Life is full of chances and challenges. For students, if we don't study hard, 1, we will fall 2 other students. At first, I didn't know 3 the word " exam" meant. Later, I knew an exam was a 4 of competition. In competitions, there were always 5 and losers. As I grew up, I got to know competitions well. In one's life, there must be competitions, so people could 6.

    Each time I saw children 7 games, and heard their laughter, I 8 I were that age again. However, I remembered my parents' words—You must work very hard 9 have a good future. So I 10 up my pen and began to study hard again.

    I was still not 11 what competitions really meant. One day, I was 12 an English-speaking competition. When I went to the stage, I saw other students looking at me kindly. I suddenly knew what the competition was. It was not as cruel 13 my teacher and parents told me. In fact, competitions were important and necessary.

    I learned a lot 14 what I experienced. Now I understand 15 about the world. Competitions are important for us all.

    My cousin Sandy is1English girl. Her2name is White. She is 12. The girl is3. In her room, her books and tape player4in the bookcase. Her pencil box is on the5. Her ruler is on the desk, too. And a set 6 keys are in her pencil box. A baseball is under the desk,7 it's not Sandy's. It's her brother8. Sandy has a computer. 9 on the table. There is a photo on the wall. Two girls are in the photo. Do you know10the two girls are? Well, they are Sandy's good friends, Mary and Anna.

    Martin is a fifteen-year-old boy. He used to be a“problem child”, but a recent1with his mother changed his life. He didn't use to give his mother many problems.2, after his father's death a few years ago, Martin's life became3more difficult. His mother couldn't afford to pay for her child's education. To do this, she4work, and so was often not at home.

    His mother looked after him as5as she could. Unfortunately, Martin still caused problems. He was not6in studying and he often got in to trouble. Luckily, his mother was very7and didn't give up trying to help him. In the end, she8a difficult decision:to send him to a boys' boarding school. Martin hated it and used to cause a lot of trouble.

    One day, he told his teacher he wanted to leave the school. The teacher said it was necessary for Martin to9with his mother. Martin called his mother, but to his10, this phone call changed his life. “It was exactly11ineeded,”he said. “My mother helped me to understand how much she had given me. She also told me that even though my father was no longer with us, he was12me and would always take pride in every thing good I do. That's when I decided to change. I realize that13my father died, I have been afraid of being alone, and have tried to make my mother pay more attention to me. ”

    Now Martin has14changed. He has been working hard and is now one of the best students in his class. How was he able to change?His mother's15helped him to feel good about himself.

    At the age of fifteen, both his legs had been badly hurt in an accident. From that time on he begged, dragging himself along the roads.

    In the villages, people hardly gave him anything — he was too well-known. Everyone had grown tired of seeing him — day after day for forty years, dragging his disabled and ugly body from door to door on his wooden crutches. He was among people, yet loved and cared by no one. They called him "Bell" because he hung between his two crutches like a bell.

    For two days he had eaten nothing. No one gave him anything now. Women shouted at him from their doorsteps when they saw him coming:

    "Go away, you good-for-nothing beggar! Why, I gave you a piece of bread only three days ago!"

    It was December and a cold wind blew over the fields. Now and then he sat down for a few moments' rest. He only got one wish — to eat — but no one offered anything. For three hours he continued his painful journey but received not a half penny.

    When he had visited all the houses he knew, "Bell" sank down in a corner, having no idea what he was waiting for. Several hens ran here and there in front of him. "Bell" watched them at first without thinking of anything. Then a thought reached him —the thought that one of those hens would be good to eat if it were cooked over a fire.

    He took up a stone beside him and luckily killed the nearest hen at the first shot. The hen fell, flapping its wings. "Bell" picked up his crutches, approaching where the hen lay.

    Just as he reached it, he received a strong hit in the back which made him let go of the crutches and sent him flying half a meter away. The owner of the hens, kept kicking him angrily. The other villagers came up and joined the beating. In the end, "Bell", half dead, was shut in the town jail.

    The police had no idea that he might need food, and he was left alone until the following day. When in the early morning they came to him, he was found dead on the floor.