My father was a self-taught mandolin（曼陀林琴）player. He was one of the best players in our town. He could not 1 music, but if he heard a tune（曲子）a few times, he could play it. When he was young, he was a2 of a small country music band. They played at local dances and the radio station.

    At home, Dad often got out his mandolin and played for the family. We three children sang along. 3 played the mandolin like my father. He could 4 your heart with the music that came out of that old mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his 5 in his ability to play so well for his family.

    But Dad had to find another 6 in a factory later because the money he made atthe band wasn't enough to7 the family. Unluckily he had an 8 one day and lost one finger. He couldn't play as 9 as before. From then on, every time we asked him to play, he would make up reasons to 10 down our request. However, we missed his performance so much. 11 , he agreed and said “Okay, but remember, I can't hold down on the strings（琴弦）the way I 12 to”. When he played the old mandolin, it carried us back to a 13,happy time in our lives.

    Dad was that kind of man. 14 was what he was doing all his life. If he could give 15 to others, he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing（牺牲）his time to see that his family had enough in their life.

    We look at the world around us everyday, but somehow we don't manage to see it until what we've become used to suddenly disappeared. That's to say that you may get used to some places and some 1 around you. For example, the neatly-dressed woman I used to see --or look at on my way to work each 2.

    For three years, no matter 3the weather was like, she was always waiting at the bus stop around 8:00 a.m. On 4 days, she wore heavy clothes and a pair of woolen gloves. Summertime turn out clean cotton dresses and a hat pulled low over her sunglasses. 5, she was an ordinary working woman. Of course, I 6all this only after she was seen no more. It was then that I realized how 7I expected to see her each morning. You might say I 8her.

    "Did she have an accident? Something 9?" I thought to myself about her disappearance. Now that she was gone, I felt I had 10her. I began to realize that part of our  11life probably includes such chance meetings with familiar strangers: the milkman you see at dawn, the woman who 12walks her dog along the street ever morning, the twin brothers you see at the library. Such people are 13markers in our lives. They add weight to our 14 of places and belongings.

    Think about it, while walking to work, 15we mark where we are by passing a certain building, why not mark where we are when we pass a familiar, though unnamed , person?

    Mary was ill, so she went to see 1 .

    "Doctor, I'm not feeling 2," said Mary. "Every time I do my homework, I feel 3 . If I go to school on foot, I have to sit down and 4 for a few times."

    The doctor looked over her 5. At last he said, "6 serious(严重的), but I'm afraid you are eating too much." "I don't understand. What do you mean(意思)?" asked Mary.

    "I mean you eat 7 food," said the doctor.

    "Oh! You mean I'm too 8 That's a problem," said Mary. "What should I do?"

    "The answer is easy," said the doctor. "If you eat a lot of food and also do much9, you 10 thinner and healthier"

I'm Dick. I have a good friend. His 1 name is Liu. His given name is Yihong. He comes from Zhongshan. He is 15 2 old. He is a tall boy. He has a round face, a small nose and two big ears. His parents are 3 . They work on a farm in Hunan. So he 4 his grandmother and his little sister. He is 5 and he often helps others, so he has many friends. 

He can hardly (几乎不) see anything, but he goes to school and studies like other students. He loves 6 and music class is his favorite. He often sings for his 7 at school. On Sundays, some students go out to 8 games or watch TV at home, but he learns singing and playing the piano in the school music room. It's not 9 , but he doesn't give up (放弃). He will have a music 10 in the school hall next Sunday afternoon.

I like him very much because he studies hard for his dream(梦想). 

Some people like to collect stamps. Others prefer posters or coins. But Pinky Bhutia is different. She collects children. In her mountain village, in Sikkim, she is known as the wonderful young woman who adopts (领养) all the children she can. 

Pinky was 14 when she adopted her first child, a Nepali baby girl, whose patents died. Pinky's parents did not mind. Pinky left school and started working full time because she had a baby to feed. Today, she has twelve adopted children, and two sons from her marriage. 

Pinky is about 30 years old and she comes from a common family. If you passed her on the street, you wouldn't give her a second look. She lives in a brown mud-washed（泥刷的） house. There is a vegetable garden outside. Red hens with noisy chicks run all over the garden looking for food.

If you ask her why she provides a home to so many kids, she smiles shyly. But her eyes are serious. "I know what it is to be poor and hungry. "As a child, her only dream was to eat a full meal, and her favorite amusement was watching people with shoes and imagining what it felt like. By adopting poor and homeless children she is making sure that they never feel that hopeless. 

Pinky feels very proud when she sees her children happy and bright, Her oldest baby, Aarita Rai, is now 20 years old. Then, there is 19-year-old Nimbe who came to Pinky because her mother was unable to look after her. She started to work in a government office two years ago. 10-year-old Bhim and 14-year-old Kumar came to Pinky five years ago, after their father died. They started living on a patch of land given by Pinky and grew vegetables for sale.

"I like children. It's not one more mouth to feed but one more soul saved, "Pinky says. 

Tony didn't eat {#blank#}1{#/blank#} food at night, but he felt bad. His father walked with him, and told him not to drink {#blank#}2{#/blank#} water during the night. Next day, Tony still felt awful. So his father took him to the hospital and there were {#blank#}3{#/blank#} people waiting. After a long time, it was Tony's turn and the doctor gave him some medicine. These medicines were {#blank#}4{#/blank#} useful and Tony got well quickly.