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Modern life is impossible without traveling. The fastest way of traveling is by air. With a modern airliner you can travel in one day to places which it took a month or more to get to a hundred years ago. Traveling by train is slower than by air, but it has its advantages . You can see the country you are traveling through. Modern trains have comfortable seats and dining cars. _ make even the longest journey enjoyable. Some people prefer to travel by sea when possible. There are large liners and river boats. You can visit many other countries and different places. Traveling by sea is a very pleasant way to spend a holiday. Many people like to travel by car. You can make your own timetable . You can travel three or four hundredmiles or only fifty or one hundred miles a day, just as you like. You can stop wherever you wish where there is something interesting to see, at a good restaurant where you can enjoy a good meal, or at a hotel to spend the night. That is why traveling by car is a popular pleasure trips, while people usually take a train or a plane when they are traveling on business.

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Do you like drinking Coke? As a symbol of American culture, Coca-Cola is liked by many people, especially young people all around the world. But from now on, perhaps it will be hard for students in the US to get it on campus. A new agreement will end almost all sales of high-sugar fizzy drinks in US schools. The agreement allows only unsweetened juice, low-fat milk and water in primary and middle school vending machines and cafeterias. Former American president Bill Clinton helped the American Heart Association and the beverage industry to come up with the agreement. He suffered from a weight problem and has had a heart operation since leaving the White House. He takes the agreement as "a bold step forward in the struggle to help 35 million young people lead healthier lives". Rising childhood obesity has become a big problem in America. A federal report noted that obesity has _ among teenagers in the past 25 years. It called for new limits on the marketing of junk food to children. Soda is a particular target because of its caloric content and popularity among children. Britain has already taken similar steps to fight obesity. A recent study shows that people in the UK are much healthier than the people in the US. However, it's better late than never. Now American schools are trying to make new rules to guide the students to choose healthy drinks. American schools say goodbye to Coca-Cola.

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It was over two months before Christmas when 9-year-old Mary told her father and me that she wanted a new bike. Her old Barbi bike was too old and it often needed repairing. As Christmas came nearer; her dream for a bike seemed to disappear; for she didn't mention it again. Then much to our surprise; on December 24th; she said that she really wanted a bike as the Christmas present more than anything else. We didn't know what to do. It was too late. We were busy with Christmas dinner and packing presents for our children; parents and also friends till midnight. So there was no time to buy the "right bike" for our little girl. Thinking that we might in this way make our child unhappy on Christmas; we felt _ and sad. Suddenly my husband came up with an idea. "What if I make a little bike out of the clay and write a note that she could trade in the model bike for a real one after Christmas?" So he spent the next 5 hours working on a small clay bike. On Christmas morning; we were very excited and waited for Mary to open the little box with the beautiful red and white bike and the note. She opened the box and read the note loudly. She looked at me and said; "So; does this mean I can trade in this bike for a real one?" Smiling; I said; "yes." Mary had tears in her eyes when she replied; "I would never trade in this beautiful bike that Daddy made for me. I prefer to keep it rather than get a real one." At that moment; we thought we would have moved the god to buy her every bike on earth.

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Found: A black pen is in the library. Is it yours? I am Lucy. E-mail me at lucy556@hotmail.com. Lost: I am Anna. I lost my computer game. It is blue. My telephone number is 471-4295. Call me! Thanks! Lisa, Is this your dictionary? Your name is on it. I found it in Classroom 6A. Tom Found: I found a ring. It is nice. Please e-mail me at frank996@gmail.com. Frank

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Aunt Polly had told Tom to paint the whole fence in front of the house. He thought of the other boys out for the day enjoying themselves and he felt very unhappy. Then he had an idea! He picked up the brush and started painting slowly and carefully. Soon, his friend Ben Rogers appeared, eating an apple. Tom pretended not to see him. "Tom!" Ben said. "Why are you working?" "Oh, it's you, Ben,"Tom said, "I didn't notice you." "I'm gong for a swim," Ben said, "but you don't' want to come. You want to work, don't you? It's much nicer!" Ben laughed loudly. Tom looked seriously at Ben and said. "What is work? What do you call work?" "Isn't that work?" Ben asked. "Well, no. Does a boy get the _ to paint a fence every day? You've never painted a fence, have you? Auntie says I have to do it with great care!' "Pleas, Tom. Let me do a little," said Ben. "No, Ben. If you do, you'll do it wrong. You can't paint very well. If it was the back fence wouldn't mind, but it isn't." "I won't do it wrong. I'll be really careful. I'll give you my apple." Tom gave him the brush and paint with a sad face, but in his heart he was glad, His trick had worked. After Ben got tired and left, other boys came along and Tom said the same things to them. Soon, the whole fence was painted white, but not by Tom. He felt very clever because he had discovered something important about the way people are. People only want what they can't have or want to do what they shouldn't do.

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When I was a child, I often dreamed of the time when I could leave home and escape to the city. We lived on a farm and, in the winter especially, we were quite cut off from the outside world. As soon as I left school, I packed my bags and moved to the capital. However, I soon discovered that city life has its problems too. One big disadvantage is money---it costs so much to go out, not to mention basics like food and housing. Another disadvantage is pollution. I suffer from asthma , and at times the air is so bad that I am afraid to go outside. Then there is the problem of travelling round. Although I have a car, I seldom use it because of the traffic jams. One choice is to go by bicycle, but that can be quite dangerous. Of course there are advantages. First, there is so much to do in the city, whatever your tastes in culture or entertainment. Besides, there are wonderful jobs and greater chances of moving to a more important job or position. Finally, if you like shopping, the variety of goods is very surprising---and, what is more, shops are often only a short walk away. Is life better then, in the city? Perhaps it is, when you are in your teens or twenties. However, as you get older, and especially if you have small children, the peace of the countryside may seem better. I certainly hope to move back there soon.

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Three rich ladies met every day by the river. They sat there and talked the whole day. Once the three ladies quarreled . One of them said. "Look, how white and beautiful my hands are!" Another one said, "My hands are more beautiful." The third one said, "Mine are the most beautiful ones." An old beggar woman came up to them. "Beautiful ladies," she said, "I'm hungry. Please give me something to eat." But the three ladies gave her nothing. They only asked, "Tell me, old woman, which one of us has the most beautiful hands?" A peasant woman was also sitting by the river. She was poor and her hands were rough because of hard work. The old woman came up to her and said, "I'm hungry. Please give me something to eat." The peasant woman took out her only cake she had and gave her a half. The old woman ate it and drank some water. Then she took the peasant woman by the hand, brought her before the rich ladies and said, "Now, I shall tell you whose hands are the most beautiful. The hands of the poor peasant woman are rough because of work, but they give us food; they are far more beautiful than your hands which have done nothing."

