Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

Many people go back to work in big cities at the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(开头) of the new year. They want to live in cities because of these {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(优势).

First of all, you can go shopping for almost everything in shops or online. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(百) of people shop in supermarkets every day. There you can buy {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(新鲜的) fruit and vegetables. Many people like {#blank#}5{#/blank#}( 比较) the prices before buying something. Some shops are {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(开着的) for the whole day. If you buy something online, you {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(收到) it in just a few days. Second, in big cities, students can have more interesting lessons each term. They have a better chance of getting good {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(分数) than students in the countryside. Besides, it's easy to get {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(到处) in big cities. That's because people can take the underground to someplaces that are far away. And it is usually {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(便宜的).

So where do you like to live, in big cities or in the countryside?

Do you like watching old movies? Maybe you will see one with Carole Lombard. She was a famous actress in the 1930s. She died when she was only 34 years old. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

Lombard's real name was Jane Alice Peters. In 1921, she was playing baseball in the street near the home. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} She was only 13 at the time. The movie was one of the last movies without sound. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} At 16, she left school to act.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} The studio gave her a new name, and she acted in several films. Then at the age of 18, she was in a bad car accident. The accident left scars on her face. The studio broke the agreement, but she did not give up. She continued to act.

It was Paramount Studio that make Lombard a star. She made many movies for the studio. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Lombard was married to actor William Powell for only 23 months. But seven years later, she married the great love of her life, actor Clark Gable. It was a great Hollywood love story.

A. She acted so well that she won the hearts of some people.

B. She also married two of their stars.

C. In her short life she made 70 movies.

D. In 1925, she had an agreement with a film studio, 20^th Century Fox.

E. She wanted to live a simple life.

F. A movie director (导演) saw her and decided to put her in a movie.

I'm Lucy. I am a middle school student now. It seems that my life has changed a lot in the last few years. For example, I was afraid of the sea in the past because I didn't know how to swim.I now I am a good swimmer. I used to be short and was only 150 centimeters tall. But now, I'm ten centimeters taller than before.

As for food, I used to cat meat, but now I eat more vegetables. By the way, I love tomatoes best. When I was younger, I didn't use to read any books, but now I love reading novels, such as Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. I love the magical world in the novels. When I was in primary school, I used to play football after school, but now I have to go home and do homework. I used to be afraid of exams, but now I think exams are necessary and useful.

In the past, I used to spend most of my time doing homework, but now I have more time to communicate with my parents. Every day when I finish dinner, I do my homework in the bedroom. Then I usually talk about something interesting with my parents.

My name is Linda.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} There is a birthday party for me. Now, it's five o'clock.Everything is OK.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It is beautiful. And some apples, oranges and pears are on the table, too.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} On the sofa, there is a red card on a white box.The card says"{#blank#}4{#/blank#}". After opening(打开)the white box, I see a yellow skirt.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} How beautiful the skirt is!I want to say "Thank you, dear Mom. I love you!".

A.They are all my favorite fruits.

B.Happy birthday to you,Linda!

C.Today is my twelfth birthday.

D.Happy birthday to you,Mom!

E.A big birthday cake is on the table.

F.It's a gift(礼物)from my mom.

That wasn't a sunny day, but we felt very happy because we went to the Shanghai Waterworks Museum.

First, we went to a grey building. When we entered it, we saw a map on the floor. We met each other happily. On the map there was the Yangtze River, the Huangpu River, and so on. Then, we saw a large fish bowl in the wall. But there were only five plastic(塑料的) fish. That means if we waste water, we will no longer see real fish.

Next, we went upstairs. There we saw a big blue poster. There was a water tap at the top of the poster and the earth was under the water tap(水龙头). It tells us we should save water. The No.3121 water supply station was found on the left side of the poster. An old man was writing on the blackboard. Two women were washing some clothes. At that time, there were stones in the water. The man was writing the number of the stones in the water.

After that, we went to the first floor. We took some photographs there.

We left the museum at eleven o' clock in the morning. Every one of us had I an interesting and meaningful experience that day.