One dark night, two blind men were going home from work.“I need to buy some ________ ,” said one of them suddenly.

“OK” replied the second man, “I think I’ll buy two or three pairs for ________, too.”

In the shop, the salesgirl asked them, What size do you wear, sir, and what color would you like?”

“Size eleven. Give me one pair of black socks and two pairs of white, please, ” answered one of them.

“And you, sir?” the salesgirl asked ________ customer.

“ The same for me. I wear size eleven, too. And the same color the same ________, ” said the second blind man.

A moment later they were back in the ________ streets. But just then, a boy riding a bicycle bumped into（撞上）them. The blind men dropped all the socks on the ground! All the six pairs— black and white all mixed up. The boy quickly said sorry and left. The two blind men ________ all the socks, but couldn’t tell which were black and which were white. ________ could they be sure that each of them got one pair of black socks and two pairs of white?

They tried to ask for help. But ________ else was in the streets.

One of them soon ________ the problem. Can you guess how he made it?

They separated each pair of socks and both took one sock ________ each pair. When they got home, each of them had two black socks and four white ones—just what they wanted. Weren’t they smart?

One day Fred’s aunt sent him a new spade (铁锹) and a small box of seeds (种子). As soon as he got them, he went out to his own garden to plant the seeds.

His sister Jane went with him. As he dug, she stood near him and talked to him with the box of seeds in her hand. As Jane spoke, she dropped the box of seeds on the ground by mistake. All the seeds fell out, Jane was afraid and said sorry to Fred, but Fred didn’t speak to her.

“Oh, Fred” she cried. “ Why don’t you speak to me?”

Fred replied, “I wanted to wait till I could count to ten.”

“Count to ten!” said Jane. “ Why did you want to count to ten?” “ Aunt once told me to count to ten before I spoke, if ever I felt angry. I know that I am often angry with you, and I wanted to do the right thing this time.” said Fred.

“Oh, Fred, how good you are! It was very careless of me to let the seeds fall, but I have collected them all again. Here they are.”

The seeds were put into the ground, and day by day Fred and Jane came to watch them grow.

At last a lot of small green leaves appeared above the ground. They soon grew larger and had pretty flowers, making the children very happy.

Before you speak too fast in anger, count to ten, and if you are still angry, count again.

Ade was a farmer. His farmland was so poor that he hadn’t had good harvests (收获)for years.

“ If God lets me control the weather, then everything will get better, ” he said angrily.

“I’m a farmer. I know what’s the best for crops (庄稼) to grow more than God does.”

God heard him.“ Well, I give you one year,” God said, “You will control all kinds of weather. Let’s see what your crops will grow like.”

After hearing this, Ade was excited and shouted at once, “Sunny! ” Suddenly the clouds went away.

He was pleased and shouted again, “Rain! ” The sky was covered with dark clouds right away, and then after a while, heavy rain poured down.

Watching the crops growing better and better, Ade felt pretty satisfied. Then, the harvest season come.

He went to the field to get his crops. But his heart suddenly went down when he found he couldn’t get even a grain （谷粒）. He couldn’t understand it and started to cry. Once again, God heard him.

“ Do you want to know why you still don’t get the good harvest?   ”God asked.“ That’s because you never asked for wind, rainstorm, snow and ice, or anything that could make the air fresher and the roots (根系) stronger. With no strong roots, the crops won’t grow any fruit.”

After he realized this, Ade asked God to take back the power. It showed that only through life’s challenges we would get the fruit of life.

Which animals are smart? Your answer may be dogs or elephants. Now one more animal can be added to the list: the sheep.

Scientists said that sheep could be trained to recognize (辨认) familiar (熟悉的) human faces, the BBC reported.

Before testing, scientists let the sheep take a look at the pictures of four famous people, including former (先前的) US President Barack Obama and British actress Emma Watson. Then the sheep went into a room with two computer screens. One screen showed a famous person and the second screen showed a random (随机的) person. The sheep usually walked toward the screen with the famous person.

After discovering the animals’ ability to recognize famous people, scientists gave them a new task. They wanted to see whether the farm animals could correctly recognize the same people from different directions. The animals were still able to recognize them, though they were a bit slower to recognize the pictures than before.

Finally, the researchers wanted to know if the sheep could recognize their trainers from a photo. Photos of their trainers were shown on screens with some unfamiliar faces. They weren't given any training, but the sheep could recognize their trainers。

The results show that the animals human’s face-recognition abilities are similar to those of monkeys and humans.

