her favorite {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (color). This is my cup. It's white. What's that on the quilt? It's {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (a) orange. My friend, Eric gives it to me. Oh, you can also {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (see) another(另一个) white cup in the bedroom. It's my sister Lucy's.

Perry is one of the Australia's most famous women cricketers(板球运动员). She shares her ideas about having dreams and how to make them come true.

 In Perry's view, a dream has to be realistic(现实的). It has to be something you can actually do. " When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being a musician and giving concerts(音乐会) to people from all over the world. But that's not realistic because I'm not good at it, Perry said.

 It's true that all the little dreams we have can lead to a big one. In the beginning. Perry just wanted to be a cricketer. Then, she kept working hard and tried to dream bigger. Now she has the chance to fight for her country in cricket. " That's hard to imagine when I started out, said Perry.

 As we all know, not everything can happen perfectly. All we have to do is never to give up. As a sports person, Perry may lose a game sometimes. Instead of thinking about something bad, she always tells herself." Be persistent(坚持的). Things will get better soon if you never give up.

 Finally, Perry tells us that confidence(自信心) is what gets you through the hardest times. " While facing problems, don't lose heart. Always have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself. When you believe you can, you really can," she said.