An old friend from the US whom I was looking forward to staying with telephoned from the airport to tell me that he had arrived. I was still at the 1  at that time, but I had got everything ready for his arrival. After letting him know where my house was, I told him that I had left the  2under the doormat(门垫),  3  I was likely to be home rather late. I told him to go into the 4 and help himself to food and drink. Two hours later my friend 5 me from the house. At the moment, he said, he was listening to some of my records after having just had a truly wonderful 6 . He had found a cooker and  7  two eggs and he helped himself to some cold chicken from the ice box. He said he was drinking a glass of orange juice and he hoped I would 8him. When I asked him if he had reached the house without difficulty, he answered, "I was not able to find the key,  9 luckily, the living-room windows Just by the apple tree were left open and you know what I could do." I listened to all this in 10 . In front of my living-room there was no apple tree at all.

    Since I came to my new neighbourhood，I have had the pleasure of meeting a few neighbours.They seem to be quite 1 people.For Christmas，I thought I would do something nice for each of the neighbours that I know.I sat down and 2 .There were nine neighbours，and I also knew which houses they lived in.

    However，I decided to3  one more person to my list，the lady I met every morning walking to work as I drove down the street.She always managed a sweet smile and a hearty wave（挥手），4 I had no idea which house she lived in.

    My gift idea was to make small 5 baskets and leave them on each of my neighbour's  front porches（门廊）the night of Chrismas Eve.I kept the last one for the friendly lady，since I was still not exactly sure where she lived 6 the house down about where I met her each morning.Finally I decided to put it there.My neighbours really enjoyed the baskets and a couple even came by to  7me.

    This morning on my way to work，I placed my mail in the mailbox and noticed a Thank You card.I opened it and read the 8 which really caught me by surprise.

    The card said，“Thank you for those lovely apples and strawberries you left on the porch of Tod.He 9 on January 19，but he never stopped talking about how nice it was that someone10  him in his time of illness.He really enjoyed it.”

    I was very11.I had no idea who Tod was or that he had been seriously12.I had left that nice lady's basket on Tod's porch by accident.I believe that Tod never expected to have that basket. I feel 13 that the nice lady did not get a basket from me this Christmas，but I believe that if she knew what had happened，she would 14me.

    I feel lucky to have helped Tod be more cheerful in his last days.This just makes me further believe that sometimes 15in life are beautiful.

    Once a king loved music so much that he searched the world for the best instrument.（One day. a magic man1the king a harp(竖琴).

    The king took it to the palace, but2he played it, the harp sounded terrible. Many3people tried it. They agreed that the harp was4and the king had been fooled. The harp was thrown out as rubbish.

    A poor little girl5found the harp, and even though she didn't know how6it, she decided to have a try. She played and played, the whole day through, for months and years. The music she produced was never perfect,7each time it sounded a little better.

    Then one day, suddenly, the harp started to play the most beautiful music. It was in fact8magic harp, and could only be played well by someone who would put in the necessary effort.

    The king heard the music from his window, and called the girl to the palace. When the king saw that she was playing the harp, he was filled9joy. At that moment he made the girl his own private10, giving her and her family lots of money.

    Last Friday, I was just in France to visit my 96-year-old grandmother who is very dear to me 1lives alone. I don't visit her very often, so every time I go to see her, 2of us think that it might be the3time we see each other. Last time I visited her in December of 2014, I did some video interviews about her life. I asked her 4 it was like to grow up with her father in the 1920s, to live with two young children, with her husband 5 in a prisoner's camp (集中营) in Germany. I also asked her about her greatest 6. I learned a lot of amazing new things about her that I never know before.

    This year, I did not really have questions to ask. I only wanted to tell her how loved she is. So, I cooked for her and read stories. I gave her a foot massage (按摩). 7 leaving, I wanted to leave something 8 behind besides the memory of our time together. So I wrote her five different love and thank notes to let her know how much she means to me. I 9 them in different places where I knew she would 10find them. One of them was under her pillow. 11 one was hanging from the lamp shade by which she reads in the evening. Another one was by her toothbrush. One was in her mailbox which she has to check every day. And the last one was in her car. She still 12to the nearby village a couple of times a week!

    I knew that these cards would surely cheer her up after I left. Really she called me as I was catching my plane back to the US. She said," I found your three cards! By the time I discovered the third, I was laughing out loud! They did me so much good. Thank you so much!" I smiled to myself, 13she still has two more to go! It is Sunday today, so my guess is that she hasn't 14her mailbox or driven her car! I can 15 how happy she will be when she finds them.

    Everyone has a place which he remembers most from his childhood (童年), and so do I. One of the places I remember from my childhood is a 1 in the country. It belonged to my parents. I spent my summers in that place 2 I was a teenager(青少年), and now I begin to miss the farm again.

    It was lovely to 3 there. There were a lot of lot of 4— cows, sheep, hens, dogs and cats. My sister and I 5 helped to work on the farm. We helped people graze(放牧) sheep or make bread or cheese. I can still remember that on Tuesdays we 6 the bread and on Thursdays, the cheese.

    I love that farm because I 7 to love animals and not to be afraid of them there. We saw a sheep give birth to its baby there, and we enjoyed staying there to see how lovely the 8 sheep was.

    Now my sister and her son are 9 this place. My nephew is 10 with the place. I hope that he has a good time there and when he is older, he will remember the place as I do.

    One day, a father and his son went to a kite flying Festival. When they {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(arrive), there were already many adults and their children playing in the park. When the son saw the sky filled with {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(color) shapes, he was excited and wanted to get one too. His father agreed {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(buy) one for him, So they went to a kite shop and chose a beautiful one.

    With the string(s) in hand, the son started flying the kite. Soon, the kite was high up in the sky {#blank#}4{#/blank#} a while, he said "father, it seems that the string is stopping the kite from flying higher. If we cut it, it {#blank#}5{#/blank#} free and fly even higher. Can we cut it?" The father didn't reply, but just cut the string off the reel(线轴). Suddenly, the kite began to go higher, which made the son much happier.

    However, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} his surprise the kite was coming down. They waited for quite some time {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(slow), it fell onto the grass. The son felt upset and asked, "I thought that after cutting the string, the kite would fly higher. Why did it fall down?"

    The father smiled and said, "The role of the string was not stopping the kite from flying higher, but helping it stay in the sky, because the kite can't fly up by {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(it). By using the string, you help the kite go up in the right {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (direct). When you cut the string, it could not support the kite."

    In our life, we may sometimes feel like there are certain things that are holding us back and stopping us from growing. But {#blank#}10{#/blank#} fact, these might be the things that support us most. We can really grow up and become stronger by realizing the importance of these things.