Once a man and his wife worked for an old man.  There was a big box in the man's living room. The old man pointed to the box and said, "There's only one thing you 1 do. Don't open the box. " 2 saying this, he left his home.

    The woman said to her husband, "There must be 3 expensive in the box.  Let's open it, shall we?" Her husband said 4 to her, but the woman didn't give 5 her idea.  One day, she decided to find out 6 was in it.  Her husband didn't stop her.  She opened the box and looked inside. 7 her surprise, she found nothing in the box. She tried hard to close it, but she 8.

    That evening the old man came home and found the box was 9. He was very angry and asked them to leave his home.

    "But there was nothing in the box." the woman said.  “We haven't taken anything at all." The old man 10 them, “The box is not important, but I cannot believe you. That's important! "

    Boom! A clap of thunder (一声霹雳) made the old house shake. Ramon stayed under his bed. A flash of lightning (一道闪电) lit up the room."I hate this house,"Ramon thought. It was his first night in his new home.

    The house had belonged to his grandma. It was very, very old. It looked really scary at night. The trees outside his windows looked like monsters (怪物) in the dark. Their branches (树枝) looked like long arms. They waved when the wind blew. The storm made everything even scarier. Ramon hated storms, and it seemed worse in the old house.

    Later the thunder became quieter. Ramon climbed into bed and fell asleep. When he woke up, the sun was shining through his windows. Ramon climbed out of bed.

    The trees outside didn't look like monsters anymore. The branches had nice green leaves growing on them. Ramon could see a bird sitting on one of the branches. It was singing a happy song. The yard looked pretty nice in the daylight. A stream (溪) ran across the yard. A swing hung from one of the trees. Many flowers grew next to the  tree.  Butterflies  flew  around  the flowers.

    "Maybe living here won't be so bad after all," Ramon thought.

Do you love animals? I think you all say "yes". But maybe {#blank#}1{#/blank#} loves them as much as Joel Sartore. Joel is a photographer. He {#blank#}2{#/blank#} travelling the world to take pictures of animals.

Joel is working on a project. He is taking photos in different {#blank#}3{#/blank#} around the world. He hopes his photos can encourage people to {#blank#}4{#/blank#} animals in danger. "My job is to tell their {#blank#}5{#/blank#} stories and I hope the world cares about them in time," he said. Joel calls his project the Photo Ark (影像方舟). He started the project in 2006 in his hometown of Nebraska, the US. And now he's {#blank#}6{#/blank#} working on it. He took his 10,000th {#blank#}7{#/blank#} in 2020. It was a small wildcat in America.

Joel puts each animal on a black or {#blank#}8{#/blank#} background and then takes photos of them. This helps people see their true colors and lets people see a little mouse as {#blank#}9{#/blank#} as a big elephant.

Joel shows his photos around the world and puts {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on the Internet, too. He also asks people to buy his photos, give money to the Photo Ark, and support zoos in their cities.

Ann is a ten-year-old girl. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} weekends, she doesn't go to school and usually plays outside with her friends. It was Sunday yesterday and there {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (be) a storm. Ann felt tired inside the house. She didn't know {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to do after she finished her homework. Though it was raining heavily, she wanted to go out. But her mother didn't agree. 

To get much fun, Ann tried to keep {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (she) busy inside the house. She read a book. However, she got bored and stopped {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (read) after she read several passages. Then, she decided {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (practice) the guitar. It was one of her {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (hobby). She didn't stop practicing until lunchtime. After lunch, she sat by the window and watched the rain in silence. 

While Ann was watching the rain, the phone rang {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (sudden). Her father called to say he was coming home. Ann felt {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (excite) because her father was away on business and she didn't see her father for about a week. After about two hours, her father got home and gave Ann a present. She really had {#blank#}10{#/blank#} good time with her dad!

One day I was invited to Ben's house for dinner. 

All the friends invited were a little 1 . Because Ben never spends more than he has to. So 2  did he invite us around for a meal? Had he bought anything 3  for us? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dining room where a clean 4  was waiting for us. We all sat down around the table and looked 5  at each other — what was he up to?

Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. "It's a mixture of carrots, 6  and tomatoes, " said Ben. The next di sh was also a little strange 7  we didn't quite know what it was. It's just another mixture of vegetables. "Was there a recipe(食谱) for this?" asked Marina. Ben put his fork down and said, "What I 8  depended on what I could find. " Marina was more surprised. "But you can find almost 9  in supermarkets these days. ""Well, there are 10  choices of the food you can find outside supermarkets, " he replied. 

11  that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. Recently, he had read that supermarkets usually 12  5% of their food every day. So Ben decided to look 13  his local supermarket's bins. There he found food which was nearly out of date — boxes of throwaway vegetables and fruit. 

Finally Ben had successfully provided a special 14  for us, and made us realise the 15  that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to feed millions of people. 

Last year a rainstorm came to a small village. Many houses were broken. Several people were badly hurt and taken to hospital. 

A student, Kate, said, "It was terrible. I was helping my mother make breakfast when the rain started to beat heavily against the windows. 

"I was eating with my family," a housewife, Jenny said. "I heard a loud noise. A few minutes later, our house fell down. We tried our best to get out. We were very afraid but safe."

Mr Green, an engineer (工程师), said that he was drinking coffee and reading a newspaper in the office when he felt that the building began to shake. He had to stay in the office. "There was no electricity (电) and I couldn't contact (联系) my family members," he said. "I was very worried about them at that time."

Volunteers were helping the people out of the village and giving food and clothes to them. They felt very tired but it was meaningful.