The other day, my friends and I talked about the rules we have in school. At our school, we have to wear uniforms every day.

    The {#blank#}1{#/blank#} is that all my classmates think the uniforms are {#blank#}2{#/blank#} .We think young people should look smart and we would like to wear our own clothes. Our {#blank#}3{#/blank#} believe that if we did that, we would concentrate more on our clothes than our studies. We disagree. We would{#blank#}4{#/blank#} more comfortable and that is good for studying. If we can't do that, we should be allowed to design our own uniforms. That would be a good way to keep {#blank#}5{#/blank#}teachers and students happy.
    It's also probably a good idea for parents to {#blank#}6{#/blank#}  teenagers to study in groups during the evening. I know we get noisy sometimes, but we learn a lot {#blank#}7{#/blank#} each other. We also think that vacations should be {#blank#}8{#/blank#} .At present they're too short. Longer vacations would give us time to do things like volunteering. Last summer I{#blank#}9{#/blank#} an opportunity to volunteer at the local hospital, but I couldn't {#blank#}10{#/blank#} I had to go back to school. It would be a good experience for me because I want to be a doctor when I'm older.

    In the old days, we had a lot of stories between brothers and sisters about how to care about each other. However, most of us don't know how important it is to care about others in{#blank#}1{#/blank#}world. Once, two brothers worked together on a farm. One was married (已婚的) and had a large family. The other had no wife yet. Although they lived in {#blank#}2{#/blank#}houses, they {#blank#}3{#/blank#} everything they got from the farm.

    One day, the unmarried brother said to {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, "It's not fight that we share all the rice. There is only one person in my family, so I need {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  than my brother." So, every night he took a bag of dee from his store-room and went{#blank#}6{#/blank#}the field between their houses to put it into his brother's store-room. At the same time, the married brother thought, "It's unfair (不公平的) to share all the rice. I'm married and I have my wife and children to care about me when I get {#blank#}7{#/blank#} . However, my brother has no one to take care of him." So, he {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to take a bag of rice and put it into his brother's store-room. A few months passed by. They found it strange that {#blank#}9{#/blank#} rice never became less. Then, one dark night the two brothers {#blank#}10{#/blank#} into each other. Slowly they began to understand what happened. Their bags fell on the ground and tears filled their eyes at once.

    "Oh, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}little tree!" a bird said, "You shouldn't have asked the man to cut down the tall trees. The tall trees protected you{#blank#}2{#/blank#}you didn't worry about heat, wind and rain. Time went by and you have{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. When you get tall and strong, you can have enough{#blank#}4{#/blank#}to fight against the Sun and the storms. So I don't think you should do that.

    After hearing the words of the bird, the little tree felt regretful.

    Once, in a small village, lived a family with two children, James and Jack. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of them loved painting very much, but the family was so {#blank#}2{#/blank#} that it was impossible to send both of them to study at the art college at the same time. After many discussions, the two boys finally worked {#blank#}3{#/blank#} a plan. They would throw a coin. The loser would go to work in the mines（矿井） to support his brother's studies at the college. Then, when the brother at college {#blank#}4{#/blank#} his studies after four years, he would support the other brother's college studies.

    James {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and so Jack went down into the mines. James worked with all his heart, and his paintings were soon much {#blank#}6{#/blank#} than those of most of his teachers. By the time he graduated, he was beginning to make a lot of money from his paintings.

    When James returned, the family held a big dinner to {#blank#}7{#/blank#} his great success. Soon after {#blank#}8{#/blank#} dinner began, James stood up from his seat to drink a toast to his dear brother. He said, "Jack, now you can go to the art college and your dream will come true. I will take care of you."

{#blank#}9{#/blank#} Jack said softly, "Brother, the four years in the mines has done too much to my hands, so it's too late. Now I can't even hold a glass."

James was heart-broken. One hour {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, he drew a simple picture of his brother's hands. This drawing is today known as the famous picture named The Praying Hands.

Some people say it is not easy for a middle-aged person to learn a foreign language. But is it{#blank#}1{#/blank#}（real）true? 

Several years ago, I worked for {#blank#}2{#/blank#}English newspaper which was doing such a research. They asked me to learn a new language for one month. Then I had to go to the country and do some "tests" {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（see）if I could "survive（挺过来）" in different situations. 

I chose Spanish（西班牙语）and did a one-month course at a language school and{#blank#}4{#/blank#}（find）that some Spanish words are very similar to English ones. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}example, hola isn't very different from "hello". Of course, there are other things which are more difficult. In Spanish you have to change the verbs（动词）for each person. But my{#blank#}6{#/blank#}（big）problem of all was the pronunciation. I found {#blank#}7{#/blank#}was very difficult to pronounce some letters in Spanish, especially r and j. So I had to download {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（sentence）onto my phone and I listened and practised them again and again. 

A month later I went to Spain. A Spanish teacher {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（call）Paula came and began the test. "Will I survive?" I wasn't sure enough but {#blank#}10{#/blank#}I wished I would!