Something frightening happened to me the other day. I was on my way home 1 school. I got off the bus and started to walk towards my 2 . Then I thought: “Funny! There's a car outside.”

    It was one of those big American cars. I looked inside 3 I wanted to see what it was like. At first I thought there was nobody in it. Then I saw an old man 4 on the floor of the car. He had blood（鲜血）all over his face and his eyes were closed. I was too frightened, so I went indoors to 5 the police.

    Mum wasn't at home and I was 6 . I dialed（拨打）999 and asked for the police. A policeman wrote down my name and address. But I don't think he believed my words. Then I 7 a car start. I looked out of the window and the American car wasn't there 8 more.

    The police never came and I still don't know what happened to the man. But it gave me a terrible fright（吓了一跳）. My dad said it was a good 9 and he enjoyed it very much! But I am sure that it was all 10 .

    I planned to go on a vacation with my family. The idea had come me as I1 to a talk on my car radio.

    The speaker said, 'Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love."2myself, I had to say that I spent little time with 3wife Mary. Well, for two weeks that would change.

    After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Mary suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, 4 then I thought, 'Mary's been alone here with kid all week and now she wants to be alone with me." We walked

    On the beach5 the children flew their kites.

    Relaxed and 6, that is how the whole 7 passed. I made a new decision to keep on remembering to choose love.

    There was 8 wrong with my experiment. However, Mary and I still 9 about it today. On the last night, Mary looked at me with the 10 expression.

    'What's 11 matter?" I asked her.

    'Tom," she said in a voice 12 with sadness, 'do you know something 13 I don't?"

    'What do you mean?"

    'Our doctor…did he tell you something about me? Tom, you've been so good to me…am I dying?"

    It took a moment for it all to sink in. Then I couldn't help laughing 14 .

    'No, honey," I said, holding he in my arms. You're not dying; I 15 to live."

    You have probably heard the expression, "It's raining cats and dogs outside." It means that it's raining very hard but not that 1 cats and dogs are filling from the sky. 2, one day in June, 1882, it really did rain 3 over Dubuque, Iowa. The frogs began falling along with hailstones (冰雹) during a 4 storm.

    Hail is 5 when drops of rainwater are caught by heavy winds and are carried high up into the air. There the raindrops become 6. Many drops may freeze together to form 7 of ice; these ice balls, or hailstones, then 8 to earth.

    During the storm in Dubuque, the strong winds 9 small frogs from nearby ponds into the air along with raindrops. When some of these frogs became covered 10 ice, both hailstones and "frog-stones" fell onto the ground.

    Twenty-five-year-old South African DJ Mandla Maseko has been chosen as one of 23 people who will get to go to space! Maseko, a 1 African, can't wait to become the first black South African to go to 2!

    He and 22 others were some of over one million who 3 the Lynx Apollo Space Academy competition to win a ticket to space. When he was 4 why he wanted to go to space, Maseko's answer was 5, "want to fight against the rules of gravity(引力)."

    He will start to do so on a Lynx mark II space ship in 2015, not only fighting against gravity but also realising his childhood 6 of becoming an astronaut when he grew up.

    "We blacks also 7 with dreams. You dreamed of being a policeman or a teacher but you know you won't get as far as a pilot or an astronaut. Then I went to the space camp and I told 8 that I could be an astronaut," said Maseko.

    During the first week of December, Maseko, two other South Africans, 9 more than 100 international contestants(选手) went to the space camp in Orlando, Florida to test if they are 10 enough to go to space.

    Maseko knows there is a long way to go before he finally goes into space. "I'll be the first black South African and the first black African to go into space. When I think of the firsts, the first black presidents—Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, I tell myself to try my best."

No one knows exactly when jazz was invented, or by whom. But it is {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (据说) that it began in the early 1900s. 

Jazz was a new kind of music for America and the world, and New Orleans was its birthplace. Who were the jazz pioneers? Most were blacks. This music was not {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (写) down, and at first only blacks played it. It was hard for white musicians to learn the new style. But soon they, too, were {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (弹奏) jazz. 

The popularity of this music {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (传播). From New Orleans, it traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago, then to Kansas City and New York. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (在……以前) the time of the rise of America, there were many jazz musicians, both black and white. Many of them were famous. One man was {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (好) than the rest. His name was Louis Armstrong. 

Louis Armstrong was a born musician. He was not only talented but also hard- working. He also had a good sense of {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (幽默) and a big, good- nature d smile. These personal qualities were {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (有价值的) in his rise to fame. After he became famous, he traveled around the world. It seemed that everyone wanted to hear Louis play. 

But life was not always easy, especially at the beginning. Louis Armstrong was born in 1900 in New Orleans. His father {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (从不) went to school and his mother could hardly read. When Louis was still a kid, his parents separated, and Louis lived with his mother. How hard their life was can be imagined. And yet Louis smiled through everything. He later wrote, " My whole life has been happiness. Life was there for me and I accepted it. {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (无论什么) happened has been beautiful to me. I love everybody. "

Should friends be different or the same? Different people have different ideas. The following is what four of my classmates say.

My name is Claire. I am outgoing. I like to have friends who are similar to me. Both my best friend Linda and I like traveling. We went to Italy with our families last summer vacation. We stayed there for two weeks. Next year we want to go to Paris.

My name is Mary. I like to have friends who are different from me. My best friend Betty is shorter and more outgoing than me. I am quiet and I like reading very much. Betty likes sports and she plays badminton well.

I'm Peter. I like to have friends who are like me. It can be very helpful. I'm a little quiet and my good friend Rick is quiet, too. Sometimes I don't know what to do with my problems and he can tell me what I should do, because he knows about me better than people who are different from me.

I'm Bill. I have both kinds of friends. I think it is important. That makes my life more interesting.