Jean Little who was born in Taiwan, China, has been living in Canada since the age of seven. In spit of the challenge of{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(she) blindness. Jean began writing as a child and has never stopped. despite{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(limit) vision, she attended regular school {#blank#}3{#/blank#}graduated in 1955 from the University of Toronto with an Honors Degree in English. She taught special need children until 1962. That year, her first book, Mine for Keeps, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(win)the Little Brown Children's Book Award and since then Jean has written 50 books, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (include)novels, picture books, autobiography, poetry and short stories, among {#blank#}6{#/blank#}are some of Canada's best-loved works for children, such as Dancing Through the Snow, Mama's Going to Buy You a Mockingbird, Listen for the Singing. Her books {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(translate) into a dozen languages so far and have won many awards.

    In addition {#blank#}8{#/blank#}all her awards, she has received six honorary degrees and is a member of the Order of Canada for her outstanding {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(contribute) Canadian children's literature, and {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(recent) she won the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

    Driving to the airport in the early morning. I felt{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (excite) because I would spend the summer in Paris. While{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (look) for more interesting things to do besides sleeping and eating on the plane, I jumped at the chance to study French in this city know for{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (it) art, food and culture.

    My connecting flight(转机) was in Frankfurt, Germany, 14 hours from Denver. But when I arrived there, a feeling of anxiety{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (begin) to set in. I was very nervous {#blank#}5{#/blank#} I was in a country {#blank#}6{#/blank#} language I could not speak. But when I found my way, I gained {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (confident). When I boarded the second plane and discovered that the flight was less than an hour, I was filled{#blank#}8{#/blank#} excitement.

    When I stepped on foreign ground for the first time, I was{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (extreme) happy. I quickly had my first experience trying to communicate in {#blank#}10{#/blank#}language that I had only practised in school. As I left the airport, with one sharp turn, the Eiffel Tower came into view. I was fully in Paris.

    People have all turned to sad music to make themselves feel better at some point in their lives,

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}why does the music with double or even triple(三倍) sadness help drag people out of low spirits?

    A new study throws light on what's going on inside people's brains when they match their music to their feelings, and it looks as if sad music can be enjoyable, rather than{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(simple) depressing. Music of this sort can arouse positive memories in people's life, thus {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(lift)their mood.

    Psychologist Adrian North from Curtin University in Australia says there{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(existence) two groups of possible explanations for why people enjoy listening to sad music like this——one from social psychology, and the other from cognitive neuroscience(神经学).

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}terms of social psychology, one idea about this is that people will feel{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(good) about themselves if they focus on someone who's doing even worse. Everything's going to be okay, because this person is having {#blank#}7{#/blank#}even worse day than they are.

    Another idea from social psychology is that people like to listen to the very music {#blank#}8{#/blank#} shows their present life circumstances, because this kind of music makes them feel they are understood. With their emotions{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (share), they definitely get a certain amount of comfort.

    So, the{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (conclude) again—sad music does cheer people up, and it works far better than happy music, in most cases.

    The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, is {#blank#}1{#/blank#} second-largest art museum in the world after the Louvre, France, both of which are visited by millions of people {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (annual). Hermitage holds not only artistic treasures but also a collection of living history {#blank#}3{#/blank#} well.

    The Hermitage was built as part of the royal Russian family's Winter Palace. Empress Elizabeth had cats brought in {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (rid) the several palace buildings of mice. The cats did their job well and {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (give) homes in the basements of the buildings and the title of Hermitage cats.

    The 74 Hermitage cats live at the museum {#blank#}6{#/blank#} they now lead an extremely {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (comfort) life. A press secretary is in charge of the cats, with three full-time caretakers {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (attend) to their every need. There are even kitchens for preparing meals for the cats because every cat has its own {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (prefer). This may all seem over the top, but Russian and foreign {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (visit) alike love seeing the Hermitage cats while admiring some of the world's greatest artistic treasures.

    Our cat was ready to give birth to her kittens. My son was curious and excited to see the birth of these new babies. The event took place yesterday. The cat {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(give) birth to one kitten by the time he arrived home from school. He was so amazed at {#blank#}2{#/blank#} he saw. When the second was on its way, the mother cat began to yell very loudly. I saw tears in my son's eyes because he learned about the pain of giving birth.