Michelle Obama Michelle La Vaughn Robinson was born (1) ……………… 1964 in Chicago, USA. She has a brother, Craig, who is older than her and the family (2) ……………… in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago. They were a happy family but they didn’t (3) ……………… have a lot of money. (4) ………………, the Robinson children learned two things from their parents: the first was that you must do the best you can in school and the (5) ……………… was that it's more important to work hard than to (6) ……………… a lot of money. So, Michelle used to work hard every day and got a (7) ……………… at Princeton University. She trained as a lawyer and used to work in a Chicago company, (8) ……………… she met her future husband, Barack Obama. They (9) ……………… married in 1992. However, after he became US President, she worked less often on her own career in order to support her husband. Michelle used to be unknown but she has become one of the most (10) ……… women in the world.

Hi Lee, Hope you're well. I'm (1) ……………… I haven't written for a few weeks, but I'm very busy (2) ………………for my exams at the moment. If I pass them all, I'll (3) ……………… a place at university! I'd like to do a degree in art. I (4) ……………… painting and drawing, and can't (5) ……………… doing anything else! My mother often asks me, 'What kind of job will you get if you do a degree in art?' She seems to think I should study something more (6) ………………, but I'm sure I'll manage to find a job after university. My brother's studying business management and he's working hard at the moment too. If he’s lucky, he'll get an (7) ……………… job abroad. Of course, I'll be (8) ………………for him, but I'll miss spending time with him. How are your family? I'm sure that even (9) ……………… you can’t come to Edinburgh this year, you'll be (10) ……………… to visit one day. That'll be so great! Write soon, Barbara

About a year ago, I was walking near a river and I (1) ……………… and fell in. I couldn't swim and I was really frightened. I (2) ……………… lucky because a friend was there and she helped me. So I decided that I needed to learn to swim. To (3) ……………… with, I hated getting (4) ……………… the water, at the swimming pool. My teacher told me to take a shower before getting in, so I was already wet. It was a good idea. After that, I found it (5) ……………… to get into the water I started with very easy (6) ………………, like putting my head underwater. I felt a (7) ……………… stupid. But my teacher made it fun and we laughed a lot. At first, I found it easy to put my head underwater. Learning (8)…………… to breathe out underwater was difficult, and it took a long time. After a while, it got easier and I made good (9) ……………… In the end, I learned how to swim. I'm not a great swimmer, but I'm not afraid of the water like I used to be. And I'm a lot more (10) ……………… near the river now!

Studio Ghibli is one of the most (1) ……………… animation studios in the world. Between 1985 and 2014, it (2)……. over 20 animated (or cartoon) films. Most of the films were (3)…….. by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. Ghibli is famous (4) ……………… using traditional animation methods. Most (5)……. animation is done using computers. However, at Ghibli, every frame (or picture) is drawn (6)…….. hand. There are thousands of frames in a (7) ……………….! First, a script (or story) is (8)…..... and it is used to create a storyboard. Then, artists draw the scenes. Speaking parts are recorded as (9)……. as music. Finally, all the pieces are put (10) ……………… by the director. It's a long process!

Hi Phil, Can you recommend a good restaurant (1) ………………..my Mum’s birthday next month? I know we’d regret it if we chose the (2) ………………..restaurant as last year. It was terrible! There (3) ……………….. so many problems. First, there were not enough waiters (4) ……………….. we had to wait a long time for our food. Then, when it came, the food was too cold to (5) ……………….. There was too much salt in it as well. I think if they used less, the food (6) ………………..e much nicer. There wasn’t any water on the table, so we ordered some drinks, but the waiter forgot our (7) ………… and we had to ask him three times. (8)……………….., I never want to go back there again. Where would you go, if you were me? You would make my Mum very happy if we could find a (9) ……………….. Italian restaurant. Can you email me soon, so I can (10) ……………….. a table? Thanks! Betty

The fish that came back from the dead Do you know what coelacanths are? They are fish (1) ………… lived in the sea a long, long time ago. In fact, scientists (2) ………… to think that they disappeared over 65 million years ago. But one day (3) ………… 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a young woman who (4) …………in a museum in a small town in South Africa, received an (5) …………phone call. It was from a fisherman who was called Captain Hendrik Goosen. Marjorie immediately got a taxi and went straight down to the sea. There, in Captain Goosen's boat, she saw a very strange fish. Marjorie put the fish in the taxi, and took it (6) ………… to the museum. She contacted a friend, James Smith, a science teacher (7) ………… a nearby university, and he immediately told her that it was a coelacanth. It soon became the most (8) ……… fish in the world! Scientists gave it the (9) ………… Latimeria chalumnae, and the place where Marjorie first saw the fish is now known (10) ………… Latimer's Landing.

The whale that saved a woman's life Some years ago, a Chinese zoo organized a special diving (1)…….. They told the people who wanted to enter the competition to dive into a pool where there were some whales. The water (2) ………… 7 metres deep and very cold and they had to stay there for as long as possible without breathing. 26-year-old Yang Yun was a (3) …… diver, but she hadn’t ever dived in such cold, deep (4) ………… before. When Yun had been in the pool for a (5) ………… minutes, she found that she couldn't move her legs. Later, Yun said that she had felt very anxious and afraid (6) ………… that moment. But then a whale called Mila, which had lived at the zoo for some time and was sociable with humans, swam towards Yun. Mila had seen that Yun was in trouble, and wanted to (7) ………… her. When the people around the pool saw Mila pushing Yun out of the water, they (8) ………… that the whale had saved the woman. Yun later told journalists that she had known that there was ‘an incredible force’ pushing her (9) …………, but that she hadn’t realised it was a whale. And she said that she was never going to forget Mila – the whale that saved her (10) …………

Star Trek Star Trek started (1) ………… a TV series in 1966 and lasted for three years. The series is set (2) ………… the 23rd century. It tells the story of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew on the starship USS Enterprise as they explore space and travel to (3)…….. planets. Together, they face (4)……….. and have many strange adventures. The starship Enterprise had a lot of futuristic inventions that seemed amazing in (5) ………… 1960s. For example, there (6) ………… a machine called a 'replicator; which could (7) ………… food and small objects very quickly, and another (8) ………… a 'communicator, which let the crew talk to each other (9)…… when they were away from the starship. Since the 1960s, many different Star Trek TV series and films have been (10)……………

New Species of Lizard Discovered on Menu In 2010, Ngo Van Tri, of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, was (1) ……………….a small village restaurant. While he was eating, he saw a box of lizards on a (2) ……………….bench. He thought they looked unusual, so he (3………………. some pictures to a (4) ………………. in America, L. Lee Grismer. When Grismer saw the pictures, he was sure the lizards were special. He wanted to be the scientist to make the (5) ………………., so he got on a plane to Vietnam. Then he rode on a motorbike for eight hours to get from the airport to the restaurant. (6)………………., unfortunately, while he was travelling, the restaurant owner cooked the lizards and (7) ……………….them to his customers. When Grismer (8)………………., they were all gone. Luckily, a nearby restaurant also had the (9) ………………. kind of lizard on their menu. The (10) ………………. of lizard was new to scientists – but not to the Vietnamese villagers!