Grace is my pen friend. She is a 13-year-old English girl. What's her school life like? Now let's get to know something about the school life in England.

    •Study

    Most students take the school bus to school. Some go to school by train. When they arrive at their classrooms, they put their homework in a box. Then one student will take it to the teachers' office.

    •Lunch

    Students often have lunch at school. The lunch time is usually from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. They can have free school lunch. They don't have to pay for it.

    •Uniforms

    Students often wear uniforms at school. On their uniforms, you can see the school logo(校徽). They think uniforms are important. When they go on a school trip, they all look the same. So students may not get lost. What's more, students don't need to worry about what to wear every day. Their parents don't have to buy expensive clothes for them, either.

    This was a very interesting story. I 1 thousands of classes since I started school nine years ago. But one class was 2 of all.

    It happened last term just after I had got a bad result in 3 exam. I was sad and had lost my confidence. I decided 4 to a class 5 can tell me how to be successful. The speaker walked into the room. 6 he did not start talking like a teacher. Instead, he held up a twenty yuan note!

    "Who wants this?" he asked. Unsurprisingly, 7 of us in the class held up our hands. The speaker smiled. Then he put up the note on the blackboard and asked the same question. Again, we put up our hands. The speaker kept 8, but said 9 . Suddenly, he threw the note onto the floor! Then he asked the same question for  10time.

    I didn't understand the speaker. Why was he asking the same question again and again? I didn't know 11 to do. I wanted the note, so I put my hand up again. "You have all just told me how to become successful." He said to us 12 the note in his hand. "The note is worth twenty yuan. It is always worth twenty yuan, even though I throw it on the floor. You are like the note. No matter what happens to you, you still have your worth."

    Hearing those words, I 13 deeply. Suddenly, I realized I was worth a lot. I may have failed, but it doesn't mean I 14 do well in the future. If I believe in15I will be successful!

    Many students aren't getting enough sleep at night, which means they end up feeling sleepy during class. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}during the day may be a solution.

    According to Forbes, a mid-afternoon nap can {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, increase your energy and help you study even better. But {#blank#}3{#/blank#}should a nap last? The proper time should be between 10 and 30 minutes, Peter Venn, a sleep expert said.

    Sleeping for {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, such as five minutes or so, is not helpful. That's just not enough time to rest. But if you sleep for too long, you may {#blank#}5{#/blank#}feeling uncomfortable.

    How important is your appearance? Although everyone wants to be good-looking, are beautiful people always happier people? For example, it must be a problem to be a really beautiful woman, because some people may be more interested in looking at you than talking to you. They think of you as a picture rather than a person.

    Some people think that women who are exceptionally(格外地) pretty and men who are particularly handsome must be stupid. They believe that only unattractive(无魅力的) people can be intelligent(智慧的).

    On the other hand, no one wants to be really ugly, and have a face that even your mother doesn't want to look at; and no one wants to be plain, either--that is, to be neither attractive nor unattractive, and have a face that is easily forgotten. Being attractive is like being rich. It can help you find happiness, but it doesn't always make you happy.

    So maybe the best thing is not to worry too much about how you look, but simply try to be an interesting person. For interesting people have interesting faces, and interesting faces are almost always attractive.

Meeting a polar bear

I put my day's supply of food into my bag and then began to take down the tent. Suddenly I heard a deep, long growl (嚎叫) from my dog Charlie. I looked at him and then in the direction he was watching closely. A polar bear!

It was a mother 1 by two cubs coming slowly towards me. They were 200 meters away. With a pounding (狂跳) heart, I picked up my flare (照明) gun and 2 walked sideways a few steps to Charlie. Without taking my eyes off the bear, I untied Charlie and, again walked sideways.

The bear, now only 150 meters aways, wasn't stopping. Her cubs had dropped back but she kept going, while I tried to remember all the 3 that had been given. Keep eye contact, move sideways or forward, never backward, stay calm, don't show 4 . Don't wound a bear and you'll make it 5 to control it. Never run. Repeating to myself, "Stay calm, stay calm," I fired a warning shot (射击) to the bear's left. The loud noise had no 6 . She came around. I fired a flare, landing it a little to her right. Her head moved in its direction but she didn't stop. I fired another, this time dropping it right in front of her. She stopped, looked at the flare. She was only 30 meters away now.

By this time, I was so nervous that my heart could have been heard at base camp. The bear began to step around the flare, and I dropped another a meter in front of her. again she 7 , and then she fixed her tiny black eyes on Charlie, who was trying to reach her. She looked back at her cubs, waited, and then moved to my left in a half circle. I fired two more flares, trying to draw a line between her and me. She stopped again and seemed to want to 8 the line of flares but was unsure of the result and of Charlie, so she decided to stay 9 . Finally, with a last long look, she walked north with her cubs behind her.

My hands were still shaking, but I now knew that I could 10 a bear in the wild bravely and stay calm enough to act properly.