It was my first day at Grade 8. And the first lesson was {#blank#}1{#/blank#}English. When I was doing nothing, Mr. Li, our new English teacher, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} into the classroom. To my surprise, he held up a book, The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, and asked “Who{#blank#}3{#/blank#}it yet? “. I put my hand up, because Poe was my favorite writer. Mr. Li asked if I really understood what the author tried to say in his book. My reply made him smile, and he asked me{#blank#}4{#/blank#}an essay on that subject. Mr. Li said “You have a gift for writing, Tony.” After that, English classes became a new interest for me. And now I realize how{#blank#}5{#/blank#} English is.

    The end of the term is coming. We become more and more excited because we will {#blank#}1{#/blank#} several weeks off school and can do our favourite things. For example, we can get together with our {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. When the weather is good, we can have a picnic in the park and play games{#blank#}3{#/blank#} . Sometimes we can spend our holiday in a  {#blank#}4{#/blank#} part of a country. For me,  {#blank#}5{#/blank#}   always like relaxing myself on the beach in the south.

     Are you still doing the V for victory sign? It's out. The latest popular hand gesture is putting both of your hand{#blank#}1{#/blank#} to make a heart shape. It is called “hand heart”.

    Many young pop {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in the US have done the move in recent photos. “The 'hand heart' gesture means something {#blank#}3{#/blank#} 'I love you' and 'thank you',” said Taylor Swift, the country singer. “You can send a sweet, simple message without {#blank#}4{#/blank#} a word.” Swift often does it at her concerts. And she is believed to be the first to {#blank#}5{#/blank#} it popular.

    Last month, Justin Bieber and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} superstar friends did the “hand heart” and put the photos online. They did it to help out three kids whose parents were killed in a car accident.

    It used to take much {#blank#}7{#/blank#} for nonverbal(非语言的) culture to move. But now, it moves faster {#blank#}8{#/blank#} we have smart phones and the Internet.

    In the Republic of Korea, the “hand heart” has been {#blank#}9{#/blank#}for a long time, but in a different{#blank#}10{#/blank#}. People there put their hands above their heads and make a bigger heart shape with their arms. It means “I love you”.

    Mr. Smith lived in the country, but he worked in an office in a big city. So he went to work {#blank#}1{#/blank#} train every morning and came home in the same way.

    One morning he was {#blank#}2{#/blank#} his newspaper silently on the train when {#blank#}3{#/blank#}man sitting behind him, who Mr. Smith had never met before, leaned (倾斜) forward, tapped (拍打) him on the shoulder and spoke to {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. The man said," You're leading a very interesting life. You get on the same {#blank#}5{#/blank#}at the station at the same time every morning, and you always sit in the same seat and read the same newspaper. Life is always the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} to you.

    Mr. Smith put his paper {#blank#}7{#/blank#}, turned around, and said to the man, "Who are you? {#blank#}8{#/blank#} do you know all these things about me?"

    "{#blank#}9{#/blank#} I'm always sitting in this seat behind you," the man answered." This morning, I thought it would be good to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} hello."

    Science fiction is a popular kind of writing. And many people think of Jules Verne {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the father of science fiction. He was horn in France in 1828. His father wanted him to be a lawyer, but Berne {#blank#}2{#/blank#} to be a writer from his early twenties. At first, he wrote plays for the theatre. Then, in 1863, he wrote a story called Five weeks in a Balloon. The {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of this book encouraged him to write more stories such as A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and From the Earth to the Moon.

    In the 19^th century, many people were {#blank#}4{#/blank#} on science and inventions. Jules Verne wrote about scientific {#blank#}5{#/blank#} in his stories and, as a result, they were very popular and successful and Verne became rich.