When Joe was about to start school, all signs pointed to success. Yet things turned out to be quite1. The fourth grade even found him at the2of the class. Joe struggled day and night, but it did not3—until one stormy afternoon.

    On that afternoon, 4the math teacher started to introduce difficult concepts, dark clouds

    covered the sky, and the storm set in. Hard though she tried to make the kid, 5, the thunder won the battle for their attention. No one6the concepts. Except for Joe. He understood them and answered all the questions correctly. The teacher patted him on the back, and told him to go around to the others and explain how he had managed it. 7by his newfound success, Joe moved quickly throughout the room. Soon math time was followed by the time for8. All children naturally drew9pictures on such a day. Except for Joe.

    Since then, Joe started10. Though he never made it to the top, his math teacher was always11and curious about the change: Why had that stormy day changed Joe?

    On the day Joe graduated, he presented the teacher with his most12possession—the picture of a bright yellow sun. On the picture Joe had written: This is the day I13my brightness.

    It was the old lady's birthday. She got up early to be ready for the post. From the second floor flat she could see the postman when he came down the street, and a little boy, Johnnie,1her letters from the ground floor on the rare 2when anything came.

    Today she was sure there would be something. Myra 3 forget her mother's birthday, even if she 4 wrote at other times. Of course Myra was busy, but 5 Enid, the daughter the old lady loved most, died two years ago. Since then Myra had seen her mother three times, but her husband, Harold, never.

    The old lady was eighty this day. She had put on her best dress. Perhaps ―perhaps Myra might come. After all, eighty was a 6 birthday, another decade lined or tolerated just as you chose to look at it.7 Myra did not come, she would send a present. The old lady was 8 of that. Two spots of colour 9 her cheeks. She was 10 like a child. She would enjoy her day!

    Now, she stood by the window,11 The postman turned round the corner on his bicycle. Her heart beat 12 Johnnie saw him too and ran to the gate. Then clatter (咔嗒声), clatter up the stairs. Johnnie knocked at her door. He had got her post four envelopes. Three were unclosed cards from old friends. The fourth was closed, in Myra's writing. The old lady felt a sharp pain of13There was no parcel for her! Maybe the parcel was too large to come by letter post. That was it. It would come later by parcel post. She said to herself. She must be14.

    Almost 15 she tore the envelope open.16 in the card was a piece of paper. Written on the card was a message under the printed Happy Birthday —Buy yourself something nice with the 17, Myra and Harold. The cheque moved quickly to the floor like a bird with a broken wing. Slowly the old lady 18 to pick it up. Her present! her 19 present! With 20 fingers she tore it into little bits.

    Maureen stood by the lake. Suddenly the children came running through the trees with sharp cries of 1 They rushed up to the 2leaning over the clear water, watching the crowds of tiny fish. Some children demanded loudly to go to the boats, but 3those who had been left behind at the ice-cream stall(小摊) came running up to make some announcement or other, and they all4the water and dashed back the 5 they had come. With growing excitement, Maureen6them.

    When she7what had been running for, she stopped running. They were 8things again. The toy stall was9and they were crowded around it. Behind the 10 a calm middle-aged woman was selling a great variety of small rubbish. She took 11from the forest of small hands in exchanging for little boats, plastic dolls, yellow pencils, anything. Maureen leaned against a 12 looking on. The idea of13 washed against her face like a strong current(流), trying to draw her in.

    Nona Parker pushed out to the edge of the group and14what she had bought on the ground so that she could see what money she had left in her white purse. Under Maureen's 15 lay a boat, a mouth organ(口琴) and a brown load of bread. Maureen was so full of the16for the things like that she couldn't bear to look at it. She turned her17sharply. Her face was against the tree. She shut her eyes and 18 eagerly for some money, for the price of a set of toy plates. In a moment, she opened her eyes,19she didn't turn back to the stall. It was too 20to see the others buying whatever they wanted. She rubbed almost round the tree, her eyes on the ground.

