ONCE again, I was in new school.  36 was a girl in my class named Paris. That’s where the similarities  37  . I was tall and she was small. I was one of the   38  in the class while she was the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my  39  .
40  she wanted to be friends.
One day, she invited me   41   and I said yes I was too shocked to say no．42  no one had invited me over to play before．But this girl, who wore the   43   fashions, wanted to see me．She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother, her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister- When we got to the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Barbies which was my next   44 ．I would have thought she’d outgrown them．I had   45   played with them．But we sat on the floor of a walk-in cupboard laughing as we   46  crazy stories about the Barbies．That’s when we found out that we both wanted to be   47  when we were older．We both had wild   48 ．
We had a great day that afternoon．Our jaws （下巴） 49  from smiling so much．She showed me her   50  , which had mostly come from a designer clothing store （時裝設(shè)計店） down the block．The woman who owned it used her as a   51  sometimes for her newspaper ads and gave her clothes in exchange．
Paris had the whole   52   charmed．The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines, the 53__ gave her free passes and the pizza place let her have free pieces．Soon I was   54  in her magic world．We slept over at each other’s houses, spent every free moment together．My dark hair grew out and I learned to love being tall．
Paris, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the   55   teenage years and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: your "worst enemy" can turn out to be your best friend．

Ice cream can’t cure cancer or bring back a lost love, but it can make one feel better for a while.
A bout 18 months ago, my father was in hospital recovering from a major lung operation. My mother had recently  36 , and my father had taken the loss of his partner of 55 years very hard and had lost interest in   37 . Trying to get him to  38 each day was quite a chore as he didn’t want anything. The one thing,  39 , that he would ask us to bring him was ice-cream.
One evening, to our   40 , he refused to eat the ice-cream,  41  I placed it in a staffroom freezer. A little while later, my son decided he wanted it, so I   42  it for him.  
As I passed another ward（病房）, a   43 asked, “Are there more where that came from?” When I explained the   44 , she apologized. She then said that she had cancer and could eat very little,  45   the occasional ­ice-cream.
The next evening, I decided to buy two ice-creams. On the way to Dad’s room, I stopped in at the   46  woman’s room, and   47  her the ice-cream I’d bought for her. She was   48 stunned that I had thought of her, and   49  the gift with tears in her eyes. I spoke with her for a few minutes,  50  what was happening in my family and listened to her   51  story of pain and suffering. It was apparent that she did not   52  many visitors, and the ice-cream and our short chat meant a great deal to her.
I   53  the gesture a few days later, and this time was  54 with a huge hug.
I never even thought to ask her name, and never saw her again, but it made me realize that an act of   55  can be more rewarding when you give it, rather than receive it.

Mr．Glen is a millionaire．Five years ago, after returning from abroad to his motherland, he   36  up his small company．Speaking of success, Glen often tells us a story about his   37  expensive “school” fees．He always   38 a Ph．Degree, decided to return to the homeland, starting an undertaking．Before   39 , he bought a Rolex watch with the   40  made through years of work after school and the scholarships．At the airport he had to accept the routine customs check．The watch on his wrist was also demanded to be   41  down for inspection．Glen knew that carrying the specific goods out had to pay the tax．And he worried about paying   42  for his watch．So when he was checked, he told a lie that his watch was a worthless   43 ．When he was   44  of his ‘smarts’, immediately,   45  the presence of Glen, the officers hit the watch, which   46  nearly ￥100,000, into pieces at hearing Glen’s words．Glen was amazed．  47  he understood why, he was taken to the office to be   48 strictly．For many times of entry-exit   49  he knew that only those people in the “blacklist” would “enjoy” this special treatment．The officers   50  every thing carefully in the box, and warned him no matter what time of entry and exit he must accept the check and if   51  reusing and carrying fake and shoddy（偽劣）goods, he would be   52  according to law! Suddenly, his face turned red, and he had nothing in mind after boarding the plane for long.
After returning to the homeland, he often told the story to his family, and his employees, too．He said that this made a deep   53  on him, because an additional high “school” fee that he had ever paid made him realize the value of   54 , which he would   55  as the secret of his success forever.

