When I was 7 years old, I went to the USA with my mom. I can still1 the first Halloween holiday I had in the USA.

    2 the morning of Halloween, we paid a visit to a pumpkin（南瓜）farm. Each of us brought a pumpkin to school for us. I used my pumpkin to make a lantern which had two round eyes and a scary mouth.

    In the afternoon, we3the Halloween costumes （服装） and had a parade （游行）in school. Some of the costumes were funny, but some of them4scary. I chose to wear a Superman costume.

    I did a lot of things that day, but the part I liked 5 was" trick or treat" in the evening. After dinner, I went outside with a bag. I hoped to get a lot of candies from my neighbors. At first, I was a bit nervous,6when I knocked at the first door, my heart was beating very fast. A lady came out, and I said carefully to her, "Trick or treat. "My voice was very low, so low that I could hardly hear myself speak. To my surprise, the lady was so kind that she gave7two candies, and I was so excited. I thanked the lady and moved on. I can't remember how many houses I visited, but I can remember how many8I got - I got 91 that day, and I was so happy.

    What a happy Halloween I had! And I wish we could have Halloween every month!

Mobile phones are becoming more and more popular not only with adults but also with students. However, they also have become a problem for middle schools in the last few years.

Some children have got mobile phones as Christmas or birthday gifts, and more will ask their parents to buy phones for them.

Many students like mobile phones because they are easy and quick. Some parents feel it convenient because they can get in touch with their children. Some teachers think using mobile phones is a distraction(分心的事)to students during school hours and mobile phones also give them much trouble in their classrooms. Sometimes students send phone messages to cheat(作弊)during exams. A new study says that some teenagers even hurt their fingers because of the over-use of mobile phones. They keep using mobile phones for more than ten hours during a day.

Many teachers suggest that students should not have phones at school, but if there is a good reason, they can leave their phones at the school office. Many people think they understand why parents would want their children to have them, but they agree school should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Rose. She loved1 but she didn't have paintbrushes(画笔) or paper. She always painted pictures in the sand2 tree branches(树枝). One day, an old lady saw Rose and said, "Hi! Here's a paintbrush and some3 for you."

"Thank you!"Rose said. She felt so4 ."Hmm, what will I paint?" she thought. She5 and saw a duck in the river. "I know! I can paint a6 !" So she did. Suddenly, the duck flew off the paper and into the river."Wow!"she said."A magic paintbrush!"

Rose was a very 7 girl and she painted pictures for the people in her village. She painted cows for the 8 , pencils for the students and toys for all the children.

The king9 about the magic paintbrush and he sent a soldier(士兵) to find Rose. "Come with10 ," said the soldier."The king wants you to paint some money for him."

"But he's so11 ," said Rose. "I only paint to help poor people."But the soldier still took Rose to the king. "Paint me a tree with lots of12 on it," the greedy(贪婪的) king shouted.

Rose was brave and said, "No!"13 the king sent her to prison(监狱). But Rose painted a key to the door and a horse to help her run away. The king14 her with his soldiers.

She took out her paintbrush and 15 a big hole, and splat(啪嗒声)! The king and the soldiers fell into the hole.

Rose only used her magic paintbrush to help those people who truly needed her help.

"Spell ‘champion,'" Scott told his elder sister.

"C-h-a-m-p-i-o-n."

Unsure about it, Scott still cheered, "You'll win the spelling bee (拼写大赛)!"

Lucy thanked, happy but worried, wondering if her dog Senator would be looked after well when she was away for a week.

"Dad and I will keep him perfectly!" said Scott, dreaming of getting his own pet if he could prove himself.

It was time to leave. Dad wished Lucy good luck.

"See you in a w-e-a-k," Scott said.

"W-e-e-k," Lucy corrected him and said, "Bye!"

Each morning Scott woke up early to feed Senator, leaving a note to remind Dad. After that Scott continued to sleep.

A week later, Lucy returned and told the family she failed. Then she found her dog sick. Scott felt sorry but confused, because he'd been a strict direction-follower.

They came to the animal hospital. After the examination, Lucy was angry, "A terrible stomachache! How could Senator put on two pounds in such a short time?"

Dad said, "I only fed him two scoops of dog food every morning."

Scott shouted, "Dad! You fed him again? Didn't you read my note? It says I've fed him!"

It took Lucy a while to understand before asking Scott how to spell "fed".

"F-e-e-d? Scott! ‘Fed' is spelled f-e-d. But your note says f-e-e-d, telling Dad to feed the dog!"

"So Senator was fed twice?" Dad asked.

Scott said sorry, "I just wanted to be responsible so I could get a dog for my next birthday."

"OK. I'll teach you how to spell correctly and train myself for next year's spelling bee," Lucy said.

"You have a few months to practice before you get one for your birthday," Dad added. 

Scott burst into laughter.

"Having a little brother isn't so bad," Lucy told Senator, "if he can help f-e-e-d!"

① "When side by side two rabbits go, who can tell the buck (雄兔) from the doe (雌兔)?" China's Yang Jingru and Li Jinzi "played the buck and the doe" in the women's 1,500m short track speed skating (短道速滑) event of the Winter Youth Olympic Games on Jan 20th, 2024.

②They used the classic "rabbit strategy (策略)". The key of the "rabbit strategy" is teamwork of two skaters. One skater runs very fast from the start, while the other stays behind. This is different from the usual 1,500m speed skating strategy of keeping the same speed and then speeding up in the last few turns.

③Using the "rabbit strategy", after the first turn, Yang suddenly skated at full speed. She ran one turn faster than the other skaters and stayed at the back of the group, but nobody noticed it.

④Working with Yang, Li changed between the front and the back in the first half of the race. This made the other skaters wonder (感到疑惑) who was the "leading rabbit". In fact, when the bell rang and showed that there was only one turn to go, everyone had two turns left except Yang. As a result, Yang and Li rushed the finish line successfully while others were getting into a mess.

⑤The two Chinese short track speed players cleverly use the "rabbit strategy". They won both gold and silver medals, making it a classic case at the Winter Youth Olympics.

There was once a cave（岩洞）near a town. It was called"Cave of Fear" {#blank#}1{#/blank#} who tried to enter it didn't return. It's said that there might be a monster in the cave. In order to {#blank#}2{#/blank#} the monster from getting out of the cave, people often left gifts and food at the mouth of the cave, and these {#blank#}3{#/blank#}things always disappeared soon. 

One day, a young man came to the town. When he heard about the cave, he decided to enter the cave and found out {#blank#}4{#/blank#}there was a monster in it. As he went deep into the cave, he heard some strange {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. So he followed them. Suddenly, he {#blank#}6{#/blank#}that something was pushing his back. He was too scared to turn around to look at it. Finally, he was pushed into a huge cavern（洞穴）. As he {#blank#}7{#/blank#}the cave, he got very surprised. He found that he was right in the middle of a big party. A lot of people were {#blank#}8{#/blank#}the party. They were all those people who had {#blank#}9{#/blank#} returned to the town. 

Then those people told him that this was the idea of an old wise man in the town. The old wise man wanted to {#blank#}10{#/blank#}people that if someone wanted to make a change, he should be brave and wanted to have a try. So the wise man made up the {#blank#}11{#/blank#} of the monster. Only brave people could enjoy big parties in the cave.