Ali, who was working a long way from home wanted to send a letter to his wife, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} , and he had to work all day,so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late at night . {#blank#}2{#/blank#} ,he found the house of a letter writer whose name was Nasreddin.

    Nasreddin was already in bed."It is late,"he said. " {#blank#}3{#/blank#} "

    "I want you to write a letter to my wife, "said Ali.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Has the letter got to go far?"

    "What does that matter?" answered Ali.

    "Well, my writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will cost you a lot of money." {#blank#}5{#/blank#} .

A. What do you want?

B. Finally, he found the house of a letter writer whose name was Nasreddin

C. but he could neither read nor write

D. Ali went away quickly.

E. Nasreddin was not pleased

    "Everything happens for the best," my mother said whenever I faced disappointment. "If you can carry on, one day something good will happen."

    After graduating from college in 1932, I decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer (播音员). I took the bus to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station, but I was refused every time.

    In one studio, a nice lady told me that big stations didn't want to accept inexperienced person." Go to the countryside and find a small station that'll give you a chance," she said.

    I returned home, Dixon in Illinois. While there were no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father said Smith Ward had opened a store and wanted a local sportsman to manage its sports department. Since I had played high school football in Dixon, I applied. The job sounded just right for me. But I still failed in the interview.

    At that moment, mom's words came to my mind: "Everything happens for the best." Dad offered me the car to look for a job. I tried WOC Radio in Davenport in Iowa. The program director, named Peter MacArthur, told me they had already hired an announcer.

    As I left his office, I felt frustrated. I asked aloud," How can a man become a sport announcer if he can't get a job in a radio station?"

    I was waiting for the lift when I heard MacArthur calling, "What did you say about sports? Do you know anything about football?"" Then he made me stand before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary (想象的) game. As a result, I did a wonderful job and was told to broadcast Saturday's game!

    On my way home, I thought of my mother's words again:" Everything happens for the best. If you carry on, one day something good will happen."

    In the Chinese﹣speaking world, almost everyone knows about Jin Yong and his books. Jin Yong is the pen name of Louis Cha Leung﹣yung. He was the most important Chinese martial arts novelist. On Oct 30, he passed away at 94 years old in Hong Kong.

    During his lifetime, Jin Yong wrote 15 martial arts novels. Over 300 million copies of his books have been sold (卖) around the world. It's just as the well﹣known saying goes, "Wherever there are Chinese, you will find Jin Yong's novels".

    With his books, Jin Yong created an imaginary world called jianghu. In jianghu, there are many fighting heroes(侠) practicing martial arts. But Jin Yong also used some stories from history and traditional Chinese culture to make this world. His stories took place in different dynasties. He used Chinese poems in his books. This makes his books rich and colorful.

    However, more importantly, Jin Yong has shaped the values (价值观) of many Chinese people. The characters in Jin Yong's books fight for justice and righteousness. And his readers will always thank him for teaching them these values.

    Jin Yong touched people's hearts through more than just his books. All of his novels have been made into films, TV shows, comics or video games. Almost all of the adaptations (改编作品) have been big hits. Lots of actors and actresses became famous because of his works. His works are also popular overseas.

    The mystery(悬疑) stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are famous all over the world.

    The detective in his stories is called Sherlock Holmes. He solves mysteries in a most surprising way. Through it all, his assistant, Dr Watson, watches with admiration(钦佩). Watson then writes up the story of the mystery afterwards.

    This is a useful story writing skill. Because Watson is not very clever, the story remains a mystery until the end. The readers can sometimes pick up some clues before he does! Then, to make Watson understand the mystery, Holmes has to explain it all, step by step. So we, the readers, get to see it step by step too. Watson is almost as good a character in the story as Sherlock Holmes!

    The very first time they meet, Holmes greatly surprises Watson. When they are first introduced, Holmes says to Watson, "How do you do? I see you have been to Afghanistan.”

    Watson is too amazed by this to ask Holmes how he knows this. Watson has, indeed, been to Afghanistan. Later, he asks Holmes about it. Holmes explains that there is nothing magical about what he does. He gets to know it all by very, very careful observation (观察).

Observation One

    Watson was introduced to Holmes as a doctor. Yet Holmes thought that the way he stood and walked made him seem like a soldier. So, this meant he was probably an army doctor.

Observation Two

    Watson's face was quite dark skinned. But his wrists(手腕) were pale. So his dark face was probably sunburnt. This meant that he had been to a hot, sunny country. As he was a working doctor, this was not a holiday. He must have gone with the army.

Observation Three

    At the time, the British army had soldiers at bases in many parts of the world. So there were still a lot of places to choose from. However, Holmes saw that Watson looked very tired and he was always holding his left arm, as if it was painful. So, he had probably been with the army to a place where they were fighting. There was only one place where the British army was fighting at that time: Afghanistan.

    Ray's wedding had gone off smoothly. Everyone seemed to have had a good time. A few people had too good a time; they went home with designated (指派的) drivers. All evening, the gift table remained unguarded. Who would steal anything, Ray thought. He had never heard of such a thing happening at a wedding. But his best friend Aaron said there was a first time for everything. He strolled out regularly from the inside festivities (庆祝) to check on the gift table, making sure no one suspicious was hanging around it.

    Ray and Julia went on a 3-week honeymoon to Italy right after the wedding. When they got back, they opened all the gifts and sent out thank-you notes. But there was one problem. A married couple that used to be good friends had apparently given nothing. This surprised Julia, because Walt and Mary said they were thrilled to be invited. And, they actually seemed to have had a great time at the wedding. Frankly, Ray didn't even care if they hadn't given a gift. He just needed to know whether to send a thank-you note. Ray called Aaron. Aaron said maybe Walt had left an envelope on the gift table like Aaron had. "Yes, but we got your envelope with the cash inside," Ray said. "Maybe my envelope looked too thin, and some thief thought Walt's envelope looked nice and fat."

    Aaron asked Ray if he had looked everywhere for Walt's gift. Had he called up the wedding site to see if anything had been left behind? Ray said that he had looked everywhere and made a lot of calls that were fruitless.

    Ray didn't know what to do. If he sent Walt and Mary a thank-you note for a gift they hadn't given, they would be insulted. If he didn't send them a thank-you note for a gift they had given, they would get angry.

    "What would you do?" Ray asked. Aaron said he would call Walt up and tell him the problem.

    "You can't go wrong with simply being honest," Aaron said.

    "Oh, yes, you can," Ray contradicted (反驳) him. "Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie." But he thought about it, and finally decided that Aaron was right. He called Walt and told him the problem. Walt said that yes, he had given an envelope. In fact, the envelope contained $500 cash.

    "$500?!" Ray asked. "That's a lot of cash, Walt!" Walt admitted that it was, but he had gotten a fat raise (加薪) early that year and Ray's was the only wedding he'd been to in quite a while. Ray thanked him very much, and apologized sincerely for someone stealing Walt's generous gift. Walt told him that it was "only money".

    When Ray told Aaron about Walt's gift, Aaron laughed. "The only thief at the wedding was Walt! I quit playing cards with him last year because I caught him cheating. And it was only a $10 pot! I'm sure I told you about that."

    "Yes, you did tell me," Ray said. But, of course, he had to send Walt a thank-you note anyway.