Rise After Falling

    A father was worried about his son,{#blank#}1{#/blank#}was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided to call on a Buddhist monk (僧侣){#blank#}2{#/blank#} (train) his boy.

    The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father, “I insist that your son should be left alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} you can't come to see him during this period.”

    Three months later, the boy's father {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (return). The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(experience) boxer. Each time the fighter struck the boy, he {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(fall) down, but at once the boy stood up; and each time a heavy blow knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked, “{#blank#}7{#/blank#}do you think of your child?”

    “What a shame!” the boy's father said, “I never thought he would be so {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(easy) knocked down. I needn't have him stay here any {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (long)!

     “I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he falls down, he stands up again instead of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (cry)? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have.

    The first foreign language I studied was French, and I learnt it at a secondary school between the ages of 11 and 18. It was a compulsory subject for the first three years and I{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (choose) to continue studying it afterwards because I enjoyed it, found it {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (interest) and was quite good at it. Outside class I practiced {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(listen) to the French language radio and reading French books.

    Before going to university, I spent three months working on {#blank#}4{#/blank#}farm in southern France. This helped me become pretty fluent{#blank#}5{#/blank#} French and acquire a rich farming-related vocabulary.

    My French has also been {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(help) on holiday on Morocco and Portugal. French {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (use) as a second language in Morocco and in other countries quite a few people speak French in places {#blank#}8{#/blank#}a lot of tourists visit.

    In September 2009 I joined a couple of French conversation {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(group) in Bangor and I have been going to them ever since. It has resulted in my{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(improve) in my spoken French.

    Now I can still speak French fluently and can also read it well, but my written French is not so good.

    Brave and {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(intelligence), the tiny mouse from the US cartoon series Tom and Jerry is loved and remembered by fans worldwide.

    Recently, scientists from Britain and Canada have created super-clever mice by {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(change) a single gene (基因). In the study, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(research) changed one of the mice's genes to stop the PDE4B enzyme (酶), a substance found in the human brain, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} working.

    After that, they ran several tests on the {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(behave) and found they tended to learn{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(fast), remember events for longer and {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(solution) difficult problems better than normal mice. The mice also suffered less anxiety (焦虑) and showed {#blank#}8{#/blank#} fear of cats, their natural enemy.

    A team from the UK's Leeds University is now trying developing drugs (药品){#blank#}9{#/blank#} could block the PDE4B enzyme. {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(hope), the drugs could help with treatments for brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (老年痴呆症).

    A young man, while traveling through a desert, came across a spring of clear water. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}water was sweet. He filled his leather container so that he could bring some back to an elder {#blank#}2{#/blank#}had been his teacher. After a four-day journey, the young man{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (present) the water to the old man. His teacher took a deep drink, smiled{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (warm), and thanked his student very much for the sweet water. The young man went home {#blank#}5{#/blank#}a happy heart.

    After the student left, the teacher let {#blank#}6{#/blank#}student taste the water. He spat it out, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(say) it was awful. Apparently, it was no longer fresh because of the old leather container. He asked his teacher, "Sir, the water was awful. Why did you pretend to like{#blank#}8{#/blank#}?"

The teacher replied, “You tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of kindness and love. Nothing could be{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (sweet).”

    We understand this lesson best {#blank#}10{#/blank#}we receive gifts of love from children. Whether it is a cheap pipe or a diamond necklace, the proper response is appreciation. We love the idea within the gift rather than the thing.

    The first UN Chinese Language Day at the United Nations {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(observe) on Friday at UN Headquarters in New York in 2010. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}the world's most widely spoken language, it seems appropriate that Mandarin(普通话) has one day every year dedicated(把……专用于) to it. This{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(official)marked day of Mandarin language celebration was set by the United Nations as a way of {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(celebrate) the language's history and contributions to the world.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} is hoped that having one day every year to celebrate Mandarin will encourage more people around the world to take it up. With China likely to become the {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(large) economy in the world, it is important that the wider world becomes interestingly more perfect in this wonderful language. Every year UN Chinese Language Day {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(fall) on April 20. A great way {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(get) involved in the celebration is to join a Mandarin class or attend one of the Confucius Institutes(孔子学院){#blank#}9{#/blank#}are set up by China in countries around the world. The number of people learning Chinese is on {#blank#}10{#/blank#}increase in China's neighboring countries, such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.