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Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower shops were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and I was just very pleased with the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper. But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged this imagination. She'd ask me if there was someone to whom I had done a special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man who I looked after when he was ill.  As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy.

    One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt very sad and didn't want to go to the coming graduation dance at all. And I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery.

    My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    Denies Walme in Texas, USA, now 14 years old, published his best-seller Unbending Gisula eight years ago. The book is about a little whale named Gisul.

    One day, Gisula did not take his mother's words and went up the beach. Then he got lost and had to learn to live by himself. The colour pictures were drawn by Denies himself. Denies published the books at the age of six He is said to be the youngest writer and picture artist.

    Another surprising thing about the book is that it became a best seller immediately after it was published and brought him a lot of money. Because he spent much time writing the books, his study was not very good and he had to learn the year's work again but his gift of writing is highly praised by the teachers and student. And he was even invited to give talks on writing.

    But Denies does not want to be a writer. He said, 'I like planes most. I dream of becoming a pilot someday.'

    Cross-country skier Man Dandan won the women's 1.4km individual sprint here on Monday, earning China's first gold at the eighth Asian Winter Games.

    "I was in good form today, "said the 28-year-old girl after winning the title in the final round with3 minutes and 48.29 seconds." I didn't think much, but just focused on the games. As an old member, I want to set a good example for my younger teammates by doing my best no matter what the result is."

    Mikko Olavi Virtanen, head coach of the Chinese cross-country skiing team, said after the game he is satisfied with Man Dandan's performance." She is a super talented sprint skier. Her biggest problem before was to maintain the speed for four rounds of the competition. We have been working on that for the past seven months. I have been giving her advice, such as how to save the energy till the final round," he said, adding that Man is a good learner.

    He also said that the Chinese cross-country skiing team has huge potential. "We have a quite young team. We still have five more years to Beijing Winter Olympics. I hope we can continue this good work for a long term," he said. Yelena Kolomina from Kazakhstan took the silver and Ju Hye Ri from South Korea got the bronze. Australia's Casey Wright finished the third in the final round but did not get a medal as a guest athlete.

One day, little Mike's mother went to the river to do some washing. Before she left, she said to him, "Mike, while I am away, stay near the door and watch it all the time!" She said this because she was afraid of the thieves. 

Mike sat down beside the door. After an hour, one of his uncles came. He asked Mike, "Where is your mother?" "She has gone to the river to do some washing, " Mike answered. "Well, " said his uncle, "Now it is a quarter to two. Three hours later we are going to visit your family. Go and tell your mother. For I'm busy, I have to go now. "

After his uncle had gone away, Mike began to think: "Mother had asked me to watch the door all the time and my uncle told me to go and tell my mother. "What shall I do?" he thought and thought. Finally, he pulled down the door, put it on his back and went to the river with it. 

My name is Li Ming. I'm from Xinyang. I'm tall. I 1 short black hair. My head is big and my face is round. My eyes and ears are small. My mouth is 2 , too. I like 3 a lot. I have many green things. Mike is my classmate. He 4 from America. He likes China very much, 5 he studies Chinese very hard. Mike is short but strong. He has fair hair and a long face. His 6 are blue. Many classmates think his eyes are beautiful. His favourite 7 is also blue. He is in a blue T-shirt and 8 pants now. Mike and I don't 9 the same, but we are good friends. Here is a photo. Mike is next to me in it. Look!10 green ruler is that on the desk? It's mine. Whose blue 11 is it? Is it Mike's pencil? No, it isn't 12 . It's mine, too. The English books are Mike's. Mike has many 13 books. He 14 me one book as a birthday gift(礼物) today. I like it very much and I can learn a lot from it. And I will have a birthday 15 at home tonight. I hope we will have fun at the party.