The sun was setting and the farm would be closing soon. I dressed our three daughters quickly as my husband started the car. Cutting down our own Christmas tree had been a family tradition.

As we walked through the rows of trees, my youngest daughter Kimberly shouted excitedly, "There it is, the perfect tree!" The other two agreed. My husband and I looked at each other puzzled. It was misshapen and pine needles were missing here and there.

We tried to talk our daughters into changing their minds, but failed. We had to tie the tree to the top of our car and headed home. As we reached our house, Heather jumped out first. Suddenly she shouted, "The tree isn't there!" We thought she was kidding. However, it wasn't there.

The girls were so sad. "We'll get another tree tomorrow, "I said, secretly hoping the new tree would be prettier. But the girls gave us the look that no parent can say no to. We had no choice but to go back and find that tree.

About five minutes into our drive, we saw our tree on the side of the road. Clearly it had been run over by a truck and a big part of it had fallen off, but we took our little broken tree home anyway.

Once at home, we all agreed that the flat broken side would go up against the wall. That night, as we decorated our tree, something magical happened. By the time we were done, I had to admit, it didn't look sad after all. "This is the best tree we ever had. It's perfect!" my second daughter Samantha said excitedly. My husband and I couldn't have agreed more!

Now we always recall that little broken tree! Year by year, we tell the story of that very special Christmas almost twenty-five years ago.

I am sorry to hear that you are worried about the variety of English you have been learning.

Firstly, the differences between British and American English may surprise those  have learned English for years. There (be) a few differences in grammar and various differences in vocabulary. British and American people have no difficulty (understand) each other. They watch films and televisions from each other's countries for (please).

Secondly, there isn't only one British American English. For example, all major cities in the UK have (they) own dialects with different accents from each other. Sometimes these accents can be (hard) to understand for even a British person than some Americans. Also, there are Englishes from many other countries. People who speak these Englishes usually also manage (communicate) with other English speakers without any problems.

All learners need to be able to understand English spoken and written by as many people as possible and they need to be able to speak English so that as many people as possible can understand them. You should concentrate on this goal, not on  to speak "British" or "American" English.

I hope this is (help).

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。

修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

Good teachers are like candles that gives warmth and light to students.

Miss Wang is one of the good teacher of mine. I can still remember that cold morning when I was walking to school alone as usually. A motorbike knocked me down and race off. I was left on the icy ground, cried loudly. It was Miss Wang who sent me to nearest hospital. Besides, she went to the hospital to help me with the missing lessons every day. The moment when I think of it, I'll feel warm. But I'd like to be a good teacher like him in the future.

Dear Dr. Snow,

I'm an eighteen-year-old student and I'm just beginning my first year at college. I graduated from high school, but my grades were not great. All through high school, I had trouble getting up in the morning to get to school on time. I couldn't concentrate in class during the day. My parents tried to force me to sleep for 10 hours every night, but I just couldn't. Now I am worried that I won't be able to succeed in school. I still have trouble staying awake during the day.

At night I feel completely awake so I decided on an approach to getting my work done. I go on the Internet, and I spend hours online. I had a few teachers who put up their class notes online so that I could go over the information I didn't get during the day. I could continue to do this but I feel that it's not normal to be so tired during the day. I didn't have much of a social life with other students when I was in high school. I would like to make friends with people in college. I would like to feel more awake during the day. What should I do?

Yours,

Jonathan

Dear Jonathan,

It might be that your sleep and wake cycles are the opposite of most people's cycles. Most people feel awake in the day and tired at night. You should make an appointment to see your doctor. Ask your doctor to refer you to a specialist who can test you and find out if you have a sleep disorder that makes it difficult to sleep at night. When you know the test results, then together with your doctor and family, you can make some plans to change your sleep cycle.

Yours,

Snow