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Who would win in a competition to memorize numbers, a chimp or a teenager? The teenager? Think again. Scientists have proved that chimps perform better than human beings when it comes to this kind of problem. We may have to rethink what we believe about human memory. Memory is our ability to learn something, save it and recall it when needed. Our memories are important to our sense of self, our personalities, and our ability to understand the world. Scientists say that there are different types of memory. There is short-term memory and long-term memory. Your short-term memory saves information for a few seconds or a few minutes. For example, the time it takes to compare the prices of a few items in a store. Long-term memory involves the information you try hard to keep, because it's meaningful to you (an example is data about family and friends. ) And then there is visual memory and sound memory. But these are not hard and fast: scientists argue a lot about the nature of memory. Scientists have also found that people memorize things in different ways. Some memorize better with the help of pictures. Others are helped more by sounds. One thing's for sure. If you can combine different kinds of memory together, you will remember a lot! So why not try pictures with English words? At the same time listen to recordings of the same group of words. It may help when it comes to memorizing it. Imagination and association can be useful too. By imagination scientists mean picturing a word in your mind. Association means relating the word to something you already know.

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Language students often think they have memory problems. They worry because they can't remember words. In fact, the problem usually isn't with their memory. The problem is with how they study. To remember words better, you need to understand how memory works. There are two kinds of memory: short-term and long-term. When you see, hear, or read something, it goes first into short-term memory. But short-term memory lasts for only a few seconds. You will only remember something longer if it goes into long-term memory. Y _ . How can you do this with vocabulary? The answer is to work with the word and think about the word in new ways. You can do this by writing new sentences that include it. Even better, you can invent a little story about the word, with people or places that you know. Another way is to make a picture in your mind with the word. For example, if the word is height, you can think of the tallest person you know and try to guess his or her height. All of these activities are good ways to think about words. They make the meaning of words stronger in your long-term memory. And they give a way to find a word when you need it.

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When we can see well, we do not think about our eyes often: It is only when we cannot see perfectly that we come to see how important our eyes are. People who are nearsighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Many people who do a lot of close work, such as writing and reading, become nearsighted. Then they have to wear glasses in order to see distant things clearly. People who are farsighted face just the opposite problem. They can see things that are far away, but they have difficulty reading a book if they don't hold it at arm's length. If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses too. Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. This, too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people's eyes become cloudy because of cataracts . Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to operate on the cataracts and remove them. When night falls, colors become fainter to the eyes and finally disappear. After your eyes have grown used to the dark, you can see better if you use the side of your eyes rather than the centers. Sometimes, after dark, you see a small thing to one side of you. It seems to disappear if you turn your head in its direction. This is because when you turn your head, you are looking at the thing too directly. Men on guard duty sometimes think they see something moving to one side of them. When they turn to look straight at it, they cannot see it anymore, and they believe they were mistaken. However, this mistake happens because the center of the eye, which is very sensitive in daylight, is not as sensitive as the sides of the eye after dark,

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"Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else can make you happier," the researchers from a team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School reported. Their experiments on 600 volunteers in the US showed people were feeling happier when they spent money on others. The team asked their 600 volunteers about their income ,their daily costs, gifts for others and donations to charity. "No matter how much money each person made, those who spent money on others could get greater happiness than those who spent money only on themselves," Dunn said. Dunn's team also surveyed 16 workers at a company in Boston after they received an award of between $3,000 and $8,000. "Of course they felt happy after receiving the awards," they wrote in their report. "But when they gave the people in need $5, they were happier." "The findings showed that as little as $5 could be enough to produce happiness on a whole day," Dunn said.

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As a music teacher for twenty-seven years.I have always known that music touches the soul .It can break through all kinds of barriers to reach students in a very special way.It can be the means for each child to find their light. A few years ago 1 was blessed with the chance to teach pre.school students one afternoon a week.One of my most memorable students was Vanessa.She was five years old.had trouble walking and could not speak.We mostly sat on the floor for our music lessons and Vanessa 1iked to sit on my lap.One of her favorite songs was John the Rabbit.It was a call and response song where I sang the call and the students clapped two tirues while singing the repeating phrase"Oh yes".Vanessa 1iked to put her hands together with mine and clap with me.We performed that song during every class Vanessa and l clapping together.She never said or sang a word. One day late in the school year when the song was finished,Vanessa turned around,looked at me in the eye,clapped her tiny hands two times and said the words"Oh yes!"I opened my mouth and could not speak.Through music we had made a connection. Several years later l came across Vanessa on the street in town. I stopped my car and waved to say hello.She waved back with a big smile on her face and then clapped her hands two times mimicking the song we had performed in our music class.This lovely little girl through her connection with music left an impression on me that will last forever, Every child has the ability to learn and grow.1t is up to us educators to discover the way to reach each and every one of our students. we all must find each child's light.

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In the UK. Saturday evenings have always been a popular time for families to watch television together. One of the most popular programme _ is the talent show, partly because people of all ages are interested in it. Early shows, like Opportunity Knocks (1965-1978), required people to vote for their favorite acts and performers, although in those days voting was done by postcard instead of by telephone, text, or over the Internet. Today, the success of television talent shows has reached a new level. Here are Ihe UK's top three TV talent shows: The X Factor In this wonderful singing competition, performers have to face a celebrity judge panel before the public vote. Many excellent singers became popular because of it. The show is now made all over the world, from China to Colombia. Strictly Come Dancing--The programme is so fantastic that it attracts many celebrities. They team up with professional dancers and come to the dance floor to win the title of Strictly Come Dancing Champion. Britain's Got Talent -- In this modern-day version of Opportunity Knocks, the public can go and choose from many kinds of acts, from dancing dogs to ice skating. The prize is to perform for the Queen in the Royal Variety of Performance.

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Many hospitals have blood banks. In these banks, blood of all types is stored. When blood is needed, it is taken from the bank. Healthy people then give blood to the bank to replace the blood that is used. Blood can be kept in the fridge for about three weeks with a kind of chemical. When people lose much of their blood because of operations or accidents, they may need transfusions . Some people may need transfusions because of illness. Sometimes only a part of the blood is used for transfusions. Plasma , the liquid part of the blood , may be given alone. Transfusions of plasma are often given when people have been badly burned. When a person gets a transfusion, he gets blood of the same type as his. Or there may be a bad reaction . To make it safer, before a transfusion is given, the blood to be used must be tested with the blood of the person who is to receive it. This testing is called cross matching of the blood. Oswald Robertson, an American doctor, was the first one to give transfusions. He used blood that had been stored for some time to help wounded soldiers in 1918 in World War One.

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This is a mini bookstore. There are ten books about sports. They are on Shelf A. There are nine books about History. They are on Shelf B. There are eleven books about games. They are on Shelf C. There are fifteen books about English. They are on Shelf D. How many books are there on Shelf A,B,C and D? Do you know? ,. 1-4,5.

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Lu Xun is one of the greatest Chinese writers of the 20thcentury. Today, many of his writings are included in school textbooks and his works are read by millions around the world. Born in 1881 to rich family, Lu Xun had a happy childhood. In 1893, however, his grandfather was put into prison for taking money. At the same time, his father became seriously ill. From that time on, his family were no longer accepted by their relatives and friends. These early experiences greatly influenced his writing. By the time Lu Xun arrived in Nanjing to study at a college in 1899, he already believed that Chinese government had to change and become modern. In 1902 he went to study in Japan. There he began writing articles for some Chinese student magazines. He showed a gift for writing and translating and he even wrote several books, though none was popular. He returned to China in 1909 because he was in need of money. After working for a few years as a teacher in Beijing, Lu Xun again returned to writing. In 1918, he wrote his famous short story Diary of a Madman. It was the first Chinese novel using the everyday language that people spoke, which helped make it a great success. _ , together with his novel The True Story of Ah Q(1921), made Lu Xun a leading Chinese writer. Though successful, Lu Xun still worried greatly about China's future. In 1926, he moved to Shanghai and gave up writing stories. He only wrote articles which called on the people to fight against the government. For this, the government stopped him publishing any more books. He was made to write his articles using false names . Since his death in 1936, Lu Xun's importance and influence have grown. More and more people have become interested in reading and studying his works.

