Roberta Smoughton’s birthday is less common than others’. She was born (出生) over 24 years ago but she has only had six “real” birthdays. Roberta is a leaper-someone born on February 29th. This date (日期) only appears every four years. “At eight, I started to understand why my birthday was different. My mom told me to choose a day to celebrate: February 28th or March 1st. Of course, I decided to celebrate on the earlier date because I wanted my birthday gift earlier,” she laughed.

Rod Marsden is another leaper. “When it isn’t a leap year, I start to celebrate on February 28th and finish on March 1st. I love being a leaper!” he said.

Graham Gartside is not quite as optimistic (乐观的) as Rod. “It sometimes makes me angry,” he said. “For example, two years ago, a teacher wouldn’t let me bring a cake to school because she said I didn’t have a birthday that year.”

Alexis Doyle is different. “Every leap year I rent (租) a restaurant for the evening, have a big party and invite everyone I know,” Alexis said.

Alexis didn’t want to tell me her real age but she gave me a clue (提示). “At my next party there will be ten candles on the cake,” she said.

A ship was sailing on the sea. A black boy who worked at the end of the ship fell into the sea. He shouted for help, ①但是风是如此的大以致于船上的人听不到他说话。

The ship sailed farther and farther and he felt he was going to sink (下沉). “Maybe I need to give up?” he said to himself. At this time, he thought of the kind and friendly old captain. “No! The captain must be searching for me!” he thought. Then he was full of power and began to swim. Finally the captain found the black boy was missing. So he ordered his ship to return to look for the boy. But someone told the captain, “② Such a long time has passed and he must have been eaten by the shark.” The captain shouted, “Shut up!” Finally, the ship arrived and the captain saved the kid. At the moment of drowning(溺水), the ship arrived and the captain saved the kid.

When the boy woke up, the captain asked, “How can you insist (坚持) for such a long time?” The boy answered, “I knew you would save me! I was very sure. ”

It is a lucky thing to believe a person. Nowadays maybe we wouldn’t like to believe many things in this world. I still believe that there are more kind people than indifferent (冷漠) people. Believe it or not, it depends on you!

Jerry is a world-famous mountain climber. He has climbed many high mountains in the world. Starting in 2015, (A)他和他的朋友们花了两年的时间 on an adventure in South America, covering 7,800 miles. He was even named Adventure of the Year by a famous geography magazine in 2018. ①

Although Jerry had achieved great success, he didn’t feel satisfied. He asked himself, “Is it enough to climb the highest mountains? ②How can I turn my adventures into something that can help the world?”

Jerry learned that scientists need plants, rocks and water samples(样本) from the places far away to do research. (B) ________ scientists can’t get there themselves as such places are hard to reach—only the bravest adventurers can make it. Jerry thought he could do something to help. He then came up with an idea. He set up a team of top adventures to collect samples for scientists. (C) ________ studying the samples, scientists could know more about the earth and find ways to protect it.

For Jerry, this kind of adventure is most satisfying. “Such adventures had made us see life in a different way. (D) Now, being the best climber isn’t important for me. What matters is doing something helpful while climbing the mountains. ③There is still much more I can do,” Jerry said to a newspaper.