The young artist and potter Allan had a wife and two fine sons. One night, his older son developed a severe stomachache. Neither Allan nor his wife took the condition very {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (serious), but the boy died suddenly that night.

    Knowing the death could {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (avoid) if he had only realized the seriousness of the situation, he always felt he was guilty. Worse still, his wife left him a short time later,{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (leave) him alone with his 6-year-old younger son. Unable to stand the hurt and pain, he turned to alcohol and became{#blank#}4{#/blank#} alcoholic.

    As the alcoholism {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (progress), Allan began to lose everything he possessed and finally died alone in a small bar. Hearing of his death, I thought, “{#blank#}6{#/blank#} a complete failure!”

    As time went by, I began to revalue my {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (early) rough judgment. I knew Allan's now adult son, Ernie, one of the kindest and most caring men I've ever known. I hadn't heard him talk much about his father. One day, I worked up my courage to ask him what {#blank#}8{#/blank#} earth his father had done so that he became such a special person. Ernie said quietly, “As a child until I left home at 18, Allan came into my room every night, gave me a kiss and said, ‘love you, son'.”

    Tears came to my eyes as I realized what I had been a fool to judge Allan {#blank#}9{#/blank#} a failure. He had not left any material{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (possess) behind. But he had been a kind loving father, and left behind his best love.

    Last summer, my family took a trip to Shanghai City from Hong Kong. It was my{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(one) visit to the city.

    What I saw in Shanghai City was {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (extreme) impressive. All the cars were in a hurry and everyone in the streets was walking rapidly. There were many more ways than my hometown for one to get to {#blank#}3{#/blank#} from one place. Everywhere people were driving, riding shared bikes, waiting for buses, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}rushing underground to the subway stations.

    In {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (add) to the people and transportation, I found the buildings were also {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (amaze). Each street was filled with buildings that {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(build) side by side and a number of skyscrapers were present throughout the city{#blank#}8{#/blank#} well. Standing on the top of the Oriental Pearl Tower, I could hold almost the entire city from this view. Some stores were also as large or even larger than the ones in my hometown.

    My visit to Shanghai City was like discovering a new of life. I expect {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (move) to such a great city. My first trip to Shanghai City was one of the most unforgettable {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(experience) of my life and it is also the one I will always treasure.

    Have you ever asked yourself why children go to school? You will {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (probable) say that they go to school to learn languages, mathematics, history, science and some other knowledge. That is quite true,{#blank#}2{#/blank#}why do they learn these things?

    We send our children to school in order {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (prepare) them for the time when they really grow up and will have to work for {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (they)．Nearly everything they study at school has some practical use in their life. But is that {#blank#}5{#/blank#} only reason why they go to school? There is more in education {#blank#}6{#/blank#} just learning facts. We go to school to learn how to learn, so that when we have left school we can continue to learn.

    A man {#blank#}7{#/blank#} really knows how to learn will always be {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (succeed), because when he has to do something new, he will not only be able to do it well himself, but he will also be able to teach others how to do it in the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (good) way. The person with poor education, on the other hand, either finds himself unable to do something new, or just {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (do) it badly. The main purpose of schools is not to teach those subjects, but to teach pupils the way to learn.

    Today, home-ownership has reached extremely high levels. Modern generations tend to believe there is something wrong with them {#blank#}1{#/blank#} they rent. However, is high home-ownership really as people imagine？{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (stare) at data first, we realize that the most successful, stable, attractive country in the Western world is Switzerland. It has tiny unemployment; wealth; high happiness and mental-health scores. Does it have high home-ownership rates? Absolutely not. In Switzerland, about seven in ten of the population are renters. Yet, with Europe's {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (low) home-ownership rate, the nation thrives. Now go to the other end of the misery distribution. Spain has approximately the highest home-ownership rate in Europe (at more than 80%). But one-quarter of its population are unemployed.

    A likely reason is that high levels of home-ownership mess up the labour market. In a sensibly functioning economy it is easy for people to move around to drop into the vibrant job slots {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (throw) up by technological change. With a high degree of owner-occupation, everything slows. Folk get stuck. Renters can go to new jobs. In that way they do the economy a favours. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Friedman said, the rate of unemployment depends on the flexibility of the housing market.

Next we come to economic breakdown. Most analysts accept that at heart it was the housing market-obsessive pursuit of homes, the engendered mortgage（房贷） lending and an unavoidable house-price crash— {#blank#}6{#/blank#} sank the Western world. Germany, say, with its more efficient rental market, had a far smoother ride through trouble.

    As for the monetary system, in the past few decades, in the hope of getting untaxed capital gains way above their true labour earnings, many people threw their spare cash into buying larger houses or building extra bedrooms. TV programmes about how to make easy money, beautiful rising house prices, and most importantly, our faulty tax system encouraged that. When {#blank#}7{#/blank#} some point market broke down, everyone suffered. Our countries ought, instead, to design tax systems that encourage people to invest in productive real activities and in innovation. Renting leaves money free for better purposes. That also points to the role of sensible budgeting over a person's lifetime. Why should we think that when we die it is necessary {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (pay) off an entire house？

    Our children do not deserve it. Let them pay for themselves. We {#blank#}9{#/blank#} rent-and enjoy our lives with the money saved.

    Finally, moderation usually pays off. Our scientific understanding of how economies function is horribly limited. This suggests that the golden rule should be to avoid extremes. A50-50mix of home-ownership and renting, not the 70-30split that is now observed in so many Western nations, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (make) sense.