It was Day 1 of our vacation on Cortes, a beautiful quiet island. "iPhone, iPhone, iPhone," my son kept moaning (呻吟). In front of him was a big window of facing the blue ocean. And a Coo gentle wind was coming in from the door. Clearly, he saw and felt none of it.

    Back at home, I'd soon give up and hand the phone over to him after five minutes of listening to this kind of moaning

    But not here. Before we left, I had told my, 10-year-old son the rule-no e-mails, no Facebook, no video games, and no iPhone. We came here to get away from them all' Here we were on our first day and already, he couldn't stand it.

    ____________I walked down the grass road to the beach and looked out to the sea. My 6-year-old daughter and my husband were drawing on pieces of wood. They were doing just fine.

    On Day 2, we spent the whole morning digging for shells(贝壳). This time, my son joined us. He collected .shellfish and other sea treasures. When we got back to our little wood house, I gave my son a book, and put him on the lovely garden chair. It was almost dinner when he looked up.

    The next few days passed in peace.

    On Day 6, my son was lying beside me on the beach, watching the sun going down. He was playing with the sand. And there was somethingshining.in his eyes, I realized how time slowed down for both of us. It was exactly what I wanted. Finally, we were able to sit quietly, without thinking about screens, phone calls and e-mails.

    A week away from all the electronics and life is good.

    My name is Philippe and my wife's name is Sophie. We're from1. Recently we were faced with a 2situation while traveling by car in the mountains with our hired driver. Just as we began to doze(打盹), the car made a strange, loud noise and then3working.

    We tried communicating with the driver but with little4because he couldn't speak French. He tried to tell us with body language that he was going to get help and then he left.

    We were in a poor area, with 5houses in sight. We started to bear the cries of wild animals Sophie was very afraid. We didn't have much food and it was getting 6and darker I began to lose7. Should we leave the car? Would our driver ever8? Was he a trustworthy man? We were very worried.

A couple of hours passed. 9, the headlights from another car appeared in the dark. A man got out of the car. Finding us cold and hungry, he kindly asked us to10his car.

11we left, he put a note on the windshield of the car with his phone number on it. Then he drove us to a nearby village, and we met his family. His cousin spoke French and he 12us tea and local foods. 13asked us questions and they were excited to have unexpected guests.

    Later that evening, the phone rang. It was our14. He had kept his word and fixed the car.

    I will15forget the warmth we received on that day because we depended on a complete stranger for help.

My mother is a teacher in a middle school. She {#blank#}1{#/blank#} for a long time every day. She gets up, early in the morning. After she brushes her {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, it's about thirty {#blank#}3{#/blank#}running. Then she has breakfast and goes to work.My mother is very busy, so she has lunch at school. After work, she goes home and we have dinner together. Sometimes we eat out. She likes{#blank#}4{#/blank#}a walk or listening to music after dinner. On Saturday evenings, she often goes to the movies with me. It's{#blank#}5{#/blank#}for us. On Sundays, she likes making all kinds of delicious food for the family.

In a small Chinese town lived a poor young man named Liang.He loved 1 . One night, an old man with a long beard 2 Liang in a dream.He gave Liang a paintbrush.

"Use this magic paintbrush to 3 the poor," he said, "but don't use it to help people who are 4 and greedy (贪婪的), or the skill will 5 your fingers and you will never paint again."

When Liang woke up, he 6 the paintbrush on the table by his bed. He painted a butterfly and was 7 to see it fly off the page and out of the window.

Liang ran out of his little house and started painting things for people. He painted a buffalo (水牛) to help a farmer, food for 8 people and clothes for people who were cold.

A rich man, however, 9 about the paintbrush and asked Liang to paint some gold for him, 10 Liang refused.

"If you don't paint for me, I'll cut your fingers off," the rich man said."Then you will 11 paint again." So Liang painted an island of gold in the middle of a blue 12 .

" 13 will I get there?" asked the rich man.

Liang painted a 14 for the rich man, who got in it and went on his way toward the island.

But when the rich man was halfway there, Liang painted a hole in the side of the boat.The boat sank(沉)into the water and 15 ever saw him again.