It was Day 1 of our vacation on Cortes, a beautiful quiet island. "iPhone, iPhone, iPhone," my son kept moaning (呻吟). In front of him was a big window of facing the blue ocean. And a Coo gentle wind was coming in from the door. Clearly, he saw and felt none of it.

    Back at home, I'd soon give up and hand the phone over to him after five minutes of listening to this kind of moaning

    But not here. Before we left, I had told my, 10-year-old son the rule-no e-mails, no Facebook, no video games, and no iPhone. We came here to get away from them all' Here we were on our first day and already, he couldn't stand it.

    ____________I walked down the grass road to the beach and looked out to the sea. My 6-year-old daughter and my husband were drawing on pieces of wood. They were doing just fine.

    On Day 2, we spent the whole morning digging for shells(贝壳). This time, my son joined us. He collected .shellfish and other sea treasures. When we got back to our little wood house, I gave my son a book, and put him on the lovely garden chair. It was almost dinner when he looked up.

    The next few days passed in peace.

    On Day 6, my son was lying beside me on the beach, watching the sun going down. He was playing with the sand. And there was somethingshining.in his eyes, I realized how time slowed down for both of us. It was exactly what I wanted. Finally, we were able to sit quietly, without thinking about screens, phone calls and e-mails.

    A week away from all the electronics and life is good.

    "Doctor Johnson, I don't want to eat now, that's because nothing has a taste for me. It's been like this for long. In fact, I didn't have a delicious meal after I caught a terrible cold last month, What can I do?"

    "Here are some medicine, Mrs. Harris. Take three pills three times a day for seven days and come back and see me. But remember, don't eat anything during the week, or you can just drink some water."

    Next week an upset Mrs. Harris came into Dr. Johnson's office. "Doctor! I'm doing it just as you told me, but delicious food is still tasteless for me. I don't know what was in those pills, but the problem is worse! What do you have to say for yourself?"

    "But when and how do you take these pills?" asked the doctor.

    "At first, I took these pills three times a day, just before dinner," continued the woman, "but these pills are too bitter (苦). So I had to take these pills after three meals."

    "Calm down, Mrs. Harris," said the doctor soothingly. "Now that we've fixed your taste problem, It's OK now, we'll work on your hearing!"

The past summer, Elaine had spent long hours working in the McMurdo research station. Her job was to look after the fire extinguishers (灭火器) and fire alarms. But on her days off, Elaine loved to explore (探索) ice and caves outside the 1 . 

With winter coming, she'd go back home soon. Elaine wanted to do one more thing—to see a penguin closely before 2 the research station. She had heard stories about how people 3 penguins and got close to them. 

One night after dinner, someone said there was a penguin alone on the far side of the station. Hearing that, Elaine was 4 and rushed out, hoping to get a closer look. The day was sunny, but Elaine knew the 5 could change in a moment. A sudden storm could drop the temperature by 50℃ in just a few minutes. Elaine didn't think about the 6 . All she could think of was the penguin. 

Walking on the ice alone, Elaine realized how 7 she was because she didn't even bring her warm hat or emergency radio. Suddenly, a strong wind knocked her off her feet. Then she saw something blue, the colour of danger? It came from a big 8 below her. She was lying on the thin ice. Nobody would ever find her 9 she broke through and fell into the hole. 

With the wind gone, Elaine felt someone near. She couldn't believe her eyes. It was an emperor penguin! The penguin stood watching 10 . Seeing Elaine move, the bird walked away, then stopped and looked back. It seemed to be inviting her to 11 . As Elaine thought about 12 she could deal with the situation, she heard the ice breaking. She decided to trust (信任) this bird. She spread (展开) her arms on the ice like wings, keeping her body flat, and 13 towards the penguin. Ahead, the penguin led the way. Elaine went after the penguin's path slowly. After a long time, with one last pull of her arms, Elaine stood on the ice 14 . 

Her penguin guide would join her group for the long winter ahead. Thanks to that bird's 15 , Elaine would head home with a story that she'd never forget.

Hi, my name is Robert. Last summer I had a great vacation. I went on a trip with my parents by1 for two weeks. During（在…期间）the first week, we drove for four to six hours a day,2 we never felt tired. At night we stayed in big hotels. Many hotels had swimming pools. I was very happy to3 there. There were many people in the hotels and the rooms there were4 , so we often had to sleep in one room to save some money. 

During the5 week, we went camping in the mountains. We6 our tent and lived in it. I loved it so much! The tent was not big, but it was clean and quiet. I always got up7 because I wanted to see the sunshine. There was a beautiful lake near our tent. We went8 there. It was difficult for9 to get them and usually in the end I could only get one fish. At night, we saw a big moon in the sky. We10 each other stories, then we went to sleep. I had a great time during the vacation. 

Zhang Ping's story becomes a hot topic on the Internet now. Zhang Ping is 39 1 old. She is from a village in Shanxi province. These days, some videos of her have become 2 on the Internet. In these videos, she talks to foreigners in English fluently(流利地) and 3 .

Zhang used to work as a restaurant waitress and a store seller. In 2018, she took on the role of a 4 in park. One morning, a foreigner came up to her and said something. But Zhang couldn't 5 what he said. The foreigner then raised his thumb(大拇指) and said," Very clean, very good!". It moved Zhang and she made up her mind to 6 English. After that, Zhang began to learn English from her son's textbooks. She remembered words and practiced 7 when others were taking a rest. She reviewed words at night and read them one more 8 the next morning. She also downloaded many English learning apps on her phone. She 9 any possible time learning and practicing." Every time I help a stranger in English, I feel 10 and confident. And my dream is to introduce my hometown in English to the world." said Zhang.

There was a young man who was in trouble. He went bankrupt （破产） and his wife went away from him. From then on，failure was all that he had seen. Struggling with this，he went into the forest alone. There，he met an old man who had lived there for a long time. He shared his story with the old man and asked "Can you give me one good reason not to give up？"

"Look，" the old man said， "Do you see that fern （蕨类植物） and bamboo there？" "Yes，" the man answered. 

"When I planted the fern and bamboo seeds，I watered them carefully. A few days later，the fern quickly grew from the land，" the old man went on. 

"However，I watered the bamboo seeds for years，it still didn't sprout. But I didn't give up and continued looking after it. In the fifth year，a small sprout came out of the land. After a few months，the tree grew very，very tall. "

"The little bamboo tree had been growing underground in the past four years，developing a root strong enough for its ground growth in the fifth year. If it hadn't done this，it would not be so strong. So you know，all the time you were struggling，you were actually growing strong roots，" the old man said. Finally，the man thanked the old man deeply. Then he left the forest with the hope for life.