D

    I'm a student with different interests. I play football for Whitburn AFC at under 19 level, where I play as a right midfielder(中锋) which I enjoy very much. I like talking with many different kinds of friends. The cinema is a place where I go as often I can, as I am a huge movie lover. I like both action and other types of films.

    The thing I would say I do the most is listening to music. I like mainly rock music. However, my CD collection includes a wide selection(精选物) of music. With my interest in music I go to see my favourite bands when they come on tour.

    The Internet and computers are something I usually do with when I'm free, but I would not say it's my main interest in life. Traveling to many different countries is a great experience. I have been to Spain, Belgium, Holland, France and even England. I went to a little town in Spain last year just outside Barcelona. Anybody there hardly speaks English, however, I found that I can communicate with these people who speak a different language from me and I am still able to understand. Meeting people from abroad is very interesting.

    Do you like making friends with me?

     People often said Thomas Edison was the greatest genius(天才) of his age. There are only a few men in all of history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be pleased only because someone said he was a genius. “There is no such a thing as genius,” Edison said. He thought what people called genius was mostly hard work.

     But Edison was a thinker as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. He tried to understand them, and then he tried to learn what he could usefully do with them.

     Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people would do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking could give men enjoyment and pleasure.

     Edison could not understand why anyone could not be interested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what idea he had about life. “Work,” he answered, “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

B

    Once upon a time, a man punished （惩罚）his 5-year-old daughter for using up the family' s expensive gold wrapping (包装 ) paper. Money was always not enough, and he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve, he saw that the child had pasted ( 贴) the gold paper to decorate a shoebox to put under the Christmas tree.

    The next morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, "This is for you, Daddy!"

    As he opened the box, the father was sorry for his earlier behavior.

But after he opened it, he found it was empty and again he was angry. "Don't you know, young lady," he said, "when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package!"

    The little girl looked up at him with tears running from her eyes and said, "Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full."

    When the father heard this, he fell on his knees and put his arm around his dear little girl. He begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

    An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the father kept that little gold box by his bed for all the year of his life. Whenever he was sad or faced difficult problems he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.

    In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given an invisible golden box filled with love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. This is the most expensive possession (财产) anyone could hold.

    On 15 January, 2018, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal (顾拜旦奖章) to Lv Junjie, a Chinese master of Zisha, in Lausanne. Lv became the first Zisha artist to take the award. The medal was introduced in 1964 and named in honour of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the IOC.

    Zisha is a type of clay. It has been used in Chinese pottery (陶器) since the Ming dynasty. The finished stoneware (粗陶器) is used for teaware (茶具) and other small items, and is not usually having a shiny coat. It is red or brown in colour. Lv got the prize from the IOC because of his work using Zisha to spread me Olympic spirit.

    "It's my first time stepping into the IOC headquarters," Lv said. "It has nothing to do with me. It is this traditional art of Zisha that receives such recognition from the IOC. It is because of the uniqueness (独特性) and lasting spirit of Chinese culture," he added.

    In 1966, Lv Junjie was born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, China. His father Lv Yaochen is a famous artist in Chinese Zisha industry. Lv Junjie was influenced by his father from an early age. However, his family didn't support him to work for it at first. His mother worked as a worker in the Zisha factory all her life and knew it was hard work. At the age of 16, Lv Junjie decided to be an artist like his father. He told his father that he loved Zisha. Later he studied at a university in Singapore. After he finished school he made Zisha his career.

    A boy was sitting on the steps of a door one day. He had a stick in one hand,1in the other hand a large piece of bread and butter, which somebody had kindly given him. While he was eating it and singing a song happily, he saw a poor little dog quietly2not far from him. He called out to it, “Come here, poor dog!”

    Hearing this, the dog woke up, rose with its ears3and wagged its tail. Seeing the boy eating, it came near him. The boy held out to it a piece of his bread and butter. As the dog stretched out its head to take the4, the boy quickly drew back his hand and hit it5on the nose. The poor dog ran away,6loudly, while the cruel boy sat, laughing at the trick he had done.

    A gentleman, who was looking from a window on the other side of street, saw what the7boy had done. Opening the street door, he called him to8over, at the same time9up one dollar between the finger and thumb.

    “Would you like this?” said the gentleman.

    “Yes, if you10, sir,” said the boy, smiling, and he quickly ran over to seize the11.

    Just as the boy stretched out his hand, the gentleman hit12on the knee with an umbrella. “Why did you do that?” shouted the boy angrily. He made a very13face and cried, “I didn't hurt you, nor ask you for money.”

    “14did you hurt that poor dog just now?” said the gentleman. “It didn't hurt you, nor ask you for bread and butter. As you served it I have served you. Now, remember it can feel as well as you, and learn to behave15towards animals in future.”