From Hobby to Job

Yesterday at the Minnesota Fashion Week, the 15-year-old designer（设计者）Rachel amazed the fashion world when she showed her clothes for the first time. _______ agreed that they looked fantastic.

Rachel taught herself to make clothes when she was just 7. "I didn't like my own clothes and wanted to _______, so I usually added things-like pockets or ties. My Mom used to get a bit _______ about all the scissors and pins lying around," laughed Rachel. Then one year, she decided to have a summer _______ at a fashion and design school, where she learned many skills from her teacher Joan. When Rachel was 12, Joan invited a few teenagers to _______ her at the famous Toronto Fashion Week. "I loved it," said Rachel. "It was just _______ and I knew that I wanted to be there. "

At the Minnesota Fashion Week, Rachel looked _______ beautiful in her smart jacket with a decoration（装饰）of a small blue butterfly on it. People at the event were _______ her skill and designs. "I did all my work on the clothes after dinner, _______ I always had a busy timetable at school and much homework as well. But it was worth it. " Rachel felt proud.

Rachel sold all of her works and the ________ went to a local children's hospital. "I know that the hospital needs it to make the children's stay as comfortable as possible," she said.

When Claire Vlases of Montana was in Grade 7, she learned about plans to modernize her middle school. Claire asked the school board（董事会）to add solar panels to the project because, she explained, clean energy would be helpful to a really modern school.

The board liked the idea but said it could offer just $ 25,000-one-fifth of the cost. So Claire organized a group of kids and grown-ups who set to work raising the rest. They sold their second-hand books, put on talent shows and asked for donations（捐赠）, even going door-to-door for them. One donated more than half the cost!

After two years of hard work, the group paid for the solar panels, which now provide one-fourth of the school’s electricity needs-saving the neighborhood thousands of dollars. “My favorite part about this project was that one person could start something small and then the project could grow and have a big influence on the community,” Claire said. “There are always going to be hard parts. When there’s a challenge（挑战）presented to you, you can learn from it and use it as chance to overcome it.”

A．	B．
C．	D．

   Frank and his brother Jack lived near the ocean. Frank was outgoing while Jack was shy. They liked doing different things. Frank was famous for organizing games of beach volleyball, football, and any other sport imaginable. Jack preferred to draw, paint, or build sandcastles（沙堡）.

Frank didn't understand why Jack would rather do artistic things than play ball. He believed sports often allowed many kids to play together. That was when Jack's idea hatched. He would show Frank what doing things together looked like!

After Jack finished creating a special sandcastle with stairs, towers and walls, he took pictures of it. Then he painted colorful posters featuring（突出）his sandcastle and the question, "Can you top this?" He hung his posters everywhere in town, announcing his plan for a day of sandcastle artistry-all ages welcome.

When Frank saw poster, he not so nicely told Jack that no one would come. Still, shortly after sunrise on Saturday, Jack was on the beach digging in the sand. By mid-morning, four kids were sculpting（雕塑）the sand alongside him. By noon the number had increased a lot.

After Frank came back from his ball game, he went to check how his brother's plan turned out. He couldn't believe what he saw. At least 30 people were building a city of sandcastles, and everyone was chatting and laughing and working together! It was the most beautiful thing he had seen on the beach.

"I guess you've proved me wrong," Frank said. "You should make this sandcastle day a yearly tradition!" Handing Frank a shovel（铲子）with smile, Jack got started together with his brother on their super creation in the sand.

From tiny seeds（种子）, great discoveries grow. A mini-garden carried on China's Chang'e 4 moon lander recently became home to the first plant to grow on another world.

This is yet another success for Chang'e 4. On January 2, the probe（探测器）became the first lander to touch down on the far side of the moon. This is the unknown face of the moon that is always looking away from us, so we never see it from down here on the earth. Although it is often regarded as the dark side of the moon, the far side actually gets as much sunshine as the near side. For example, when all we can see is a silver sliver of a new moon, the far side of the moon is in full sunlight.

Part of Chang'e 4's mission（使命）is to see how a moon base could be built for humans, including exploring（探索）whether humans could grow food and other plant products there. Chang'e 4 carried a mini-garden with air, water and soil with seeds planted in it. When plants shoot on the earth, their stems grow away from the gravity（the force that keeps your feet on the ground）, and so they always shoot upwards. The moon's gravity is a sixth as strong as the earth's, so Chang'e 4's experiment was a test: would the earth plants know which way was up on the moon? Four days after landing, a tiny cotton shoot showed that they do.

Night has now fallen on the far side of the moon; sunlight will not return until the start of February. As a result, the cotton shoots died. Besides the darkness, the plants can't stand the cold（it can drop to -170℃ on the moon at night）. However, the experiment is a success, since it has proved that it is possible for plants to grow in space.

You have lots of things you'd like to do. But sometimes it's hard to get to the finish line-just like your goal. How can you break your bad habits and develop good ones?
46． Here are a few opinions we often get from kids, followed by ideas that might help.

● I can't get away from screens.

47． If you usually spend time lying on the sofa and watching TV programs or a video when you're bored, go somewhere else instead. Take a book to your room or your violin to the backyard. Or ask if you can help cook in the kitchen.

●
48．

Start with "showing up. " Then take one small step or do one tiny task, followed by another and another. For example, how do I practice the piano? First sit at it. Then play one note at a time.

Starting with a super-simple step often helps. Why? It's easy, quick, and gets you in action.
49．

● I have no time.

Take a look at the choices you make about how you spend time. Do those choices show what's important to you? Can you spare 10 minutes a day to work on a goal? Let's suppose you want to be singer.
50． Talk with a parent about why your goal counts. Discuss whether you can let go of something less important to free up time to achieve it.

Do you know how rice first came to China? There is an old Chinese story
61． is about little girl who went out to fish. There was famine（饥荒）and everybody was very
62． /'hʌŋgrɪ/.

The little girl felt her net growing heavy and was very happy. However, it was the King of Frogs（青蛙）that she
63． /kɔ: t/. The frog told her to hold out her fishing net to the sun's rays and he would sing
64． magic song. The little girl followed his instructions. She was
65．（great）surprised to see the rays of sunshine falling through the net. And they were changed
66． golden grains（谷粒）of rice. The first rice was thought to arrive in this way.

We do not know whether this story is true, but it tells
67．（we）that rice has the same value as gold to the Chinese. Rice
68．（be）always the main food for the Chinese. For centuries, much land has been devoted（奉献）to rice-planting and many Chinese people are
69．（farmer）, who work very hard for each grain.

It's important to
70． /seɪv/ food and say no to waste. After all, waste not, want not.

   假定你是李华，你的新西兰朋友David对中医很感兴趣。请你结合以下图示，用英语写一封电子邮件，向他推荐即将在你校举办的“传统中医进校园”的宣传日活动，说明推荐理由，并请他关注线上相关信息。词数80左右。

I'm pleased to know that you're interested in Chinese medicine._____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua