When Abe Lincoln was just a boy, he had to help his father to look after his farm. It was hard work and there weren't any interesting things for him. Abe wanted to go to school, but there was no school there. Abe was sad most of the time.

    Mrs Lincoln loved the boy very much. She tried her best to make Abe happy. One early morning, she got up early and went to the town. That was a long way and it took her a long time to get to the town. She bought something there and went back. And it was late in the evening when she got home.

    The next morning Mrs Lincoln said to Abe, "Today is your birthday. We're going to have a party. "She put some food on the table, and then brought out a present. "A book！"Abe cried. It was an old book, but he liked it. A smile came to his face. He looked up at Mrs Lincoln and said, "Thank you, Mum."

    It's snowy. A horse（ ）, a cock（ ）a duck（ ）, a dog（ ）are a squirrel（ ）are playing in the snow. "Let's play hide and-seek（捉迷藏）." someone says.

    "OK." the squirrel says with eyes closed. "You hide （藏） and I'll seek. One, two, three. . …twenty. "He opens his eyes.

    "It's a piece of cake. The horse's footprints（脚印） are like the crescent moon（ ）. Ha-ha, you're hiding behind the stone（ ）." He finds the horse.

    The cock's footprints are like the bamboo leaves（ ）. "Ha-ha, you're sitting in the box（ ）."

    The duck's footprints are like the maple leaves（ ）. "Ha ha, you're standing behind the tree. （ ）"

    The dog's footprints are like the clubs（ ）. He finds the dog under the table（ ）. "Ha-ha. I find all of you.”

    Once upon a time, a proud (骄傲的) Swallow lived in a large tree. He liked his colorful feathers (羽毛) and his long tail so much that he believed nothing could be better than them. One day he saw a Crow and thought. "How silly this bird is! All his feathers are black." He looked at himself lovingly and enjoyed his own feathers.

    Just then, the crow flew and sat on the same branch as the Swallow. The Swallow said, "All your feathers are black and your tail is so short." The Crow smiled and said. "But they help me fly." The Swallow said. "So do mine. But look at how beautiful they are!" He spread (展开) his wings and flew a little closer to the Crow. The Crow saw that the Swallow had lots of blue feathers and some white and pink ones, too. He looked at his own feathers and thought, "It's true. The Swallow's feathers are much prettier than mine."

    The Crow said, "Swallow, you're right. You have lovely feathers and a long tail, but only in summer. Your little feathers cannot keep you warm in winters at all. While you shiver (颤抖) in the cold, my thick feathers keep me warm in the cold winters."

    One morning, Emma discovered that her classroom had changed. She found that the desks were no longer in rows, but pushed together to make eight bigger desks. She was so excited about it for the first two days that she couldn't listen to the teachers carefully. But soon she and her classmates got used to this new classroom arrangement(安排). "Now our class is quieter," said Emma. "What's more, we can come up with our own ideas and learn more through discussion. It's a better way to study."

    David liked it, too. "Group members first discuss, "he said, "and then show to the whole class. It encourages us greatly. "This was part of a reform (改革) at David's school. The school made this reform because they wanted to offer students easier ways to study and more chances to discuss. "Our school hopes to improve students' abilities to study by themselves and work in groups." said Linda, an English teacher.

However, the reform has demanded(要求) more from teachers. Now they have only 15 minutes to give a lesson that would have been taught in 40 minutes before. It is difficult to teach in such a short time. The teachers have to find better ways to teach more effectively(有效地).

    "The reform demands more, but I'm sure it is helpful." added Linda.

Charlotte's Web is a book popular with readers of all ages.  It is a story about two 1 : a little pig called Wilbur and a spider (蜘蛛) with the name of Charlotte. 

One day, the pig Wilbur is sent to a farmer.  At first, he has no 2 there.  Other animals 3 him.  He is unhappy and sad.  But his 4 turns around when he meets the spider Charlotte.  Later, Charlotte becomes a great friend to him. 

When Christmas comes, there is 5 news for Wilbur.  He is going to be killed (杀).  Wilbur thinks there is no 6 for him, but Charlotte thinks of a 7 plan to help him.  She uses her web to write 8 of praise(赞美) about Wilbur.  People in this town never 9 messages in a spider's web.  So they think that the messages must come from God! Wilbur becomes 10 enough to go to a big game.  He doesn't 11 the game, but the famous web makes sure that he will never be killed. 

The 12 of the story is the spider Charlotte herself.  Helping Wilbur makes her very 13.  And after giving birth to her babies, she dies (死).  14 Wilbur thinks he will have no friends again, three young and small baby 15 come and become his new friend. 

Many people draw on the paper, but few paint on stones. Mo Wuying, an artist from Chongqing, has been doing this for more than eight years. And the animals on stones are {#blank#}1{#/blank#}( true) lifelike.

The poses of animals she creates {#blank#}2{#/blank#} ( decide) by the shapes of the stones. Mo says it is{#blank#}3{#/blank#} art form that requires creative {#blank#}4{#/blank#} ( idea).

According to Mo, the first step is to draw the outline of an animal on a stone. Then she colors it {#blank#}5{#/blank#}( make) it lively. After that, she adds all the details.

Driven by her love of painting from a young age, Mo has been improving her stone painting skills for years. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} first, she tried her hand at sceneries and characters. In the past three years, she has focused on painting animals. Mo {#blank#}7{#/blank#}( finish) hundreds of stone paintings so far." The longer I work on it, the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} ( interesting) I find it," said Mo proudly. She sometimes even forgets to eat or sleep {#blank#}9{#/blank#} the painting takes up all her attention.

" It is a{#blank#}10{#/blank#}( please) to paint on stones and that makes me more patient," said Mo, adding that she would continue working on it.