Why are so many people so afraid to fail? Quite simply because no one tells us how to fail so that failure (失败) becomes an experience that means growth. We forget that failure is part of the human condition and that every person has the right to fail.

      Most parents work hard at preventing failure or protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed. One way is to lower standards. 60% of the parents choose this way. When a child finishes making a table, the mother describes it as “perfect” even though it doesn't stand still. Another way is to blame (责怪) others. If John fails in science, his teacher is unfair or stupid.

      There's a problem with the two ways. It makes a child unprepared for life in the real world. The young need to learn that no one can be best at everything, no one can win all the time, and that it's possible to enjoy a game even when you don't win. A child who's not invited to a birthday party, who doesn't make the honour list on the baseball team, feels terrible, of course. But parents should not offer a quick consolations (安慰), prize or say, “It doesn't matter.” Because it does. The young should be allowed to experience failure and be helped to come out of it.

     Failure never gives people pleasure. It hurts both grown-ups and children. But it can be really good to your life when you learn to use it. You must learn to ask “Why did I fail?” Don't blame anyone else. Ask yourself what you did wrong and how you can improve. If someone else can help, don't be shy about asking them.

    On June 2, 1886, a German captain threw a message in a bottle into the water while his ship crossed the Indian Ocean. Around 132 years later in January, the bottle was found on the Australian coast{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    The bottle was thrown into the water to track ocean currents (洋流). Between 1864 and 1933, German sailors threw thousands of bottles into the sea.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    But throwing messages in bottles into the ocean is not just for scientists. People send out such messages for many reasons. Some people write information about themselves in the hopes of finding a pen pal{#blank#}3{#/blank#} And still other people just write down some jokes, song lyrics or anything else they think might be fun.

    There are even online messages in bottles. People can send the messages through WeChat or QQ.

    The reasons and ways might be different, but the goal is always the same: to reach out and try to connect with someone{#blank#}4{#/blank#} In 1988, the British band The Police wrote a song called Message in A Bottle that describes this feeling.

    As the song's lyrics say, we are “a hundred billion castaways(被抛弃者) looking for a home”. When will you feel relieved (释然的) ? “A hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Others write down secrets, hoping that the waves will wash them away.

B. This kind of shared feeling might be why this tradition has remained popular for so long.

C. making it the oldest-known message in a bottle in the world.

D. Seems I'm not alone at being alone.

E. Some 663 of those messages were found later.

    When traveling with your family or friends（especially on your own），you have to prepare something well. Tips on safety，health and planning will certainly make your trip more enjoyable.

A.    B.    C.     D.

Little George lived in a poor village. One summer day George's mother sent him to the field to pick up some dried wood for the fire.

George worked very hard. By the time the sun was high, he was very hot and wished for a cool place to rest and have some food. As he walked along, he found some shade, and by it were some fine, wild strawberries. "How good these will be with my bread and butter," thought George. He picked up all of the strawberries. As he was lifting the first strawberry to his mouth, he remembered his sick mother, alone in her dark, cold room in the village.

With this in mind, he put the strawberry back. "Shall I save them for her?" he asked himself.

He thought how refreshing they would be for her, yet was still looking at them with a longing eye.

"I will eat half, and take the other half to her," he said. He divided them into two heaps(堆), but each heap looked so small. He put them together again.

"I will only eat one," he thought.

But, as he again lifted it to his mouth, he saw that he had taken the finest, and he put it back.

When the sun was beginning to sink, George set out for home. How happy he felt that he had all his strawberries for his sick mother.

He heard his mother's faint voice calling him, "Is that you, George? I am glad you have come back. I am thirsty, and I want some water."

George ran to her and joyfully offered his wild strawberries.

"And you kept them for me, didn't you?" said she, laying her hand softly on his head, with tears in her eyes.

Could the eating of the strawberries have given George half the happiness he felt at this moment?

On 4 June 1913, a woman called Emily Davison① went to a horse race, threw herself under the king's horse and later died from her injuries. A1 which said "Votes for women" was found in her pocket. All her life, Emily had been fighting for women's rights. She was a suffragette, part of a group of women who started working together in 1903 to 2 equal rights for women. When Emily was young, she and all the other women in the UK were not allowed to vote, go to university or work in the same jobs as men. In the event of a divorce②, the husband took the children. In poor villages, wives were 3 sold in the market. 

The suffragettes wanted to 4 all this. More than a thousand were arrested③, but they did not stop. They went on hunger strike in prison to fight against the unfair treatment. In 1928, women in the UK finally got the right to vote and then more and more women started to go to university and get jobs. In 1952, female teachers were given the right to earn the same money as male teachers. The situation has been 5 since the suffragettes' time but many people say that men and women are still not equal in society.6 , now in the UK, men earn 20 per cent more than women for the same work. If you are a male manager, your chance of being promoted④ is 40 per cent higher than a female manager's. That's why many people are still fighting for equal rights for women in the UK. 

 Don't view people like me as dinosaurs. Yes, we are living in the Information Age, but I have no 1 in saying I can't give up newspapers. Every morning,I read The Seattle Times, The New York Times and USA Today.

I used newspapers to 2 my kids. No, I am not joking. During my eldest son's teenage years, he wouldn't 3 me no matter what I said or how I said it. So I used newspapers. "4 you don' t believe me, just read the paper," I would say. I 5 for my kids any good story with life lessons. I made my 6 through words in black and white. The printed words worked like7 . Immediately, there were no more disagreements or8 .

 Reading newspapers opened my kids' minds in 9 areas. There were, of course, areas I had no knowledge of or things that would never cross my mind to teach. I was10 that my kids, at a young age, understood very complex(复杂的) problems. Every day, they could find reliable stories 11 many different topics in newspapers.

 But newspapers are not only for kids; they are for adults, too. My 85-year-old aunt never finished primary school.12 , she always enjoys reading newspapers and learns a lot every day. "13 did you know that?" I would ask her when she would throw one14 scientific discovery at me. "I read about it in the newspaper," she would always reply.

 We are in the Information Age, but I believe newspapers 15 play an important role in" educating" people of all ages.