It was in autumn. A woman was ill. She 1 in the hospital. Her husband died ten years ago. She had no sons 2 daughters. Nobody 3 her. She felt very 4 .There was a tree outside her room. She saw the leaves fall down. Day after day, there were fewer and fewer leaves 5 the tree. The woman was very sad. She didn't want to eat or drink. She became worse day by day. She got a strong feeling of death. One day, she said, "When the last leaf falls down, I 6 die."

    An old artist knew that. He decided 7 this woman. One night, all yellow leaves fell down. The artist painted a green and yellow leaf and then put it in the tree. The next morning, 8 the woman looked out of the window and saw the last leaf, she was filled with 9. She wanted to be alive. She didn't want to fall down like 10 leaves. From then on，she became better and better and lived well.

    Don't give up your hope at any time.

    You may know the song Happy Birthday very well. But do you know about its writer? It was written by an 1 girl. And now she 2 very rich woman already.

    When she was a child, she was poor. Once her friend Joan 3 her to a birthday party. She was very 4 but sad because she had not enough money 5 presents for her.

    "The party is coming soon. Now I have 6 money." tears ran down her face.

    Late that night, she was in bed, thinking about the presents when the door opened and came in her grandma. "What happened?" her grandma asked. Hearing the girl's story, she said, "Don't 7. I think I can help you. How about 8 song together? Happy birthday to …" 9 beautiful song! They sang and sang. Suddenly, she woke up. 10 it was a dream, she decided to write it down at once and sang it to 11 friend at the party.

    When she sang the song at the party the next day, her friends 12attended the party were very happy. "How 13 she sings! We have never heard such a song before. Thank you 14 giving me the special present," said Joan. And they learnt to sing 15 song together. Later, the girl became well known in America.

    We were going to play against a team from a country school. They didn't come until the game time arrived. They looked1than we had thought. They were wearing dirty blue jeans(牛仔裤)and looked like farm boys. We even thought that they had never seen a basketball before.

    We all sat down. We felt we didn't 2any practice against a team like that.

    It was already so late that no3could be given to them for a warm-up(热身，准备活动). The game began.

    One of our boys 4the ball and he shot a long pass to our forward. From out of nowhere a boy in a dirty T-shirt5the pass and with a beautiful form(姿势)he shot and got two points.

    They6us. Then they got another7of points in a minute.

    Soon it was all over. The country team8us. We certainly learned that even though a team is good, there is usually another9a little better. But the important lesson learned was: One can't tell a man, or a team, by the10.

    Once upon a time, there was a hungry fox that was looking for something to eat. He was very 1. No matter how hard he tried, the fox could not find any food. 2 he went to the side of the forest and looked for food there. He found a big tree 3 a hole in it.

    Inside the hole was a package. The hungry fox thought that there 4 be food in it, and he became very happy. He jumped into the hole and when he 5 the package, he saw there 6 lot of food in it!

    The fox happily began to eat. After the fox had finished 7, he felt thirsty and decided to leave the hole 8 drink some water. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get out of the hole. Do you know 9? Yes, the fox had eaten so much food that he became 10 big to go through the hole.