Today is June 4th it's 1 fine day. It is Betty's birthday. She comes 2 and sees a new red box on her bed. She opens 3. There is nothing but a piece of paper 4 it! Betty takes it out and 5: “Dear Betty. I'm your present(礼物). Come and 6 me in the front room.” Betty runs 7 front room. She finds her parents there. They look at her happily. She looks round and sees her present — a nice 8 bike. “Happy birthday. Betty.” Her parents both 9. Betty is very happy and says: “10 very much.”

    Jack's love for birds started when he made his first birdfeeder about six years ago. He filled the feeder with seeds (种子), put it in his backyard and then 1 started coming. He got really 2 in birds as more came. Then he joined a local society. As he realized that more and more birds were dying very 3, he wanted to try his best to help them.

    Besides what he has done, he has his own group called Protecting Out Birds. He does 4about birds, run a website to teach people about birds and how to help them, and 5 boxes for birds. Not long ago, he found that the bluebirds were nesting（做窝）in the dead trees which were often cut down, 6 he began to make bluebird boxes for the birds in order to save them. Now he wants to use these boxes to 7 the dead trees. He hangs these boxes up in trees and takes 8 down every week to see if the birds are nesting in them. He also writes articles, hoping that more people will 9 protecting natural ecosystems(生态系统). “Researching birds is10 to protecting birds,”jack says, “In order to protect birds, we have to learn and really know about the birds. ”

    An old carpenter(木匠) was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build just one more house. The carpenter said yes, 3 his mind was not on his work any more.

    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 shame we look at the situation we have 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.

( B )

    There was a man who played the piano in a bar. He played 1 well that many people came just to hear him play. But one night，the boss told him, "Some customers are 2 listening to the piano. They live on(靠……为生) 3 you to sing. So sing a song or you will not get paid!"

    Then he had to sing a song. He had never sung in  4 before. But everyone was moved by the song "Mona Lisa" he sang this time. 5 had ever heard such a beautiful song before!

    He might have 6 the rest of his life as a common piano player in a bar, 7for this time, he went on to become one of the best-known  8.

    You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not realize that your talent is great, but it may be 9 than you think! Also, if you keep trying, most skills can be improved. The question is not, "What talent do I have?" It is rather, " 10 will I use whatever talent I have?"

    "Can I see my baby?" asked the happy new mother. Unluckily, she found her baby had been1without ears when it was in her arms.

    Time proved that the baby's2was perfect. He got on well with his classmates. But one day, he rushed home and said to his mother3tears in his eyes, "A boy, a big boy4me a freak(怪胎)."

    As the boy5, he developed a talent for art and music.

The boy's father had a meeting with the family doctor. "Could anything6done?" He asked the doctor.

    "I believe I could graft(移植) a pair of outer ears7you could get them," the doctor said.

    However, two years8, nobody wanted to offer the young man ears. Then one day the father said, "Son,9will offer his ears to you. But it's a secret. The operation was a great10.

    Time kept the secret, but the day did come. The young man stood with his father11his mother's body. Slowly, the father held out a hand and raised the thick, brown hair.12, the son found his mother had no outer ears.

    "Mother said she was glad that she13let her long hair cut," the father said gently," and nobody ever thought Mother14beautiful, did they?"

    Real15lies not in what is done and known, but in what is done but not known.