Last Friday, I was just in France to visit my 96-year-old grandmother who is very dear to me ­­­­­­ 1   lives alone. I don't visit her very often, so every time I go to see her,   2of us think that it might be the   3    time we see each other. Last time I visited her in December of 2014, I did some video interviews about her life. I asked her  4   it was like to grow up with her father in the 1920s, to live with two young children, with her husband   5  in a prisoner's camp (集中营) in Germany. I also asked her about her greatest   6  . I learned a lot of amazing new things about her that I never know before.

     This year, I did not really have questions to ask. I only wanted to tell her how loved she is. So, I cooked for her and read stories. I gave her a foot massage （按摩）.   7    leaving, I wanted to leave something  8 behind besides the memory of our time together. So I wrote her five different love and thank notes to let her knows how much she means to me. I   9 them in different places where I knew she would  10  find them. One of them was under her pillow. 11    one was hanging from the lamp shade by which she reads in the evening.  Another one was by her toothbrush. One was in her mailbox which she has to check every day. And the last one was in her car. She still  12  to the nearby village a couple of times a week!

       I knew that these cards would surely cheer her up after I left. Really she called me as I was catching my plane back to the US. She said, “ I found your three cards! By the time I discovered the third, I was laughing out loud! They did me so much good. Thank you so much!” I smiled to myself, 13  she still has two more to go! It is Sunday today, so my guess is that she hasn't  14   her mailbox or driven her car! I can  15  how happy she will be when she finds them.

B

    Do you like reading stories? Maybe you will answer, "No, I am not a child any more!" Yes, children all over the world always love stories.

    Chinese children are 1 in Monkey King's story. It 2 a popular bedtime story in China for many years. In fact, adults also love the story a lot. For them, Monkey King has become a very 3 part in the memory of their childhood. The clever and humorous monkey 4 the hearts of many Chinese people. British boys and girls all know Alice's Adventures in Wonderland well. As the name shows, it's a story full of dangerous but exciting trips. Children 5, cry and even get frightened(害怕的) with Alice together while reading the story. Most American kids have read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by the famous 6, Mark Twain. Everyone likes the brave boy who also has lots of 7. Some scenes(场景) of the story may make your heart go faster, for Tom and his friends meet some very bad men and are usually 8. Of course in the end, they beat the bad ones.

    You may also ask me 9 I like stories. Yes, I have liked them since I was very young. At that time, I often 10 all my pocket money on story books. For me, stories are much more delicious than chocolate! They help me learn a lot. So either young or old, let's enjoy stories.

Do you like exercise? Do you know something about plan k exercise(平板支撑)?

Plank exercise has become more and more popular in recent years. It requires little time. It's easy to do. What's more, doing plan k exercise often may bring you lots of benefits(益处). 

Performing plan k exercise as a daily home exercise before or after school will not only speed up your metabolism(新陈代谢), but also keep your metabolic rate high all day long. Doing the exercise often will make you burn lots of calories. This is especially useful if you have to sit in the classroom for hours every day. A high metabolic rate will help you lose weight and keep in good shape. 

Have you ever tried standing on one leg? You couldn't stand straight for more than ten seconds, right? It's not because you are drunk, of course. Instead, it's because your muscles(肌肉) aren't strong enough to give you the balance you need. Doing plank exercise often will improve your balance. Stronger muscles will also help you stand with straight posture(姿势) at all times. 

 ▲  Just think about it: You are sitting in your chair, at home or at school, all day long. Your muscles get tired, and your legs get heavy. Plank exercise will relax the muscle groups that may cause stress in the body. As a result, it can have a powerful and good influence on our mental(精神的) health. 

Considering all the benefits of plank exercise, will you make it part of your daily life?

Many people ask me what my favorite invention is. I find it very hard to answer them, because there are so many things in my life that I can choose. However, I have chosen a pen. Don't you think it's surprising?

I know that to most people a pen is very boring, but, to me, it stands for possibility(可能). There are so many things you can do with a pen. You can write a novel or a song, record information, or draw a picture.

A pen is like the beginning of something amazing to me. Every day, I write a new page with my pen, and I am slowly making a path(路) for my future. Maybe I will be a scientist and change the world with my discoveries. Maybe I'll become a musician and touch people's hearts with my music. Or perhaps I will be a writer and move people through words, or a teacher to help children grow into the kind of people that they want to be.

 There are so many possibilities as to what I will do with my life, but I know that with the pen in my hand, I will write a good future for myself. Tell me what future you will write for yourself.

"Start of Winter", also known as Lidong, arrives in November each year. Most parts of China take Lidong {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. On this day, after a year of hard work, people have nothing to do but stay at home {#blank#}2{#/blank#} . They can have a break and do something {#blank#}3{#/blank#} . For example, Chinese in the north like Lidong and they usually celebrate Lidong as the"Small Spring Festival". People have dumplings and mutton soup because they {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to keep their {#blank#}5{#/blank#}warm during winter.