I had too many things. My bedroom was often not tidy. I had bookcases with dirty books I never ______ and CDs I didn’t listen to. My drawers were filled with clothes I never wore. I was getting upset because I had no ____ in my bedroom. Then I read about minimalism （极简主义）. Minimalism suggests that you only keep the most necessary and important things and throw away everything else. After reading about minimalism, I felt encouraged to solve my problem.

I started clearing out a lot of the things which I didn’t use. I collected bags of clothes and gave them to poor people in need. I sold some of my CDs and books online. Although I knew that I would never need these things again, I still found it very ____ to throw them away. My brain tried to stop me from letting them go. I said to myself ^“I might need that in the future!^” or “Won’t I be sad if I lose that?^” But the thing was, I knew I couldn’t keep everything.

   Being an animal doctor, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old dog named Belker. The dog’s owners, Tom, his wife Lisa, and their little boy John, all ____ Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle （奇迹）.

I examined Belker and found it was dying of cancer. I told the family we could do ____ for Belker but perform the euthanasia （安乐死）for the old dog in their home.

As we made preparations, Tom and Lisa told me they thought it would be a good idea for six-year-old John to ____ the process. They felt as if John might learn something from the ____ .

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family were around it. John seemed so silent, ____ the dog for the last time, that I ____ if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker died peacefully.

The little boy seemed to ____ Belker’s death without any difficulty or confusion （困惑）. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering why animal lives are shorter than human lives.

John, who had been listening quietly, said, “I know ____ .”

We all turned to him ____ . What he said next shocked me but made us not so sad at the same time.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life 一 like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?”

The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs ____ know how to do that, so they don’t have to live long.”

Wildwood School Library Guide

This will offer you some information about our school library.

You can use this guide to help yourself use our library.

Service hours:

8:00 a. m. — 12: a.m.; 3:00 p. m, — 5:30 p.m. on school days;

9:00 a.m. — 11: 30 a.m.; 4:00 p. m. — 6:00 p.m. on weekends.

On school days, you may borrow or return books during opening hours only when your classroom teacher allows you to. At the weekend, our library is open to both you and your parents.

Borrowing:

Each student can borrow one or two books at a time. More books can be borrowed only for class reading activities and school research.

Returning:

Books borrowed from the library can be kept for 14 days. The books must be returned on time, or the kid can't borrow other books.

Damaged（受损的）or Lost Books:

When a book is returned in a damaged condition, the kid will have to pay three dollars for the damage. Full price must be paid if a book is lost. We encourage students to carry their library books in plastic bags to protect them from rainy weather.

For more information, please call us at 3362-1323, or email us at WSLG@yahoo.com. You can also come to our office in person.

   Going on a holiday without your family for the first time can be a free experience. Just remember that they won’t be at your side if it all goes wrong. Here’s how to be prepared:

Know the plan. So you’re holidaying with friends, and nobody around gives you any comfort. So you need to watch out for yourselves as a group, which means being responsible （负责的）about having a good time, and looking out for each other. To get the most excitement and pleasure, be clear about your hopes for this holiday. Don’t wait until you arrive to discover you’re the only one with plans for lots of cold nights staying at the hotel.

Be responsible for yourself. It’s natural for you to want to relax on holiday, especially when your parents are not around you, but that doesn’t mean you should live like a pig. Try to keep a tidy eye on things, if not for you, for your holiday friends.

Help is just a call away. Right now, you might not think you’ll miss home. It may be a different story when you’re hundreds of miles away, so be sure to keep in touch. In this way, not only do you know that your family care about you, but also it can let their mind free from worry. If possible, make a call to them at an agreed time and it doesn’t cost much money. Just don’t be afraid to call your family at any time if you’re feeling bad.

Eat your greens. It’s worth keeping change to your diet. Just keep one eye on your health. Eating greens is a sure way to keep your health.

   He was 11 years old and often went fishing. On the day before bass season opened, he and his father were fishing early in the evening.

When his fishing pole doubled over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully worked the fish. Finally, he lifted the tired fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass, a kind of valuable fish.

Lighting a match, the father looked at his watch. It was 10 pm—two hours before people were allowed to catch basses. He looked at the fish, then at the boy, saying, “You’ll have to put it back, son.”

Looking around, he saw no other fishermen or boats. Even so, the boy could tell from his father’s voice that the decision couldn’t be changed. He threw the huge bass into the water. The boy thought that he would never again see such a big fish.

That was 34 years ago. Today the boy is a successful businessman in New York. He often takes his son to fish at the same place.

And he was right. He has never again caught such a large fish as the one he got that night long ago. But he does see that same fish... again and again... every time he has an ethical （道德的） decision to make. As his father had taught him, ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult.

   Flowers make people happy. Some new studies by Rutgers University scientists support the idea strongly, and the experts go on to guess that flowers have flourished(繁荣) on the earth, with their beauty evolving(进化) in recent several thousand years, partly because humans love them.

In the first test, 122 men and women were given either a flower, a pen, or nothing. Those who got flowers smiled more and talked more.

In the second test, bouquets(花束) were sent by flower sellers to 113 men and women. All 113 got flowers and a notebook, but some got them earlier and received a second bouquet when the others got theirs. By now you can guess the result. The more flowers, the more smiles.

From there, it’s a bit of a jump to the idea that flowers grow better because we love them.

Geneticist(遗传学家) Terry McGuire suggests that nature’s prettier flowers continued to live and develop well because people didn’t destroy them when they cleared for agriculture(农业). Instead, they grew them and have been doing so for over 5,000 years. “Because they make us happy, we take care of them. In that sense they’re like dogs. They are the pets of the plant world.” McGuire says.

Here is one way that might have worked:

Many kinds of flowers that are now planted used to grow only when people arrived there, McGuire explains. “As humans moved into a new place to clear land for agriculture, these flowers would have been weeds.” “These prettier flowers might have been kept because of beauty. The seeds(种子) would have been kept and replanted. Over time, the best of these flowers might have been chosen and the seeds more carefully kept.”

Now more and more people are trying aquatic（水上的）exercise. More and more people in the US are i
61． in it. People in other c
62． are also doing aquatic exercise more frequently.

Aquatic exercise has many good points. First of all, it is e
63．  than exercising on land. Why? You weigh about 90% less in the pool. It is also better for your knees than r
64． or walking.

Aquatic exercise feels easy, but it still bums calories（热量）. Water is 1000 times thicker and heavier than air. In the same period of time, you can burn more calories in the pool than in the gym. That’s b
65． it takes more energy to move in the water.

But what if you are a
66． of the water? No problem! There is nothing to worry about. Aquatic exercise is safe and easy to learn. It doesn’t require any special skills. For most kinds of aquatic exercise, you don’t even need to know how to swim.

In fact, most people say they f
67． more relaxed in the water. They stop thinking a
68． the things that make them anxious. The cool and quiet environment makes them exercise more.

Aquatic exercise is suitable for everyone. You can do it at any age. It can even help people who are h
69． in accidents. With aquatic exercise, they can move in ways they can’t on land.

So are you looking for a fun new way to i
70． your health? Why not try? Join the millions of people who are burning calories while keeping cool in the pool.

   假定你是李华。李明同学正就读初中二年级。他在信中说，他在英语学习和生活中遇到了很多问题，请你用英语给他回一封信，给他提出一些建议。要点如下：

1、   养成良好的英语学习习惯；(have a ... habit)

2、   学会与同学融洽相处；(get along well with)

3、   多与老师交流；(communicate with somebody)

4、   理解并感恩父母。(thank somebody (for something))

I’m very glad to receive your letter. In your letter, you told me that___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours

Li Hua