When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a faraway village. One day, on the road, I found the __36__ pieces of a mirror. There was a German motorcycle accident.
I tried to find all the pieces and put them __37__, but it was not possible, so I kept only the __38__ piece and I made it round. I began to __39__ with it as a toy and became greatly attracted by the __40__ that I could reflect（反射）light to dark places where the sun would never shine in __41___holes and some other dark places. It became a __42__ for me to get light into the darkest places I could find.
I __43__ the little mirror, and, as I ___44__ up, I would take it out when I had nothing to do and __45__ the game. As I became a __46__, I grew to understand that this was not __47__a child’s game but a metaphor（象征）for what I might do with my life. I came to __48___ that I am not the light or the source（來源）of light, but light—truth, understanding, knowledge—is __49___, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it.
I am just a single piece of a mirror whose ___50__ design and shape I do not know. __51___, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this __52__， into the black places in the___53__ of men—and change some things __54___ some people. Perhaps others may see and do the same. This is what I am about. This is the __55___ of my life. （269 words）

About once a month I have to go to Bedford for my work. One day I went into a   21  there to have something to   22  . The waiter took my coat and put it in a small room.
About an hour later I was   23  to go. The waiter   24  me my coat. Something fell out of the pocket onto the floor. It was a small white box. I took a   25  look at the   26  . “Oh, you’ve brought   27  coat,” I said to the waiter. “It looks very much like mine,  28  it is quite new, and this isn’t my box, either.”
“Oh, then I   29  someone has taken your coat and left his,” said the waiter. “This kind of thing   30  sometimes.”
I opened the box. There was a beautiful gold   31  in it. The waiter and I   32  to go to the police station.
“Has anyone lost a ring?” I asked at the station.
“Yes,” said a policeman. “A young man who came in this morning lost a ring, he lost it in London.”
He   33  the young man. A few minutes later, the man arrived.
“Yes, this is my ring,” he said. “How can I   34  you, sir? You see, I paid a lot of money for this ring and   35  I lost it on the train!”
After I told him the   36  of the coat, he said, “You haven’t been on the train. I haven’t been in the hotel, so how did my ring   37  in the coat?”
“Did anyone sit or stand next to you on the train?” asked the policeman.
“Yes,” said the young man. “But I don’t remember his face.”
“You may remember this   38  ,” said the policeman. “Was it like this one?”
“Yes, it was,” said the young man. “But my friend here isn’t the thief.”
The policeman laughed. “No,” he said. “The thief on the train stole your ring, and   39  our friend here, he went into the hotel to get some food. Only he didn’t take the   40  coat away with him.”

One evening, Mr. Green was driving his car along a lonely country road. He had __36__$10,000 from the bank in town. Suddenly a man in rags（衣衫襤褸） stopped him and asked for __37___. Mr. Green told him to get on and continued his way. __38___ he talked to the man, he _39___ that he had just broken out of prison. Mr. Green was very afraid at the __40__ of the money. Suddenly he saw a police-car and had a __41__ idea. He __42__ on speed and drove as quikly as possible. Then he found the police-car running _43___ him. After a mile the police-car passed him and ordered him to _44____. A policeman came up. Mr. Green hoped to tell him about the trouble but the man put a gun to Mr. Green’s __45___.
The policeman said he wanted Mr. Green’s name and _46__ amd Mr. Green obeyed. The policeman wrote it down in his notebook and put it in his __47___. “You _48___ appear at the police station,” he said, Then he talked to Mr. Green about _49____ driving.
Mr. Green started up his car again. He had given _50___ all hope of his $10,000, but as he reached a more lonely part, the robber said he wanted to __51___, Mr. Green stopped and the man said , “_52____, You’ve been _53___ to me. This is what I can do in __54___.” And he handed Mr. Green the policeman’s __55__, which was stolen while the policeman was talking to Mr. Green.

I spent my last Christmas Day working the whole day!
Due to the nature of my job, I had to go back to my __41___ and spent my whole Christmas Day there. Of course, It __42___ no good! Surely you will get ___43__ when almost all of your friends are either resting at home, watching TV, listening to music, __44___ watching movies in the cinema, and you are the only one that is not __45___. The feeling is really bad. And I really did not feel like __46___ and going to work in the morning. But I __47___ went to work. I am a responsible guy. Since the arrangement was like that, I __48___.
Of course, there is something __49___ about working on Christmas Day and most public __50___. First of all, since I had no plan to go out, or do any __51___ activities on that day, I most likely would __52___ the day at home playing computer games, so why not go to work and ___53__ some extra money? It makes sense to me. Besides, it is a holiday for __54___ the whole world. It __55___ most of my company’s offices in other __56___ would probably not be working, __57___ those in China, Japan and Thailand as Christmas is not a holiday for people there. Less users, less problems, meaning? Less __58___ for us to do. And the best part is, the office is ours! I can __59___ my laptop to the office, watch movies, play games, and at the same time, get my extra __60___! Well, what do you think of working on holidays?

