B

    Sam was a fifteen­year­old boy living with his little sister, Julie. Their parents passed away long ago. Sam had to take care of Julie by himself.

One day, Sam woke up at three in the morning as usual. When Julie was sleeping alone, Sam left their little house to send newspapers. When he found an old man sitting in front of their house, Sam was so surprised that he stopped to look at him closely. It was an icy morning and he looked very cold.

    The poor old man didn't have anything to cover himself with. Sam went into his house to get the old man a blanket(毯子). However, there were no extra blankets, so Sam thought hard and took his father's coat. It was the only thing of his father's that he had left. Sam wrote a short note. "Sir, I found you sleeping in front of my house. This is my father's coat. I hope it fits you well." He put the note in a pocket of the coat and covered the old man with the coat. Then he went to work. When he came back, both the man and the coat were gone. Sam thought that it was the best thing he could do with his father's coat.

    That afternoon, Sam hurried home after school because Julie was at home alone. However, Julie and the old man were standing in front of the house, and Julie shouted to Sam, "Brother! He's our grandfather!"

    The grandfather smiled and said, "Sam, thank you for giving me the coat and letting me know how good my grandson is. This coat was the one that I gave my son a long time ago!"

    It's Sunday. Children don't go to school on Sundays. But Kate gets up early in the morning. “It's my birthday. I'm eight years old today.” she thinks, “Where are Dad and Mum? I want to know what they can give me for my birthday.”

    Her father and mother are not at home. They are going shopping. And now they are talking about what to buy for Kate.

—Dad: How about the doll? It looks nice. I think Kate would like the doll.

—Mom: I don't think so. She is not a little girl. I think she likes a new dress. Girls often like new dresses very much.

—Dad: But she has a few new dresses and some new blouses. Oh, I think she must be very happy to have a box of colorful pencils and some picture books. Do you think so?

— Mom: Yes. Let's go over there and buy them.

    O. Henry, a famous American writer of short stories, was born in North Carolina in 1862. O. Henry was a pen name. His real name was William Sydney Porter. When he was a young boy, he did not go to school for long because of being born in a poor family, but he tried to teach himself everything he needed to know.

    When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. But he got himself into some trouble. Some money went missing from the bank. O. Henry was believed to have stolen(偷)it, so he was sent to prison(监狱). During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and went on writing.

    He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because almost all of them finished with a sudden change. This made the readers surprised.

My friend, James, has a dream, he hopes that one day he can have a trip to the  {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(宇宙) because he wants to know what the space is like. He wants to be an  {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(宇航员). He wants to know the feeling of staying in an  {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(环境) with no air. But he knows it is not an easy thing, after  {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(交流) with his father, he finds he has lots of things to do. He needs not only a good knowledge about space but also a  {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(强壮的) body. Now, he has a plan to realise his dream. First of all, in order to know more about space, he will join a science  {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(群; 组). Then, he will make a  {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(运动) plan. He has  {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (从不) been very active and he doesn't like playing at all. But this time he  {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(决定) to change himself. He believes that nothing is  {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(不可能的) if he tries his best.

It's reported that India is facing one of the worst water shortage in its history. 26-year-old Ramveer Tanwar knew a thing or two about it years ago. The young man comes from a small village in Greater Noida in India. A trip back to his hometown has totally changed his life.

During the trip, Ramveer noticed that many lakes where he used to swim and play with his friends dried up because of pollution. What's worse, many water bodies were disappearing fast. Instead of waiting for the government to take action, the young man decided to take matters into his own hands as soon as possible.

In the beginning, Ramveer went from door to door or held meetings to educate local villagers on the importance of water protection. He believed by teaching people the situation could get better. But later he found that was not enough. So besides talking to villagers, he teamed up with them and began to bring lifeless lakes back to life in the area. "We tried making a lake live again by removing all its waste. Many of the villagers came to help. Some of them worked with us while others offered us tools (工具) and equipment," Ramveer said. They even succeeded in getting support from the forest department, which provided them with plants to be planted around the lakes. ,

Since 2014, with the help of the volunteers, Ramveer has brought about twelve dead lakes back to life. Of course, he doesn5t plan to stop there. Today he is using his power and influence to call on more people to join him.