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Nancy would like to take part in a fancy-dress party . She had to go to the party with her friends because her husband has been to another city to go on a business trip. Later that night, she was busy in dressing up herself as a ghost, including putting on masks and some special costumes. After finishing it, she went downstairs to look at herself in the mirror. Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. She knew that it must be the baker . She had told him to come straight in if ever she failed to open the door and to leave the bread on the kitchen table. Not wanting to frighten the poor man, Nancy quickly hid in the storeroom under the stairs. To her surprise, it was her husband who changed his plan and came back home 2 days earlier. The husband called his wife's name happily and looked for her all around. Nancy was so excited that she ran to her husband without realizing she was a ghost at that moment. But it was too late. Her husband let out a cry and jumped back several steps. Then he lost his sense and lay on the ground.

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You have waited 45 minutes for the valuable 10 minutes' break. But when the bell for the next class rings, you can't believe how quickly time has passed. If you have this experience, you'll know how time flies when you are having fun and _ when you are bored. Now scientists have come up with a reason why this happens. They have found that the brain changes its way to work according to how we direct our attention to a task. When we are bored, we pay more attention to how time is passing. And this makes our brains think the clock is ticking more slowly. Recently some researchers who want to understand the conditions carried out an experiment. In the experiment, twelve volunteers watched a picture while researchers monitored their brain activity. The volunteers were told to first notice how long a picture appeared, then the color of the picture, and thirdly, study the both. The results showed that the brain was more active when the volunteers paid attention to more subjects. It is thought that if the brain is busy noticing many aspects of a task, it has to spread its resources, and pays less attention to the clock. Therefore, time seems to go quickly. If the brain is not so active, it spends its full energy on the passing of time. As a result, time seems to move slowly. Next time you feel bored in class, perhaps you should concentrate on what the teacher is saying.

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The first Thanksgiving was in 1621. Each year, we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. What do American children think of Thanksgiving? This is what some of them wrote. Thanksgiving is a holiday to say "Thank you". It means eating turkey and having a special party with your family. Thanksgiving is giving thanks to people that help you. I think it is a special holiday. You give thanks to your family and your friends. Annie Lots of people have done things for me that I like. Lots of people like to make me happy, like my mum. Many people have done things for me and make sure I am all right. I am pleased that people care about me. Most people I know give me money or presents at Thanksgiving. Sometimes people take me to visit places or ask me to their houses. I like to do nice things for other people. Also I hope people help me when I get old. Jeremy Once we were at my grandparents' house during Thanksgiving and we went to the store to buy a turkey, but they didn't have any, so we had to buy a live one. When we went out to kill it, it had gone! There was nothing left except feathers . That year we had to eat chicken instead of turkey. Eleanor I'm thankful for having a really good mum who looks after me so well and having good teachers and especially Ms. McMillan because she helps to try new things. I love all my family. I enjoy Thanksgiving because I eat turkey with all my family and I love it. Ryan

middle4117.txt

Mary had a nice summer vacation last year. She went to Hawaii in July. Mary likes fruits, and the Hawaiian bananas and oranges were great. The weather was very fine, but sometimes it rained heavily. On Monday she went to the museum. It was an interesting place and not very crowded . On Tuesday she went to the mountains. On Wednesday she visited an old friend. They went to the movies in the evening. The movie was so funny that they laughed again and again. On vacation she felt like she she was a flying bird! The vacation cost her about 600 dollars, but Mary had a fun time.

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Look at this picture! It's a picture of a room. What can you see in the picture? I can see an apple on the table. Can you see an English book on the table? No, I can't. Where is it? It's in the schoolbag! The schoolbag is on the chair next to the bed. What is next to the table? Oh, it's a bookcase. Some books are in it. Look! What's that under the chair? It's a cat. A ball is beside the cat. The ball is mine. It is a volleyball. I like playing volleyball very much.

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Christopher Reeve was born in September, 1952. He was in his first school play when he was eight and he started to act in TV shows and films while he was still in college. He made many successful films and TV shows but he is most famous for his Superman films. Unfortunately, disaster came in 1995 when he fell from his horse and broke his back. The doctors did not expect him to live. However, he made amazing progress. At first, he couldn't breathe without a machine, but he learnt to breathe on his own. He would never walk again but he started a new life with great courage. The second year after his accident, Christopher returned to film making. He also raised a lot of money to promote medical research into back injuries. He made speeches all over the USA about his experiences. This not only drew public attention to research into back injuries but also encouraged a lot of people living with all kinds of problems. From their home, Christopher and his wife Dana spoke about their life after the accident. Could you say something about your life after the accident? "Four days after the accident, I came to understand my situation. The doctors said I was not going to pull through. Those days were terrible. But my wife Dana said, "You are still you and I love you. Be confident in yourself." And that saved my life. Since that moment I have never thought of giving up." What do you think of your family? "Great! Dana is so wonderful.We have always got on really well.My parents often quarreled with each other when I was young.But they've got closer since the accident." How do you spend your time? "I spend most of my time on charity work to improve the life for all disabled people.I think they need my help. With the progress of new medical research, I'm confident that people like me would be able to walk again one day. So you can see _ !" Christopher Reeve died on October 10, 2004. But people all over the world will always remember him as a superhero.

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People at home keep asking me, "Is it hard to learn Chinese? Why have you learned it so well?" Well, there's one thing that makes Chinese easy to learn: there are so many people to talk to. You've probably heard that it's the most spoken language. Today it's also one of the most written languages online. And with so many Chinese people interested in learning English, it couldn't be easier to find a friend for language learning. You just have to know where to look for them. The really good place to look for them is QQ. QQ has the same status in China as AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) does in the US. It is reported that at any moment, up to 9,000,000 people are using QQ. They're at work, or in a web cafe , or at home, and the information of the users can be found. If you sign on with your address set to "abroad", you'll soon find that many thousands of them are interested in speaking to you! This is a great way for you to learn Chinese, and for them to learn English. I think that it's a very interesting way of cultural contact , too, for ordinary people from around the world to be able to have one-on-one contact.

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A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life-raft in the seas of Central America after their boat sank. Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their boat, Simony, they met some whales. "They started to hit the side of the boat," said Bill, "and then suddenly we heard water." Two minutes later, the boat was sinking. They jumped into the life-raft and watched the boat go under the water. For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits, and bottles of water. They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water -- two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw . Then the line broke. "So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands." About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life-raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn't stand up. So the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.

