Sometimes I really want to know if (是否) there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy making money for our life. One day, my mother was sewing a quilt (缝被子). "Mum, is there1between you and dad?" I asked.

    With surprise in2eyes, my mum stopped her work for a moment. Then she said,“Susan, look at this thread (线). You can't see it easily, 3 it's really there. It makes the quilt strong. If life is a quilt, love should be a thread. Love is inside."

    The next spring, my father4ill. After they were back from hospital, my mother helped my father walk5 the country road every day. They were kind and happy.

    After two months, my father still couldn't6“Dad, how are you feeling now?” I asked him one day." Susan, don't7me," he said, “I just like walking with your mum. I like this kind of life."8 his eyes, I knew he loves my mother. 9.

    Now I know that love is just a thread in the quilt of our life. Love is inside. It makes life strong and10.

    Last summer, we had a volunteer activity in a village school. In the school. I saw a name Feng Aiguo on a list. This man offered much money to the school. I thought he must be a1 man.

    One day, on my way home from school, my bike was broken. Luckily I found a repairing stand(修车摊)across from the street. An old man was 2 a bike. He was wearing a clean suit. He looked energetic(精力充沛的). While waiting. I knew 3 about him from the old men chatting there. He was Lao Feng and 4to repair bikes after he repaired(退休). Two months ago, his family moved to a new house. His son didn't want him to repair bikes any longer. He bought him suits and asked him to 5 them and rest at home. But it didn't work. The old man continued his repairing work in his suits.

    After a while, the old man got my bike repaired. 6 I was leaving an old lady came and called him "Aiguo". 7 the name on the list of the village school came into my mind. But how could such a common repairman 8so much money? I asked him if he knew that village. He told me it was his hometown and the 9there still needed help. So he always saved money by repairing bikes to help them. Then I was sure that he was the person on the 10.

    A horse fair is an interesting place. There were young horses from the country, little Welsh ponies and many beautiful horses too. But there were also a lot of poor, thin horses, tired from hard work. I was very sad to see them.

    At the horse fair there was a man with a gentle voice and kind grey eyes. He offered 23 pounds for me, but they refused. Then a man with a very loud voice came. I was afraid he was going to buy me, but he walked off. Then the grey-eyed man came back again and said:

    "I'll give 24 for him."

    "Done," said the salesman. "He's a quality horse and if you want him for cab (出租马车) work, he's a bargain."

Half an hour later we set off for London, along country roads, until we came to that great city. There were streets to the right, and streets to the left. We went into one of the small streets, and then into a very narrow street, with small, old houses.

    My owner stopped at a house. The door opened, and a woman, a little girl and boy, came out.

    "Is he gentle, father?"

    "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as a kitten; you can pat him."

    Dolly, the little girl, patted my shoulder without fear. It felt so good! They led me into a comfortable, clean stable, and after a delicious meal I lay down to sleep, thinking "I'm going to very happy here".

    My new owner's name was Jerry. His wife was called Polly and they had two children, Harry and Dolly. The next morning they came to see me. I loved it when they patted me and spoke in gentle voices.

    "Let's call him 'Jack', after the old horse, shall we, Harry?" said Dolly.

    "Yes, let's," said Harry.

    The first week of my life as Jack, the London cab horse was very hard. The noise and the people and the traffic on the streets scared me. But Jerry was a very good driver, and that helped a lot Jerry soon found that I was ready to work hard and do my best, and he didn't whip (鞭打) me.

    He kept us very clean, and gave us as much food as we wanted. But the best thing was that we had Sundays off.

There are seven chickens at my home. I gave them all names and they are my good 1 . You may think that taking care of chickens is 2 , but sometimes chickens have minds of their own. If you show interest in keeping 3 , there are a few things you need to know.

Everything has its order. Chickens 4  have the pecking (啄食) order. The order goes from the strongest, biggest chicken to the smallest, 5  chicken. And it is the ranking (排位) of all the chickens. The chickens 6  this order on their own. Putting chickens together is not easy. You have to make sure they all eat the same food. Otherwise, you have to keep 7  apart.

You must pay more attention to baby chicks. You need to give very good 8  to them, so they can stay 9  and become immune (免疫的). You also need a 10  for them to stay in your house and a special feeder and water holder. 11  you take good care of the chicks, you can get day-old chicks. Also, you should remember to 12  the pen (鸡圈)，so neighbors don't complain (抱怨).

You just have to know what you are doing and always be prepared. Chickens can bring families 13 . They can make family members happy. They are fun and humorous, beautiful and loving. They are also smart. It's amazing how 14  they learn things on their own.

So why not consider 15  some of your own feathered (有羽毛的) friends?

Our family had lived in Los Angeles for two weeks. "LA is not a bad place, Sonny." Dad said. But I didn't like the city. I missed* Michigan. I missed my old friends and even the trees there.

That afternoon, I went out to find a basketball court*. Dad said there was one around, but it was twenty-minutes' walk away! When I got there, I saw three children playing some kind of one-on-one*. Two of them were taller than me, and one was about my size.

The short boy played well, but the other two were too tall for him. One-on-one wasn't his game. He needed someone to pass to. I went down to the other basket and played alone. Then I heard someone calling me. It was the short boy.

"I'm Louie. Are you coming to join us? Small against* tall."

"Sounds good." I thought for some time. "I'm Sonny."

Louie introduced the other two boys. They were Chuck and David. We nodded to each other and started the game. Like I said, Louie really was a good player. He just needed someone to pass to. Soon, Chuck and David found    ▲   . The score was always close. Both teams had to try our best. In the end, Louie and I didn't win the game, but we made it interesting.

A little later, I saw Dad come. I said goodbye to them.

"Coming back tomorrow?" asked Louie.

"Yeah."

The sun was going down behind pink and orange clouds. On the way back home, Dad said, "Who said Los Angeles doesn't have great sunsets*?"

"LA is not a bad place." I said. Now, it could be home.

Cai Xuzhe dreamed of flying high when he was young. He was a new face on the Shenzhou-14 team. He spent 12 years as an astronaut（宇航员） getting ready for his first trip to space.

"I am happy and proud but feel more about my duty（责任）," Cai told reporters. Cai and other two team members, Chen Dong and Liu Yang, left the earth on board the Shenzhou-14 spaceship in June of 2022, for a six - month stay in space. They finished the work of building the Tiangong space station.

Cai was born in 1976 in the countryside of Shenzhou City, Hebei Province. He showed interest in planes as a child. When he heard a plane flying past, he ran out and looked at it till it flew away.

Cai went to an Air Force flight college（空军飞行学院）. After finishing college, he began to work at an airport. The airport was in poor condition. However, he studied and trained his flying skills there carefully. InMay 2010, Cai became a Chinese astronaut and underwent（接受） hard training. He did best in his training and finally became a Shenzhou-14 team member. He tried his best to make his dream come true.