Our community library decided to offer a painting class. I told my friend Ella, and we both signed up.

On the big day, our first 1 was to paint a white vase of cheerful yellow sunflowers against a blue background.

We were asked to paint our canvas (画布) 2 . It was easy to follow the instructor to move the brush. Although I had never painted before, I could tell I was a 3 . I started thinking about where I would hang my new masterpiece.

Immediately after that, however, I began to run into 4 . The first curved (弯曲的) line of my vase looked perfect, but when I painted the line on the opposite side, my hand slipped (打滑). I tried to 5 that white streak (条痕) with blue paint, but it didn't work.

While I was busy fixing my messy painting, the instructor explained how to paint the sunflower leaves. Things went downhill fast after that. My leaves looked like fat, green caterpillars (毛毛虫). When I failed to clean my paintbrush, I accidentally made the sunflowers green. I felt 6 when I saw how good everyone else's paintings looked.

Ella sweetly praised my sunflowers, perhaps feeling sorry for me. When I said that hers were much better, she looked surprised. "No, they're not. I messed up in at least five places." After a few seconds, she asked, "Want to 7 paintings?"

Until that moment, I had felt only dislike for my painting. And yet for some reason, giving it away felt wrong. It wasn't a perfect painting, but it was mine—the first one I had ever created. I knew Ella must have realized that she felt the same way when she suddenly shook her head and said. "Never mind."

My sunflower painting still hangs directly above my bed. I often look at it. Every time I look at it. I 8 . It always brightens my day and brings warmth to my room. I really like it now.

Peter lived in a village. He was sad recently because he thought that he had 1 left. One day, Peter went to ask a wise man 2  help. He said to the wise man, "I don't have anything left, so I don't want to live. " The wise man said, "I'm sorry to hear that. " Then the wise man took a piece of paper and drew a straight line down the middle. He explained that he would write down the things Peter had lost on the left side and the things Peter still had on the right side. The wise man asked, "When did your3 leave you?" "What do you mean? They haven't left me. They love me!"

"That's great!" said the wise man. "Then that will be the first thing on the right side ― Family haven't left. Now, do you have freedom?"

"That's a very silly question. Of course I4 !"

"Good! That's the5 one on the right side—You have freedom!" said the wise man, writing it down. 

After Peter was asked some more questions in the same way, he finally understood and smiled. "Things will change when you think of them in a 6 way!" he said. As a matter of fact, change your attitude (态度) and you will change your world. 

I found it hard to communicate with my mother. Relations between us became difficult. 

One day I ran away from home and stayed outside for a few hours. When I returned home at night, I saw all the pain, anger and disappointment on my mother's face. We knew that we were in great need of talk. We agreed to havebreakfast together the next morning. In the end, we decided to go to a restaurant.

On our way to the restaurant, I noticed my mother had two notebooks in her hands. I asked her what they were used for. She explained to me that sometimes it was easier to write our own feelings than talking about them. We should write down our feelings.

Our first topic was"Why am I so angry?" I wrote a half page, and my mom filled up nearly three pages. I saw the tears run down her face while she was writing. I never realized anyone could hide so much anger. After we finished writing, we exchanged our notebooks. As soon as I started reading my mother's words. I began to cry and so did she. When we finished reading, we discussed our feelings. Finally, it felt like all the anger inside me went away from my body. Our talk helped me realize so many things I had never thought of before, not only about my mother but also about other people.

My mother and I continue using our notebooks as a way of communicating. We know that no matter how we feel about each other, our notebooks are a safe place to express our feelings. We have come to an agreement that we write"I love you" at the end of each other.

Dear Nancy,

You asked me about places {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (go) and things to do in my town. The Downtown Mall is always fun. It's a {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (shop) place in the oldest part of town. There are some good stores and restaurants there, for example, Trendy Clothing Store. It's a fun place to shop, and it has the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (good) quality(质量) clothes. The shop assistants are {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (friend) to people.

My favorite restaurant in the town is Nick's Restaurant. It is close {#blank#}5{#/blank#} my house. It's cheap and the hamburgers there are great. I like Dragon City Restaurant, {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. You can eat wonderful noodles there and the beef noodles are the most delicious! You must try the dumplings there, too! But it's more expensive {#blank#}7{#/blank#} Nick's Restaurant. The Big Cinema is the best cinema in my town. It {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (have) the biggest screens and the most comfortable seats. The Del Ray Complex is also a good place to see {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (movie). It doesn't have the newest movies, but the tickets are the cheapest.

Anyway, there are lots of things to do and to see here. Come for {#blank#}10{#/blank#} visit soon.

Yours,

Linda