I arrived at my mother's home for our Saturday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. I knew they were all made herself. She was preparing for a quilt show on TV. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box.

    I pulled it out. "What's this?" I asked.

    "Oh?" Mom said, "That's Mama's quilt."

    I spread the quilt. It looked as if a group of school children had made the pieces together.

    "Grandmother made this?" I asked in surprise. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn't look like any of the quilts she had made.

    "Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,"

Mom said, "I'm still working on it. See, this is what I've done so far."

    I looked at it more closely. She had made a line straight(直的). At the center of the quilt, she had stitched a piece of cloth with these words: "My mother made many quilts. She didn't get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt."

    "Oh, this is so nice, Mom." I said. I was sure now that by completing my grandmother's quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.

    There was once a spider that lived in a cornfield. She liked this home and planned to stay there for the rest of her life.

    One day, the spider caught a little bug (小昆虫) in her web. Just as the spider wanted to eat him, the bug said: "If you let me go, I will tell you something important that can save your life."

    The spider thought for a little while and listened. "You'd better get out of this cornfield," the little bug said. "The harvest (收获季节) is coming!"

    "I think you are just telling me a story," the spider said with a smile.

    "Oh no, it is true," the little bug said." All the stalks (秆) will be knocked down, and the corn will be. You will be killed by the large machines if you stay here."

    "I don't believe you," the spider said as she ate the little bug for lunch.

    A few days later, the spider was laughing about the story the little bug had told her. She thought to herself: "A harvest! What a silly idea. I have lived here all of my life, and nothing has ever troubled me."

    The next day was a beautiful sunny day. The sky above was clear, and there was no wind at all. That afternoon, when the spider about to have a rest, she noticed something like clouds moving toward her. She could hear the noise of a great engine, and she said to herself: "I wonder what that could be?"

    I used the new machine to wash the clothes. Everything worked well, but I found one of my husband's socks missing. I looked everywhere for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

    The next morning I got ready for school as usual. When the bell rang, the students came in. We began the class. When I turned round to write on the black-board, the class broke out a roar! They laughed and laughed. They laughed so much that I was afraid that the headmaster would be in to see this. I asked the class to stop, but the more I asked, the more they laughed. I decided to go on with my lessons and I wrote on the blackboard. When I did this, they roared even more.

    At last the teacher who had the room next to mine came in to see what had happened. When he came in, he started to laugh, too.

    "Oh, dear!" I said. "Will someone please tell me what is so interesting?"

    "God," said the teacher, "You have a brown sock on the back of your skirt!"

    So that's how I found my husbands missing sock.

    Almost everyone likes apple pies in the USA. An apple pie is easy to make, so many people make it at home. You just need apples, flour (面粉), sugar, butter and spices(调味品).

    To make an apple pie, first peel and cut the apples into pieces. Then mix them with spices and put them in a pie tin (罐). Next put butter, sugar and flour in. Put the mixture on the apple pieces and bake the pie for about 30 minutes. The smell of the apple pie is great.

    There are many different ways to make apple pies. Some families have their own secret (秘密) ways and don't tell other people about them. Pies made with berries( 浆果) are also very popular in America. But the apple pie perhaps (也许) is the dessert that everyone loves best.

A farmer lived in the State of Song. There {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(stand) a big tree stump(树桩) in his field. One day, when he {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(work) in the field, he suddenly saw a hare(野兔) bump into the stump, break its neck and die at once.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(happy), the farmer took the hare home and cooked a delicious meal for himself. That night he {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(think),"There is no need for me to work so hard. All I have to do is to wait by the tree stump and pick {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the hare that runs into it." From then on, he {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(give) up farming and just waited for another hare to come and run into the tree stump. Day in and day out, he waited and waited.{#blank#}7{#/blank#} he never saw another hare run into the tree stump again.Crops died and his field {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(become) waste slowly. People in the village laughed {#blank#}9{#/blank#} him.

In the story, this farmer wanted to live {#blank#}10{#/blank#} better life by dreaming of having unexpected blessings(意外之财). He was so lazy and foolish. As the English saying goes, "No pains, no gains." No one can reap where one has not sown.

B.Answer the questions.

What do you think of the man? {#blank#}11{#/blank#}

What can we learn from the story? {#blank#}12{#/blank#}

Hello, everyone! My name is Mike and my 1 name is White. I'm thirteen years old. My birthday is on 2 1st, National Day. I'm a middle school student. I go to school  3 Monday to Friday. I have seven  4 this term. What's my favourite subject? It's science for 5 ! Why do I like it? Because I think science is 6 and it can help me in the daily life(日常生活). My science teacher Mr. Clark is great fun. 7 classes are very interesting. I 8 science on Monday and Wednesday, I also like PE. In PE class, I like to 9 . I have PE on Tuesday and Thursday, But I don't like history. I think it is very 10 . Luckily(幸运地), I only have one history lesson in a week. 

What about your school life?