An old friend from the US whom I was looking forward to staying with, telephoned from the airport to tell me that he had arrived. I was still at the 1 at that time, but I had got everything ready for his arrival. After letting him know where my house was, I told him that I had the 2 under the door-mat (门垫). 3 I was possible to be home rather late, I told him to go into the 4 and help himself to food and drink.

    Two hours later my friend 5 me from the house. At the moment, he said, he was listening to some of my records after having just had a truly wonderful 6. He had found a cooker and 7 two eggs and had helped himself to some cold chicken from the ice box. Now, he said, he was drinking a glass of orange juice and he hoped I would 8 him. When I asked him if he had reached the house without difficulty, he answered, "I was not able to find the key, but 9 the living room windows just by the apple tree were left open and you know what I could do."

    I listened to all this in 10. In front of my living room there was no apple tree at all.

    I graduated from college recently and moved to Washington by myself While I was in college, it was really 1 to meet new people. But "out in the real world", I was finding it really hard, so I called my sister for some advice.

    My sister is five2older than I am, so she's been through all this already. When I explained my problem, she understood3. She said, "Why don't you try 4 people online?"

    "Online? Are you kidding?" I asked. "A friend of 5 chatted with a guy online, and when she finally met him face to face, he was 6 like what he said."

    My sister laughed. "But you can find other people like you — people who have just moved to town and want to make some new 7. When I first moved to New York after college, I 8a book club and a football team online. I met a lot of people that way."

    "9 you don't even like football!" I said.

    "I know," she replied. "But that didn't 10. I still had a lot of fun. You played volleyball in college. Why don't you 11a volleyball team to join? Or an art class?"

    "Yeah! I saw a website12volunteering the other day." I said. "I could volunteer for an organization here in Washington. I bet I could meet a lot of really 13people that way."

    "Good idea!" my sister answered excitedly. "Hey, you14even meet the perfect guy."

    "Thanks a lot for the 15. I'll let you know what happens. Will you be home tonight?" I said.

"No, but I'll be here all day tomorrow, so give me a call," my sister replied. "Good luck!"

    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.

    Long, long ago there lived an old man. He had a very big orange tree in his garden. On the tree there were many fine{#blank#}1{#/blank#} .

    One day the old man found one of the oranges was bigger than the others. It was as big as a watermelon. So he took the biggest orange to the king. The king was very{#blank#}2{#/blank#} and gave the old man a lot of money for it.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}a rich man heard of this, he said to himself, "It is only an orange. Why did the king give him so much money? If I take my gold cup to the king, he will give me much more money for it. "

The next day when the king got the gold cup, he said to the rich man, "What a beautiful cup! l'll give you {#blank#}4{#/blank#} for it. Please take the great orange. "

Last Saturday, Tony went to see Benny. But he didn't know1Benny lived.2the way, he stopped in front of a yellow house, and asked an old woman the3to Benny's house. "His house is not far from my house," said the woman.

"It's behind the trees. But you can't get there4. You can go there by bus. It'll5you hours to get there6foot."

"What's7with her?" Tony thought." "I can see Benny's house from here now. It's behind the8."

Then Tony walked to the other side of the trees. He found the old woman was9.There was a river in front of him, and he couldn't see a boat. The house was on the other side of the10.