Who is the greatest teacher in Chinese history？Many people would think of Confucius, whose birthday was September 28. Although he lived over 2000years ago, people still remember and respect him for his contribution to the education today.
    Confucius lived in the Kingdom of Lu, which lies in today's Shandong Province. He lived during the Spring and Autumn Period. He had a hard childhood. His father died when he was only 3years old. His mother brought him up. As a child, he had to work to help his mother, but young Confucius didn't give up studying. He visited many famous teachers and leaned music, history, poetry and sports.
    Later, he became a teacher and started the first public school in Chinese history. At that time only children from noble families could go to school, but Confucius believed everyone should go to school if they wanted to learn. He had about 3000students in his lifetime.
    Today, people still follow Confucius'lessons. He told us that we have something worthy to be learned. "When I am with three people, one of them must be better than me in some areas. I choose their good qualities and follow them. "
    He also taught us that thinking is very important in study. "All study but no thinking makes people puzzled. All thinking but no study makes people lazy. "
    Confucius is not only a great teacher, but also a famous thinker with wise thoughts about the world and society. His most important ideas are about kindness and good manners. He said young people should take care of the old. People should give up only thinking of themselves and work for others. Some of his popular words are："A kind person should care for others"and"A person should be strict with himself, but be kind to other. "People uses his ideas to help themselves and society. At present, more than 100Internet websites are telling people about him, and his ideas have gone far into east and south Asia.

A group of graduates got together to visit their old university professor. During the visit, the conversation soon turned into complaints about 1 in work and life. Offering his 2 coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and 3 with a large pot of coffee and a variety of cups — porcelain(陶瓷), plastic, glass, crystal(水晶), some beautiful, some expensive, some 4 — telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When each of the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, "If you have 5 , all the nice-looking expensive cups have been 6 , leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. It is 7 for you to want only the best for yourselves, but that is the 8 of your problems and stress."

"It is clear that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases 9 hides what we drink."

"10 all of you really want is coffee, not the cup, 11  most of you just went for the best cups. And then you looked to see what cups others picked."

Now consider this: 12 is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. 13 are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cups we pick has nothing to do with the life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we 14 to enjoy the coffee. Value the coffee, not the cups! Don't let the cups 15 you. Enjoy the coffee instead.

Last term I didn't like my English class. Every class was a bad dream. The teacher spoke so 1 that I couldn't understand her most of the time. I was afraid to ask questions because my 2 was very poor. I just hid(藏) behind my 3 and never said anything.

Then one day I watched an English movie called Toy Story. I fell in love with this 4 and funny movie, and I began to watch other movies. Although I could not understand every sentence the characters(角色) said, their body 5 and the expressions(表情) on their faces helped me get the meaning. I understood I could get the meaning by listening to just the key words. My pronunciation improved as well by 6 in English movies. I found out that listening to something interesting is the 7 to the language . learning. I also learned some useful sentences like" It's a piece of cake." or" It serves you right."I did not understand these8 at first. But because I wanted to understand the story, I looked 9 up in the dictionary.

Now I really enjoy my English class. I want to learn new words and more grammar10 I can understand English movies better.

 Dawn Loggins was born in North Carolina, America. She had a hard childhood because of her {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (父母) problems. There was {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (从不) enough money for food and living, so the family often lived in buildings without power or running water. Dawn really wanted to learn, but {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (学习) at home was difficult with no lights.

 As she got older, Dawn {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (明白) that education was the only way to change her life. When her parents {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (突然) moved away to Tennessee, she was left behind and moved in with a woman. The woman was a hotel {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (经理). Dawn was finally in a normal home. To make money, she took a job as a school cleaner and worked every day before classes {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (开始). With great efforts, she always got A {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (在······期间) her teenage years and worked even harder. She hoped to get into Harvard {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (大学) one day.

 As the saying goes, "No pains, no gains." Her dream came {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (真的) and she studied biology there. This was a fantastic achievement for a teenager whose life had been far from easy.

Here is a nice story about Kuang Heng. When he is young，his family is very poor. He has to do a lot of 1 in the day time. 

Kuang Heng is really2 in reading. But he has no money to buy books. What can he do？In his town，there is 3 rich man. The man has many books，but never reads 4 . Kuang tries to work5 the man for free. The man asks him why. Kuang says he only wants to read the rich 6 books. The man is moved and lets him 7 all the books. 

However，there is another problem for him. He doesn't have any candles（蜡烛），8 he can't read books at night. One day，he finds the light in the neighbor's（邻居的） home can help 9 to read. So，he chisels（凿） a crack（缝隙） in the wall to read books with the light next door. 

Kuang Heng studies really 10 every day. As time goes by，Kuang Heng becomes a great officer（官员） in his country. His story tells us that we can think of ways to work out our problems.