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"What's the name of our neighbor? I can't remember right now. " Have you ever heard your grandparents ask questions like this sometimes? Usually, we think that older people's memory becomes bad because their brains get weak. But now a team of scientists at the University of Tubingen in Germany has a new idea.[ "The human brain works slower in old age," says Michael Ramscar, the lead scientist. "But only because they have stored more information overtime. " The findings are based on a series of computer simulations of learning and memory. Scientists let the computers read a certain amount of words and learn new things each day. When the computer "reads" only so much, its performance on cognitive tests is similar of a young adult. But if the computer learns the experiences we might encounter over a lifetime, its performance is similar to that of an older adult. Often it is slower, but not because its processing capacity has declined. Rather, increased "experience" has caused the computer's database to grow, giving it more data to process-which takes time. This is similar to old people. Imagine a person knows two people's birthdays. Another person knows the birthdays of 2000 people, but can only match the right person to the right birthday nine times out of 10. Can you say the first person has a better memory than the second person?

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There was once a boy in a village. Whenever he asked people to do things, no one would listen to him. He was sad. So he asked a wizard to solve the problem by using magic. The old wizard tried a lot of spells , but it didn't work. A young man heard about the problem. He went to the boy and said that he knew the solution. He gave the boy two small pieces of paper. "These are two spells, my boy. Use the first before you ask others to do something, and use the second when they have done it. A smile is also necessary, "the young man said. The boy was happy and tried to use the spells. When he asked people to do something, he said "Please" before his words and "Thank you"after they had done it. People were very surprised that the boy could be polite. Soon, they became happy to do what the boy asked them to do. The wizard was surprised, and asked the young man about the spells. "It's not magic. When I was a child, my teacher told me that with good _ you could get anything you want. And he was right. The boy only needed good manners to get what he wanted."

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Mrs Green had a young dog which was very clever. It often helped her buy a newspaper. One winter evening, the dog went out to play. It was snowing heavily. Soon the ground became white. " The dog never loses his way. Where is he now?" Mrs Green thought. She shouted his name. But still the dog didn't come back. So she telephoned the police and told them a lot about her dog. " My dog is very clever. He always goes out and comes back soon. Sometimes he plays with his friend, Mickey. He can buy a newspaper. _ ." The policeman was tired and said, " I think you'd better put your telephone down. Maybe _ is trying to telephone you now."

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Peter Owen has been making wigs since the 1980s. He has made wigs for the stars of more than seventy movies, including Tom Hanks inPhiladelphia, Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow, and Nicole Kidman in The Others. One of his biggest jobs so far has been designing the hair and make-up for the three Lord of the Rings movies. He had just six weeks to design and make more than a hundred wigs, each one a different style, colour, shape and length. The hair and make-up in a movie are just as important as the costumes or the sets. Over the years, Peter has made actors look older, younger, healthy and sick. For one movie he even made a female actor look like a man!"What people don't realize about wigs is that we are not always making people more beautiful," he says. "Often we are covering up beauty and making them look ordinary." All Peter's wigs are hand-made using human hair, so they look as real as possible. This also makes them very expensive--between US$4,500 and US$12,500 each! He knows he's done a good job when people don't realize the star of the movie is wearing a wig. So he was pleased when one newspaper said that Nicole Kidman had dyed her hair dark brown for a movie. "It was a wig and no one knew that," he says.

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Ron loved basketball. One afternoon on his way to a basketball game, he was walking and dreaming about playing college basketball the following year. As Ron was walking to the game, a car hit him so hard that he was thrown three feet into the air. Ron woke up in a hospital room. When he learned that both his legs were broken, he realized his college basketball dreams were over. Ron did what the doctors told him, but his progress was slow. When he left the hospital, Ron was sent to a health center for physical treatment. A week after he arrived there, he met Sunny. Sunny was a coach.His legs were hurt paralysed from a skiing accident. Even though he couldn't move his legs, Sunny coached of a basketball team called the Suns. Everybody on the team played from a wheelchair. Sunny invited Tony to join the game. Tony played badly, but for the first time since the accident, he stopped feeling sorry for himself. After becoming a part of the Suns, Ron improved quickly. Basketball was like medicine for him. And whenever Ron became depressed or angry, Sunny was there to encourage and help him. The day before Ron left the center, he had dinner with Sunny. He asked Sunny how he managed to be generous and cheerful, even with his paralysis. Sunny smiled and said, "It's really quite easy. When you keep your face to the sun, the shadows fall behind."

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One day Mrs.Jones goes shopping.When her husband comes home in the evening,she begins to tell him about a beautiful cotton dress."I see it in a shop this morning,"she says. "And--and you want to buy it."says her husband,"How much does it cost?" "Forty pounds." "Forty pounds for a cotton dress? That's too much!" But every evening,when Mr.Jones comes back from work,his wife continues to say only about the dress,and at last, after a week,he says"Oh,buy the dress.Here's the money!"She is happy. But the next evening,when Mr.Jones comes home and asks,"Do you buy the famous dress?--'No,"she says. "Why not?"he asks. "Well,"Mrs.Jones says,"it is still in the window of the shop after a week,I think nobody else wants this dress,so I don't want it,either."

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Some people have to use public transport, some dislike it and still some love it. If everyone has a car and drives anywhere they want to go, there will be serious traffic problems on the road. Luckily, trains are a good form of public transport. British people use trains a lot. This is especially so for people who are travelling from London to Paris. Every day about 20 trains leave London. They travel at a very high speed and people feel glad that the trains take only 2 hours and 30 minutes to reach Paris. It's much faster to travel by train than by bus or by car. This is because people have to drive cars or buses very carefully and lowly for many reasons, such as speed limits and traffic jams. However, when you are travelling by train, the speed is almost the same and there is no traffic jam for a train. Besides, Londoners think taking a train is one of the safest ways of travelling on the ground. Trains take quite a number of quality tests while they are made. More importantly, they have to take many safety checks before they are used on the rail track. What's more, trains in Britain are comfortable and provide fine services for their users. When you are on a London train, you will find that the train has comfortable tables and seats where people can sit. They also provide food services and power plugs for personal computers or mobile phone.

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"You are what you eat," says the old saying. So how can we know what food is healthy? Unluckily, a lot of food that looks good may have pollution. Where is the pollution from? It has something to do with how people produce food: growing it on the farm, processing it in factories, and making it ready for you to eat. Here's what happens: Most farmers use chemicals to stop their crops from getting sick. Many of these chemicals remain in the food that you eat. Some people believe this may cause cancer. These chemicals may also pollute water and air, and kill animals and even people by accident. Most drinks are just flavored water . Every drink coming in plastic bottles which you then throw away means a waste. Sugary drinks make you fat. In the factories, much of what you eat and drink gets messed. Often things are put into food to make it delicious and look good but they might be harmful to people. And some food like meat often gets polluted by bacteria. What you can do: Try to get organic food. Organic food doesn't have any ingredients that are bad for the land, air or water. Don't eat processed food or drinks. Eat fresh food whenever you can and cook at home.

