Are you ready for the coming festive season? What gifts will you give to make your friends feel special? Here teenagers share their ideas for gifts and look forward to the ones they'll get.

Hu Ziwei, 15, Nanjing Foreign Language School

My class will have a gift exchange party, during which we will put on a small talent show. Many of us had our gifts ready a week ago. I believe that the boys will give magic tools, stationary （文具） or sweets, while girls are likely to give dolls or mobile accessories （挂件）.

The biggest fun about these parties is not knowing from whom you'll receive a gift and who will receive your gifts. The computer will decide everything! Our teacher hopes the activity will help us get to know each other better – you see, we've only known each other for three months. I'm looking forward to my surprise gift!

Liu Wei, 17,Beijing No 8 High School

Although my birthday was in November, I'll get a special birthday gift from my classmates this week. A．collective （集体的） birthday party is scheduled for all the students who had birthdays fall in the last six months.

My classroom has been decorated with colorful ribbons and Christmas balls. Someone told me that there will be a huge birthday cake and that a personalized gift sent with best wishes from other students is being prepared for each birthday student. I'm sure we will treasure this event and I'm so looking forward to the big moment!

Yin Zhaohua, 19, Jixi No 1 High School in Heilongjiang

I'm still enjoying the gifts I received on Christmas Eve. Nowadays traditional greeting cards are being replaced with apples and sweets, which symbolize （象征） hope for the year ahead. I got more than 20 apples this Christmas, which means I sent a similar number of apples out. I think apples are healthier, more environmentally and friendly gifts than cards sent through the post.

Wu Shang, 16, Mianyang High School in Sichuan

These last two weeks have been filled with every kind of exam so the atmosphere（气氛） on campus is not at all like a holiday. I miss the days when I got handwritten cards.

In fact, I haven't received or sent holiday cards since the Internet became popular. It's so fast and easy to send an e-card. Also, text messages are fun and convenient （方便的）. I'll send warm hugs to my best friends on New Year's D．ay to let them know that I'll be always there for them.

1. Where is Yin Zhaohua from?

A．He is from the east of China                   B．He is from the capital of China

C．He is from the north of China                  D．He is from the west of China

2. Before the gift exchange party, Hu Ziwei knows _____________

A．from whom she'll receive a gift           B．who will receive her gifts.

C．what gift she will send to her classmates    D．that she may get a magic tool

3. In Liu Wei’s classroom we can’t see _____________ during the collective birthday party.

A．some colorful ribbons                              B．some Christmas balls

C．a huge birthday cake                               D．some mobile accessories

4. On New Year’s D．ay Wu Shang will _____________.

A．have an important exam                   B．send some handwritten cards

C．meet and hug her best friends warmly       D．send some text messages to her friends

5. From the passage we can infer _____________

A．the kids share the same ideas about gifts  

B．the kids will receive and send expensive gifts

C．apples are sent as gifts to keep young kids healthy

D．the kids are trying to show their wishes in different ways

Mary’s dime（一毛钱）
It was Sunday afternoon. I decided to clean up the room nicely so that my parents would feel   1  when they returned from a long ride! Then, I sat in the room, having nothing to do.
　　 What else could I do? Then, with no reason, I suddenly  2  the pale face of that little beggar(乞丐) girl. I could see the glad light   3  her eyes when I put the dime in her little dirty hand.
　　  How much I  4  that dime, too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs, but those sugar apples looked so attractive, and were so   5  — only a dime a piece — that I wanted to have one.
　　  I could imagine the little girl stood there in front of the  6  in her old dirty dress, looking at the   7  that were put all in a row in the window. I wonder what I should say, “Little girl, what do you want?” I gently asked. She felt   8  and looked straight at me, just as if（似乎）nobody had spoken so   9  to her before. She realized what I had meant, so she said seriously and sadly. “I was thinking how good one of those delicious hamburgers would  10 . I haven’t had anything to eat today.”
　　 Now I thought to myself, “Mary Williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good lunch today,   11  this poor girl has not had a mouthful yet. You can give her your  12 . She needs it a great deal more than you do.”
　　 I could not run away from that little girl’s sad,  13  look — so I dropped the dime right into her hand. How  14  the girl was! I am so glad I gave her the dime,  15  I had to go without the apple lying there in the window.

Mary’s dime（一毛钱）

It was Sunday afternoon. I decided to clean up the room nicely so that my parents would feel   1  when they returned from a long ride! Then, I sat in the room, having nothing to do.

　　 What else could I do? Then, with no reason, I suddenly  2  the pale face of that little beggar(乞丐) girl. I could see the glad light   3  her eyes when I put the dime in her little dirty hand.

　　  How much I  4  that dime, too! Grandpa gave it to me a whole month ago, and I had kept it ever since in my red box upstairs, but those sugar apples looked so attractive, and were so   5  — only a dime a piece — that I wanted to have one.

　　  I could imagine the little girl stood there in front of the  6  in her old dirty dress, looking at the   7  that were put all in a row in the window. I wonder what I should say, “Little girl, what do you want?” I gently asked. She felt   8  and looked straight at me, just as if（似乎）nobody had spoken so   9  to her before. She realized what I had meant, so she said seriously and sadly. “I was thinking how good one of those delicious hamburgers would  10 . I haven’t had anything to eat today.”

　　 Now I thought to myself, “Mary Williams, you have had a good breakfast and a good lunch today,   11  this poor girl has not had a mouthful yet. You can give her your  12 . She needs it a great deal more than you do.”

　　 I could not run away from that little girl’s sad,  13  look — so I dropped the dime right into her hand. How  14  the girl was! I am so glad I gave her the dime,  15  I had to go without the apple lying there in the window.

1.                A．disturbed       B．unhappy        C．satisfied  D．interested

2.                A．saw            B．remembered    C．forgot    D．described

3.                A．filling          B．protecting       C．attracting D．touching

4.                A．hated          B．loved          C．missed   D．noticed

5.                A．valuable        B．meaningful      C．expensive D．cheap

6.                A．market         B．library          C．store D．bookshop

7.                A．dresses         B．magazines       C．books    D．candies

8.                A．surprised       B．excited         C．pleased   D．worried

9.                A．happily         B．kindly          C．angrily   D．sadly

10.               A．taste           B．sound          C．feel  D．smell

11.               A．since          B．so             C．and  D．but

12.               A．apple          B．hamburger      C．dime D．candy

13.               A．proud          B．angry          C．calm  D．hungry

14.               A．grateful        B．unlucky        C．lonely D．friendly

15.               A．unless         B．if              C．though    D．because