It was Sunday again. Jean and Pam disliked Sundays. That was another thing the twins had _______ common. They shared the same clothes and tied their hair in the same manner. In fact, it was difficult for their classmates and teachers _______ them apart sometimes.

Unlike their classmates, Jean had to attend the art lesson and Pam had to attend her ballet lesson _______ a week. “How I wish I could do something _______ today!” said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to them at the same time. “I would like to be you for a day, it _______ be exciting!” They shouted together. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After telling each other of their own friends, Jean _______ Pam’s ballet dress while Pam put Jean’s brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.

When the art lesson started, Pam was lost. Unlike Jean, Pam was poor at drawing. _______, Pam couldn’t finish her work.

Meanwhile, Jean was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates. As a result, she kept walking into them. Their _______ teacher became impatient with her, “Pam, you should remember the basic steps. You can’t copy what others are doing.”

When Pam and Jean reached _______, they were so tired that they went to bed right away. ________ decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not.

   One day, a father and his son went to a kite-flying festival. When they arrived, there were already many people in the park. When the son saw the sky filled with colorful kites in different shapes, he was excited and wanted to get one, too. His father agreed to buy one for him. So they went to a kite shop and chose a beautiful one.

With the string in hand, the son started to fly the kite. Soon, the kite was high up in the sky. After a while, the son said, “Father, it seems that the string(线) is stopping the kite flying higher. If we cut it, the kite will be free and fly even higher. Can we cut it?” The father didn’t reply, but just cut the string. Suddenly, the kite began to go higher, which made the son much happier.

However, to his surprise, the kite was coming down. They waited for quite some time. Slowly, it fell onto the grass. The son felt upset and asked, “I thought that after cutting the string, the kite would fly higher. Why did it fall down?”

The father smiled and said, “The role of the string was not stopping the kite from flying higher, but helping it stay in the sky, because the kite itself can’t fly up. By using the string, you help the kite go up in the right direction. When you cut the string, it could not support the kite.”

In our life, we may sometimes feel like there are certain things that are holding us back and stopping us from growing. But in fact, these might be the things that support us the most. We can really grow up and become stronger by realizing the importance of these things.

   I am a plastic bottle. A week ago, I was on a supermarket shelf. I had a normal life, the same as all my brothers and sisters —— other bottles full of water. I felt really happy.

Then a tall woman picked me up and put me in her basket! The woman took me home and put me in the fridge. It was cold, but I soon made friends with the cans and bottles in it. However, only a few hours later, she took me out of the fridge and drank the water inside me. Then she threw me into a dustbin. I have never felt so empty and alone in my life.

Early the next morning, a man took me out of a dustbin. He threw me and the other rubbish into the back of a truck. There were so many bad smells. Then I was pushed together with the rest of the rubbish. Soon I was completely flat. I can’t believe how thin I became.

I slept for a while. When I woke up, I found myself in a terrible place. Everything around me was ugly and had bad smells. I felt afraid. I kept hoping that I would be moved somewhere else. Then huge trucks came and covered us with something.

I asked another bottle what would happen to us. He said that we would never leave this place, but would have to stay here for thousands of years.

“Why can’t they recycle(回收利用) us?” I cried.

   Some countries are building a great wall of tree across Africa. It is called the Great Green Wall. They want to bring life to the dry lands and help to fight the bad environment.

The wall is 8, 000 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide. It covers from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, on the south of the Sahara Desert. So far, Senegal has made the best progress by planting about 11,000,000 trees.

Many years ago, there were few trees in that area and the winds used to be very strong. It was bad to the fields. Also, there was little rain, so few plants could grow and many people were hungry. Since the tree planting project started, the trees have provided food for the local people, the air has become better. Little by little, there were green fields for people to grow plants.

The project began in 2007. It is supposed to cost 8, 000, 000, 000 dollars. Many countries are trying their best to help to plant more trees. So we will be able to see the whole green wall across Africa in the near future!

All of us want to make ourselves better, but how to do that?
41．

Have a positive(积极的)attitude(态度). Life is not always a bed of roses. When you face difficulties, don’t lose heart. Do you know what can help you? It’s your attitude. Be happy every day! Life is like a mirror.
42．

Keep learning. Maybe you are used to your present life. Every day you have so much work to do that you can’t find any time to learn.
43． So you should change, too. Or you will fall behind others. Keeping learning can help you get success in the future.

44． Being an honest person is very important. Nobody likes a person who tells lies. The one who keeps his word is popular everywhere.

Be creative(创造性的). We always need students who have creative thinking.
45． If that, you will have more choices in their life.

As long as you keep doing the four things above, you will be excellent and make a difference to the world.

What do you want to be? For Frank, he dreamed to be a singer. He took
46． lessons and everyone thought he was a great boy.

One day he saw a notice. It said that a famous dancing group would have a show in his town. He thought it was a good time to show
47．. So he prepared some flowers and waited for the group leader in the dressing room.
48． he saw the leader, he ran to her and gave the flowers
49． once. The thorns ( 刺 ) hurt her fingers and blood came out. But he was too
50． to care about the hurt. He told the leader that he wanted to be a singer and wanted to show a song.

“Sure. Please,” the leader agreed. But half way through the sing. She
51． him, “I’m sorry, in my mind you’re not good enough!” On hearing this, he ran out quickly. It
52． so hard for him to accept this. He lost heart and gave up her dream.

A few years later, the singing group came again. He decided to find out
53． the leader had told him he was not good enough.

This was her answer, “I tell this to every student.”

“I have given up my dream because of your words!” He shouted
54．.

The leader went on, “I remember your gift of
55． and thorns had hurt your fingers but you carried on bravely. It was a pity that you didn’t take singing like that and stopped trying so easily. So you are still not good enough for dancing!”

   假如你是在中国读书的美国交换生 Frank，你的英国笔友 Nancy 也即将来到中国学习，请你给她写一封信。

Frank