Wang Hui and Daming are good 1 . Daming is2Beijing and Wang Hui3from Shanghai.4are twelve years old. Daming is 5 Class Two. Wang Hui is in6, too.  Their English teacher is Miss Li.7is a good teacher. Daming8football and Wang Hui likes basketball. Wang Hui can swim, but Daming9. Look ! Daming is10 football. Wang Hui is playing basketball .

    Everyone in our school knows Jerry, the Bike Boy. He is a lovely and warm-hearted guy. He often collects broken bikes that people don't use any more1and then gives them to people who need them.

    Last week he was down because he spent all his money buying old bikes. We really wanted to cheer up Jerry. 2Monday we told a radio interviewer that Jerry3money to buy old bikes. We also put up signs4old bikes and called up all our friends and told them5the problem. We even6advertisements at a local supermarket. Then we informed（告知） the teachers at school about his problem7they set up a call-in center for parents. The strategies that we came up with8fine. He now has sixteen bikes to fix up and9to children10don't have bikes.

    Thanksgiving was just around the corner. The menu (菜谱) had been set. The shopping list was made. 1 seemed perfect. I could taste turkey and mashed potatoes (火鸡和土豆泥). Pictures of different pies, fruit and vegetables came into my mind. I couldn't 2!

    The day before Thanksgiving my dad called a family meeting. He said we needed to practice being 3. "We are going to 4 at a homeless shelter (收容所) on Thanksgiving Day." I couldn't believe this was happening. So we wouldn't cook our own Thanksgiving dinner? The holiday wouldn't be the same. I thought the day would be ruined (糟蹋).

    The next morning, we got up 5. I followed my father to the shelter with my sleepy eyes. I had no great expectations and felt 6 all the way. As soon as we arrived, we got to work. There was so much to be done. But all I could think about was the dinner I couldn't enjoy.

    However, those thoughts soon 7. Over the next few hours, I watched hundreds of people come through the shelter. For some, this was the only hot meal they would eat that week. For others, it was the first time to eat a Thanksgiving meal. The shelter was filled with 8.

    Through this experience, I learned that Thanksgiving is a time to think about your blessings (祝福) and look for ways to bless others. When I gave up what I had wanted, I discovered how much I have. It is much better to 9 than to receive. In the end, that Thanksgiving became an 10 experience.

    My father was a self-taught mandolin(曼陀林琴) player. He was one of the best players in our town. He could not 1 music. but if he heard a tune(曲子) a few times, he could play it, When he was young, he was a 2 of a small country music band. They played at local dances and the radio station.

    At home Dad often took out his mandolin and played for the family. We three children sang along.3 played the mandolin like my father. He could 4 your heart with the music that came out of that old mandolin, He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his 5 in his ability to play so well for his family.

    But Dad had to find another 6 in a factory later because the money he made at the band wasn't enough to 7 the family. Unluckily, he had an 8 one day and lost one finger, He couldn't play as 9 as before. From then on, every time we asked him to play, he would make up reasons to 10 down our request. However, we missed his performance so much. 11, he agreed and said, "Okay, but remember, 1 can't hold down on the strings(琴弦) the way I 12 to."

    When he played the old mandolin, it carried us back to a 13 ， happy time in our lives. Dad was that kind of man. 14 was what he was doing all his life. If he could give to 15 others, he would, especially his family. He was always there. sacrificing(牺牲) his time to see that his family had enough in their lives.

Young star shines

Over the years, skilled Chinese players have been doing very well in table tennis. Now, young athletes from Generation Z are becoming the stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

Born in 2000, Sun Yingsha has been given the nickname "Little Devil" by her fans. When she was little, Sun was sensitive to the sound of a table tennis ball hitting the ground. "I felt I had some talent," she told China Daily. 

When Sun first joined the reserve squad (预备队) of the national table tennis team, she was excited. Becoming a world top player like her idol Zhang Yining has always been her dream. 

However, there have been challenges along the way. She took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and it was there that she faced huge losses. "I was not well- rounded enough to win the gold medal in the women's singles," Sun said. 

Sun believes that life is always full of ups and downs. "Determination and courage can make a good athlete," she said. "What keeps me going are the goals and dreams I set for myself,"

At the 2023 Singapore Smash, Sun won the women's singles, the women's doubles and the mixed doubles, becoming the first athlete to get three gold medals at the tournament (锦标赛) . Looking at the world ranking website, you can see Sun's name at the top of the women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. 

When talking about younger table tennis players, Sun encourages them to keep their love and stay focused. "If you truly love table tennis, I hope you can hold on to it," she said. 

 Dancing is popular all over the world. People usually dance in theaters and parks. But Yang Liu,a woman in Guizhou, dances in an unusual place. Her stage is a single bamboo pole.

 Yang is a performer of bamboo drifting(独竹漂). It is a traditional skill in the girl's hometown. In the past, the local people crossed the rivers by riding on a bamboo pole. Now, bamboo drifting has developed into a folk(传统民间的) sport.

 Yang started to learn bamboo drifting at the age of seven. The bamboo pole is very slippery(滑的) and it never completely stops moving. Yang fell into the water again and again. But the girl didn't want to give up. She always got back up on the pole and tried again. She practiced hard every day for three years. Finally, she was able to keep her balance on the pole.

 But Yang didn't just stop there. She wanted to become a dancer on a bamboo pole. The girl practiced many difficult movements on the pole. She failed countless times, but she never stopped trying. Her hard work finally paid off. Now Yang, 24, has made a name for herself as a dancer on a bamboo pole. People can't believe their eyes whenever they watch her performances. Through Yang's dancing, many people now know more about bamboo drifting. They have discovered the beauty of this traditional skill.