Toby's family often goes on ski (滑雪) vacations. They are great fun. The snow is cold and wet, but the sun is warm. Toby loves the 1 of skiing down a mountain. It's always great.

    But there is one thing that Toby doesn't 2about skiing. There are so many things to 3. The most important things are the skis and ski boots (滑雪板和滑雪靴), of course. He also has to wear big socks to keep his feet 4and long underwear (内衣) for his legs. And he can't 5his hat and mittens (连指手套).

    Toby didn't like ski lessons before. He knew it was 6to learn, but he didn't like his teachers. They always gave very boring lessons. Also, the lessons always took very long 7they had to wait for everyone to get ready.

    However, this year Toby was glad to have the8. One time Toby's hat flew off while he was going down the mountain. One of the teachers went and got it9him. The teachers also showed him10to stop faster and turn better. Lessons were not so bad after all!

An old man died and left his son a lot of money. But the son was a foolish young man, and he quickly spent all the money, so that soon he had nothing left. Of course, when that happened, all his friends left him. When he was quite poor and alone, he went to see Mr. Smith, who was a kind, clever old man and often helped people when they had troubles.

    "My money has ran out and my friends have gone," said the young man. "What will happen to me?

"Don't worry, young man," answered Mr Smith. "Everything will soon be all right again. Wait, and you will soon feel much happier. "

    The young man was very glad. "Am I going to get rich again then?" he asked Mr. Smith.

    "No, I didn't mean that," said the old man. "I meant that you would soon get used to being poor and to having no friends. "

When Yang Fan was taking a walk around the Yuliang Island, she saw a black swan (天鹅) in the grass. Yang Fan knew that swans could be fierce (凶猛的). But as she got close to this one, it didn't move.

She was sure that the swan needed help. Although she had an important meeting to have, she still decided to do something for the swan. So Yang called her workmate first to pull off the meeting. Then she covered the bird's head with her jacket to keep its cool, picked it up carefully and held it in her arms. She decided to send it to the Animal Care Center, but the center was across the Han River, far from the park. She didn't know how to carry the swan there. Luckily, some strangers driving by gave her and the swan a lift to a nearby bus stop.

On the bus, no one seemed surprised by "the unusual passenger". Instead, they were worried. Someone helped Yang Fan call the center on the way. And Li Tao, an animal-care manager, picked her up at the bus stop and drove them to the center. There, the animal doctors found that the swan was poisoned (中毒), caused by eating something used to kill mice. The swan was well looked after at the center. She even made a friend—a little dog. Thanks to people's love and care, luckily, she was cured (治愈) two months later and sent back to the nature.

"It's a moving story. Yang Fan travelled about two hours and it was really a long way." Says Li Tao. "And all the strangers wanted to give her and the swan a hand." He adds, "I am happy to see that more and more people have realized the importance of protecting the wild life since we are trying to build a civilized (文明) city."

I'm Mr.White.I was born in{#blank#}1{#/blank#} small village in England sixty years ago.There were four{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (child) in my family,{#blank#}3{#/blank#} I had a big family.My brother Jack and my sister Mary{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (leave) school at the age of thirteen because my family was so poor.They{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (work) in a shoe shop.My little brother David and I{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (go) to school at the age of eight.I liked Shakespeare's{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (play) like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.My parents worked very{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (hard).They went to the shop early but came very late at night.So I{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (have) to cook dinner for the family.The life 82.{#blank#}10{#/blank#} that time was very hard,but we were very happy. 

Many people like to collect things. Some people collect stamps, some collect dolls and some collect rocks. 1 , Christa Behmenburg, from Germany, collects something unusual—mouse-related items.

Christa's husband is a geologist (地质学家). He likes collecting postcards about mineral (矿物质) resources. Christa always goes with him to fairs 2 new cards for his collection. Actually, Christa is not fond of mineral resources, 3 she feels bored with these fairs. One day, she asked her husband 4 she could also build up a collection of something she likes. He agreed and advised Christa to collect something about 5 favorite animal. Unluckily, that piece of advice would become the biggest regret he's never had.

Christa's favorite animal is the mouse. Since she 6 a teenager, she has had mice as pets. The animal 7 lovely and clever. Two or three years after 8 the hobby, she went all in. She had hundreds and then thousands of mouse-related items only 9 weeks later.

At first, she and her husband had 10 small flat. However, space was getting much 11 because of Christa's collection. The two had to rent (租) 12 two houses. To everyone's surprise, the number of Christa's mouse-related items was up to 47,398 in early 2022 and she broke the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of mouse-related items 13 the end of this year.

Christa's collection continues to grow. Now, every room in her house, from the kitchen to the bathroom, 14 mouse-related items. Sometimes, Christa's husband complains about the large collection 15 brings them joy and trouble. Christa, however, will remind him that it was all his idea!

The Person I Respect

 We have a lot of respectable people around us. The person I respect is