“Everybody, it’s time for our group project. Let’s get to work!” says Ms. White.

Amy is the leader of one group. She is not _______ forward to working with her group because a boy named Ray is always absent from the group meetings. He doesn’t follow the rules, and he _______ to do any work. This slows the whole group down.

Amy considers telling Ms. White about these problems, but she doesn’t want to get Ray in trouble. _______, she decides to talk to him and find out what the _______ is. She says, “Everyone is working hard on our project. But so far, you haven’t done anything. Is there something wrong?”

Ray thinks _______ for a few seconds, and finally says, “It’s not that I don’t want to be in the _______. Sometimes, I don’t really understand the things we’re learning. I know it’s not fair, but I don’t want to say something stupid, so I do _______.

Now Amy understands. Ray isn’t _______ he just needs help! “From now on,” she says, “I will do my best to help you feel more confident(自信的). Then you can do your share, and it will be _______ for everyone. “Thank you! I’ll try hard to do my part.” says Ray.

Amy feels happy. She realizes that ________ about problems is better than keeping them as secrets.

   When I was in the middle school, I seldom raised my hands to answer questions in class. And I found lots of my classmates were just like me. When the teacher asked a question, I always lowered my head because I was afraid that the teacher saw me.

One day, in a foreign language class, Mr. Black gave us a lesson. He wanted us to be active in class, so he asked us some questions, but no one answered. "At the beginning of the class, let me tell you a story." He said.

"When I came to the United States to study, the university often invited famous people to make speeches. Before the beginning of every speech, I found an interesting thing. The students around me always took a cardboard folded（折叠）in half, wrote their names in bold（粗体） with the most eye-catching color, and then placed the cardboard on the seat. So when the speaker needed the answers from the students, he could see and call a listener's name directly."

"I couldn't understand that. My classmates told me the speakers were all top people who meant chances. When your answer was to their surprise, it meant they might give you more chances. In fact, I really saw a few students got great chances because of that."

After listening to the story, I understood that the chance will not find you itself. You must show yourself all the time so that you can find a chance and then catch it.

Every Saturday evening, many people come to an open square in a small town in Xi' an. They want to watch Chen Kun and his friends put on a play. During the play, the audience（观众）can hear them, but they can not see them. That is because they are putting on a shadow puppet play（皮影戏）.

Shadow puppets are made of hard leather（皮革）. The leather is cut out in the shape of a person, an animal or an object. Each puppet is painted in bright colours and put on a stick. Some puppets have movable arms and legs.

During a shadow puppet play, Chen stands behind a white screen with lights behind it. The audience sit in front of the screen. Chen and his friends hold the puppets very close to the screen so the audience can see the puppets' shadows clearly. Then they move the puppets around and do the voices of the different characters.

Shadow puppet plays are a traditional Chinese art. Now with TV and films, shadow puppet plays are not as popular as before. To encourage more young people to learn the skills of shadow puppet plays, Chen provides training courses for students to teach them how to make shadow puppets.

Chen and his friends often work very hard for little money, but they do not mind. They want to keep this traditional art form alive.

   Amy wanted a mobile phone as her birthday gift, because most of her classmates had one, but she knew her parents couldn 't afford it.

One day, when she woke up, she found a new mobile phone on her desk.  How excited she was! This was the phone that had appeared in fashion magazines.

She played with the phone on the way to school. And the teacher was already there when she arrived at school. Amy was very embarrassed （尴尬的）. She looked at her new mobile phone and whispered （低语）, "I didn't want to be late …"

Everything changed with her thought. She went to school on time with her new mobile phone.

She was surprised at that. She turned on the phone and found there was a sentence on the screen, "Every dream will come true." Since then, she always asks the phone for help. As a result, she has become lazier and lazier. Her teachers and parents were very disappointed with her and her classmates didn 't like her any more.

When the term exams came, Amy asked the mobile phone for help again, but things turned bad. She got the lowest mark in the class. She wanted to throw it away, but when she did, the phone would come back into her hand. Amy was so scared （恐惧的）that she cried out, "I don't want the mobile phone any more."