One day a very wealthy father took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people can be.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of  which  would be considered a very poor family. On their  return  from their trip, the father asked his son, “ How was the trip?”
“It was  great , Dad .”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah?” said the son.
“So what did you  learn  from the trip?” asked the father.
The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that  reaches  to the middle of our garden and they have a creek (小溪) that has  no  end. We have lanterns in our garden and they have the  stars  at night. We have a  small  piece of land to live on and they have fields that go  beyond  our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve  themselves . We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have  walls  around our property（財產(chǎn)） to protect us but they have friends to protect them.”
With this the boy’s father was  speechless .
Then his son  added , “Dad, thank you for showing me how  poor  we are.”
Too many times we  forget  what we have and concentrate on what we don’t have. What is one person’s  priceless  object is another’s prize possession. It’s all  decided  on one’s perspective (視角). Think about what would happen if we all gave  thanks  for what we have,  instead of  worrying about what we don’t have.
Be thankful for every single thing in your life, exactly as it is now–and  especially  your friends. Be sure to take the time to express your appreciation and gratitude for the people whom you are close to.

I will never forget the year I was about twelve years old．My mother told us that we would not be   26  Christmas gifts because there was not enough money．I felt sad and thought, "What would I say when the other kids asked what I’d 27 ?" Just when I started to  28  that there would not be a Christmas that year, three women  29  at our house with gifts for all of us．For me they brought a doll．I felt such a sense of 30  that I would no longer have to be embarrassed when I returned to school．I wasn’t   31 ．Somebody had thought  32  of me to bring me a gift．
Years later, when I stood in the kitchen of my new house, thinking how I wanted to make my  33 Christmas there special and memorable, I  34  remembered the women’s visit．I decided that I wanted to create that same feeling of  35  for as many children as I could possibly reach．
So I   36  a plan and gathered forty people from my company to help．We gathered about 125 orphans （孤兒） at the Christmas party．For every child, we wrapped colorful packages filled with toys, clothes, and school supplies,   37  with a child’s name．We wanted all of them to know they were  38．Before I called out their names and handed them their gifts, I   39  them that they couldn’t open their presents   40  every child had come forward．Finally the   41  they had been waiting for came as I called out, "One, two, three．Open your presents!" As the children opened their packages, their faces beamed and their bright smiles  42  up the room．The   43  in the room was obvious, and   44  wasn’t just about toys．It was a feeling — the feeling I knew   45 that Christmas so long ago when the women came to visit．I wasn’t forgotten．Somebody thought of me．I matter．

When Jane Austen (1775--1817) wrote her novels in England, she was writing about a   21 that most of us would not recognize.
But today Austen’s books are in great   22  than ever. In the last ten years, five or six novels have been   23  into Hollywood films, while her books continue to be bestsellers. So why is Austen still   24 ?
Richard Jenkyns, a professor of English at Oxford University argued that her novels still  25  people because they  26 the same issues today as they were when she wrote them.
Her novels are about women   27 to find a perfect husband, but also  28 issues surrounding marriages, friendships and the family. “The plots are fairly timeless about human interaction   29 are familiar to us,” Jenkyns says.
The most famous book Austen wrote is Pride and Prejudice, a   30  story between Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. At first the two   31 do not get on. They   32  fall in love, but still have to   33  opposition to their relationship from their families.
All of Austen’s books are   34  to read, making them popular with children and adults,
  35 they work on different levels so people can take  36 they need from them, author Kate Henry says.
“You can choose to see the politics and feminism(男女平等思想) in them,  37 you don’t want to take on those issues you can turn a blind eye to it,” she says.
  38 is often hailed(贊揚) as the greatest romance writer in the English language, so it is surprising she remained  39 . “Maybe she was too much of a romantic, waiting for a    40
man,” Henry says.