I used to be the shyest person in the world. I hid1 my elder sister whenever I had to speak to a stranger. When asked to speak in class, I could hardly 2, much less speak. Even among the few friends I had, my high, timid (怯怯的) voice earned me jokes —about being a girl.

    Then in the seventh grade, my sister suggested I 3 voice lessons. After considering it for a short time, I did. I began a series of vocal exercises.

After exercising a lot, I finally gained 4 in my voice.

    A few months later, I was asked to sing for some retired people, I thought I would do better than before 5 the voice lessons. I opened my mouth and —nothing. I couldn't remember the 6! My face turned hot. The kind pianist whispered a prompt (提示), and I remembered just enough to keep singing.

    Then the thought struck me: I've already embarrassed (尴尬) myself enough. There's really nothing else to 7. So in my second song, I just relaxed and felt the energy of the song lift me. And I did much better.

After that, I started singing to myself as 8 as I could in my own room. That's something I would never have done before. One classmate even said that I 9be in the school's talent show.

    I am not a shy person 10. Singing has made me more outgoing. Today, I can also stand in front of the whole class and give a big speech. I am proud of myself.

    This is a photo of Mr Black's family. The man with glasses（眼镜）is Mr Black, the father. The woman is the mother. They have a son and a daughter. The son is behind（在……后面）Mr Black. His name is Jack. He's 14. Kate is Jack's sister. She is 12. Jack and Kate are in the same school, but they are in different（不同的）grades. Jack is in Grade Three and Kate's in Grade One. They are good students.

    Barbara Finch, from England, started a friendship with Elizabeth Martin from New Zealand when the two were just 14 years old. And they have been penfriends for the past seventy years.

    "Seventy years is a long time and such a lot has happened," says Barbara. "I've lost my husband and my son, and she's lost her husband and her daughter. With things like that, her friendship means a lot to me."

    The two started writing letters to each other in November 1947. At that time, Barbara was a pupil. In her school, there was an exchange teacher from New Zealand. She helped her students to find penfriends from her country. Among the many penfriends, Barbara and Elizabeth were the only pair to form a long-term friendship.

    Now both 84, the pair continue to send weekly emails to tell each other about their daily lives. Barbara, who's a proud great-grandmother, has kept every single letter and card Elizabeth sent her over the years.

    "We email each other now rather than write letters, partly because it's quicker but mostly because there's no cost," Barbara says.

    The pair not only write to each other, but they also meet face to face. They have visited each other 15 times—Barbara flying to New Zealand 10 times and Elizabeth flying to England 5 times.

    "Her family has become a second family to me. She says I am the sister she never had," Barbara says.

    One day, Thomas Edison came home from school and gave a letter to his mother. He {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (tell) her, "My teacher gave this letter to me and asked me to give it to my mother only." His {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (mother) eyes were full of tears as she read {#blank#}3{#/blank#} letter out loud to her child, "Your son is a genius (天才). This school is too small {#blank#}4{#/blank#} him and doesn't have enough good teachers to train him. Please teach him {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (you)."

    Many years after Edison's mother had died, Edison became one of the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (great) inventors of the century. One day, he was going through the old closet (壁柜) and he found a folded letter which {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (give) to him by his teacher for his mother. He opened it. The message {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (write) on the letter was, "Your son is mentally (精神上) ill. We cannot let him attend our school any more, he has to leave the school."

    {#blank#}9{#/blank#} surprised and excited Edison was after reading it! And then he wrote in his diary, "Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally ill child, but his mother turned him into the genius of the century {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(success)."

John, a famous musician, took his priceless violin and played it in the crowded subway station. The music from the violin was in the wind throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly 1 the music. A three-year-old kid was so2 in the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 dollars for his work that day. 

However, in3 days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars, and it is really 4 to buy a ticket even at such a high price.5 later, many passers-by in the station that day for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a.6 but cheap music feast (盛宴) . 

I have a very busy friend called Charles. He had totally7 after knowing that his wife came down with an illness that cannot be 8 , and she couldn't live long. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. But even so, his wife still didn't 9 the illness and passed away. After that, he often sighed. Due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of 10 time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to 11 for it. 

But it is no use crying over spilt milk. In our life, we have missed a lot of precious things without knowing to 12 them. The reason is less than simple; we had thought that we could 13 own them tomorrow. 

There was a famous-Buddhist mook saying that in many people's lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to cherish what they had before they lost it. We would often expect to do 14 when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, etc. However, when we reach the 15 we have expected, we could no longer realize our wish, because we have lost it by then