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Mr. and Mrs. Long had one daughter. Her name was Lena. She was eighteen years old. Lena lived with her parents and worked in an office. She had some friends, but she didn't like any of the boys very much. One day she met a very nice man. He was young. His name was Watts and he worked in a post office. They became friends and he came to Lena's parents house twice. Last week Lena said to her father, "I'm going to marry Watts, Daddy. He was here yesterday." "Oh, yes." her father answered. "He's a nice boy, but has he got much money?" "Oh, no, both of you are the same," the daughter answered angrily. I met Watts on the first day of June and the next day he asked me, "Has your father got much money?"

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Last Tuesday, after doing all the family shopping in town, I wanted to have a rest before catching the train. So I bought a newspaper and some chocolate and went into a station coffee shop with long tables to sit at. I put my heavy bag down on the floor, put the newspaper and chocolate on the table to keep a place, and went to get a cup of coffee. When I came back with my coffee, there was someone sitting near to me. It was one of those strange-looking young men, with dark glasses, torn clothes, and long hair. But I wasn't surprised at such a young man. What surprised me most was that he had started to eat my chocolate! I was rather uneasy about him, but I didn't want to get into trouble. I just looked down at the front page of the newspaper and took a bit of chocolate. The boy looked at me. Then he took a second piece of my chocolate. I could hardly believe it. Still I didn't say anything. When he took a third one, I felt more angry than uneasy. I thought, "Well, I shall have the last piece." And I got it. The boy gave me a strange look and then stood up. As he left, he shouted out, "This woman is crazy!" Everyone looked at me. That was embarrassing enough. But it was worse when I finished my coffee and ready to leave. It wasn't my chocolate I had eaten a moment before. Mine was just under my newspaper.

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Long long ago, the colours of the world started to quarrel. Green said, "Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and hope. Without me, all animals would die." Blue said, "You only think about the earth instead of the sky and the sea. Without my peace, you would all be nothing. " Yellow laughed, "You are all so serious. I bring fun and warmth into the world. " Orange shouted, "1 am the colour of health and strength. I am the most important for I serve the needs of people' s life. " Red shouted out, "I am the most important of all. I am the colour of danger, bravery and love. I am brave to fight for truth. " Then Purple and Indigo came... The colours went on quarrelling, each saying he or she was the most important. Their quarrelling became louder and louder. Suddenly it thundered and rained hard. The colours felt so frightened that they stopped quarrelling and got together for comfort . At this time, rain began to speak, "You foolish colours, quarrelling among yourselves, each tried to be the most important. You don' t know that you each were made for a special purpose? Join hands with each other and come to me. " Doing as they were told, the colours united and joined hands. They formed a colourful rainbow. From then on, when a good rain washes the world, a rainbow appears in the sky. They begin to appreciate each other.

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Dear God, I am a boy. I live in a poor village. My Parents used to be farmer but now they are working in a big city. They want to build a new house. Our old house is _ It becomes wet after a heavy rain. I think our new house must look clean and smart. I don't mind if it is big or small. It is not in the centre of the city or near the sea. _ lies in a peaceful valley. There are flowers and grasses around the house. My father can ride his horse to look after his sheep; my mother can milk her cows. My brother's cat is lying in the sun while I am reading under the tree. How beautiful! Our new house has three bedrooms. There is a bedroom for my mother and father , one for me and one for my brother. There is a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. There is a small balcony in front of the house, and a armchair stands there quietly. There are some plants on the balcony, too. My family will be very happy in the new house. God, tell me, can my dream come true? What should I do for that? Sincerely yours, Amos

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Every winter the Indians caught beavers .They sold these beaver furs to men from France. In the 1600s and 1700s,people in France wanted beaver furs for coats and hats. Other countries wanted these furs, too . Wearing a beaver fur hat became a sign .It said ,"Look at this man! This man is rich!" In the 1800s,men in this country began to wear beaver hats. They too, wanted to wear the sign that said," Look at those men! They are rich!" Soon it was hard to find beavers. To get more beaver furs, traders had to move West. Traders began to explore this new country. They came back with wonderful stories about the new land. Before long, many people wanted to go West to live. Where people go, towns grow. Soon there were new towns in the West. Men looking for beaver for fancy(,) hats helped the West grow.

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Everybody dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. Our dreams often include all the senses--smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. Early in the twentieth century, two famous scientists developed their personal ideas about dreams. Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud believed people often dream about things they want but can't have. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung worked closely with Freud for several years, but he believed dreams provide solutions to problems we face when we are awake. Other researchers are studying how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions . Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry . He says that when we dream, the brain is trying to make sense of the world. He does not agree with Sigmund Freud that dreaming is the way we express our hidden feelings and desires . Scientists believe it is important to keep researching dreams. Yet there is still no agreement on exactly how the brain works when we are dreaming or why we dream.

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Ou Pingqin was a teacher in a special school (for deaf and mute students) of Yangxin in Huangshi, who has recently been considered the Most Beautiful Teacher in China. After graduating from a college, she went to this school alone and worked there for nearly twenty years. The headmaster of the school said, "She worked hard and taught well. She was a _ teacher in our school. She was also the most welcome teacher among the students. For students, she was like a mother. They called her Little Mother." One day,when she was talking with her students in the dormitory. It looked as if something heavy would fall off. It was dangerous. At that time, without any hesitation ,she pushed two students away, but she was hit heavily. However,she continued working with great pain later. One of her officemates said, "Ou Pinggin was not only a teacher but also a mother to her students in her class. She cared about their studies and even their life. She was very strict in her work." A student's parent said, "She was very warm-hearted. My son lost his father who supported the family. Every month,the teacher gave him 100 yuan to buy books from her own income.."She devoted all her life to the teaching and her students, but she didn't marry when she died at the age of 36. Ou Pinqin's deeds have drawn much attention in the country. She was the students' Little Mother, but gave them great love.

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Tibet is among the most popular places for Chinese tourists. The number of travelers to Tibet has grown by 10% every year for a few years. Since July 1,2006, when the first train ran 1956 kilometers from Xining to Lhasa, more and more people have been going to Tibet. The train stops at several famous places along the way, such as Qinghai Lake, Kunlun Mountain, and the Potala Palace. Passengers can also enjoy many activities during the journey, like Tibetan dancing and Karaoke. On the train, passengers can have tea, eggs and noodles for breakfast, and fried chicken and green vegetables for lunch and dinner. Unlike most Chinese trains which have open - hole toilets, this one has special toilets which can collect the waste. There is also a special rubbish system in the train that keeps the environment clean. All the windows on the train can protect people from the bright sunlight. TV and electrical sockets for computers and mobile phones can be found on the train. Because there isn't much oxygen there, trains will have oxygen masks for those who need _ . It makes passengers feel more comfortable when they have enough oxygen on the famous "roof of the world". There are also doctors on the train to make sure that all of the travelers are safe.

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When an ice cream sundae cost much less, a boy entered a coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" "Fifty cents," said the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it. "How much is a dish of plain ice cream?" he asked. Some people were waiting for a table, and the waitress was not patient. "Thirty-five cents," she said angrily. The little boy again counted the coins. "I will have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream and walked away. The boy finished, paid the money, and left. When the waitress came back, she was surprised at what she saw. There were fifteen cents placed beside the empty dish. That was her tip.

