Think of all the ways that you use your arms and hands. You use _______ to open doors, carry boxes, climb trees and ride bikes.

Jessica Cox was born _______ arms. But she didn’t let that _______ her from doing things. She _______ to feed herself, paint and play the piano by using her feet.

When she was at _______, Jessica watched the other students on the playground. She did not have hands to catch balls with, _______ she did not have arms to climb with. Jessica imagined herself as a girl of unusually (不寻常地) great ability. She would _______ over the playground and take her friends into the sky.

Many years later, when Jessica _______ she did fly. She learnt to fly a plane! It was _______ work, but Jessica was patient, confident and brave. She controlled the plane with her feet. She made her ________ come true.

I’m Kevin, a student of Grade 9. Most of my friends walk to school, but I like to ride my bike each day. I wake up at 7:00. After I wash my face and eat breakfast, I throw the schoolbag on my back. Do I have my books and homework? Yes, I do.

I take my bike, hop （跳）onto it and ride to school at 7: 30. “See you later. Mum,” I say. I pass my friends when I ride by. “Hi, Kevin!” they call when I pass. Mary does not want to ride with me. She does not like to wear a schoolbag. She likes to carry her books in her arms when she walks. She likes to kick the autumn leaves. But she likes to look at the flowers the best.

Not me! I like to ride my bike to feel the fresh air in my face. When I get to school, I lock my bike in the bicycle park. I walk across the field to say hi to Mr Brown and wait for my friends in our classroom.

When the days grew long in the middle of summer, Lisa liked to go to the park and watch the clouds.

One day, Lisa saw a cloud that looked like a standing dragon. After a few minutes it became a flying dragon. Then it seemed to change direction. Another cloud moved in to mix with it, and the dragon changed into a dancing elephant. Then it became a sitting dog then a barking（吠、叫）dog, and then a tiger.

“This is better than TV!” Lisa shouted.

Mr Thomas, the music teacher at Lisa’s school, was flying a kite with his son in the park. He heard Lisa’s voice. He gave the kite string（线）to his son and came to Lisa.

“Hi, Mr Thomas!” Lisa said. “Look at those clouds. They keep changing! First they looked like a dragon, then an elephant, then a dog, and now a tiger!”

Mr Thomas looked up. “A tiger?” he said. “That looks like a horse to me. It’s running towards the sun, That’s so lively.”

Lisa looked again. He was right! “How do clouds know how to make so many shapes?”

The clouds don’t know how to make shapes. Your imagination（想象力）helps you see those shapes in the clouds, “Mr Thomas answered as the horse changed into a chicken.”

There are many deserts (沙漠) on the earth. And the following are some facts you may find interesting.

What are deserts like?

Deserts can be hot and dry places. Rain may not fall there for months or years. Some deserts are sandy and stony (多石的). Deserts can also be very windy places. The wind can change the shape of the deserts. It moves sand around from place to place.

Temperatures in the desert can vary enormously(非常). During the daytime, the temperature may reach 40℃ even in the shade (阴凉处). At night, deserts can become very cold. In winter there may even be a frost (霜冻) in the early morning.

Living in the desert

The camel is sometimes called “the ship of the desert”. It stores food in its hump (驼峰) and can go for days without water. It has large feet which help it not to fall into the soft sand. Its long eyelashes (睫毛) keep out the sand during sandstorms.

An oasis is an area of the desert where water may be found. The water may be in pools or under the ground. People and animals visit an oasis for water and food. Plants grow at an oasis. Some farmers are able to grow crops here.

The Arabian Desert

The Arabian Desert lies between the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. In some parts of the desert, it is too hot for people to live. Oil was discovered under parts of the desert and in the Arabian Gulf. This oil has made some countries in the area very rich. Much of the money has been spent building fine cities with lovely parks and lakes, and people live a comfortable life there.

A vegetarian（素食者）is someone who does not eat meat. Being a vegetarian has become a popular choice. In fact, l in every 200 kids in the US is a vegetarian. Most people choose to be vegetarians for many reasons.

First, they believe that a vegetarian diet（饮食）is good for health. It usually has less fat （脂肪）than a diet that includes meat. Vegetarians eat a low-fat diet to stay fit and healthy. A vegetarian diet also provides many vitamins（维生素）that people can’t get from meat. These vitamins protect people from some diseases.

Second, many vegetarians are worried about how animals are raised and killed for food. They hope animals can be better treated.

Finally, they think being a vegetarian can help the planet. People use more energy, water and land to raise animals for food than to grow fruit and vegetables. Also animals put greenhouse gases（温室气体）into the air. These gases cause global warming（全球变暖）.

Vegetarians advise people to have just a couple of vegetarian meals a week to make the world a better place.

Electric cars may seem like a recent invention, but they’ve been around for years. In the early 1900s, there were more electric cars on the road than there were petrol (汽油) cars. At that time, petrol was e
56． compared with other fuels (燃料). W
57． petrol prices dropped and new technologies were developed, electric cars went out of fashion (过时). Instead, petrol cars became more p
58． because they could travel longer distances (距离) without stopping.

During the 20th century, petrol cars got bigger, heavier, and faster. They needed more fuel, and it c
59． more air pollution. For years, car makers didn’t worry about pollution. They didn’t worry about the amount of petrol cars used, e
60．. But when people began to realise that there was not enough oil on the earth, they asked car makers to produce more efficient (高效能的) and less polluting cars.

One m
61． of solving the problem was a “hybrid” car (混合动力车), one that ran partly on petrol and partly on electricity. Hybrid cars became popular in the 2000s when petrol prices went up and the prices of hybrid cars went d
62．.

An all-electric car uses no petrol. The problem, however, is that car batteries (电池) need to be recharged (再充电). That makes electric cars not so useful for long j
63．.

Many people are not p
64． with it. The government and car makers are w
65． together to develop safe, cheap, and useful electric cars. When people have these cars in the future, a petrol station may be a thing of the past.

   假如你是某中学学生李华, 最近你班发生了一件令人感动的事情。请根据以下提示, 给你的英国好友 Tom 写一封信, 与他分享你的感动。

How are you? I have a moving story to tell you. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please tell me something interesting about you and your classmates.

Yours,

Li Hua