Do you often communicate with your parents?

    Some parents are always comparing their 1 with themselves when they were young, or with other people when they were children.

    “When I was your age,” a father said to 2sixteen-year-old son one day, “I was at the top of my class every year. And I 3 what I wanted to do when I left school. I had goals. You have no goals, 4your are always at the bottom of your class .”

    The man's son said nothing. He had already heard this from his father 5 times.

    “And when your mother was your age,” the young man's father, 6 , “She had a good job and she was earning money. You don't even have a part-time job. You earn nothing.”

    The man's son still said 7. He had heard this before, 8.

    “And 9 your elder brother was your age,” the young man's father went on, “he studied hard. But your just 10your time.”

    And the man's son still said nothing.

    Finally, the young man's 11 said, “And when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he worked all day and studied at night.”

    This time the son 12 stay silent(沉默).

    “And when Abraham Lincoln was your age, father,” he said, “He was the president of13United States. 14 are you?”

    His father had no answer to this.

    Are your parents always comparing you 15 others? And what's your reply? Do you have a better way to communicate with each other?

    Nowadays, lots of foreigners are learning Chinese. Like many of them, I 1 knew two words of Chinese ("Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie") when I first came to Beijing, China in 2009. As you can guess, my life was 2 for a while after I arrived. Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful.

    I knew I had to learn more Chinese, so I 3 a Chinese class. My teacher was 4, although I didn't learn enough to have a real conversation. Later I studied on my own as well, but my progress was still slow. And I decided to 5.

    Around this time, I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing. He taught me a lot of 6 about music, such as "melody". He learned a lot of English from me in return, so it was a good way to 7 language and culture.

    I have learned enough Chinese to 8 many problems like booking train tickets. These days, there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese. I can 9 why it's an amazing language. Finally, I found that the best way to learn a 10 is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them.

Ever since "Mother Nature" gave me life, I expected to grow tall and big.

As a young 1 , I was well protected in the forest. I used to 2 a good time with my friends under the blue sky and 3 the river. Our only purpose was to stand high. My pal, Tim often said, "All I ask for is to be 4 the whole day."

365 days passed and we grew straight. On that day, it was our 5 birthday, people came, moved us from the 6 and put us on their trucks. "I don't want to go!" Tim cried.

After a long journey, we arrived in a completely different place with 7 green. Here we were planted in a line. 8 the wind blew strongly, I could not even open my eyes to see Tim 9 beside me. So we needed enough 10 to grow thicker and higher to stop the wind.

As time went by, we finally 11 much stronger. I could keep my eyes open in the wind! I even found the blue sky was back!

This was no longer a no-man's-land, and hundreds of visitors came here. A man took a picture of us with his 12 . "Thank you. We can enjoy clear days 13 worrying about sand storms." A young girl jumping up and down came over and 14 me. "Thank you," she said. "It's you that have turned the desert into a green land!"

Tim and I smiled at each other, feeling 15 . The sun was shining brightly in the bluer sky.

要求：1.语言流畅、书写规范、卷面整洁，词数不少于80词。2.文中不得使用真实姓名、校名，否则以零分计。3.请将短文写在答题卡上，写在本试题卷上无效。

Claude Monet brought sunshine into painting. 

He was one of the first artists to work1 .That may sound2 to us today. But before1870, most artists did all their paintings in rooms. They used models dressed up as Greek gods orheroes from history. They painted with dark colors so their pictures would look more3 .

However, Monet and his artist friends4 the rules. They took their paints and brushes to paint lakes, flowers and woods in the open air. They wanted to show5 sunlight made water and boats look at different times during the day. If they painted people, they always painted common people. They used6 colors and painted quickly. 

For years, Monet had7 making money. Sometimes he could not pay the rent (租金) ; sometimes his family had no heat; sometimes they went hungry.8 ,Monet would not give up. 

Today, he is one of the most famous artists ever. Paintings by Monet sell for millions of dollars and9 in museums around the world. We're all lucky that Monet never10 believing in his art.