In 1910，Abraham Bank，my great－grandfather，didn't want to join the army.At the time，he was only twenty－one years old.So he {#blank#}1{#/blank#}  (decide) to leave his hometown during the night.

    Abraham traveled through Finland to Sweden，{#blank#}2{#/blank#} he worked for a while as a porter.He earned his ticket to London where he continued to work.His goal was to earn enough money to follow {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the footsteps of his brother，who had already moved to America.

    Two years after {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (leave) his home in Latvia，Abraham was finally able to buy a ticket on a ship from England to America.But Abraham ran into {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  (difficult)，one of which was he had no money left {#blank#}6{#/blank#}  he bought the ticket.So Abraham decided not to use the ticket.He remained in London for a few {#blank#}7{#/blank#}  (month) and then he moved to South Africa.It {#blank#}8{#/blank#}  (be) not until 1987 that his grandson (my father) and his family made the move to America.

    I have good cause to be {#blank#}9{#/blank#}  (thank) to my great－grandfather for deciding not to use that ticket.In fact，it might well have been the {#blank#}10{#/blank#}  (good) decision he had ever made.The name of the ship that sank into the Atlantic that day was the Titanic.

    Macao, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} lies to the south of Guangdong, is a small city with  Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Hong Kong as its neighbors. It has {#blank#}2{#/blank#} population of 550,000, 96% of which {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (be) Chinese. It is a clean and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (beauty) city with trees, flowers, and green grass everywhere. There are lots of cars {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (run) in the narrow streets. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} all people obey the traffic rules. Macao is also famous {#blank#}7{#/blank#} its gambling, and several million {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (visit) come to tour every year.

    Macao, which used to belong to China but {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (take) away by the Portuguese in 1887 from the Qing Dynasty, returned to our motherland {#blank#}10{#/blank#} December 20th, 1999.

    Sometimes your friends start to talk about a new video game or a new app they have downloaded. It sounds pretty cool, and your friends really seem to like it. You become so {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(interest) in it that you want to buy it too. Has this ever happened to you?

    In the US and in places around the world, there is a similar feeling of wanting the {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(new), greatest tech gadgets (小玩意). There is a big {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(attract) to getting the latest technology even though people may not need it. But why is this?

    As to(关于) these technologies, there's {#blank#}4{#/blank#} initial （最初的） excitement that {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(get) people's attention, according to Richard Larson, a director at MIT, US. If there's a big group of people {#blank#}6{#/blank#} want these things, you want to be a part of the excitement too.

    One of the major US {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(company) that really take advantage of this is Apple. It comes out with a new iPhone with very small changes every year. But people still flock (涌入) to the stores even if they have just bought the previous phone.

    However,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} （buy）these things may not always be the best choice. You could be buying things that you don't really need and {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (spend) too much money just for the right to show it off to your friends.

    Not only that, but our need to always be on your phones or playing video games takes {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a lot of time in our lives. So is this excitement over technology a good or a bad thing?

    People have all turned to sad music to make themselves feel better at some point in their lives, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}why does the music with double or even triple sadness help drag people out of low spirits?

    A new study throws light on what's going on inside people's brains when they match their music to their feelings, and it looks as if sad music can be enjoyable, rather than{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(simple) depressing. Music of this sort can arouse positive memories in people's life , thus {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(lift)their mood.

Psychologist Adrian North from Curtin University in Australia says there{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(existence) two groups of possible explanations for why people enjoy listening to sad music like this—one from social psychology, and the other from cognitive neuroscience(神经学).

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}terms of social psychology, one idea about this is that people will feel{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(good) about themselves if they focus on someone who's doing even worse. Everything's going to be okay, because this person is having {#blank#}7{#/blank#}even worse day than they are.

    Another idea from social psychology is that people like to listen to the very music{#blank#}8{#/blank#}shows their present life circumstances, because this kind of music makes them feel they are understood. With their emotions{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(share), they definitely get a certain amount of comfort.

    So, the{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(conclude) again—sad music does cheer people up, and it works far better than happy music, in most cases.

    In northeastern Liaoning Province, winter can be very cold. For months, almost nothing grows on these frozen areas, except for one {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (surprise) product—grapes, which make something special, ice wine. Ice wine {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (make) from frozen grapes. The freezing process gives the wine a sweet flavor. It's so much {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (strong). It tastes like a raisin (葡萄干).

    Here, conditions for making ice wine are so perfect {#blank#}4{#/blank#} a third of the world's ice wine is now produced here. Strict rules mean that the temperature must be at least -8℃ for hours. While they wait, the grapes could go bad. So, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (prevent) this from happening, they need to be picked as soon as the conditions {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (be) right.

    In the early morning, the villagers are all {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (die) to help. The grapes planted here are called Vidal. As soon as the grapes are picked, they are transported to the wine company—the largest {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (produce) in China. Two years later, the wine is ready to be in the bottles, each of {#blank#}9{#/blank#} contains the juice of a 2.5 kilograms of grapes. These bottles will be{#blank#}10{#/blank#} the dinner table across China and even the world.

    Everyone has dreams, but not all dreams can be realized. People give up their dreams for this or that reason. Those {#blank#}1{#/blank#} dreams become true have one thing in common, that is, they insist on {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (work) for their dreams.

    Marie Curie, a famous scientist, has set {#blank#}3{#/blank#} good example. In 1898, Marie {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (find) a new element (元素) in the pitchblende (沥青铀矿). {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (prove) her discovery, she had to show it to the world, which also became her dream. After using tons of pitchblende, Marie and her husband {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (final) saw the blue light of radium (镭). There are many other examples. Athletes who gain gold medals and students who enter key universities after {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (year) of hard work, are all dream-holders.

    The path to dreams may not be smooth and the progress may be {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(pain). But hold on to your dreams, no matter {#blank#}9{#/blank#} big or small they are. Hold on to the end, and you will find there is nothing {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (happy) than your dreams coming true.