36、Life is not easy for me. When I was 14, I was quite nervous to talk with others. My classmates often laughed at me. I was sad but could do nothing. Later, something happened. It changed my life.

It was an English speech contest. My mother asked me to take part in it. “Come on, boy. Believe in yourself. You are sure to win.” said Mum. Then Mother and I talked about many different topics. At last, I chose the topic “Believe in yourself”. I tried my best to remember all the sentences and practiced them again and again. Luckily, I did well in the contest. I could hardly believe my ears when the news came that I had won the first prize. I heard the cheers from the teachers and students. They all said “Congratulations!” to me. My mother hugged me and cried excitedly.

From then on, no matter what I do, I try to tell myself to be confident.

根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

1. What was my problem when I was 14?

2. Who helped me to prepare（做准备） the contest?

3. How did I do in the contest?

4. What did my mother do when we hear the exciting news?

5. Confidence（自信心） is very important to us, isn’t it?

31、What is the meaning of the word——culture? Does it mean different festivals? Of course，the important differences between Western and Chinese people do not center around a few festivals．The big difference is the different ways we think：our different opinions to life，friendships，work and so on．Most people would probably agree that the differences between America and China are bigger．Now I will give you some examples about the differences between America and China．

I asked one of my Chinese classmates how she would spend her summer holiday．She told me she loved her mother and missed her，so she would ________．You probably think this is a common（普通的）feeling．But if a young American said that，American people might think she is mentally（精神） sick．

Another difference：you always see lots of children walking，running around and laughing．But in Western cities you almost never see children out alone without their parents．American parents are afraid that their children would be kidnapped（绑架）．

How about at restaurants? In China people at pushed（推动）to drink wine even if they don’t want to drink．In America at least we know that is not very smart（明智的）．

I see some litter in Chinese beautiful parks sometimes．When I was climbing Xiangshan mountain，I saw some litter on it．In the West you seldom see waste in parks．

1．The main differences between Chinese and Western people is that they ________ differently．

2．The writer probably comes from ________．

3．根据文章内容，将第二段第二句补充完整。

4．将文中画线句子翻译成汉语。

5．What is the main idea of the passage?