"What's the matter, Mum?"

    As soon as I enter the door, I find that my mother is unhappy. It's unusual. She usually   1  the door and welcomes me with a smile!

    "She's dying," Mum says sadly. I  2 what she says. The tulip(郁金香), mother's favourite, is dying.

    A month ago, we moved 3 our new house and Mum bought a very beautiful tulip. Mum liked it very much.   4   she was free, she would sit in her armchair beside the tulip and enjoy its beautiful colour   5nice smell.

      She treated it like a baby and looked after it   6   . She put the tulip by window and moved it from one place to 7 to give the tulip enough sunshine. The first thing she did when she 8  every morning was to water the tulip. Mum also fertilized(施肥) it many times.

    She hoped that with great care, the tulip would become more and more beautiful and   9.But the tulip was dying because of too much sunshine, water and fertilizer.

    It's true that mother loved the tulip. But this kind of love 10 be harmful. Love can sometimes kill what you love.

The Sound of Music is one of the most popular American movies.1people all over the world like it very much. And the2"Do Re Mi" in the movie is also popular in the world. It can be heard everywhere.

    The movie is a3about a tutor(家庭教师)，Maria. She was a young and outgoing（外向的）woman. She went to4for a family with seven children. Their family5was Von Trapp. Mr. Von Trapp was a captain.  He and his family lived in Austria.

    The family were very6and tired after the children's mother, Mrs. Von Trapp died.7took care of the children. They cried and shouted every day. The lonely father often became angry because of the8children.

    Maria was able to9the family by teaching them to sing lively songs and perform short, funny plays. At first the father was almost mad,10the smiling faces of the children pleased him and made him happy again. Then Mr. Von Trapp fell in love with Maria. At last they got married.

    An old carpenter(木匠) was ready to retire. His boss was 1 to see the good worker go. He asked the carpenter 2 he could build just one more house. The carpenter said yes, 3 his mind was not on his work any more.

    He used poor materials and worked on the house 4 . When the carpenter finished his work, the boss 5 the front-door key to him, "This is your house," he said, "A 6 for you."

    What a surprise! What a 7 ! If he had known he was building his 8  house, he would have done it differently. Now he had to live in the house he had poorly built.

    9 it is with us. Sometimes we build our 10 carelessly. At important points we do not try our best. Then with a shame we look at the situation we have 11 . We find that we are now living in the house we have poorly built. But we don't have a 12 to make it all over again.

    Think of 13 as the carpenter. Think about your life. Build it 14 . It is the only life you will ever build because life is a do-it-yourself project.

    Your life today is the 15 of your attitudes and choices you made in the past. Your life tomorrow will be that of your attitudes and choices you make today.

    I will never forget an accident that happened in my own childhood. When I was a boy of twelve, something happened to me that made me never1any birds in a cage.

    We lived on the edge of a2in South Carolina, and every evening many mockingbirds would come and rest in the trees and sing. There isn't any sound that can be3 than the song of the mockingbird.

    I decided to catch a young bird and keep it in a cage, 4in that way, I could have my own musician. I finally caught one and put it in a cage. The bird was5and fluttered about the cage, but finally it became quiet in its new home. I felt pleased with6 and looked after my little musician carefully.

    On the second day, the bird's mother flew to the cage7food in her mouth. The baby bird ate up8she brought. I was pleased to see this. Certainly his mother knew better than I how to feed her baby.

    The following morning when I went to see9my little bird was, I found it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was very surprised! What had happened! I had taken great10of the little bird, or so I thought.

    Arthur Wayne, a famous scientist, happened to be in the forest where we lived at the time. Hearing me crying over the11of my bird, he told me what12. "A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poison(毒药) food. She thinks13better for her young to die than to live in a cage."14I have never caught any birds or put them in a cage. All the birds have the right to15in the sky .

    I was born with a heart disease. As I grew up, parts of my heart started to1and I was often out of breath. So when I was eight, the doctors opened up my chest to2it. When they saw the state of my heart, they told my parents, "We don't expect him to3 the night. "I was in and out of a coma (昏迷)for three months. Every day the fact that I wasn't4 was a good thing.

    Finally, the doctors5I'd be better off at home—saying that I wasn't going to live long. But I carried on and had something close to a   6childhood. As a teenager, I began to7 heart failure again. But I was 8to go to college, become a manager and get married to Jo.

    I started my own9so I could work flexible(灵活的)hours, 10. Jo and I had two children: Josh and Liam. I11to keep a good standard of life for everyone, 12when I was waking up feeling sick every morning. By January last year, my heart failure was so13that I often couldn't walk more than a few yards.

    I was worried about not being around for my 14I had to explain to Josh that the call telling me an organ(器官)had been found could come any time and I'd be 15to hospital, perhaps before I could say goodbye. A few days later, the phone rang and Josh said, "Is that the doctor with your new16?"However, it was  17a salesman.

    May 4 was the day a transplant(移植)18was found. I was out of hospital within five weeks and within a few19, feeling much better. By October, I was taking part in a 30 mile bike ride.

    These days I spend a lot of time talking to kids with heart20. I want to support others who have had a hard time.

    It's 12 o'clock. Mr Bakery goes into a restaurant for a quick 1. "Hi! Can I help you?" a waiter says. "I'd like some French fries, a hamburger and a medium Coke," says the man. "2 else?" asks the waiter. "No," the man answers. "That's all." "For here or to 3?" asks the waiter. "I'll take it away," says the man. The waiter puts the food into a bag. Then the man goes away4 the bag. "Have a nice day," the waiter says.

    The man goes back to his office. He sits down and opens the bag. There is a hamburger, some French fries and a Coke. But there is also some 5in it. "That's the money for my lunch," says the man. He wants to go back to the restaurant 6he doesn't want to get his lunch for free. He is always such a nice man.

    When he gets back to the restaurant, he finds it's7. So he has to wait for half an hour there. When it is his turn, he tells the waiter everything. After hearing the man's 8, the waiter smiles at the man and asks him to wait a minute. Then the waiter 9 the manager (经理) what has happened. The manager thinks the man is 10, so he says to the man, "Sorry. We made a mistake (错误). You are so nice that we decide(决定) to give the food to you as a  reward (作为回报)."