Many people travel during the holiday season but do not make sure that their houses and homes {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (protect). Crime goes up {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(rapid) during the winter and summer holiday seasons. Here are some things that you should keep in mind when you go on a holiday.

    Always give {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(strange) the feeling that you are at home. Have the snow {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(clean) off your stairs or out of your driveway during the winter season. You might ask someone to park {#blank#}5{#/blank#} car in your driveway.

Tell your newspaper deliverer that you are not at home. {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(have) a pile of newspapers and other mail on your doorsteps tells people that are not at home, so you could also have a neighbor {#blank#}7{#/blank#} a relative get your mail every day.

    Fix a timer in some of your rooms {#blank#}8{#/blank#} turns lights on and {#blank#}9{#/blank#}during different time of the day. Some TVs also comes with a timer that you could set to be turned on during certain time. Have a sensitive light outside your house that {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(keep) thieves away when you are not at home.

    When I left for the United States to study. I had butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous because I was going to {#blank#}1{#/blank#} new place with new people and new customs. I couldn't even understand {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(they)language. Everything was different {#blank#}3{#/blank#} my own country. There was nobody that I could talk to. I just had my husband, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} was a new person for me, too.

    It was a sad moment when I had to say goodbye to my family and friends. I didn't want {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(leave)my hometown because I {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(grow) up there and had wonderful {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(memory) of the place. So, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (think)about all these changes made me nervous and I was {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(worry)about my new life. But studying abroad was a decision that I made myself. I had to continue and accept the challenge. I looked forward to {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(visit)my family in the summer vacation.

    I was wandering into the small store, when the store owner received a call from a customer. The customer and his wife had shopped there several months before. When noticing that his wife really liked one thing in the store, he wanted to buy it as a surprise. Because time was limited, out{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (go) the couple without buying it. It was not until several months later that the customer wanted to buy it.

    But the customer was in Tennessee, living far away from the store which was in Maine. What was more, he had been to the store several months before, and it was difficult to believe that the store owner would remember him, or  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} it was that he was referring to. There were{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (diversity) goods in the store. The customer's question was whether she could do it. She said yes. The store owner advised him to describe the thing for her and so he did.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (inform) what the thing was like, the store owner took a few close-up photos with her camera« and e-mailed them to the customer. Having received the photos' then the customer decided which one was the very thing.

Then the customer said, “Now it is time we discussed a price over the phone.” Apart{#blank#}5{#/blank#}discussing the price, they also decided the time to send it. Then she took care of the credit card transaction (交易)online, and the customer proposed the gift{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(send) that afternoon. Then the agreement was reached. The customer said. “I live far away from your place now.{#blank#}7{#/blank#} I would get it myself.”

    The store owner was really smart. She wasn't necessarily{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (talent) for new technology but she was willing to push herself to find new ways to make the transaction (交易) actually happen. It was not a dramatic thing. It was the first time she had ever done it. Never before had she done such a thing.

    {#blank#}9{#/blank#} difficult it was, the store owner discovered a creative solution {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (contribute) to a new way of doing business. In my view, we should realize that challenge and opportunity go hand in hand.

    Dragon Heads-raising Day, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} falls each year on the second day of the second lunar month, is one of the Chinese traditional {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (festival) as the proverb goes: “The dragon is awake, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (raise) his head.” On this day, dragons, a prominent totem (图腾) in Chinese culture, raise {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (they) heads with the sound of thunder. Around this time, the earth is bursting with life—grass and trees are beginning to shoot up. In ancient China, people {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (pray) the dragon god beside a river or a lake for the precious spring rain to breed their crops.

{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (tradition), food eaten on this day was renamed after parts of the dragon. For instance, wontons (馄饨) were called “dragons' eyes”. The special foods usually eaten on this day include dragons' scales, popcorn and pigs' heads.

    In Shanxi, people get their hair {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (cut) in a symbolic move to remove the old and embrace the new. In {#blank#}8{#/blank#} countryside in Hebei Province, people would fetch water from a well {#blank#}9{#/blank#} dawn. It was believed {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on this day the well was full of dragon eggs which would bring the collectors good harvest.

    A 14-year-old Chinese boy overcame two of humankind's most dreaded fears—getting stuck in an elevator and getting homework {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(do) in a single night, owing to his calm-witted character.

    Sun Yixiao was on his way up on Tuesday evening after school {#blank#}2{#/blank#}the lift suddenly came to a stop. A moment of panic followed before the {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(teenage) could find a way out.

    Sun said he tried to open the elevator door, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(press) all the buttons in the hope to get the elevator to work again, but it didn't work.

    Without a cell phone at hand, Sun tried yelling to get attention of people outside, but no one responded as time passed by. He slipped a note through the door {#blank#}5{#/blank#}the message "people stuck inside, please ask the property management for help," and hoped someone {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(pick) it up and act on it.

    After exhausting all his options without knowing how long {#blank#}7{#/blank#}would take before someone found him, he took out his textbooks and started to do his homework {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(patient).

    Soon after he finished his duties, Sun heard loud {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(voice) outside. A large crowd including his teachers and other parents had come to the rescue, by which time he {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(trap) in the elevator for over five hours.