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Here are two pictures.A man and a boy are in one picture.Who are they? Let me tell you.The man is Mr White, and the boy's name is Bill.He's the man's son.Now they are in Bill's bedroom.We can see some Chinese books in the desk.And on the bed , there is a shirt.It's Bill's.His trousers are on it, under his shirt.too. Now let's look at the other picture.You can see a woman and a girl in it.The woman is Bill's mother and she's in her daughter Ann's bedroom.You can see a photo of the Whites on the white wall.Between the windows, there is a desk.A clock is on the desk.It's eleven.What's that on the floor? Oh, it's Ann's hat.but it looks like a brown cat.

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Do you want to do well in exams? Sometimes your knowledge is not enough, you also need good strategies. Here are some for you: Before you answer the questions, if you feel a little nervous, take a few deep breaths to help you relax. Always read the question carefully and make sure that you understand it. Read it a few times if possible. Find out how much each question is worth or how many points you need. If it asks to give one answer, only write one. If there is a difficult question, don't worry. Go on to the next question and come back to it if you have time later. Try not to leave questions unanswered when you finish the test. Sometimes a guess may get your points. When you finish, go back and check your answers. You will need to check your writing or spelling mistakes.

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85-year-old Tu is awarded the Nobel Prize for her contribution to reducing the death rate of malaria , minimizing patients' suffering and promoting mankind's health. This is what science is all about. Tu's name "Youyou", came from the Classic of Poetry. The characters depict the cheerful sounds deer make when calling for mates. Tu's finding has saved millions' lives during the 40 years. This also proves the value of her research product. The moment of joy and satisfaction when she discovered the artemisinin in 1971 after all kinds of failures in experiments is eternal. Tu has won some attention when she got the Lasker Award in 2011. But there is no way to compare her popularity back to the attention she is receiving today. She studied at the Peking University Health Science Center, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, from 1951 to 1955. Let's backtrack to 40 years ago. Tu finished the findings without using any advanced equipment, communication with outside world and papers to research. Nowadays, Chinese scientists have the passion to invent. As Premiere Li Keqiang mentioned in his letter, "Tu's winning the prize marks China's progress in scientific and technological field". Tu's winning will help people come to realize that all those international publications, whether it is the Nobel Prize, SCI publishing, Nature, or Science, are all just gimmicks of measuring tools. The sole key is to be oneself and try one's best with confidence. There had been doubts about "whether there would be a Chinese national awarded the Nobel Prize." This sort of doubts is unnecessary. The scientific awards are equal to all, as long as the research findings are good enough. The fact that Tu has none of these three backgrounds also reminds us that science should be more accessible to all. One shall be able to become a scientist no matter what kind of background he or she comes from, as long as one devotes into scientific research. They work so hard to prove the wrong way so that the future researcher will be closer to the right one. Artemisinin and science saved lived around the world. Tu saved the confidence of Chinese scientists, who will care less about whether a Chinese scientist be awarded the Nobel Prize in the future. (Translated by Shen Chen and Joanna Law from Commentary << >> , published on People's Daily, Oct.6, 2015)

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Saturday morning was bright and fresh. There was a song in every heart, cheer on every face, and a _ in every step. Tom appeared with a bucket of white paint in one hand and a brush in the other. His Aunt Polly told him to paint the fence around the garden. It was ninety feet long and nine feet high. He felt very blue. Then he had a wonderful idea. He picked up his brush and started to work. Soon Ben came along the road. He was happily eating an apple. He stopped to look at Tom. Tom went on painting and pretended not to see Ben. "I'm going swimming," said Ben. "Do you want to go swimming, Tom? But I guess you can't. You have to stay and work, don't you?" "Work?" Tom said. "This isn't work. I'm enjoying myself. Does a boy get a chance to paint a fence like this every day?" Ben thought about this. Tom continued painting carefully. Sometimes he stopped, stood back to look at the fence like an artist, and then added a bit more paint in just the right place. Ben was watching Tom paint with great interest. He was getting more and more eager to have a try himself. After a while, Ben asked Tom if he would let him paint a little. Tom thought about it, and said, "No, Ben, I can't. You see. Aunt Polly wants it to be done well. Aunt Polly said that I must paint it with great care." "Oh, please, Tom," begged Ben. "I can do it. I'll be really careful. Just let me try. I'll give you half of my apple. Well, I'll give you all of it!" "Well, all right, Ben," said Tom. "You must be very careful." He gave Ben his brush with worry on his face but joy in his heart. He sat down under the tree, and started to eat Ben's apple. All day, boys came to make fun of Tom, but they ended up staying to paint. When Ben got tired, Billy was waiting. He gave Tom a kite for a chance to paint. Then Johnny offered him a basketball, and so on. By late afternoon Tom had got all kinds of toys, and the fence had got three coats of paint. Later Aunt Polly came to look at the painted fence. She was so pleased with Tom's work that she gave Tom a large cake!

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It was Sunday morning. A butcher heard the doorbell and thought it must be a customer. But he was surprised to see that a dog was coming into his shop. The dog had $10 and a note in its mouth. The butcher took the note and read it. It said,"10 pork chops , please."So the butcher took the money and put a bag of chops in the dog's mouth. Then he quickly closed the shop because he decided to follow the dog. He found the dog on the street. The dog was waiting for a green light. Then the dog walked across the road. The dog went to a bus stop. When a bus arrived, the dog checked the number and then got on the bus. After a while, the dog stood up on his back paws to push the "stop" button . The bus stopped and the dog got off. Then the butcher followed it to get off the bus. The dog ran to a house and dropped the bag in front of the front door. It then began to beat its head against the front door. After a while, a big man opened the door and began shouting at the dog. The butcher ran up and shouted at the man, "What are you doing? Your dog is a genius ." The owner of the dog said, "Genius? No way! I always tell him to take the keys when he goes to the stores. But he never listens to me!"

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Mr. Jones had a nice brown coat . He loved it very much, but his wife didn't like it. Because it was old. She often said. " Give it to a poor man . " But Mr. Jones always answered, " No, I like this coat. " Then a cigarette fell on it and made a hole in it. So Mrs Jones said, "Please don't wear it again. " Mr. Jones took it to a small tailor " Please make another coat like this one ." The tailor made the coat very carefully. Then he lit a cigarette, and made a hole in it in the same place.

