16．　　I've loved my mother's desk since I was just tall enough to see above the top of it. I liked to stand by the chair (1)       mother sat doing letters. Looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that (2)       must be the most wonderful thing in the world.
　　Years later, during her final illness, mother kept different things (3)       my sister and brother. "But the (4)      ," she said again and again, "it's for Elizabeth."
　　I never saw her be angry or cry. I knew she loved me and she showed it in (5)      . But as a young girl, I wanted heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter. They (6)       happened. And a gulf (深沟) (7)       between us. I was too emotional (易动感情的). But she still stayed (8)      .
　　As years passed, I had my own family. I loved my mother and (9)       her for letting me falling in love with writing. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know if she did forgive (原谅) me. I posted the letter and waited for her answer. (10)       came.
　　My hope turned into disappointment, then little interest and, finally, (11)      —it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn't be sure that the letter had even got to (12)      . I only knew that I had written it.
　　Now the present of her desk told that she was (13)       that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside—a photo of my father and a one-page (14)      , folded and refolded many times. It was surely the one from me.
　　I finally got the answer that she had forgiven me. Mother, you always chose the action that meant much more than (15)      .

17．Lucy: Hi, Jerry. Thanks for coming to my dance show.
Jerry: You performed so well. I really enjoyed it.
Lucy: Thank you!
Jerry: (1)      
Lucy: When I was in primary school.
Jerry: (2)      
Lucy: My mum does. She is a great dancer.
Jerry: I guess you are going to be a great dancer like your mum, right?
Lucy: Maybe. And I want to set up a dance club to teach kids.
Jerry: Wonderful. (3)      
Lucy: I must practice dancing really hard and learn more skills.
Jerry: Wow, when is your next show? I'll come for sure.
Lucy: (4)       I'm glad you like it.
Jerry: May I bring my friends to watch it together?
Lucy: (5)      . Wish you'll have a good time.

18．　　Amy was looking for a gift for her little daughter. She stopped in front of a store full of dolls.
　　"Girls like dolls," she thought as she stepped into the store.
　　Looking around, she saw a grandma doll that has gray hair and wears a pair of glasses. In her mind appeared Joyce, her own mother.
　　When Amy was a little girl, she got her first doll from Joyce for her birthday. Then the second, the third..., the dolls never arrived late, year after year.
　　"Why always a doll?" This question had been in Amy's mind until one day her father gave the answer.
　　Joyce dreamed of having a doll when she was a child herself. Her parents promised one for her fifth birthday. Sadly, they both died in a traffic accident before it arrived. The never-received gift was the most precious (珍贵的) one in her eyes.
　　Recalling her mother's story, Amy got an idea.
　　It was Joyce's 60th birthday. She got a package with a card that read:
Dear Joyce,
　　I forgot to send you a package that you should have received on your fifth birthday, in 1956. The gift inside has aged, but I felt that you might still want to have it.
Love,
Angel of Joy
　　Joyce opened the package and saw a lovely grandma doll. She clasped (紧抱) the doll that she had waited so many years for, with tears running down her face. The doll, given by her "Angel of Joy", made her the happiest "child" in the world.

19．Jane's Restaurant

20．　　Knox is part of a special group of dogs. They go to Westport Academy every Tuesday. Westport is a primary and middle school in Baltimore, Maryland. Their students need help with reading. Their reading test scores have been low. The dogs have an important job there. They listen to students read. The program is run by a group called SPCA which works to protect animals.
　　Organizers at SPCA say reading to animals helps students. It makes them stronger readers. It also makes them more sure of themselves. Katie Flory works for the SPCA. She said when she was a kid, reading out loud was scary for her. "A lot of the kids here feel the same way, " she said. "But with the dogs, they don't have to worry about that. The dogs do not care if students make a mistake. " Soon, similar programs are popping up across the country.
　　In 2010, scientists did a study. They studied students who read to dogs once a week for 10 weeks. The scientists found that the students got better at reading. They also felt better about reading aloud. At first, students said they did not like it. Reading out loud made them nervous. By the end, they described it as fun and cool. They said they felt more relaxed when reading to a dog.
　　The students do not only get to read to dogs. They also learn about how to care for pets. They go on field trips to an animal shelter (救助站). SPCA workers teach them about being kind to animals. Melody Locke is a teacher at Westport. She said she could already see changes because of the program. Her students are more interested in reading now. Also, they are kinder to each other after reading to dogs.
　　The SPCA hopes the program will continue to grow.

