Mum's Christmas Surprise

    Molly ran back home from school and dropped her schoolbag on the sofa. Then on the table she saw “Mum's Wish Book” – a mail order catalog（商品目录） from a gift shop. “Mum,” she said excitedly to herself, “this year you'll get the gloves you want!” Molly had walked a dog for a neighbor and saved her 1 all year to buy Mum the gloves.

    She opened “Mum's Wish Book” and hoped that she could find these 2 in it. Teas ran down her face when she saw the gloves in the catalog. Mum wouldn't buy them for herself, because the family had a 3 time on the farm. She once heard Mum say to Dad, “Maybe some day, I'll have the money to get them.”

    Molly ran out by the back door and went straight to the post office. There she carefully filled out the order form torn from the catalog.

    “I need to buy a stamp to 4 the form.” She said to Mr. Smith, the only worker in the post office.

    “Umm, a pair of gloves?” said Mr. Smith, as he passed a stamp to her.

    “Yes, It's a Christmas gift for Mum, but please don't tell her. It's our 5, OK?” Molly didn't realize how white Mr. Smith's beard was until that moment. In face, he reminded her of Santa Claus.

    As Molly walked back home, she decided to tell Dad her secret. “You've got to check the mailbox every day,” said Molly 6 to Dad. He nodded, with a big smile.

    Coming home from school every day, Molly peeked at （偷看） Dad when Mum wasn't 7, but every time he shook his head.

    On Christmas Eve, Dad came back from mailbox, still empty handed. Molly felt 8 when she went to bed, because she didn't have the gloves for Mum.

    Before Christmas dinner, as Mum took the apple pies out of the oven, Molly began 9 the table. Suddenly, they heard someone pulling up the driveway. From the window they saw Mr. Smith making his way to the door, with a box in his hand. Mr. Smith 10 Mum the box, “I believe this is yours.”

    Mum looked from Dad to Molly and opened the box. Her eyes lit up when she saw the gloves. “Oh, who bought these for me?” she asked.

    “Santa did,” said Molly smilingly.

    “Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!” Mr. Smith, with a loud laugh.

    It was Christmas that no one would ever forget.

    Young Scottish brothers take on a list of 500 adventures

    For Ollie and Harry Ferguson, life is an adventure. For the past four years, the brothers have been working to1a list of 500 challenges and experiences.

    "The idea came about actually from the boys," their father, MacNeill Ferguson, said. "The boys were just asked one day if they could2 some cool things for us to do as a family. They put forward some impossible ideas firstly, like going on a trip to Mars, International Sausage Day and all kinds of3 kids requests. They built the list to a hundred, then kept finding new things we wanted to go and try ... until it got up to 500." They're all listed on the brothers' Facebook page.

    So far they have built an igloo, explored the wilderness, and sent their Lego men to the depths of the ocean and into outer space. Perhaps their biggest 4is playing out right now on the high seas. Last year, Ollie and Harry launched(使下水) a toy ship from the Scottish coast. The ship named "Adventure" sailed across the North Sea to Scandinavia. It then began a ride on a Norwegian boat and was launched 5, this time off the coast of west Africa. It's equipped with a tracking device(跟踪器), allowing the brothers to6every step of the sailing.  But the battery(电池) on the tracking device is becoming weak, so Harry and Ollie hope a passing ship 7 their boat and is able to recharge(充电) its battery, allowing the adventure to continue.

    "Harry, where would you like the boat to go?" Ferguson asked. "Without (a) 8 , that would be China because we all love China." Harry answered. He thought that even there are so many difficulties, the boat will reach China.

Have you ever had lucid (清醒的) dreams? Recent studies suggest that the number of people having them is on the rise. Someone having a lucid dream realizes they are dreaming and may from then on" direct" the action, or they may simply " watch" the dream unfold. The sense of awareness (知道) makes it different from a dream that is simply very lively and true to life. And although the description may seem strange, the process is far from alien to many of us.

Studies suggest that the number of people in the Western world experiencing lucid dreams, which happen once in a while, has risen by between 10 and 40 per cent since the 1980s. Today, they are so common that about one in eight of us will have one in our lives. But still, little is known about what causes them or what is behind the rise.

Research carried out at the respected Harvard University in the US shows that the brain is working hard during lucid dreams. In fact, the level of the mental (精神

的) activity in some parts of the brain is similar to that of a person who is awake. Lucid dreamers seem to share certain personal characters. For example, in general they are quite creative. They are also good at digging deep into problems and going out of their way to solve them. Furthermore, they always believe in personal responsibility rather than letting society carry the can.

Our nightmares (噩梦) may show our waking worries, with the five most common ones-- falling, being run after, feeling disabled, being late and the death of a loved one. Men are more likely to have nightmares about fights or being fired while hair and tooth loss appear more in women's nightmares-perhaps showing worries about losing their looks. Research has also found that women have more nightmares than men. Their dreams are also scarier and more unforgettable.

Here are three students.They are talking about sports.

My name is Paul and I am twelve years old. I live with my parents. We have a farm. The farm isn't big, but there is much work to do.

There are many kinds of animals on the farm. We have cows, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks. Some of them are small, like chickens and ducks, but some are big, like cows. Big cows have big brown eyes. They eat grass all day and make a sound(声音) like" moo". There are pigs, too. They are pink and round. Chickens are also on the farm. They lay eggs for us to eat. Ducks swim in the pond. I often give food to the small animals there.

We also grow(种植) many fruit and vegetables. There are eight apple trees on the farm. We also have tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. These fruit and vegetables are good for our health.

 The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature went to the South Korean writer Han Kang.__ {#blank#}1{#/blank#} October 10th, the 53-year-old writer was awarded the prize for her" poetic prose(诗意的散文)". She is the {#blank#}2{#/blank#}( one) South Korean writer to win the prize.

Han {#blank#}3{#/blank#}( keep) writing since her first prose came out in the 1990s. One of her{#blank#}4{#/blank#}( good) works is The Vegetarian. It tells the story of a woman's decision to stop{#blank#}5{#/blank#}( eat) meat and her family's worry about her mental health. She tries to be free. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} novel was also translated into English.

A question often {#blank#}7{#/blank#}( appear) in her works: If you were able to live as you wanted, what would you do with your life? And she likes to mention the question in many of her {#blank#}8{#/blank#}( speech).

 Many main characters in Han's books are women. However, readers can find lots of men's opinions {#blank#}9{#/blank#} Han thinks this kind of mix is helpful for readers to discover human nature.

 By Friday morning, her books are among the top 10 in popular online bookshops. "It was{#blank#}10{#/blank#}( real) amazing to hear that a Korean woman writer had won the prize, so I came here to look for her books," said a reader.