Last fall I put a bird feeder outside my window. I thought as soon as I hung up, a great ___16____ beautiful birds would come. Days, weeks and months went by; ____17____, no birds.
I asked many people, why? What was I doing ___18____? “Nothing,” most of them replied. “Just ____19____.” So I waited, waited and waited.
I ____20____ off the deck （露台）, I changed the feed, I ___21____ the feeders, and I ____22____ made the cat go out the other door! But ____23___ seemed to work. So --- I waited, “with patience and hope. ”
Two months later, early in the morning, I was ____24____. A beautiful bird had been on the bird feeder. All of a sudden, I saw hundreds upon hundreds of birds____25____ from everywhere.
____26____ a beautiful lesson this living thing taught me! “Patience and hope” will ____27____ the most beautiful things in life.
So I keep hoping and waiting, waiting and ___28____. I will try to use this “little lesson” in ____29____ many other things in my life. I guess, “____30____ is a virtue （美德）” after all.

According to a new Ministry of Education (教育部) survey, student safety has become a big problem. Nearly 50 percent of students say they are worried about robbery on the way to and from school. Now in many big cities in China, some school has taught an unusual lesson: self– protection. Students like this lesson as there are no exams or boring classes. And they can learn how to save lives and know how to stop danger before it really happens.
Chen Haoyu, a teacher at Beijing No.25 Middle School and a self–protection expert, gives young students advice on how to deal with danger.
If you are robbed
Keep calm. If you cannot cry for help or run away, give the robber your money. Try to remember what the robber looks like and tell the police.
If you are in a traffic accident
If you are hurt by a car, take down the car number; if it is a bicycle, try to contact your parents before you let the rider go. This is because you don’t know how seriously you are hurt.
If it is raining hard and there is lightning
Don’t stay in high places and keep away from trees.
When there is a fire
Get away as fast as you can. Put wet things on your body and try and find an exit. Do not take the lift!
If someone is drowning(溺水)
If you can’t swim, don’t get into the water. Cry out for help.
Remember that danger is never as far away as you think. Take care of yourself at all times!
【小题1】The underlined word “contact” means _______.

A lady once wrote a long story. She sent it to a famous editor. After a few weeks the editor   21  the story to her. The lady was   22  . She wrote back to the editor:

 “Dear Sir.

Yesterday you sent back a story of mine. How do you know that the story is not good? You did not read it.   23   I sent you the story, I pasted together pages 18, 19 and 20. This was a  24   to see whether you would read the story. When the story came back yesterday, the pages were   25   pasted together. Is this the way you read all the stories that are sent to you?”

The editor wrote back:

 “Dear Madam,

At breakfast then I have an egg. I don’t have to eat the whole egg in order to discover(发现) that it is bad.”

1.A. gave           B. came back         C. handed          D. returned

2.A. angry          B. happy             C. satisfied       D. glad

3.A. After          B. until             C. Before          D. Since

4.A .lesson         B. test              C. question        D. thing

5.A. already        B. still             C. even            D. yet