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There are plenty of possible reasons why you don't have any flowers near you. Perhaps, you just don't like them. Or maybe someone nearby doesn't. Maybe you're at work, and flowers are not allowed. Assuming the problem is simply that you don't have time to go out and get flowers, you may be surprised to learn just how easy it actually is. It's good to get flowers for yourself, but even better to be given them. I'm sure you know this, just as I'm sure there's someone special in your life who feels the same way. So why not take the chance to make someone happy, and get them some flowers? I know, you would, but it's just too much trouble. Well, that's where you're wrong! It' s a good excuse, and while it might have worked in the past, I'm afraid it doesn't work any more. Perhaps you are really too busy to go into town and get some flowers. On the other hand, the fact that you are reading this clearly shows that you have enough time to go online. Nowadays, you can buy pretty well anything online, and yes that includes flowers. By the way, there's another point to consider here. Price. I'm sure you've noticed that you can usually get things cheaper if you buy online, and flowers are no exception . For the same price as a few roses, you could have a full bouquet of flowers picked and arranged by an expert. So why are you still here? Go online, and hunt down some flowers! There are plenty of flower shops available , and you should have no trouble finding one that near you, especially if you live in a city or large town. Then you're just a few clicks away from a beautiful bouquet. ,

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The city of Cannes _ in the southern part of France, in the Riviera region and has a population of nearly 70,000. Cannes is very famous around the world for its Film Festival and also for its Cannes Lions Festival. It is a comfortable city and has tourism as its main industry. Cannes offers some of France's finest hotels. You can surf the Internet for more information about hotels. _ is 905 km away from Paris, 164 km from Marseille and 26 km away from Nice. The coast is often visited. The Boulevard de la Croisette is one of the most important attractions for people who love the beach, sun and sand. La Croisette is a 12 km waterfront avenue with many trees, hotels, cafes, shops and restaurants around. Visiting the Musee de la Castre is also a good choice for seeing beautiful works of art, paintings and so on. And if you want to relax, you can visit the Iles de Lerins (Le rins Islands) with nice views and beautiful beaches. If you just take a walk in the streets of Cannes, you will discover a very friendly atmosphere . The main streets are d'Antibes and Meynardier. You will have a good time in the shops. Its restaurants are very good, although the prices are sometimes expensive. Depending on whether the restaurant is located on the waterfront or not, the price will be a bit more expensive.

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A city in South Korea has added a new attraction to its cultural landscape --the world's first "Toilet Theme Park". The Restroom Cultural Park in the city of Suwon is proving a huge hit with locals and tourists alike. The park was built to memorize the former city mayor Sim Jae-duck, known as "Mr. Toilet". He believed the toilet is a very important place and full of culture. Visitors to the park can enjoy its toilet- bowl- shaped exhibition hall as well as lots of bronze statues in all kinds of toilet positions. They can even sit on Mr. Kim's original toilet, which includes a full-length glass door that mists up when it is being used. Suwon has become well known because of the promotion of toilet culture. The city attracts toilet- related artwork from around the world to its galleries. It famously hosts the Golden Poop Art Festival- a celebration of one of the calls of nature. The city also lists lots of its own public toilets as tourist attractions on its website. Sim Jae-duck's toilet-shaped house, now a museum, should be the must-see for _ . It's said that Mr. Sim was born in the loo of his mother's house, so he loved toilets very much. He said in 2007, "The toilet can save humankind from diseases and is a place for introspection . The toilet is also a central living place that has culture."

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We say that a person has good manners if he or she is polite, kind and helpful to others. Everyone likes a person with good manners. But no one likes a person with bad or careless manners. Yes, but what are good manners? How do I know what to do and what not to do? Here are some examples of the things that a well-mannered person does or does not do. He never laughs at people when they are in trouble. Instead, he tries to help them. When people are waiting for a bus, he stands in line and takes his turn. He never pushes to the front of the line. On the bus, he offers his seat to an older person or a woman with a child in the arms. If he gets in someone's way, he says "excuse me". He says "please" when he makes a request , and he says "thank you" when he receives something. He doesn't stop other people when they are talking. He does not speak with his mouth full of food when he is eating.

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I'm Kate. I'm an American girl. I am thirteen. I'm in a middle school in Shanghai. My English teacher is a Chinese girl. My good friend is Mary. She is an English girl. She is thirteen, too. She is in Wuhan. I'm in Grade Eight. But she is in Grade Nine. We often have a talk by E-mail. We are both good students.

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Yao Beina was not only a popular singer but also an energetic and warm-hearted angel. She donated her corneas to two men after her death. Yao was born in a music family in September 1981 in Wuhan. She started to learn music at the age of 4, and she sang her first song on the stage when she was 9. Yao did quite well in singing, so she took part in the 13th Youth Singing Competition and won the first prize. She became well-known to the pubic after making some songs for the hit TV drama The Legend of Zhenhuan , and the mandarin version of Let It Go from Disney's Frozen . In July 2013, she competed in The Voice of China II and finally got the second place in Na Ying's team. She had won many music prizes. Yao Beina was unlucky to be diagnosed with breast cancer . She had a successful operation in 2011. She has fought against the illness for about four years while keeping singing, but sadly she failed. Although she's gone, her fans will remember her beautiful voice and kindness forever.

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Tom brought a box of biscuits to a summer camp. He ate a few and placed the rest under his bed. After lunch, he found the box was gone. He went to tell his camp coach about it. The next day, the coach saw a boy eating Tom's biscuits behind a tree. He came up with an idea to solve the problem. He found Tom and said to him, "I know who took away your biscuits. Will you help me to teach him a lesson?" "Well, yes... are you going to punish him, sir?" Tom asked. "No, I'm not," the coach explained patiently. "That would only make him hate you. I want you to write to your mother and ask for more gifts." Tom received another box of biscuits by mailing from his mother a few days later. "Now," said the coach, "go and share them with the boy who stole your biscuits." Tom didn't understand the coach's intention , but he still followed his suggestion. Half an hour later the coach saw the two boys come up the hill, arm in arm. The boy was trying to ask Tom to accept his toy robot in payment for the stolen biscuits. And Tom was refusing the gift from his new friend. He said that a few biscuits were not so important. In some situations, forgiveness is better than punishment.

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That warm day was the only day of the week without rain. I opened the door, took a seat and began to enjoy the wonderful sunshine. Suddenly, I noticed that the house near mine had been sold. An elderly lady was in front of the door, with some beautiful flowers beside her. I walked to her. She looked to be in her early eighties and had the prettiest white hair. "Hi! My name is Karmen," I said smiling brightly at the old lady. She smiled back and said, "Hello, Karmen. I'm Henrietta." Her voice was very strong for someone at her age. Later, I learned she was alone and had no family or relatives to help her. From that day on, I often visited her and helped her with her housework and sometimes she gave me some delicious food. A year passed, and I considered Henrietta to be one of my best friends. One day, I walked over for my morning visit and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I knocked again, and she still didn' t _ . So I let myself in, using the key she had given me. I checked her living room and then her kitchen. I finally went into her bedroom, and she was lying peacefully on her bed. Beside her there were two notes. One was her will, which said all that she had would be given to me. The other was a thank-you note. I went to her bedside and cried sadly. Though several years have gone by, I still miss her deeply. Whenever I look at the beautiful flowers in front of her house, I remember the wonderful friendship we had.

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Around twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find a satisfying job and I found this especially difficult as I had a lot of experience and a Master's degree. To my shame I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not get the job. Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet neighborhood I had an internal(inside)wave--like a scream --come up from deep inside me and I thought "Why has my life become so hard?"... Immediately after this internal scream I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody looked for it. The earring was stamped with words "BE HAPPY". At first I got angry. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a list of 50 things I was thankful to. At first _ was hard, then it got easier. One day I decided to up it to 75. That night there was a phone call for me, asking if I would do a one-day training for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job. My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing welcome and many more days of work. To this day I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude to _ . By chance, the day after I found the earring the girl asked me if anyone had looked for it. I told her no and she said "I guess it was meant for you then." I spent the next year doing training workshops all around the Seattle area and then decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived before. I closed my one man business and bought a plane ticket. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful house in Scotland. "THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE" has been my motto for years now and yes, it completely changed my life.

