My father was a self-taught mandolin（曼陀林琴）player. He was one of the best players in our town. He could not 1 music, but if he heard a tune（曲子）a few times, he could play it. When he was young, he was a2 of a small country music band. They played at local dances and the radio station.

    At home, Dad often got out his mandolin and played for the family. We three children sang along. 3 played the mandolin like my father. He could 4 your heart with the music that came out of that old mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his 5 in his ability to play so well for his family.

    But Dad had to find another 6 in a factory later because the money he made atthe band wasn't enough to7 the family. Unluckily he had an 8 one day and lost one finger. He couldn't play as 9 as before. From then on, every time we asked him to play, he would make up reasons to 10 down our request. However, we missed his performance so much. 11 , he agreed and said “Okay, but remember, I can't hold down on the strings（琴弦）the way I 12 to”. When he played the old mandolin, it carried us back to a 13,happy time in our lives.

    Dad was that kind of man. 14 was what he was doing all his life. If he could give 15 to others, he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing（牺牲）his time to see that his family had enough in their life.

    “How can I learn English well?” “This is a 1 many students may ask. In my opinion, the most effective(有效的) 2 is to learn lessons by heart. If you can recite the text and write it out, you will learn it pretty well. And if you can tell 3 your own words about 4 the lesson says, you are a very successful learner indeed. Your English will be quite perfect.

    This is a difficult task. However, if you try to learn by heart only part of each lesson, you'll find it not so hard 5 you might have thought.

    Learn this way, and you will 6 fast progress. Of course, writing is also necessary. It helps you a lot on your way to 7 in English studies.

    It's equally(同样地) important to feel the language. You should laugh at English jokes and be 8 at bad news. When using English, try to 9 your mother tongue(母语). 10 helping you, your own language gets in your way. So, never try to learn English through putting every word into Chinese.

    Erquan Yingyue was written 1 Abing, a folk musician who was born in the city of Wuxi in 1893. His mother died 2he was very young. Abing's father taught him to play many musical instruments, 3 the drums, dizi and erhu, and by age 17, Abing had been known 4his musical ability. However, after his father died, Abing's life grew 5 He was very poor. Not only that, he developed a6 illness and became blind. For several years, he had no home. He lived on the streets and played music to make money. Even after Abing got 7and had a home again, he continued to sing and play on the streets. He 8in this way for many years.

    Abing played music that could touch the 9of people. When we listen to his music, we can sense both the beauty and sadness in it. It makes us think about the wounds and pain that we experienced in the past. By the end of his life, he could 10 over 600 pieces of music. He wrote many of them himself. It is a pity that only six pieces of music in total were recorded for the future world to hear, but his popularity continues to this day.

    Last Friday, I was just in France to visit my 96-year-old grandmother who is very dear to me 1lives alone. I don't visit her very often, so every time I go to see her, 2of us think that it might be the3time we see each other. Last time I visited her in December of 2014, I did some video interviews about her life. I asked her 4 it was like to grow up with her father in the 1920s, to live with two young children, with her husband 5 in a prisoner's camp (集中营) in Germany. I also asked her about her greatest 6. I learned a lot of amazing new things about her that I never know before.

    This year, I did not really have questions to ask. I only wanted to tell her how loved she is. So, I cooked for her and read stories. I gave her a foot massage (按摩). 7 leaving, I wanted to leave something 8 behind besides the memory of our time together. So I wrote her five different love and thank notes to let her know how much she means to me. I 9 them in different places where I knew she would 10find them. One of them was under her pillow. 11 one was hanging from the lamp shade by which she reads in the evening. Another one was by her toothbrush. One was in her mailbox which she has to check every day. And the last one was in her car. She still 12to the nearby village a couple of times a week!

    I knew that these cards would surely cheer her up after I left. Really she called me as I was catching my plane back to the US. She said," I found your three cards! By the time I discovered the third, I was laughing out loud! They did me so much good. Thank you so much!" I smiled to myself, 13she still has two more to go! It is Sunday today, so my guess is that she hasn't 14her mailbox or driven her car! I can 15 how happy she will be when she finds them.

    Xian Xinghai was a very famous musician in China. He wrote one of the greatest pieces of music of the 20^th century. In his short life he wrote 1 300 songs and an opera.

    Xian was born in Panyu, Guangdong, China in 1905. Because his father died before he was born, Xian moved from place to place with 2 mother. He began learning to play 3 violin when he was 20 years old. At the beginning, his violin was 4 cheap and badly made that he 5 not play it well. His friends laughed at him. Xian did not stop 6 and soon showed his talent. In 1934, he was one of the first 7 students who studied in a special music school in Paris. Before he 8. Xian became the school's best student 9 won several prizes for his talents.

    In 1935, he returned to China and helped fight against the Japanese army. Later, he came to Yan'an 10 music at a college. Although there were no pianos in Yan'an at that time, Xian still wrote some of his most important music there, including The Yellow River Cantata, his most famous work. At last, he died on October 30, 1945, aged only 40. Xian's music, however, lives on in the people's hearts.

    Once upon a time, there lived a little boy one night, when the boy was sleeping, his hands, feet and eyes started 1 who was the most important.

    "We're the most important," the eyes said. "Without us, the 2  wouldn't know where to go, and the hands wouldn't know what to take."

    "No," the hands didn't 3 the eyes. "Sure, the eyes can see, but we're the ones playing with toys."

    "It is certain that we are the most important," the feet shouted. "We're the ones that run to the toys in the first place."

    An elf(精灵)that lived on a bookshelf full of storybooks next to the boy's bed 4 the argument.

    "All of you made a 5," he said. The hands, eyes and feet asked why.

    "I think you are 6 on your own. But together you make up a 7 body," the elf replied, "All of you have an important task: to 8 the boy and to help him in every way."

    After hearing the elf's words, they 9 that they were all very important to the boy. Then they never argued with each other. 10, they became friends and always worked together.