要求：①根据所提示的要点, 写一篇80-100词的短文，首句已给出，不计入总词数；

②文中不能出现真实姓名、校名、地名等信息。

How I've Changed

    I have changed a lot in the last few years.

    When I was a little boy, I used to be very quiet and didn't have any friend. At that time my parents were very1with their work. I lived with my grandparents in another city. I always thought that2cared about me. Everything changed when I was thirteen years old. A boy gave me a special3a smile.

    It was my4year in the middle school. Everything there was new to me. No one knew who I was. I didn't know them, either. I was too shy to5anyone. Of course I was very lonely. Every time I heard the other students talking and laughing, I felt hurt. I had no friend to talk about my problems. I didn't want my parents to6me.

    Then one day, my classmates were talking7with their friends, and I sat at my desk lonely and unhappy as usual. At that moment, a boy entered the classroom. I didn't know8name. He passed me and,9a word, gave me a friendly smile. I said "Hello" to him. It was the first time that I greeted my10.

    This smile brought me to another world, a warm, bright and friendly world. That smile11my life. I started to talk with the other students and made friends with them. Day by day I became12to everyone in my class. The boy with the most wonderful smile became my best friend.

One day I asked him why he smiled, but he didn't remember that. It didn't matter13all the dark days had gone. I made14progress in my study. I felt my parents' love and began to talk with them. You can imagine how happy they were. Now I believe that the world is what you think it is.15you think you are lonely, you might always be alone. Therefore, smile at the world and it will smile back.

    Mary was afraid of the dark. She thought there were terrible monsters（怪物） in the dark. One day her aunt Valerie came to visit. Valerie was a brave woman. Mary wanted to be like her. So Mary asked her aunt, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

    "A lot of times" answered her aunt. "When I was small, I was afraid of staying in the dark."

    Hearing this, Mary felt better.

    "I know a secret not to be afraid of the dark. Some blind children told it to me."

    "Can you tell me?" asked Mary.

    "Of course! The secret is to change your eyes. Because blind children can't see, and their hands are their eyes. At night, if anything makes you afraid, close your eyes, get out of bed, and try to see what it is. But use your hands as eyes..."

    That night when Mary felt afraid of something in the bedroom, she closed the eyes of her face and opened the eyes of her hands. She went to touch it with her hands...

    The next morning, Mary ran into the kitchen.

There was a big smile on her face. "The monster is so lovely," she cried. "It's my toy dog!"

    My grandfather is eighty years old. He always complains about how fast things have changed, and he often says that life used to be better.

"Families aren't the ones the way they used to be. A lot of families have broken up. If husband and wife have problems with their marriage, they no longer stay together. And mothers used to stay at home and take care of their children, but now everyone is busy working. No one has time to look after children at home.

    And the cars! No one walks anymore; more and more people drive. We used to walk five miles to school on schooldays, even in winter. But now we don't. And in school, children don't have to think anymore. In math class, for example, we used to add, subtract, multiply and divide（加减乘除） using our heads. But now kids don't use their heads anymore；instead, they use calculators（计算器）.

    Most families have computers now. In the past we didn't have computers. We didn't even have lights. My mother used to spend all day cooking in the kitchen. But now we don't often eat home-cooked food.

And people talk less to each other than before. They are too busy to talk, too busy to eat, too busy to think.

    Life used to be simple, but it isn't anymore.

    As a child, I was really afraid of the dark and of getting lost. These fears were very real and caused me some uncomfortable moments.

Maybe it was the strange way things looked and sounded in my own room at night that scared me so much. There was never complete darkness, but always a street light or car lights, which made clothes on the back of a chair take on the shape of a wild animal. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the curtains（窗帘） seem to move when there was no wind. A very low sound in the dark would seem a hundred times louder than in the day. My imagination（想象） would run wild, and my heart would beat fast. I would lie very still so that the "enemy（敌人）" would not discover me.

Another of my childhood fears was that I would get lost, especially on the way home from school. Every morning I got on the school bus right near my home. That was no problem. After school, though, when all the buses were lined up along the street, I was afraid that I would get on the wrong one and be taken to some other strange places. On school or family trips to a park or a museum, I wouldn't let the leaders out of my sight.

    Perhaps one of the worst fears of all I had as a child was that of not being liked or accepted by others. Being popular was so important to me then, and the fear of not being liked was a serious one.

    One of the processes（过程） of growing up is being able to realize and overcome our fears. Understanding the things that scared us as children helps us achieve greater success later in life.