I used to be the shyest person in the world. I hid1 my elder sister whenever I had to speak to a stranger. When asked to speak in class, I could hardly 2, much less speak. Even among the few friends I had, my high, timid (怯怯的) voice earned me jokes —about being a girl.

    Then in the seventh grade, my sister suggested I 3 voice lessons. After considering it for a short time, I did. I began a series of vocal exercises.

After exercising a lot, I finally gained 4 in my voice.

    A few months later, I was asked to sing for some retired people, I thought I would do better than before 5 the voice lessons. I opened my mouth and —nothing. I couldn't remember the 6! My face turned hot. The kind pianist whispered a prompt (提示), and I remembered just enough to keep singing.

    Then the thought struck me: I've already embarrassed (尴尬) myself enough. There's really nothing else to 7. So in my second song, I just relaxed and felt the energy of the song lift me. And I did much better.

After that, I started singing to myself as 8 as I could in my own room. That's something I would never have done before. One classmate even said that I 9be in the school's talent show.

    I am not a shy person 10. Singing has made me more outgoing. Today, I can also stand in front of the whole class and give a big speech. I am proud of myself.

    Sammy looked out of the classroom window at a bird in a tree. He saw a worm (小虫) in the bird's mouth. "Wow!" he whispered as he looked at the bird eating the worm.

    "Sammy!" his teacher Mr. Maxwell said loudly.

    Sammy jumped and knocked his science book off his desk. Everyone in the class laughed and Sammy blushed. This was the third time today he had been caught not paying attention to the science lesson. It was just so easy to get distracted (分心的) when people read aloud from the science textbook!

    It wasn't that Sammy didn't like science. He loved to learn about machines, Earth and animals. He even thought bugs and plants were great. He wanted to go outside and see how a snake lived. He wanted to watch plants growing from the ground as they did last month. He just didn't want to read about these things.

    Sammy thought Mr. Maxwell would surely understand. "There was a bird with a worm in its mouth..." Sammy began. Then he saw the furious look on his teacher's face. Sammy decided that he had better stop talking before Mr. Maxwell became any angrier.

    Once upon a time, two young men were spending some time in the country. One day, while taking a walk together, they crossed a large field.

    "Look out!" one of the young men shouted, because a bull(公牛)suddenly appeared(出现)and began to chase(追赶)them. They were very frightened. They ran as fast as they could, but the bull kept chasing them.

    Finally, one of the men climbed up a tree. The other one jumped into a hole, but soon he came out of it. Immediately the bull chased him back into the hole.

    "Stay there!" his friend shouted, but soon the man came out again, and again the bull chased him right back. This went on five or six more times.

    At last, the man in the tree got angry and shouted to his friend in the hole, "You fool! Stay in that hole for a while; otherwise, this bull will keep us here all day! "

    "I want to, "the man shouted back, "but there's a bear in it!"

    I was going back to work to finish a few things one evening, and my two children were busy sewing（缝纫） things on the sewing machine. My 11-year-old daughter was going to help her older brother make a little cushion（垫子）. I left and in a few hours returned to find a mess in the kitchen and front room while both children were sitting in front of the television. Having had a long day, I was very short with my greeting to them. But then I noticed the material they had used for the cushion. I had bought it to make a blanket. Not stopping to listen to them, I shouted at the children and explained how angry I was at what they had done.

    My daughter listened to me sheepishly, not trying to say anything to herself at all, but the pain could be seen written across her face. She went to her room quietly and spent some time alone before she came out to say good night and once again apologized for the mistake she had made. A few hours later, as I was preparing to go to bed, there on my bed lay a beautiful little cushion, with the words “I LOVE MUM”. Next to it was a note apologizing again.

    To this day, I still get tears in my eyes when I think of how I reacted and still feel the pain of my actions. It was I who then sheepishly went to her and apologized for my actions. I display the cushion on my bed with great pride and use it as a constant reminder that nothing in this world is greater than a child's love.  

    I like listening to music in my free time. My favorite song is Another World by One Direction. I also like reading books and one of my favorite books is The Old Man and the Sea. But I like making clothes best. I think it is very interesting.

Emma

    In my free time, I often help my parents do the housework. I clean the rooms, wash the dishes, walk the dog and help my sister with her studies. But my favorite thing is cooking. I want to be a great cook in the future.

Tina

    In my free time, I like, drawing, playing volleyball and reading books. I also enjoy talking with my friends and playing the piano. I have piano lessons every Thursday and Sunday.

 Bill

    I like doing volunteer work in my free time. I go to the old people's home with my classmates twice a month. And sometimes I go to the market to help old people. I also help clean the park in my neighborhood.

Jessica

    Dr. Lynn Moorman was a young doctor. She had a strange experience in June when she was spending Saturday night at her parents' house. Whenever she stayed with them, she slept on the long sofa in the sitting room. The sofa was set against a wall under a large picture window (整块玻璃做的景观窗).

    Around three o'clock that morning, Dr. Moorman opened her eyes and noticed a flashing light outside the house. She thought that it was a firefly (萤火虫). A moment later, as the light continued to flash, she realized that it was too bright to be a firefly.

    Then the light moved towards the window and unbelievably through the window into the room. It passed in front of her, perhaps as close as three feet. Then Dr. Moorman noticed that it appeared to have two sets of wires coming from the top and bottom. Each time the object flashed, Dr. Moorman saw it clearly. But when the light turned off, the object was no longer seen.

    Dr. Moorman was quite scared. She thought about shouting, but couldn't open her mouth. When the light moved into the kitchen, she ran to her sister's bedroom. "Move over," she said, "I saw something, maybe an alien, that scared me and I'm coming into bed with you." The next morning at breakfast she told her family what had happened, but no one else had noticed anything. Her experience remains a puzzle.

    Did Dr. Moorman meet an alien? Did she imagine the object? Or did she see a small UFO that had come visiting that night?