Whitney didn't have many friends. She was shy and (1) ______. She never wanted to be popular, but she did want to have someone to share (2) ______ and laugh with.
    Then it was time for her to go to college in another town. And she had to (3) ______ with someone she didn’t   know. She had no idea whether she could make friends in that new environment.
    But something happened during the first class. And it (4) ______ Whitney's life. The teacher asked everyone to (5) ______ a little about themselves. Whitney told everyone where she came from and some simple information. The last (6) ______ for each student was - "What is your goal for this term?"  (7) ______ of the students said it was to get good grades, pass the tests or something similar. But Whitney said something (8) ______. She said that her goal was to make just one good friend.
    When most of the students sat quietly, one student came to Whitney. She reached out her hand and introduced herself. She asked (9) ______ she could be Whitney’s friend. Whitney was surprised and happy. She (10) ______ and reached her hand out, too.
    Their friendship lasted all through the college.

    Michael wanted to make some money to buy a new computer game, but he did not know how. So he went to ask his brother Greg for help.
    "I think you could help to wash Mom's and Dad's cars," Greg said, "Some of the neighbors could pay you to wash theirs, too. It's getting colder and no one wants to wash the cars themselves.”
Michael agreed, but he shivered（哆嗦）at the thought of washing cars and getting wet in cold weather.“Maybe this isn't a good idea."
    "Don't worry,” Greg said. "I have some golf（高尔夫）gloves（手套）.You can use them to wash cars. and I will even help you to  wash the cars."Thank you!"Michael said.
    After spending the day washing cars, Michael got enough money and went to the store with Greg. He found the game he wanted quickly, but as he took it off the shelf he saw a golf video game next to it. He knew Greg loved golf and wouldn't play golf in winter, so he put his game back and decided to buy the golf video game.
    "What are you doing?" Greg asked. "I thought this game would be more fun." said Michael. "We can play it together."

    The world’s most popular musical, The Sound of Music is coming to China!
    Presented by Lunchbox Theatrical Production, we are looking for talented young performers to play the roles of the von Trapp children. This is a fantastic chance to perform with musical theater professionals.
    Since its first performance（演出） on Broadway 55 years ago, The Sound of Music has been singing its way into everyone’s hearts with some of the most popular songs ever performed on the musical theatre stage.
    This June, after a tour around the world with stops including the UK, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, and New Zealand, this show will take to the stage in China. Don’t miss it!
We are looking for young talented performers for the roles of:
    ● Friedrich (1.55m tall, unbroken voice, playing age 14)
    ● Louisa (1.5m tall, undeveloped body, playing age 13)
    ● Kurt (1.45m tall, unbroken voice, playing age 11)
    ● Brigitta (1.4m tall, playing age 9/10)
    ● Martha (1.35m tall, playing age 7)
    ● Gretl (up to 1.2m tall, playing age 6)
    Interview Dates: 16-18/04/2016
    Application Deadline (申请截止日期): 13/04/2016
    Interview Address: National Theatre of China
    Rehearsals(排练): 5 May until performances
    Performances: 15 June--20 June 2016, National Center for the Performing Arts

    A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.
    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.
    Even so, travel isn't difficult. The waterways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can guide you where you want to go.  People in Venice move from place to place by boat.
    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange experiences. One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there’s nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it’s underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.
    Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean (北冰洋) melt( 融化). Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.
Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy’s biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be build under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.

    Some days, don’t you think, "Wouldn’t it be nice if the laundry would just do itself?" Self-cleaning clothes may sound crazy. But Australian researchers have found a way to make something like this possible!
    A team at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, found a way to put special nanostructures (纳米结构) into clothing, which can then clean the clothes. When sunlight hits the nanostructures, they break down the dirt and stains (污渍) that don’t belong on your clothes.
    The nanostructures don’t break down the actual clothing because cotton and the other clothing materials are too strong to be broken down. According to CNN, the researchers cover the clothing in a solution made of silver and copper (铜) nanostructures. All it takes is 40 minutes of sunlight and your clothes will look as good as new.
    So if you spill on yourself during lunch, you can step outside for a walk, and it will be clean by the time you go inside. It not only makes your life easier, but it can also be good for the environment.
    According to the US Department of Energy, the average load of laundry uses about 25 gallons (about 94 liters) of water. Water is a very important resource, so using less of it to wash clothes is better for the environment. But one of the scientists at RMIT University knows more needs to be done. 
    "There’s more work to do before we can start throwing out our washing machines," said Dr Rajesh Ramanathan, "but this is a strong foundation (基础)."
    So what’s the next step? Ramanathan wants to either start selling the solution by itself or convincing (说服) clothing makers to treat the clothing with the solution while clothes are being made.

    David received a parrot for his birthday. The parrot had a poor vocabulary, and many were not (1) ______. David tried hard to change the bird's words and was often saying polite words, (2) ______ soft music, trying anything he could   think of to set a good example. But nothing (3) ______. He shouted at the bird and the bird just got angry and became (4) ______ less polite .Finally，without any hope，David put the bird in the fridge. For a few moments he heard the bird kick and cry (5) ______ in it. Then suddenly it was quiet-not a sound for half a minute. David was frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the fridge door. The parrot quietly (6) ______ out onto David's arm and said，"I believe that I may have made you angry  (7) ______ me about my impolite language and (8) ______. I will try my best at once to be polite. I am really sorry and beg (9) ______ pardon. "
    David was surprised at the bird's change，and he was just to ask what had made such a (10) ______ change when the parrot went on saying, "May I ask what the chicken in the fridge did?"

    If you ears are working well, you hear sounds all the time. You can't switch（关掉）your ears off, even when you are asleep.
Listening
    When you really want to listen to something, you tell brain to focus on that sound. If your ears are healthy and are both working well, they can turn down other sounds while you focus on what you want to hear. If one ear isn’t working ______ the other, they can’t do this as well. If you hearing cells（细胞）have been damaged by too much loud noise or music, what you want to hear can get mixed up and lost in the other sounds around. With healthy ears you can choose what you want to listen to, but you can’t choose what you hear.
Understanding
    Your brain deals with the received sounds and tells you what they mean. Some people have problems understanding what they are hearing because their ears don’t work well and they don’t hear all the sounds. They brain does not get enough information to understand the messages or they may be mixed up.
Selective（选择的）hearing
    Lots of mums and dads think that kids have this “problem”. They think that you select what you are going to hear and what you can’t hear! Many mums say that dads do this, too. In fact, this is something we may all do to try and make our lives a bit easier. Some children wrote what they liked to hear and what they didn’t like to hear.