21．　　Hair or fur is one thing mammals (哺乳动物) have in common. How thick that hair is changes for each animal. For example, elephant hair is four times thicker than hair from adult humans. Larger animals have thicker hair, says Wen Yang, a materials scientist at the University of California, San Diego.
　　These materials scientists study materials such as metal or plastics. They study what makes the material and how it works. The information helps scientists work out how to make better materials or how to create new materials.
　　Recently, Yang looked at mammal hair. She worked on how it holds up under stress. They looked at hair from eight different mammals, including humans. They reported their work in January 2020 in a scientific journal. Yang's team tested the tensile strength of the hair. Tensile strength is how much you can pull something before it breaks. The scientists thought that thick hair would be stronger. But they were wrong.
　　"Interestingly, we find the thinner hair, actually, is stronger," Yang says.
　　The hair of adult humans was some of the thinnest hair in the study. It was also some of the strongest hair. The thinnest of all hair came from children. But it was even stronger.
　　Hair is made of keratin (角蛋白). It is a type of protein. Proteins form living cells. Keratin makes up hair and fingernails in humans. Keratin is made of two parts. The outside is the cuticle (角质层). It covers the inside, cortex (皮质), which is strong. The scientists used a microscope, a tool that helps us see very small things, to look at how keratin breaks. They found that thicker hair is easy to break. The cortex breaks are clean and straight. Thin hair is different. The cortex breaks are rough (粗糙的) and uneven. It takes more pulling to do this. So the thin hair is stronger than thick hair.

22．
Do you know a game called "Musical Chairs"? It is (1)       to play and most people enjoy it. We put the chairs in a circle. When the music starts, the players walk around the (2)       in the same direction. If the music is fast they should walk quickly. If the music is slow, they should walk (3)      . When the music stops, the players try to get a chair to sit on. (4)       a person cannot sit on a chair, he drops out. Then one chair must be taken away. And (5)       the end, there will be two players and one chair. The one who gets the last chair when the music stops is the winner.

23．
　　When people move into a new place, they often kill animals for food or for safety. Often the number of the animals will drop fast and the balance (平衡) may (1)      .
　　In one part of the USA, for example, the deer (鹿) like to eat a certain kind of wild roses. The mountain lions there eat the deer. The number of deer, mountain lions and wild roses won't change much if people (2)       things as they are. But people killed many mountain lions (3)       the deer. Soon there (4)       so many deer that all the wild roses were eaten up. Then the deer began to eat the green leaves of young trees that were important to the farmers. So the farmers thought of ways to protect their trees. Now the deer have nothing to eat, and many of them (5)      . People do not get the result that they expected but a lesson from nature.

24．　　Napoga is a 12-year-old girl in Ghana (加纳), Africa. It is hard for her family to get clean water. Every morning, she leaves home at half past five to get clean water for her family in a village far away. (1)       She has no time to go to school or to play with her friends. Millions of people in the world are facing the problem of water shortage like Napoga. They can't get enough clean water to keep healthy.
　　Earth Day is April 22. (2)       The water we use is the most important natural resource (自然资源) on the earth. Water covers 70% of the earth's surface. (3)       We can't use it for very many things. Fresh water covers only 1% of the earth's surface.
　　(4)       But that doesn't mean you don't have to worry about water. We all face serious water problems. One of them is water pollution. All kinds of things from cars, factories, farms and homes make our rivers, lakes, and oceans dirty. Polluted water is very bad for people to drink. And dirty water is bad for fish, too. Now, 34% of all kinds of fish are dying out. (5)       First, they pollute the air. Then, when it rains, the rain water comes down and makes our drinking water dirty. Dirty rain, called acid rain, is also bad for plants, animals and buildings.
　　Scientists say that in 30 years, more than half of the people in the world won't have enough clean water. We have to learn how to save more water for ourselves and our children.
A. How do cars and factories make our water dirty?
B. Unfortunately, most of that is sea water.
C. Pollution has led to serious problems of water shortage.
D. But on all other days, we must also remember it.
E. The water Napoga gets from far away is too salty to drink.
F. You probably feel lucky that your life isn't as hard as Napoga's.
G. It takes her six hours to get enough clean water for daily cooking and drinking.

25．假定你是李华，在中秋节到来时，你的新西兰朋友Peter受邀去他的中文老师家做客，他发邮件向你询问中国习俗。请你回复邮件，内容包括：
1. 节日习俗；
2. 时间礼仪；
3. 餐桌礼仪.
注意：
1. 词数100左右，开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 不得出现真实的人名、校名等相关信息。
Dear Peter,
　　How are you? I'm glad to receive your last letter. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
　　I'm looking forward to your reply!
Yours,
Li Hua