The sun was falling behind the hills. Andrea （drive） back home to Brockboune. Then she saw old lady standing by the road, with a sign saying "Brockboune" in her hand.

Andrea stopped the car. When the old lady got in, Andrea could see that she was in a long dress and had a hat pulled down low over （she） eyes. She put her bag down onto the floor.

"Do you live in Brockboune?" asked Andrea. "No, dear,"（answer） the old lady in a low voice," I'm just going to visit a friend, but my car won't start， I decided to hitchhike."

The way the lady spoke made Andrea uneasy. Andrea （secret） studied the half-covered face and the arms thick black hairs. Thick black hairs? Andrea's blood froze（凝固）. This wasn't a woman, but a man!

Her heart was beating wildly. Then suddenly, an idea came up to her. She stopped the car. "Oh, no! A child! I think I hit a child!" she shouted. "I didn't see （something）," the old "lady" said. "I'm sure was a child! Could you just get out and have a look?" asked Andrea. The "old lady" slowly opened the car door, leaving her bag inside. As soon as "she" was out of the car, Andrea drove away as soon as possible.

Several minutes （late）, Andrea thought of the "old lady's" bag and opened it carefully. There was only one thing in it —a shining knife.

    A little girl thought she was not as beautiful as other girls, and nobody liked her. So she was always unhappy and didn't like to talk to others. However, one day, her mother gave her  beautiful hair clip（发卡）. When she wore it, she looked much  （pretty）than before. She decided to wear it to school.

On her way to school, she found that everyone who  （see）her smiled at her. Most of her  （schoolmate）said hello to her, and this was the  （one）time they did so. She thought that the beautiful hair clip had brought  （she）them.

In the evening she went back home  （happy）, her mother asked her, "Did you know you  （drop）your hair clip? I found it by the door this morning".

She understood that she hadn't worn the hair clip to school at all.

It is not important  we wear or how we look. The most important is how we think  ourselves.

The willow branch (柳树枝) is a part of the willow tree. In ancient China, willow branches were often used as a parting gift between friends and family  (member). Even today, willow branches  (mention) in many cases as a symbol of saying goodbye. Do you know ?

One reason is that willow trees are strong. They can live  (easy) in any place, wet or dry, north or south. Because of this, giving a willow branch to say goodbye to loved ones is a way to tell them you hope they will get used to  (they) new living environment.

For another reason, the pronunciation for the willow tree "liu (柳)" is similar  the character "liu (留)" in Chinese, which means inviting someone  (stay) —only the tones are different. So  (offer) a willow branch means asking the other party to live for a longer time, even though we know that they must leave.

It's said that this custom became popular during the Han Dynasty. At that time, Baqiao, a bridge in Chang'an, today's Xi'an, was  common place to say goodbye. People often  (stop) there and handed willow branches to people who were leaving.