Finally Home

    Last year, my parents moved to this town. I had to go to a new school and found no one to be friends with because I wasn't interested in the topics most of my classmates liked.

    “Maybe I'll never have real friends,” I thought. I closed my eyes and imagined playing my drums. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a guitar. I followed the sound and found out that was a band. I recognized(认出) the guitar player at my first sight and so did he. “Hey, you're Cassie from my class!” his voice surprised me.“I'm sorry,” I said. “I just haven't heard any live music in this town before! You sound great — did you guys write that song?”“Yeah — well, we're still working on it. I'm Matt.” He stood up and held out his hand.

    “Mind if I listen in?” I asked in a low voice. “Not at all,” Matt said, smiling. “Maybe you can give us some suggestions!”

    The song was pretty good and I could really improve it with my drum skills. Behind my drum set was the one place I felt completely like myself. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to open that door to the world.

    “Hey, do you play drums?” Matt asked suddenly. His question surprised me. How did he know? And then I followed his eyes to my hands, which had been beating a rhythm (节奏) on the floor. I tried to say no, but my heart stopped me from refusing. “Sure, I've been playing for a few years,” I said finally.“Oh, wow! You've got to join us!” Matt said. “I have some drums over here.”

    I looked at their shiny faces. “Clearly. I would love to play!” I replied. “One, two, three, four!” Matt counted and began singing, and I knew I was finally home.

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    As we know, elephants are very cute animals, and many people like them very much. But do you hear of an elephant that can draw?

    Shanti is an elephant and she is good at drawing very much. Somebody has actually paid 2,000 dollars for a painting done by her.

    Shanti has painted 12 paintings so far but now she refuses to paint more. The director of the Prague gallery came up with entirely(完全地) improbably reason why she stops drawing.

    The director said, "She starred as an elephant named Bimbo in a movie. She is a very famous artist in it. Now she is in some sort of depression(抑郁). We will just have to wait for her next wave of creativity."

    Shanti does a good thing. Shanti's paintings bring money which helps elephants in Sri Lanka.

    What do we do when we go camping? First, we make a plan. We take food, clothing, a knife, and things for cooking and eating. We take things to keep us away from(远离)insects(昆虫) and the sun.

    Then we put everything into the car and we drive to the woods(森林). We look for a place for campers(露营者) and we look for a good place for our tent(帐篷). The place should have a lot of moving air. This will keep some insects away. High land with water on both sides of it is good. Then we put up our tent. We put everything into the tent, and we are ready for fun. We can swim in the lake, walk in the woods, climb a mountain, row a boat, or go fishing.

    In the evening we come back to the tent, and we build a big fire because it can keep the insects away. We sit around the fire and talk. We may tell interesting stories or we may sing songs.

    At night we lie down on the grass. We can look up at the stars. It is a busy day, so we try to go to sleep early.

    Everything is dark. Everything is quiet. We hope we won't hear music from the radio in the next tent. We hope it won't rain.

My good friend Laura is my cousin. She is one year older than me. She is more hard-working and she usually gets {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (good) grades than me in the tests. Both of {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (we) like reading and swimming. Though we have{#blank#}3{#/blank#} same hobby, we have some differences. For example, she is more outgoing and enjoys {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(tell) jokes. What's more, she has a great talent for singing. She wants to be a famous singer. So she decides {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (practice) singing every day. She often sings in {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (show) and I have watched her sing many times. We talk {#blank#}7{#/blank#}everything together and always share our happiness and sadness（悲伤）with each other. My favorite saying is, "A true friend reaches for your hand {#blank#}8{#/blank#}touches your heart. " Laura is a friend like this. 

Laura also studies photography（摄影）in her free time, so she is{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(real) busy. She has taken a lot of wonderful photos. Last year, she{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(win) first prize in the city photo competition. I am lucky that I have such a good friend. 

My aunt Nancy is a truck driver. When she left school, she didn't know what she wanted to do, so she went to work in a supermarket. One day, she was talking to one of the truck drivers at the supermarket, and she got the idea to drive a truck herself. She went home and told her parents (my grandparents！), and they thought it was a good idea.

Nancy's journeys are different every day, and she goes to every part of the country. She enjoys the driving, but she says that one day, she would like to get a job with a different company(公司) so that she can drive to more places.

Nancy says she likes being out on the road, seeing new towns all the time, but the best thing about driving trucks for her is talking to everyone she sees during her working day. She also says the trucks are comfortable, so she doesn't mind sleeping in them. For her, they are her home on wheels!

I asked my grandparents what they thought about Nancy's job. They are happy that Nancy is happy, so they don't want her to change jobs. But they worry about her because it's sometimes a dangerous job and she spends a lot of time away from home.

Last week I went to an art show. A painting caught my eyes. To my amazement, it was painted by Steven, one of my {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Then many things about him came into my mind.

Steven was from a poor family. His parents{#blank#}2{#/blank#}not afford to buy him some basic things that he needed. Once our school provided gloves for poor children. I put Steven's name on the list. He was so {#blank#}3{#/blank#} when he received a pair. He loved to wear them and they were always {#blank#}4{#/blank#} than anybody else's. 

Steven had a gift(天赋) for painting and he could {#blank#}5{#/blank#} understand what I described in class. But he didn't have money to buy the paper for painting. So sometimes, I {#blank#}6{#/blank#} him some. He parctised hard. And I often showed his paintings of the class. He was greatly {#blank#}7{#/blank#}.

One day just before the summer vacation, he came to {#blank#}8{#/blank#} some art books. When the new term began, he showed some of {#blank#}9{#/blank#} paintings to me. I felt shocked . They were very good. Then we talked a lot. He said he would keep on. 

Later he was admitted(录取) to a famous art university. After graduation, he had many difficulties, but he never gave up. He was always {#blank#}10{#/blank#} his best to improve himself. His hard work and strong mind led to his success.