    The Vietnam War broke out. The young husband joined the army and died in the war, leaving behind his wife and kids 1 great pain and sadness.

    Life after the war was 2, often without enough food to eat. People tried to 3 the wife who was still young and beautiful to remarry, but she refused and devoted her 4 life to raising her kids with the best possible care and education 5 sometimes she felt like giving up.

    Time passed by and the kids were 6. The first son moved to America and became an Engineer having a good life.

The son sent home letters 7, together with much money for mom to 8. However, year after year, with the many 9, the son stubbornly refused to travel home to visit Mom.

    When the mother died, the son returned and 10 a big funeral (葬礼) but people did not see him shedding tears. It seemed that he didn't really 11 the loss of his mother.

    Mother 12 a box that she always placed at the top of her bed. During the funeral, the son opened the box and 13 burst out crying, held his mother's coffin (棺材) and screamed 14, “Mom! Mom!”

    Everyone looked at each other and then looked at 15. It was full of $100 dollar bills and a piece of paper. It 16,“Son, My life is almost 17. I don't spend too much money. I 18 you a lot. Every time I 19 a motorcycle passing by, I ran out of the door,20 it wasn't my son. I saved this money for you in case (以免万一) you get sick.”

    Raynor Winn and her husband Moth became homeless due to their wrong investment. Their savings had been 1 to pay lawyers' fees. To make matters worse, Moth was diagnosed（诊断）with a 2 disease. There was no 3, only pain relief.

    Failing to find any other way out, they decided to make a 4 journey, as they caught sight of an old hikers'(徒步旅行者）guide.

    This was a long journey of unaccustomed hardship and 5 recovery. When leaving home, Raynor and Moth had just ￡320 in the bank. They planned to keep the 6 low by living on boiled noodles, with the 7 hamburger shop treat.

    Wild camping is 8 in England. To avoid being caught, the Winns had to get their tent up 9and packed it away early in the morning. The Winns soon discovered that daily hiking in their 50s is a lot 10 than they remember it was in their 20s. Raynor 11 all over and desired a bath. Moth, meanwhile, after an initial 12, found his symptoms were strangely 13 by their daily tiring journey.

    14, the couple found that their bodies turned for the better, with re-found strong muscles that they thought had 15 forever. "Our hair was fried and falling out, nails broken, clothes 16 to a thread, but we were alive."

    During the journey, Raynor began a career as a nature writer. She writes, "17 had taken every material thing from me and left me torn bare, an empty page at the end of a(n) 18 written book. It had also given me a 19, either to leave that page 20 or to keep writing the story with hope. I chose hope."

    From childhood. Moira loved to write, Throughout school she 1writing, but pursuing(追求）it  2was never a possibility. Her father was a doctor, her mother a nurse "Medicine was a fairly 3option," Moira says. "And writing was a career where it wasn't a 4that you'd have high income."

    She became a doctor but still wanted to do some writing. However, being a doctor was so 5that she didn't take up writing until her thirties. She 6 a novel — a fictionalized version of her travels in China after university. She got excellent 7 . Moira sent it off to as many agents as she could find and found one who wanted to 8her. Suddenly it seemed she was on her 9as an author.

    "I had one lengthy phone call with the agent where we 10 all possible areas she thought needed 11I worked on those and sent it back to her but didn't hear anything. It was not long 12Moira found another agent who was 13 if she was willing to rewrite" it from the first person to the third person. She did the hard work and sent it off again. "I got back a really brief letter." Thank you. I'm no longer interested. It was really 14.

    A decade went by, and Moira found herself itching to write again, this time15for her own enjoyment. She16herself the challenge of creating a thriller and chose Western Australia as her setting.

    As she was writing just for herself, something surprising began to happen. "The characters 17 a life of their own; they started doing things I hadn't thought about. It just 18out." One day, an agent called from Australia. Three weeks later, Moira had a publication deal. Her novel, Cicada, was published in March.

    " 19 it hadn't been published I still gained so much from the 20 ," says Moira.