She woke up to find that the terrible experience had been just a dream．

   Mostly, inventions happen because someone works to solve a problem. Kids are natural inventors. They often create amazing things from simple ideas. Here are a few examples that might make you wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Popsicles

Popsicles were invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson in 1905. He forgot a drink of juice and left it with a stir（搅拌）stick in it outside on a cold night. The next day it was ice. Because of this he couldn't drink it any more, but he could eat it. It tasted good! These ice sticks became popular among kids at school in summer because they were delicious and helped them stay cool. More than a hundred years later, popsicles are sill one of the best summer treats!

Crayon Holders

When 11-year-old Cassidy Goldstein needed crayons for a school project, she had a hard time because there were so many small or broken ones. She found some small clear plastic tubes（管子）at home. Although the tiny tubes were usually filled with water to keep flowers fresh, she found that they fit tightly（紧紧地）around the crayons. She was now able to hold them easily. This is how she invented Crayon Holders.

Wristies

When snow gets in kids' gloves and their hands get wet, they feel uncomfortable. 10-year-old Kathryn Gregory decided to do something about it. She created the wristies as she wanted to keep her wrists（手腕）warm and dry. Wristies are long gloves with no fingers and they are worn under your coat. They help you when you work in the cold because your hands stay warm while you use your fingers. With her parents' help, Kathryn also opened a small shop where she sold her wristies. And she still runs it today.

All these inventions have one thing in common-the kids were trying to solve problems in their lives. When you meet problems, what would you do? If the kids can do it, you can do it, too!

   Li Wen is a 15-year-old boy. He works hard and
31．（do）well in school. It is hard to believe, that he used to have
32．（difficulty）in school. When he was a little boy, he seldom caused any problems, and his family
33．（spend）a lot of time together.

34．, things began to change a few years ago. His parents moved to the city to work, and they could not be at home to look
35． him. So he became less interested in
36．（study）and was absent from classes. Then his parents were so worried
37． they decided to send him to a boarding school. He found life there difficult. One day he told his teacher that he wanted to leave the school. His teacher advised his parents to talk with
38．（they）son in person. This conversation changed his life. He realized that his parents would always love him, and they would be
39．（pride）of everything good that he did. Now he is much
40．（happy）and more outgoing than he used to be.

   It is useful to learn how to make small talk. It is an important social skill. It helps to make people feel
41．（放松的） and start a conversation when they meet for the
42．（第一） time.

The topics for small talk are different in different countries. But usually the topics are general rather than personal. In the UK, people sometimes talk about the
43．（天气） when they make a small talk. "It's a nice day, isn't it?" This
44．（种类） of questions helps you begin a conversation because they are general questions that anyone can
45． （答复）to. Next time when you want to make small talk, turn a statement to a question. You are sure to get answer and start a conversation.

Tigers are beautiful animals. They are important to the
46．. But they are
47．now. It is hard to believe that there are only about one
48． South China tigers left in the world-and few live in the wild. Why is the situation
49． serious? Some people have caught and killed tigers
50． money. Some people have
51． a lot of trees. What should we do to protect the tigers? People need to think about these questions
52．.

To make it easier for the tigers to live, we should protect their home in the wild, and build
53．natural places for them. We should also work hard to stop people from
54．tigers. If we can do these things well, there will be more tigers
55．. Let's start now!

   In the forest there lived a rhino（犀牛） and a monkey. The monkey was not very friendly and he troubled the rhino every day. Sometimes he pulled the rhino' s tail. Sometimes he jumped onto the rhino's back. But the rhino didn't get mad. He could stand everything patiently and never complained（抱怨）.

Other animals in the forest knew that the monkey always made fun of the rhino. They got angry with the monkey. They even advised the rhino to punish the monkey.

The rhino smiled and said that sometimes the monkey was unfriendly, but he was thankful to him. He thanked the monkey for teaching him to be patient. Other animals just kept silent with their heads down, without saying anything. At that time, the monkey was sitting in the tree and heard the rhino's words. He felt sorry for what he had done.

He came down from the tree immediately. Then he came up to the rhino and said sorry to him. After that, the monkey and the rhino became friends, and they got on well with each other.

   假如你是李华，你所在的城市将要举行武术表演活动，你的英国明友David 写信咨询询问活动信息．请你给他回信介绍本次活动并谈谈武术对人身心的益处，内容要点如下：

I'm glad to receive your letter. You asked me about the kung fu performance in our city._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hope you can come!

Yours truly,

Li Hua