I left England for Sydney in September. It was a career move for my husband, and our 20-year-old daughter was feeling adventurous and decided to come, too. However, just before leaving England, my 79-year-old mother suffered a stroke (中风). Being strong and independent, she continued to live at home with the help of social services. But she couldn’t look after the garden. I thought how wonderful it would be if there was an organization offering volunteer help. Friends asked me what I planned to do in Australia, and I told them I would be looking for a volunteer position with a gardening charitable organization. Imagine my surprise when I found just the organization I had been looking for — Easy Care Gardening (ECG)!

There are several reasons why I volunteer for ECG. Firstly, as a newcomer to Australia I meet many people who, like me, volunteer some of their time. We cover a large age range, but all love gardens and helping others.

Secondly, through working with ECG I have been lucky enough to explore Sydney’s North Shore that I might not have had the opportunity to visit otherwise.

Finally, there are all those wonderful people we call “clients (客户)”, but they are more like friends when we visit them often and tend their gardens. What great people I have met, and the stories they have to tell — the family histories, where they come from and the reasons for immigrating to Australia. I find it a privilege to have access to private gardens which, in many cases, have been the joy of their owners for many years. Each one is individual and reflects the character, needs and the history of each family. Indeed, the gardens reflect the multicultural and historical background of Sydney.

   Summertime has always been my absolute favorite time of the year. When I was in school，I just lived for the long summer holidays when I could play with my friends and my sister all day at our ease. Everyone has different associations with summer. For some，they think of the smell of freshly cut grass，for some it's lying on a beach reading a book and for others it might be the taste of lemonade or ice cream. I am so happy to be spending this summer with my family and childhood friends here in the Highlands of Scotland after a year away in France.

One of my favorite things to do in summer is go to see the Highlands. These events happen all across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland over the summer and are a great chance for friends and families to get together and support the local community. A Highland Games event is a big gathering with food stalls（货摊），fair games for children and sports competitions. Many of the sports are very specific to Scottish tradition such as "caber toss". This is a competition in which the competitors attempt to lift a full-length tree log and throw it into the air. The oldest Highland Games of Scotland are now an iconic（象征性的）part of the Scottish summer.

Summer just would not be complete for me without my favorite fruit-strawberries. Here in the Highlands，strawberries are grown as one of the best-sellers over the summer months and one thing I love to do on a warm summer afternoon is to pick some strawberries to eat with cream at the end of the day. If you come here，I think you will fall in love with them.

83-year-old Antonio Vicente has spent the last four decades of his life bringing the jungles of his childhood back to life. Today, his efforts are being rewarded, as the 【小题1】(complete) deserted land has become a beautiful jungle with wildlife again.

It was 1973 when Antonio began his work 【小题2】 a weekend hobby. However, it soon became a permanent way of life. Antonio spends whole days and nights in his jungle, 【小题3】(surround) with rats and foxes and eating banana sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Over the last 20 years, he 【小题4】(plant) about 50,000 trees on his land. As the forest grew, the water returned. Then the animals started making a home there. Today, the forest is alive with the sounds of birds and 【小题5】(insect) living there, and more species are settling in every year. “If you ask me 【小题6】 my family are, I would say all this right here, each one of these that I planted from a seed ,”he said.

Impressive as his lifelong 【小题7】(contribute) to reforestation(重新造林) is, his story is a very rare one. Data shows that nearly 19,770 acres of Brazilian rainforest 【小题8】(destroy) between August 2015 and July 2016. That makes Antonio’s work seem like 【小题9】 drop in the bucket(桶), but just imagine if we had more people like him, who cares 【小题10】(many) about water and clean air than money.

   A large cat arrived at a farm where many mice lived. None of them dared go outside for fear of being _________by the cat.

The mice decided to hold a _________ to find a way of stopping themselves from being in _________.One day，when the cat was out，mice of all ages _________ into the meeting room.

"Let's build a big trap，"one mouse _________.When this idea was _________，another said，"What about poisoning（毒死）her？"But _________ knew where to buy the poison. One young mouse，whose mother had become the cat's food，_________ said，"Let's cut her teeth，so she can do no more harm." But the meeting did not accept his _________.

At last，one mouse，__________than the rest，jumped onto a table. Waving a bell，he called for __________，"Be quiet！Let's __________ this bell to the cat's tail，so we'll always know where she is！We'll have __________ to escape，and the slower and weaker mice will hear her coming and be able to __________！"Hearing the words，everyone got __________ and they congratulated him on his good idea.

"We'll tie it so tightly（牢固地）that it will never __________！"

"She' ll never be able to __________ quietly again! The other day, she suddenly appeared right in front of me! Just imagine..."

However, the wise mouse said, "We must __________ who is going to tie it to her tail." There was not a sound in the room. Nobody was __________ enough to put the plan into action. The meeting ended without any decision made.

It's often very __________ to have bright ideas, but putting them into practice is a more difficult matter.