Visiting the city when you are six months pregnant and have a two-year-old girl can be really {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (challenge). One spring afternoon, we went to one of the grocery stores nearby to buy some food for dinner. There was no sign of rain, and the store was just around the comer, so we went there{#blank#}2{#/blank#} an umbrella. However, we were about to leave the store {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the rain came in full force. It seemed that the streets would be flooded {#blank#}4{#/blank#} water within minutes.

    I noticed a young Chinese couple staring at {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (we) when we came to a crossroads and were waiting for the light to change. I figured they were probably wondering {#blank#}6{#/blank#} a pregnant foreigner was dragging her little kid out through the rain. But as we crossed the street,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} woman offered me her umbrella. I told her I couldn't take it when it was clearly starting to storm. She insisted,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (hand) it to me and hurried off with her husband.

Though caught in the rain {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (expect), we still treasured the memory and will always recall the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (friend) and kindness of the Chinese couple.

    Don't be too concerned {#blank#}1{#/blank#}money, because it will change you from achieving happiness. And the ironic(讽刺的)thing is that people think they will be happy when they have money.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}（actual), money has little to do with happiness. If you have money but you are{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(happy), you will use that money for more unhappiness. But people keep{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(look)for money as if money is going to bring happiness. People are ready, at any moment,    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (change)their ways, if more money is available somewhere else. Once the money is there, then suddenly you are no longer {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(you); you are going to change. This is the way of the worldly man. Remember, I don't call a person worldly because he or she{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(have)money. I call them worldly if they change their motivations for money. This applies to people with no money as well. The non-materialistic (非物质主义的)life is one in{#blank#}8{#/blank#}money is just a means: Happiness is in the{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(major). You know who you are and where you are going, and then you will see your life has{#blank#}10{#/blank#}meaningful quality.

    Chamberlain, the first player{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(score) more than 3,000 points in a season, was born in Philadelphia in 1936. He was the only one of the 11 children who{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(be) tall. As a child, Chamberlain had {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(vary) health problems and he nearly died of pneumonia when he was ten.

    Chamberlain is the only NBA player who averaged more than 50 points per game for an entire season. At one point, Chamberlain was so much{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(good) than all the other players that they changed the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(rule) of the game to try to stop him. He joined the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors in the 1959—1960 season and was{#blank#}6{#/blank#}immediate success. Chamberlain{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(name) the most valued player four times in the league.

    Chamberlain ended his career after five {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(amaze) seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. By the time he retired, he held many NBA records: he scored 50 or more points 118 times and 60 or more points 32 times,{#blank#}9{#/blank#}won him the title “outstanding player of his generation”. Would{#blank#}10{#/blank#} be interesting if Chamberlain played with Michael Jordan?

    China is a big old country and it has a history of more than five thousand years. We are proud of{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(it) culture and part of the culture even influences the world{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(great), for example, the thought of Confucius. As Chinese economy develops very fast and plays {#blank#}3{#/blank#} important role in the world, more and more{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(foreign) learn Mandarin (普通话) in Confucius institutions. The Chinese traditional culture can be tested by the time. It unites the whole nation and no matter{#blank#}5{#/blank#} kind of disaster comes, we will fight together for the country's future. Today, many young people lose {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(faith) in traditional culture and they are crazy{#blank#}7{#/blank#}the western culture. They follow the western fashion{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(think) we are the old style. But someday, they {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (realize) they are wrong {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (abandon) traditional culture.

People eat rice all over the world

    Rice {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (believe) to have been first grown in China or possibly somewhere else in eastern Asia around 10,000 years ago. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} earliest evidence of rice farming comes from a 7,000-year-old site near the lower Yangtze River village of Hemudu in Zhejiang province in China.

    Rice is a kind of food which requires much labor. In developed countries, the planting and harvesting is done {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(most) with machines. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, in much of the world, these things are still largely done by hand. It takes one farmer 1,000 to 2,000 working hours {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(raise)a rice crop on 2.5 acres of land. The fact that rice needs so much labor means{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(keep)a lot of the population on the land.

    Rice is also a crop {#blank#}7{#/blank#} need of lots of water. The wet rice grown in most of Asia needs hot weather after a period of rain and conditions provided by the rainy seasons affect many of the places {#blank#}8{#/blank#} rice is grown.

    Rice straws(稻杆）{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(leave)in the fields add nutrients(营养物)to the soil after rice is harvested(收割). For the next crop, rice farmers can often enjoy a good harvest by adding little {#blank#}10{#/blank#} no fertilizer.(肥料)

The Best Book I've Ever Read

    Frankly, I have read nearly all of the great works of literature, but no book has ever impressed me as deeply or directly {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Joel Stein's Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masendinity.

    Haven't we all, on some level, been Jewish boys in New Jersey in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} 1970s with only female friends, an Easy-Bake oven and a strong preference for show tunes? Haven't we all had a panic attack {#blank#}3{#/blank#} learning we're going to have a son, since that means we're going to have to figure out how to throw footballs, watch other people throw footballs and decide {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to be happy or sad about the results of football throwing? Haven't we all then tried to correct our lack of maleness by becoming a man, fighting fires with firefighters, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (drive) a Lamborghini and doing three days of Army training camp? I know I have.

    The only parts I didn't fully enjoy were {#blank#}6{#/blank#} in which the author suffered horribly. After just three hours of training camp, he fainted weakly into the arms of a soldier. The film rights to Man Made have already been sold to Fox, and I hope it gets {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (turn) into a movie with George Clooney playing the Stein role, since they remind me so much of each other.

    {#blank#}8{#/blank#} this is only Stein's first book, I would already consider him as someone like David Sedaris, Dave Barry, James Thurber, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. I {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (recommend) Man Made not just to all my friends and family but also to strangers on Twitter over and over again. My one fear is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} after this great achievement, Stein will lose his ability to be a cruel critic of our shallow times.