Chen Bin used to be really shy. He always remained （沉默的）in class. He wasn't （活跃的）at all. He was never （勇敢的）enough to ask questions. Now he has changed a lot. He becomes more （外向的）. What's more, he becomes very （有幽默感的）. He often makes people laugh and happy. Sometimes he dares to give a （发言） in （公众的）. He didn't （过去）to be popular, but now he gets lots of（关注） everywhere he goes.

She's old enough to herself.

, the little boy could draw so well.

If there's one thing I've learned from my years of being a kid, it's that you have ZERO control over your own life.

Ever since school ended. I haven't had anything I've needed to do or anywhere I've needed to be. As long as the air conditioner was working and the TV remote had batteries in it, I was ready for a relaxing summer holiday.

But then, out of the blue, this happened "Pack your bags. We're going on a road trip!" Mom said excitedly.

This isn't the first time Mom has sprung a trip on us without any warning. Last year on the first day of summer, she said we were going to visit Aunt Loretta at the nursing home.

It wasn't my idea of a fun way to kick off the summer. One time when we visited Aunt Loretta, her roommate grasped me and wouldn't let me go until someone gave her a chocolate cookie. Mom kept talking about going to the nursing home for a whole day, which made me worry a lot. But at breakfast the next morning, she told us where we were really going—Disney World.

I was very happy, because I was really worried about spending the whole week at the nursing home. So was Dad. But when my little brother Danny heard about the change, he became very angry. Mom had talked up the Aunt Loretta trip so much that Danny was actually excited about going there.

We ended up putting off our trip to Disney so we could visit Aunt Loretta.

I tried to talk Mom into letting us do something normal, like going to a water park for the day, but she didn't want to hear it. She said that spending a lot of time together in the car would be a "bonding" experience for the whole family.