In my opinion, we should try our best {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(realize) our goals even though {#blank#}2{#/blank#}is little hope. The efforts seem to be the lights in the darkness, leading the way to hope and success. I used to be {#blank#}3{#/blank#}shy girl in my primary school. I was weak in English at that time, especially for {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(speak) English. So I was afraid to answer the teacher's questions during English classes. After I entered my dream middle school. Something {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(change). I started to read many {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(interest) English stories and my English teacher was patient to help me a lot. I studied hard in class and practiced by watching English films and listening to English songs in my free time. Little {#blank#}7{#/blank#}little, I found {#blank#}8{#/blank#} more and more interesting to learn English. I could even talk with my classmates {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(fluent) in English and I was not shy any more. At last, I got high grades in English and I had {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(confident) to do it better in the future.

    I always sit down comfortably in the barber's shop and listen patiently {#blank#}1{#/blank#} my barber(理发师). He either explains the current political situation and women's fashions or tells me jokes which I {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(hear) at least five times already. In twenty {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(minute), I get a great deal of information as well as a hair-cut.

    But last week our conversation was very short indeed. We heard loud cries of “fire!”{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(come) from upstairs. All of the customers and barbers made up their minds {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (escape) from the shop immediately.

    We were {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(certain) a funny sight to passers-by! I had a white sheet round my neck and my hair {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(be) half cut. My barber was close behind me with a comb and a pair of scissors in his hands. One of the customers {#blank#}8{#/blank#} had sat next to me was not so {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(luck). There were still soap bubbles on one side of his face and his barber ran after him holding a shaving-brush in one hand and a razor in the {#blank#}10{#/blank#}!

    Paper-cutting was recognized as a national cultural heritage(遗产)in 2006. According to experts, paper-cutting conveys the culture shared between China {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the West to wish for family reunions and maintain links with loved ones, alive or dead.

    In the movie Coco, for instance, the 12-year-old Miguel and his family dance and sing to celebrate the Day of the Dead, a {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (tradition)festival in Mexico, when colorful paper-cuts are hung on the street. Chinese people also cut images of small figures {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (call) back the spirits of the dead. The difference is that most Chinese paper-cuts are red, while those in other countries {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (be) often made in many other colors.

    Fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen liked to cut {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (character), such as princesses and angels, out of paper while {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (tell) stories to children. In China, female friends and family members used to chat and make paper-cuts together.

    “{#blank#}7{#/blank#}the patterns and colors may be different, paper-cuts share the same function of maintaining emotional ties among people, "says Yang Huizi, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} art teacher at Beijing Union.

    Yang {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (study) and performed the art for over a decade. Besides routine university courses, she also organizes nonprofit paper-cutting activities {#blank#}10{#/blank#}are open to the public in Beijing to promote basic knowledge of paper-cutting.

    She looks like any other schoolgirl, fresh-faced and full of life. Sarah Thomas is looking forward to the challenge of her new A-level course. But unlike her school friends, 16-year-old Sarah is not spending half-term rest. Instead, she is earning £6500 a day as {#blank#}1{#/blank#}model in New York.

    Sarah {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(tell) that she could be Britain's new supermodel{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (earn) a million dollars in the next year. Her father Peter, 44, wants her to give up school to model full-time. But Sarah, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}has taken part in shows along with top models, wants to prove that she has brains as well as beauty. She is determined to carry on with her{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (educate).

    She has turned down several {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (invite) to star at shows in order to concentrate on her studies. After school she plans to take a year off to model full-time before going to university to get a degree {#blank#}7{#/blank#}engineering or architecture.

    Sarah says, "My dad thinks I should take the offer now. {#blank#}8{#/blank#}at the moment, school comes first. I don't want to get too {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (absorb) in modeling. It is certainly fun that the lifestyle is a little{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (real). I don't want to have nothing else to fall back on when I can't model any more."

    In South Korea smartphone cases come with rings fixed on the back {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (prevent) clumsy owners from dropping them. This makes people look like they are married to their phones. In lots of Seoul's coffee {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (shop), couples on dates spend much more time looking at their screens {#blank#}3{#/blank#} at each other. The results go beyond the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (potential) terrible consequences for romance.

    Walk around the streets of Seoul, and there is {#blank#}5{#/blank#} real risk of bumping into people {#blank#}6{#/blank#} eyes are glued to their smartphone screens. According to the statistics, around 370 traffic accidents annually {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (cause) by pedestrians using smartphones.

    The government initially tried to fight the "smombie" (手机僵尸) phenomenon by distributing hundreds of stickers (贴纸) around cities, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (beg) people to "be safe" and look up. This seems to have had little effect even though, in Seoul at least, it recently replaced the stickers with stronger plastic boards.

    Instead {#blank#}9{#/blank#} appealing to people's good sense, the authorities have therefore turned to trying to save them from being run over. Early last year, they {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (begin) to test floor-level traffic lights in smombie hotspots in central Seoul. Since then, the experiment has been extended around and beyond the capital. For the moment, the government is keeping old-fashioned eye-level pedestrian lights as well. But in future, the way to look at a South Korea crossroads may be down.

Digital devices(设备) have become common in our lives. Today, kids often type with a keyboard instead {#blank#}1{#/blank#}writing by hand. But a recent study shows that you can learn{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(well), and possibly remember more, by handwriting your notes.

"Some schools have become{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(complete) digital," noted Audrey, who{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(lead) the study. She measured what's happening in the brain to better understand learning and behaviors. Her study found that{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(use) a pen or pencil to write notes involves more of the brain than typing on a keyboard. This is because writing needs more complex movements,{#blank#}6{#/blank#} makes more areas of our brain activate.

Think about it: you move your hands{#blank#}7{#/blank#}same way to type each letter on a keyboard. That's different from when we write. Our brain needs{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(consider) the shape of each letter. And we must control our hands to shape different letters with a pen or pencil, all of which uses and connects more areas of the brain.

So learning only by typing could be{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(harm). However, the human brain connects with the world in as many{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(way) as possible. That's why it's important to learn to write by hand and to type with a keyboard in the meanwhile.