Ma Yun became one of 1 men in China when his company Alibaba went on the stock (股票) market last year with a value of around 140 billion—the largest public offering in history. Here are some stories about him on2 way to success.

Ma made his3 trip to the US in 1995 and used the Internet for the first time. After 4 "beer", he saw that no results came up about China. Then he searched for "China" and still saw no results. He decided 5 a Chinese website—the seed for Alibaba was sown. (播种)

    Ma said he 6 many times in his life. He failed the College Entrance Examination in China three times and 7 companies offered him jobs, including one at KFC. And he was refused by the famous Harvard University 10 times.

    8 was difficult to learn English when Ma was a teenager 9 limited resources. 10, he found that he could learn English well by giving tourists free guides around his hometown Hangzhou. And he11it for nine years. Ma said 12tourists opened up a new world for him because everything they said and did was so different from what he had been taught at school and by his parents.

    Ma's hero is Forest Gump 13 never gives up. When he made a speech about his 14 at Davos (达沃斯论坛) in 2015, Ma said, "Life is like a box of chocolates because you never know what you15."

    Mr. and Mrs. Brown are from America. They are now teaching English in Zhengzhou. Their son Jack is with them. Jack speaks English. They want him to learn some Chinese. Jack is in Grade Three in a Chinese school. He plays with Chinese children every day. He listens to Chinese, speaks(讲) Chinese, reads books in Chinese and writes in Chinese. He is doing well in his Chinese.

Dear Mike,

How is everything? I am not happy these days. My parents are angry with me because they think I live an unhealthy life on weekends. They want me to spend my weekend like my sister Jenny.

I always get up late. So I usually have nothing for breakfast. I play basketball for an hour then. For lunch, I often eat out. Hamburgers and ice-cream are my favorites. I know they are not good for me, but they taste great. After lunch, I usually go to the movies with my friends. Sometimes, I sleep all the afternoon. In the evening, I either watch TV or play computer games. I don't go to bed until eleven thirty.

But Jenny is different. She never gets up after six thirty. Then she brushes teeth and does morning exercises. After that, she has milk and eggs. She does her homework all the morning. For lunch, she eats rice, meat, fish and vegetables. She studies for 3 hours before she eats dinner. Sometimes, she helps with housework after dinner. Then she goes out to take a walk. She reads and takes a shower before going to bed."What a great day I have!"Jenny always says.

It is weekend! I just want to relax myself well. I don't like to hear my parents always say the same words again and again to me. It's terrible to live like Jenny! What can I do?

Yours,

Leo

Sarah Chang loves playing the violin very much. She says that the violin is one of the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (close) music to the human voice. Sarah was three years old when she learned how {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (play) the violin. Her parents helped her a lot. At the age of five, she {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (accept) as a student at a famous music school called Juilliard. Her parents were amazed!

Sarah's father was her first teacher. He taught Sarah {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (he) and often took her to the concert. Sarah's mother is {#blank#}5{#/blank#} music teacher and she helped Sarah learn to read music. She also wrote music {#blank#}6{#/blank#} her free time.

Sarah's whole life has been wrapped up in her musical talent. She started to play with {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (musician) when she was eight years old. So far, she {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (record) some of her music on CDs. A famous musician named Ychudi Menuhin said that Sarah was the most perfect violinist he had ever heard.

Sarah {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (usual) travels to play with different people. She says that her whole life is planned. Sometimes, she doesn't like that. She wishes that she had more free time. However, she also says that {#blank#}10{#/blank#} she doesn't touch a violin for a few days, her fingers will miss playing. For her, violin is the most important thing in life.

One evening, I invited a group of my friends to my house, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}them that I need their help for a study and it would take only a few minutes. 

They all sat down nervously (紧张地) when they saw a recorder （录音器）in my{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Seeing that, I told a "lie" that there was only one small task (任务) for them—ｔhat was just to count from one to twenty. 

Then each of them in turn counted from one to twenty. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}it was over, I pretended (假装) to turn the recorder off and brought some drinks for them. Enjoying the drinks, we started to talk and joke{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

Well, my{#blank#}5{#/blank#} task began—to record each one's speech （发言）for a study. 

Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but most Christians celebrate it on December 25th. On this day, many people go to church，they can take part in special religious services. In Britain, Christmas dinner is eaten at noon. During the Christmas season, they also exchange gifts and decorate their homes. 

One German couple tried their best to prepare for their Christmas decorations in a different way. Thomas and Susanne decorated the outside of their house with a few simple Christmas decorations. From the outside, their house looks normal. However, the inside of the house is so different from the outside. 

They started decorating in October. It took them 8 weeks to set everything up. They put 100 Christmas trees into their small house! They decorate the trees with small coloured electric lights and 16, 000 baubles. 

They did not always have so many trees. In the beginning, they had a small Christmas collection. As time went on, they grew their collection rapidly. They started decorating in early October . It's so special even the bathroom has a Santa Claus toilet seat.