Mr Smith was in trouble those days. He drove a car for Mr Black, a rich businessman. He worked hard and the shopkeeper liked him. But he couldn't work when he drank too much. And once he almost fell into the river when he drove along the bridge. Mr Black become angry and was going to send him away. He had a big family and was afraid of it and promised(许诺) he would stop drinking at once. The man told him to wait to be dealt with(处置).

    One Monday morning Mr Smith came into the office with two badly burnt(烧伤的) ears.

    "What happened to your ears?" asked Mr Black.

    "Well," said the man." I went to watch a football match yesterday while my wife was ironing(熨) clothes. She had put the iron(熨斗) near the telephone before she went to cook supper. Our team lost the game and I felt sorry for it. As soon as I went into the sitting-room, the phone rang and I answered the iron!"

    "And what happened to the other ear ?"

    "When I put the iron down on the table, the telephone rang again!"

    Mary likesto run. Ever since she was in the third grade, she has been training to runlong distances. Now that she was in her eighth grade, her parents agreed to lether run in the Banana Classic. The Banana Classic is a ten-kilometre race. Ittakes place every year in Mattydale. The winners get a lifetime supply (提供) of peanuts and fruit juice.

    Marypractised by running ten kilometres, twice every day. On the average (平时的) run, she would finish inthirty minutes. Last year's winner finished the race in twenty-six minutes andten seconds!

    On the dayof the race, Mary ran faster than she ever had in the past. As she came acrossthe last kilometre, she was in the fourth place. She picked up the pace (步伐) and quickly reached the secondplace, just as she could see the finishing line. She ran as fast as she couldin a mad dash (冲刺) to the finish line, but she justwasn't fast enough to get ahead of the leader.

An old carpenter was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build one more house. The carpenter said yes, but his mind was no 3 on his work.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4. When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him. "This is your house," he said. "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7! If he had known he was building his 8 house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a pity we look at the situation we had 11. We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14. It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

Hi, I'm a middle school student. I'm Judy. In my class there are thirty-eight students. How do they go to school every day? Seventeen of them take the bus because they live far from the school. Six students walk. They think walking is good exercise. Fifteen students ride their bikes to school because they like riding bikes very much and their homes are not far from the school. No one goes to school by car. How do you go to school? Haha, I'm one of the fifteen.

A 

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Many people like to collect things. Some people collect stamps, some collect dolls and some collect rocks. 1 , Christa Behmenburg, from Germany, collects something unusual—mouse-related items.

Christa's husband is a geologist (地质学家). He likes collecting postcards about mineral (矿物质) resources. Christa always goes with him to fairs 2 new cards for his collection. Actually, Christa is not fond of mineral resources, 3 she feels bored with these fairs. One day, she asked her husband 4 she could also build up a collection of something she likes. He agreed and advised Christa to collect something about 5 favorite animal. Unluckily, that piece of advice would become the biggest regret he's never had.

Christa's favorite animal is the mouse. Since she 6 a teenager, she has had mice as pets. The animal 7 lovely and clever. Two or three years after 8 the hobby, she went all in. She had hundreds and then thousands of mouse-related items only 9 weeks later.

At first, she and her husband had 10 small flat. However, space was getting much 11 because of Christa's collection. The two had to rent (租) 12 two houses. To everyone's surprise, the number of Christa's mouse-related items was up to 47,398 in early 2022 and she broke the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of mouse-related items 13 the end of this year.

Christa's collection continues to grow. Now, every room in her house, from the kitchen to the bathroom, 14 mouse-related items. Sometimes, Christa's husband complains about the large collection 15 brings them joy and trouble. Christa, however, will remind him that it was all his idea!