Even though I've lived most of my life in China, English has always been an important part of my life.

    When I was four years old, my family and I1 to the US, where we lived in Houston, Texas, for a year. I was too 2 then to fully understand what it was like to be in such a different environment, but 3 English started to make its way into my life.

    At first, I didn't really know how to 4 with my foreign classmates with proper English, but they were nice and 5 and very soon English became like a second language to me. I could 6myself in both Chinese and English. I had another useful 7.

    English is 8 a tool of communication for me; it has also brought a new world of 9 to me. When I was in fourth grade, my friends 10me a very popular book series called Percy Jackson & the Olympians, and I felt then that I had never read any story that 11 me as much. I began to 12 the world of English literature（文学）and found that all the 13 books and stories I came across opened my eyes to a different 14 from the one I had been familiar with. I loved the stories I would otherwise have 15 if I had not known English.

    All in all, English has given me another tool for communicating with others, 16to understand and accept things I would never have 17 and brought me much 18through reading. I think I am very 19 to have learned English because it has helped20 my view of the world, and it still does.

    As a child, I started learning to play the piano, my favorite musical 1,but I was forced to give up when I started my middle school 2 I could concentrate more on my studies.

    It's one of my biggest 3to stop practicing the piano when I recall sadly today. During the following years, I kept telling my piano teacher that I would4. However, I didn't keep my promise because I was 5 with my study.6 I lost touch with my teacher. Some years later, my teacher died. I was very sad because I lost such a good teacher. She was a very warm and gentle person. It hurts me to think she may have been 7 that I never returned. I haven't taken lessons since then but to be honest, I 8 to. Sitting at the piano, I couldn't help recalling many9-- times of my practising at home and playing before my teacher and one time my teacher 10 me after I played entire pieces of music wrong in front of her colleagues. I was so11 that I could hardly say anything. But her12 helped me ease my shame. These memories, 13, good or bad, never caused my 14 for playing the piano again.

    This thought then led me to think that15is like music, and that we all try to play different 16 in the instrument of our life. Sometimes the pitch(音高) is 17when we play it well, but sometimes we are out of tone. However, we all continue to create our own 18style of music. No matter what style our music is, it is 19 that we sing the songs of joy, quietness and love. Though I may never make it back to piano lessons, it doesn't20 that I've stopped making music.

    Mr. Jackson was blind from birth. He owned a fruit 1 on a very busy street. 2 he was visually disabled, he ran his business pretty handsomely. He could see nothing and he could only 3 the things within his reach. 4 ， he was able to handle it and was content with everything he had.

    One day his son came to him. He told Mr. Jackson in 5 that he read in the newspaper of a 6 who could operate on his eyes and allow him to see. The father and son traveled to the doctor and paid for the 7.

    After the operation, the doctor asked Mr. Jackson，“What is the first thing you are 8 to see when I take the bandages off？”He replied, “I really want to see my beautiful 9 on my stand！”

    The doctor and the son 10 Mr. Jackson down to the busy street where his fruit stand had been located for so many years. The doctor 11 unwrapped the bandages 12 he could lay his eyes on the beautiful fruit! Mr. Jackson was so full of 13 that he could finally see his life's work—taking care of his fruit! After a few hours of 14 his beautiful fruit stand, he looked down the street both ways and saw there were quite a few fruit stands in both directions. He looked 15 the street and saw many other fruit stands. He spent so much time looking at other people's fruit stands and 16 the competition that soon his own business17.

    From Mr. Jackson's failure, we should know that everyone is a 18 individual with different fingerprints, DNA and thinking. What we need to do is just be ourselves and 19 everyone else to be who they are. Mind our own business and we should never be afraid of the 20.

    I was driving home. A car, driving at high speed and trying to overtake, crashed into a pickup truck. And five other cars also1 in front of me. I narrowly 2and pulled over. Immediately, I ran to a car which was upside down. I got someone to help and we got a(n) 3woman and a large, unconscious man, both upside down, out of the 4. I then went to the five other cars to5 if anyone else was hurt badly. 6, no one else was in serious condition. It all took just a few minutes.

    At the same time, the traffic had stopped. I looked over and 7 a group of 12 people, out of their cars, standing in a circle about 15 feet away from a young man, who was 8still on the pavement. I asked them what had happened. They said the kind young man had got out of his car to cross the road and 9 when a car drove along the inside lane(车道), very fast, to get around the 10traffic. Unfortunately, the man was11 by it. Many people said he was 12; several had checked. But a feeling inside me said," Can they be certain he is dead？"

    He was badly injured, but I checked again and again, and felt a very 13 heart beat. I14pushed his head upwards. He then coughed, and started taking rapid, shallow breaths. By then, the ambulances had 15. When they took over, I16 the scene and walked back to my car.

    Due to the excellent doctors and 17 of nurses, the young man did18. He walked out of the hospital after many months, and his 19 was covered by all the news stations. I smiled to myself and felt very 20 to be at the right place at the right time, knowing a young man had his whole life in front of him.

My cousin and I took a trip by rail across Canada from west to east. Before starting out, we spent a couple of days in Vancouver, admiring the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (sight). Then we arose early to take the train to Lake Louise, passing through the Canadian Rockies. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (see) from the train window, the mountains and forests looked {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (mass). We spent the night near the lake, where the blue water literally took our breath away, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} headed to Jasper the next morning. The beautiful scenery convinced us it was the most awesome journey we {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (take). From Jasper, we boarded the train bound {#blank#}6{#/blank#} Toronto. One of our first stops was in Edmonton, which {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (be) home to many shopping malls. We never anticipated seeing such an open country until the train headed across the Great Prairie. {#blank#}8{#/blank#} amazed us most were a bunch of farms covering two wheat-growing provinces. The train thundered on, through the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (roll) hills in Ontario. It was {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (true) enjoyable to watch the red maple leaves outside the window. After four days, we reached Toronto.

I was living in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is a1 city, with more people living in it than in my whole country. We rented a flat in a guarded community, but there was a favela (棚户区) quite 2 .

For several months I didn't have a car, so three times a week, I took buses to go to the city centre. During these 3 , I would ride with the people who took the same bus from the favela to go to work. When I got on the bus, all the seats were already 4 . But when people saw that my bag was heavy, they offered to hold it on their legs to make me feel lighter5 . At first, I was 6 . Then I realized that these people had absolutely no 7 to steal from me: they only wanted to 8 .

Once, on my way back, I had to 9 for a long time at a bus stop. I was alone, except for a woman who was 10 very poor. She carried a small paper bag of popcorn and nothing else.

While we were waiting she walked over and 11 me some popcorn. I 12 her, but didn't want to help myself to it. She then repeatedly insisted that I take from what was clearly her only food.

That was the first time I had thought about how people who have almost nothing are sometimes able to 13 the little they have more "14 "than those who own a lot. I wonder if it's true that the more you have, the bigger the difficulty to share anything with others. I was so moved by that woman's simple generosity that day. I clearly 15 more than she did, but she naturally and joyfully shared what little she had with me.