When I am reading a newspaper at home ， my friends call me， “Will you 1 here and give us some help?” I throw the 2 away and run to them.

    My friends are playing a basketball game 3 And the ball goes right into Mrs White's 4 They know I live next to her ， 5 they want me to get the ball for them.

    I 6 my neighbour Mrs White. She looks unfriendly. Everyone says that she doesn't like the children.And 7 knows Mrs White well because she seldom comes out of her house or speaks.

    I walk into Mrs White's garden 8 I am nervous（紧张的）.Suddenly I see a tall 9 walking to me. It is Mrs White. I feel 10 when I see her.

    “Is this your 11 ?" she asks.

    I say yes and we'll 12 do it again.

    To my surprise， Mrs White says， "Why don't you kids 13 here? This hoop（篮球架）here is better than yours."

    Wow! We are so glad to hear that !Mrs White is 14 us to play in her garden! We all learn a(n)15lesson: what many people say isn't always true.

    Mark and his brother Jamie rang their neighbour Mrs.Grady's doorbell.

    "Hi，Mrs.Grady，"said Mark when she opened the door."Would you like us to shovel（铲除）the 1 in your yard？"Shoveling the snow was Jamie's idea，a way to make enough money for a new video game.Mrs.Grady touched her hand to her heart."That would be wonderful，boys.The work is too much for me."

    "It will 210dollars，"Jamie said.

    "Oh dear，"Mrs.Grady was a little disappointed."I haven't been able to get to the bank. I can 3 home﹣made cookies，but I guess that's not what you had in4.

    Mark was going to say that Mrs.Grady could pay them another time，but Jamie cut him off.

    It still snowed 5As they walked 6 the snow out of her yard.Mark suddenly thought of how shehelped him last summer.She didn't look like a strong person，but 7 a big black dog had boxed him in a corner，her door flew open.She ran to him and stood between him and the dog.She 8 to hurry it away.

    "It was nothing.Good 9 watch out for each other，don't they？"she said when Mark's parents thanked her.

    And now Mrs.Grady needed Mark as much as he'd needed her last summer.Mark smiled and began to shovel the snow.Jamie got surprised and 10"What are you doing？It will take you all day.No money!"

    Mark explained."Nobody will pay us if we only do things for money."

    When I was young, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn't look like any other doctor I'd ever known. He was very nice.

    In his spare time, he was always planting trees. The good doctor had some interesting views about planting trees. He didn't often water his trees and he often beat them with a rolled-up newspaper — to wake them up and push them to grow faster.

    I didn't understand why." Watering plants too often is bad for them," Dr. Gibbs explained when I asked him one day." You have to make things hard for them. Those trees that aren't watered enough will have to grow deeper into the ground for water, and then they will be strong."

    To be honest, I didn't believe what the doctor had told me. I planted a few trees several years ago. I still tried to water my trees and take good care of them every week. I wanted to make sure that my trees would grow much better than his.

    Twenty-five years later, when I came back to my hometown to check those trees, I was shocked. Dr. Gibbs' trees were extremely tall and big. My trees, however, were very weak. Dr. Gibbs' views suddenly came back to me. Hard conditions seemed to be good for Dr. Gibbs' trees.

    I used to try to make my sons' life comfortable and easy. Since then, I changed a lot. When children are growing up, they have to face lots of difficulties like Dr. Gibbs' trees, and difficulties can lead them to be strong and brave people to face everything.

    Long long ago, there was a swan(天鹅)with golden feathers(金羽毛). She lived in a lake. A woman lived in a small house 1 the lake with her two daughters. They were very poor. They worked hard all year round, 2 still, they lived a hard life and sometimes they even didn't have enough 3 to buy food.

    The swan was 4 to see that. She said to herself, "I'll give one of my feathers to them each day, then they can live a happy life with the money selling my feathers." That evening, she 5 to the poor woman's house and left a golden feather on the table without saying 6 From then on, the swam came every day and gave them a feather. The woman was very happy because their life was much 7 than before.

    But day after day, the woman became greedy(贪婪). She said to her 8. The swan may fly away one day. If so, we will be poor again. We should take all her feathers when she comes next time."

    "Oh, no, Mom!" cried the daughters, "This will 9 the swan. She helps us a lot!" But the mother wouldn't listen. When the swan came as usual, the mother caught her and took all her feathers. But suddenly, the golden feathers changed into chicken feathers.

    Then, the Golden Swan said, "Poor Mother, I came to 10 you, but you wanted to kill me.

    Now I am leaving and will never come back. Never be greedy!" With these words, the swan flew away.

Peter was a robot in Sky City. There were some words1 his name card: "XT-27: The best robot". Yes, he was the best robot here. And he was the only XT-27 robot in the2 as well. Peter thought he was so3 , so he didn't want to make friends with other robots. When they asked him to play, he always said he was4 .

One day, Peter went to5 another city, Bionic City. After getting there, he found there wereXT-27 robots everywhere. Peter was very6 and he walked around the city for a long time. He7 to other XT-27 robots, telling them how happy he was to meet them there. He thought he found8 true friends there. Finally, he9 decided to live there. 

However, as time went by, Peter got10 with living in Bionic City. All the robots here11 the same—one big head and one big eye. And they always did the same thing. There was12 new every day. Peter thought of Sky City. Hundreds of robots lived there13 they were so different. He missed them and wanted to go back to Sky City. 

When Peter14 to Sky City, he was happy to meet so many different robots. He15 that it was great to make friends with them. 

Helen Keller was both blind and deaf. 1 she couldn't see or hear, she still became a skilled writer and speaker.

Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was 19 months old, she became very 2 and the illness made her unable to see or hear.

When Keller was 6, she got a teacher named Anne Sullivan. Sullivan used Keller's sense of 3 to teach her. She handed Keller a doll. Then she wrote the letters of the word "doll" on Keller's hand so that Keller can 4 the connection between the letters and the object she was holding. Then she learned that things had names.

With Sullivan's help, Helen made progress 5 . Soon she could 6 sentences by feeling raised words. A few years later she learned Braille (盲文), which helped her read more and learn more.

Even though learning to speak was a bigger challenge, Keller decided to face it bravely 7 giving up. Keller 8 to do it by touching the mouth and throat of a person who was speaking. In that way she could feel the way the mouth and throat moved and then she learned to speak.

Keller was a(n) 9 learner because she learned quite well and made great progress. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904. Then she wrote magazine articles and books and gave speeches about blindness. Her efforts have had a great 10 on the whole world and encouraged many disabled people to be independent.