He wrote quite a few ______ because he loved to make people laugh.

In order to raise the productivity of this factory, the most important thing is to ______ about some major changes in the management.

His constant attempts to ______ his colleagues' achievement eventually caused his dismissal.

His writing is so ______ that we cannot clarify his ideas on first reading.

The club, ______ 25 years ago, is holding a party for past and present members.

How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years；another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father. Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others' lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren't getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn't mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don't enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between 'I' and 'me'. A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs. One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents.

When he first arrived at university, he was not sure whether he was supposed to scribble ______ every word out of the professor's mouth.

He gradually ______ that her parents had been right and his decision had to be modified.

On a hill 600 feet above the surrounding land, we watch the lines of rain move across the scene, the moon rise over the hills, and the stars appear in the sky. The views invite a long look from a comfortable chair in front of the wooden house. Every window in our wooden house has a view, and the forest and lakes seldom look the same as the hour before. Each look reminds us where we are. There is space for our three boys to play outside, to shoot arrows, collect tree seeds, build earth houses and climb trees. Our kids have learned the names of the trees, and with the names have come familiarity and appreciation. As they tell all who show even a passing interest, maple(枫树)makes the best fighting sticks and white pines are the best climbing trees. The air is clean and fresh. The water from the well has a pleasant taste, and it is perhaps the healthiest water our kids will ever drink. Though they have one glass a day of juice and the rest is water, they never say anything against that. The seasons change just outside the door.We watch the maples turn every shade of yellow and red in the fall and note the poplars'(杨树)putting out the first green leaves of spring. The rainbow smelt fills the local steam as the ice gradually disappears, and the wood frogs start to sing in pools after being frozen for the winter. A family of birds rules our skies and flies over the lake.

Directions: Write a letter based on the following situation. Suppose you are an undergraduate and want to land a job. Write an application letter in which you should include: 1) the job you are applying for; 2) your skills and experience fit for the job; and 3) your expectation of a favorable reply and an interview. You should write no less than 100 words on the ANSWER SHEET. Do not write the address. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter. Use Li Ming instead.

A survey was carried out on death rate of new-born babies in that region, ______ were surprising.

In the kitchen of my mother's houses there has always been a wooden stand(木架)with a small notepad(记事本)and a hole for a pencil. I'm looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can't be the same pencil? The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one. 'I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years.' I say to her, walking bank into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. 'You still use a pencil. Can't you afford a pen?' My mother replies a little sharply. 'It works perfectly well. I've always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in these days.' Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, 'One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on.' This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible(看不到的)exhibits at every meal.

She took this opportunity to repay her friends for their kindness. Otherwise, she ______ to entertain them in her small apartment.

She has always shown a ______ to audience needs and tastes.(sensitive)

Psychologists have been studying specifically the possible link between persistence and health. On the one hand, it seems that persistence increases the chance you'll succeed in the long term, and that personal success is closely linked to well-being. Think of successful people you know personally, and look back over their lives. Have they always been clear about where they're going in their lives, and now that they have arrived, are they happy and healthy? Some are, perhaps.

______ is reported that there will be a storm this afternoon.

They played the music of Mozart at a slow ______.

The waste of soil by washing is among the most dangerous of all wastes ______ progress in the United States.

The old man is only the ______ head of the business; his daughter makes all the decisions.

'May I stop work a little earlier tonight?' 'No, you ______.'