The researchers said it might be interesting in the future to find out whether sheep can recognize different expressions on people’s faces.

Sophia（索菲亚）is a robot in Saudi Arabia（沙特阿拉伯）.She made history at a meeting on October 25th. 1. On that day，she became the first robot that got citizenship（公民身份）in the world.

In the future，Sophia may have the same rights as a human Saudi Arabian citizen.

But not everyone is happy with Sophia's citizenship. Some think robots like her could be dangerous. 2.They could become enemies of humans if they go out of control. For this，Sophia said she also had values like wisdom（智慧）and kindness.“Don't worry. If you're nice to me，I'll be nice to you，" she said.

It is said that four-joy Meatballs were first developed in Tang Dynasty（朝代）. One year, the emperor（皇帝）
66． the imperial examination（殿试）and many students from the whole country took part in it. And
67． them, there was the famous Zhang Jiuling. To everyone’s
68．, the poorly dressed Zhang took the first place in the exam and later became the son-in-law（女婿）of the emperor. Usually, people were
69． when they were in such happy events，but he wasn’t. He was deeply sad because the serious flood （洪水）drove his parents to other places
70． any news.

71．, on the wedding（婚礼）day, Zhang got the news about his parents and sent the guards to bring them back to the capital. And also on that day, the cook who understood
72． feelings cooked four big meat balls, and explained the meanings to Zhang.“ It is named ‘Four Consummations（圆满）’. The first consummation is achievement of the
73． place in the imperial examination, the second for your wedding. the third for you to become the emperors son-in-law, and the last for finding your
74．,the cook said. Upon this answer, Zhang Jiuling had a great laugh and said. "Just call it four- joy Meatballs. ”

Since then, the Four Joy Meatballs were passed down
75． now. Nowadays the dish is often seen on the dinner table. Many people still like it.

Once there was a rich baker（面包师）. He called the poorest children in town to his store and gave one loaf (条) of bread to each of them and told them to come back every day for bread.

Rather than being thankful to the baker’s kindness, many of the children fought about who would get the largest loaf. They were not pleased with their present poor life and just thought about themselves.

However, there was one little girl in the crowd (人群) who was different from others. Day after day, patiently, she waited for the others to stop fighting, and she took the smallest loaf. Then, she thanked the baker and shared it with her family.

One day, while slicing （将……切片）the bread, her mother found several silver coins inside the loaf. Quite surprised, she showed her daughter what she had discovered in the bread.

So, the next day, the children went back to the store. The little girl also returned. She showed the silver coins to the baker and said,  “Sir, we found the money inside the loaf of bread that you gave to us. You must have accidentally dropped the coins while you were baking the loaf.”

“I didn’t make a mistake. These are yours to keep, as a prize for your patience and honesty, ” said the baker.

There are many different festivals around the world. Usually we know about some traditional ones. But here are some special festivals in the world. Have you heard of them?

The Straw（稻草）Bear Festival

It is a traditional celebration in one small UK town. It runs for three days every year in January. The festival celebrates the beginning of the agricultural (耕种的)year. People there enjoy watching bears dance. A few men wear straw bear costumes (演出服)and dance for others.

The Cologne Carnival （狂欢节）

It is one of Europe’s biggest street festivals, it starts at 11:11 am on November 11 and lasts till  February 14 next year. Local people call the time the "crazy" season. During the festival, people put on colorful clothes and play music to celebrate it in the street. The festival has gone on for 194 years. Each year, about 1.5 million people take part in it.

Day of the Dead

It is celebrated in Mexico every year between October 31 and November 2. It’s not a scary day like its name, instead, it’s a colorful holiday. People believe the spirits of their ancestors（祖先）will return to the world of the living on that day. They share food and drinks to keep the spirits alive and the spirits can be with them in this way.

为了美化校园，最近学校新种植了一批花草，需要招聘一些学生志愿者来照顾它们。要求志愿者热爱花草，乐于为学校工作，能够按时给花草浇水。联系方式为：1390413××××，刘老师。请你用英文为学校写一则招聘广告。（短文开头已给出，不计入总词数）

Volunteers Wanted

We need some students to help look after plants.

初中生活是多姿多彩的，校园里的一切都会在每个人的心里留下美好的记忆。请你根据下列图示来描述一下你的初中生活。