A businessman was once deep in debt（债务）and could see no way out. He sat on a park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company.

    Suddenly an old man appeared in front of him. “I can see that something is troubling you,” he said. After listening to the businessman's trouble, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

    He asked the man his name, wrote out a check（支票）and pushed it into his hand, saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time.” Then he turned and disappeared.

    The businessman saw his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller. One of the richest man in the world.

    “It can solve my problem at once!” the businessman realized. But instead, he decided to put the check in his safe. Just knowing it was there that might give him the strength（力量）to work out a way to save his business, he thought.

    With renewed optimism（乐观精神）, he did better in his business. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

    Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the check. At the agreed-upon（约定的）time, the old man appeared. But just as the businessman was about to hand back the check and share his successful story, a nurse came running up and caught the old man.

    “I'm so glad I caught him!” she cried. “I hope he hasn't been troubling you. He's always escaping from the hospital and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller.”

    And then she led the old man away by the arm. The businessman just stood there,________. Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his newfound self-confidence（自信心）that gave him the strength to achieve anything he went after.

    Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night, I look at the posters with photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Paper was first created about 2, 000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and, since the 19th century, from wood. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}But in those days, books could only be produced one at a time by hand. As a result, they were expensive and rare. And because there weren't many books, few people learned to read.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Today information can be received online, downloaded from the Internet rather than found in books, and information can be kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as MP3 players.

    Computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines can already be read online. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}No, I don't think the poster about Yao Ming on my bedroom wall will ever be replaced by a two-metre-high computer!

Today is Saturday and eight-year-old Mona is at the city 1 with her mom. Mona looks at her favorite animal, the giraffe, and says, "Look, Mom!How cute she is!"

"Yeah!I like her, too. She's so 2 ,"says Mom.

"Mom, can I feed(喂) my apple to 3 ?"asks Mona. She takes out an apple from her bag. But Mom 4 her and says,"Dear, I know the giraffe is your favorite animal, 5 you can't feed her."

Mona doesn't know 6 . She says,"Mom, the apple is my favorite fruit and I want my favorite animal to 7 it. Is there anything wrong(错误的)?"

"Dear, it's not 8 to feed our food to the animal,"Mom says."She might (可能) be in 9 ."

"Oh, I am sorry,"Mona says.

"Well, look there! Let's buy some leaves from the zookeepers(饲养员) and 10 her. It's good for her."

"OK,"Mona says happily.

Charlotte Liebling calls herself a "world watcher." That means she watches the  1  around her. Here's an example: Liebling volunteered in a  2 . It sold secondhand goods (二手商品). Some of these were soft toys.

When the toys were sold very  3 , Liebling always felt sad because she could tell that the toys held great value for their owners. After doing some  4 , she realized this wasn't happening only in her town. Millions of toys  5  in landfills (垃圾场) every year.

"If we can change the idea that soft toys lose their  6  once the owners give them away," she thought, "then we can show people they have so much left in them." That's how the Loved Before toy-adoption (玩具领养) service  7 .

The whole  8  has three steps. First, someone donates a soft toy. People can do so through the mail, or by  9  a toy to a local point in the United Kingdom. Next, the owner writes down the name of the toy and a story about it  10  the buyers can understand its value. Finally, the toy is 11 carefully for safety reasons. The company donates at least half of the money from the sale of each toy.

The company's 12  is more than "just trying to save some toys from landfills," Liebling says. "We believe there are enough soft toys in the world and we don't have to  13   another again. "

Vickie Clarke posted her story on the website. "I saw Vinnie on Loved Before and was lucky enough to buy  14 . I have quite a stressful job and he now sits on my desk, making me smile every hour of my working day. I feel much  15  than before. Thank you, Loved Before!"

Good morning! I am Ellen. You can see a key, a map, a jacket, a cup and an orange in my bedroom. This is a key.

It's blue. What is that? It's a green map. That is a jacket. What color is it? It's black. It isn't my jacket. It's my sister Sarah's. Black is her favorite color. This is my cup. It's white. What's that? It's an orange. It's my favorite fruit.

That is my sister Sarah's bedroom. Her schoolbag is in it. What is in her schoolbag? You can see a pen, a ruler and a cup. The pen is green, and it is my brother, Dale's. The ruler is red. It is Sarah's. The cup is white. It is Dale's, too.