Many of you are studying English and you may be __1__ why it is so difficult to learn. It’s actually not too difficult to learn ___2___ you know some ___3___ about the language and culture that it reflects (反映), Perhaps the first thing you need to know about English is that it is made up of several other languages ___4___ French, German, Latin, Greek and Anglo Saxon. In addition, there are words ___5___ Spanish in English and many American Indian words and names, even some Chinese and Japanese ___6___ can be found in the English language. This borrowing of words ___7___ other languages is ___8___ of the key reasons ___9___ some of the difficulties that people meet with ___10___ they are learning English.

　　Did you watch NBA 55'h All-Star Game（全明星赛）? If you watched it, you wouldn't (1) Shaquille O'Neal's（沙奎尔·奥尼尔）wonderful play.

　　Shaquille O'Neal is in Miami Heat（迈阿密热队）now. He was born on March 6th, 1972. He is 2.16 meters tall. When he was young, he was very (2) . His strong hands gave him a good start of life. Shaquille liked playing (3) . But when he was a high school student in Grade Two, he wasn't good at basketball yet. Just at that time, he (4) his good coach（教练）, Dale Brown. Then he began his hard practice. In 1992, he joined NBA, (5) for Magic Team, then Lakers, and later Miami Heat in 2004. He had a great (6) . He has joined All-Star Game ten times, won NBA Finals MVP（最有价值的球员）three times, (7) got the gold medals for the USA in the Olympic Games. He was named one of the fifty (8) players in NBA history.

　　Shaquille O'Neal is strong and tall. People call him“Large Shark”（大鲨鱼）. But he is good at (9) , too. He has already had six CDs. It's really one of the happiest things in the world to listen to his CDs while (10) him play basketball.

　　At first about ten cities are quite (4) in bidding（申办）for the Olympic Games of 2008.“Beijing, Toronto and Paris are (5) cities bidding for the Olympic Games of 2008,”said Richard W. Pound, the IOC's first vice president.

　　“The host city of the Olympic games of 2008 will be decided at the IOC meeting in Moscow in July, 2001. Beijing is getting ready (6) them because it nearly became the host of the Olympic Games of 2000 and Toronto and Paris also have strong power,” said Pound (7) an IOC meeting.

　　I lose（丢）things every day, but not very important things. I always find them again. When I find them though, it's too (1) . I don't need them any more! For example（例如）, I needed (2) a letter, so I looked for the stamps I 3 yesterday. I couldn't find them, so I had to buy some more.

　　I am usually very careful (4) my things. But there are (5) which I just can't keep. Umbrellas（伞）, for example. I buy two or three umbrellas every year. I put them (6) in shops, restaurants or in the cinema (7) I forget them.

　　I lose papers and keys--usually important papers, l also leave my phone card in the telephone. Last month I (8) my bag in a shop. Another thing I often lose is my car keys. Last week I lost (9) so I took the bus to (10) . When I got home, I found them in the rubbish bin（垃圾箱）!

　　He (4) in bed and wondered what excuse（借口）he could make this time. He looked at his body, but could find (5) wrong. A little headache? (6) . He had used that excuse many times. Then he realized that one of his teeth was loose（松动）. Good! He was just going to start groaning（呻吟） (7) he thought that Aunt Polly would pull the tooth out. That would (8) ! He looked for something else. Suddenly he remembered what the doctor had said about a certain problem with toes. He pulled his right foot out and looked at it. (9) of the toes was really hurting, Tom began to groan.

　　“What's (10) with you?”Aunt Polly asked.

　　“My toe hurts.”

　　The old lady fell into a chair, (11) a little.“Tom, you frightened me. Now shut up at once and get out of (12) .”

　　Tom felt like a thief being caught.“Well, it seemed all right. It hurt so much (13) I forgot my tooth.”

　　“Tooth, eh? What's wrong with your tooth?”

　　“One of them is loose and it hurts (14) .”

　　“No problem,”answered Aunt Polly.“I can pull it out.”

　　“Please, Auntie! Don't pull it out. It has (15) hurting now. Please!”

　　“No way! Well, you'll have your tooth out and you'll go to school?”

　　Just at this moment a man __(5)___ a horse came up to him. But the farmer's heart sank when he saw who he was. It was the great man living __(6)___. The farmer had hoped to ask another farmer or a poor man __(7)___ him to come along and help him. He couldn't ask such a great man to help him. But to his __(8)___, the great man got off his horse as soon as he came nearer. He said to the farmer,“I see you __(9)___ help, friend. How good it is that I'm here just at the right time.”Then he took one end of the bag, the farmer the other, and they together raised it and put it on the horse.

　　“Sir,”asked the farmer,“how can I pay you?”

　　“It's quite easy,”the great man replied with __(10)___.

　　“Wherever you see anyone else in trouble, do the same for him.”

　　Many people like to keep dogs as their pets. But do you know dogs were wild（野生的）animals long, long ago?

　　The (1) wild dogs were trained by (2) in Europe about 10,000 years ago. These first“dogs” were not like (3) we have now. They may have been small wolves. These dogs often came near humans to (4) some food. Some of the young dogs were adopted（收养）by people and grew up with them.

　　Humans believed the (5) were a help to them in many ways. The dogs helped them to hunt（守猪）. They could smell and hear danger (6) people could. They helped keep people (7) on cold nights. So it was (8) to raise the dogs.

　　Early one morning, Sam started his big green and yellow bus. He went off on __(3)___ work.“Oh, what a beautiful morning!”he sang.“Oh, what a beautiful day!”

　　At the first bus stop, a man was __(4)___.“Good morning, Mr James,”said Sam with a big smile.“How are you?”

　　“Fine, thank you, Sam,”said Mr James.“How are you?”

　　“Wonderful!”Sam answered.“Just WONDERFUL! This is a fine day.”

　　__(6)___ stop a man came running up. He was puffing（气喘吁吁）.“I have to--puff--catch a train at seven,”he said.“Can you--puff--get me to the station?”

　　“Now, just sit down and rest,”said Sam.“I'll drive a little __(7)___. We will be there in time. Then you __(8)___ run again.”“Thank you,”said the man. He sat down.

　　“Thank you,”said the man, as he got off the bus.“You are the best bus driver in the city!”

　　“It is now ten minutes after seven,”Sam called out.

　　“The sky is blue. It will not rain today. We all like sunshine, don't we?”

　　He began to sing,“I love you, Mr Sunshine. I love you, Mr Sun. In all the world I love you best. You are the only one.”

　　“What is that song, Sam?”a girl asked.

　　“It's my song,”he said.“I made it up. I tike to sing. It makes __(10)___ people want to sing, too.”

　　Trees are very useful to man in three important (1) : they supply（供应）man with wood; they (2) man shade（阴凉）; and they help to prevent drought and floods.

　　 (3) in many parts of the world, people do not realize the importance of these services. For their immediate（现在的）interests trees are (4) down in great (5) .

　　Even when a (6) realizes the importance of a plentiful（大量的）supply of trees, it is (7) to persuade（说服） (8) not to cut down trees, for they want (9) for fuel and they can make (10) by selling trees. So the government（政府）must make rules to protect the forests.