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Bob, Jim and Alice are good friends. They all study in the same class in Red Star Middle School. The weekend is coming and the weather is going to be sunny and warm. Now they are talking about their plans. Bob is going to the hospital on Saturday. It is not far from his house, so he wants to go there by bike. He is going to visit a sick boy called Ben in the hospital. He wants to make Ben happy and give him some interesting storybooks. He is going to stay there for the whole day. Jim is going to ride to Great Zoo with his father on Sunday. He wants to see the pandas, tigers, lions and elephants. He wants to stay there for the whole day. On Saturday, Alice is going to the Green Park with her friends on foot. She is going fishing by the lake, going boating on the river and playing on the slide . She plans to stay there for the whole afternoon.

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After graduating from school, I didn't go directly to university. Instead, I spent a year travelling round the world. I started my trip in London, the UK. I saw theBig Ben and visited the amazing churches.From there, I flew to Paris, and went down to the south of France, which is famous for its lovely beaches. Next, I flew to India, and traveled round the country for about three months. Although the cities were crowded, the countryside was the beautiful. I stayed in a small fishing village by the sea and it was the happiest time of my life. I then came to China, a country I had always wanted to visit. I saw Beijing, of course, and climbed up the Great Wall. I also took a trip to see some villages where I learned a lot about Chinese local customs. Then, at last, I flew all the way home. It had been a great experience, but, yes, it was good to be home again!

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Whenever there's a terrible storm, there are many sad stories. Many people lost their houses, their cars and their pets. But sometimes these stories have happy endings, too. A family in New Jersey, US, had a cat named Vivian. She was very smart. She could even draw with her wet paws on the floor. They all loved her very much. When hurricane Sandy hit America in October, they moved to a safer place 13km away from home. Unluckily, Vivian was missing . All the nine family members were worried about her. They put up posters to find her. They looked for her everywhere they thought she could stay, but they didn't find it. The family thought Vivian was gone forever. But six months later, Vivian showed up at their house, according to Yahoo News. They considered her return as a _ . No one can be sure where Vivian was for all that time. Many animals are good at finding their way home. People usually say that dogs and cats find their way home through using their sense of smell . But that doesn't explain how Vivian found her way back. Hurricane Sandy blew away the normal smell of home. "I wish she could talk," said her owner.

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Try reading the following sentences as fast as you can. " She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells in the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells." Not very easy, was it? What you've just read is called a tongue twister . It is an exercise made up of sounds that are hard to pronounce in order to help people pronounce words faster and more correctly. Try the next example. "Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers, Did Peter Piper pick a peck of picked peppers? If Peter Piper picked a peck of picked peppers, where's the peck of picked peppers Peter picked?" Tongue twisters usually do not have much meaning. They are just designed to improve people's _ to pronounce words. Although they may be very difficult, these exercises are very important to people who are trying to speak English correctly. This is because tongue twisters help people to tell the differences between similar sounds. So if you wish to pronounce words more smoothly, you'd better try picking out some tongue twisters and practicing them.

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(Happy Children's Day!) Come and see the Indian elephants and the tigers from America. The bears are waiting to meet you, and the monkeys from Thailand are waiting to throw things at you. The lovely dogs from Australia are waiting to laugh at you, and the giraffes from Zambia are waiting to look down on you. Tickets: Adults: Y=60, Children: free Time: June1-June2 9:00 a.m.-----7:00 p. m Keep the park clean! Do not touch, give food or go near the animals.

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We always celebrated Dad's birthday on Thanksgiving Day, even after he entered a nursing home. When we knew it might be his last birthday, the whole family decided to get together for a huge birthday celebration at the nursing home. Dad was a good storyteller and we were always his listeners. During a quiet moment, I announced it was now Dad's turn to listen to stories for a change. I wanted everyone to tell Dad what we loved about him. The room became quiet. Then one after another, people told stories from their hearts, while Dad listened with tears in eyes. Everyone seemed to have more than one story. Even the little grandchildren couldn't wait to tell Dad why they loved him. For a man who had been kind to so many hundreds of people in his life, here was our chance to tell him how much we love him. A few months later, at Dad's memorial service, we more fully realized what we had given to Dad that night. Those are the stories people normally tell at a funeral after a loved one is no longer alive to hear the words. They tell stories, full of tears. But we had given those memories to Dad in his life, and we had told them through laughter, together with hugs and joy. He had them to hold and enjoyed them from time to time in his mind during his last days and months. Words do matter, and they are enough. We just need to say them or to speak them publicly the ones we love. That's the ways to give back love and that's our chance to celebrate a person in his or her life.

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I usually get up at 5:00. I make coffee, go to my desk and work. When my boys get up, I'm theirs. I follow the min to the kitchen and make them breakfast. While they're eating, I make their lunch, pick out their school clothes and get the little one dressed. My wife takes them to school. I bring them home. I am not the only father at the school gate. The boys and I walk the 12 blocks home unless the weather is terrible. Then we take the subway. I remind them of looking out, like an animal looking after their babies. At home, they play on the computer and the little one will draw, sometimes for hours. When their mother comes home, they run to her. She has been in the official day and tired, but her attention is all on them. I have made dinner. We sit down and eat together. After they do their homework, Karen takes them to bed. I listen to the noise of the boys' and their mother's voice. One afternoon when we were on the way home from school, the boys and I stopped at the clothing store. The saleswoman looked at the boys and said to me in a low voice, "You're Mr. Mom, aren't you?" I felt very angry. I'm not Mr. Mom. That's not how I look at myself. The boys have a mother, a wonderful mother. She works outside the home, I work in the home. We are parents together. I'm a father!

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A horse doesn't think she is beautiful. She goes to see the God, "My God! Thanks for giving me a beautiful body, but I want to be more beautiful." The God says, "What do you want to be like?" The horse says, "If you can make my neck a little longer, my upper body will be more beautiful. And if you can make my legs much thinner, then my lower body will look more beautiful." Then the God makes her become a camel . "Oh, God, I want to become more beautiful. But now ... " says the horse. The God says, "This is what you ask for." The horse cries, "Oh no, I don't want to be a camel!" The God says, "Never try to get more. If you want more and more, you will have no idea what the result will be."

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Just a Quick Nap Do you feel a little sleepy after lunch? Well, that's normal. Your body naturally slows down then. What should you do about it? Don't reach for a coffee! Instead, take a nap. It's good to have a daily nap. First of all , you are more efficient after napping. You remember things better and make fewer mistakes. Also, you can learn things more easily after taking a nap. A nap may increase your self-confidence and make you more active. It may even cheer you up. But, there are some simple rules you should follow about taking a nap. First, take a nap in the middle of day, about eight hours after you wake up. Next, a 20-minute nap is best. If you sleep longer, you may fall into a deep sleep. After waking from a deep sleep, you will feel worse. Also, you should set an alarm clock. That way, you can fully relax during your nap. You won't have to keep looking at the clock, so you don't oversleep. Now, the next time you feel sleepy after lunch, don't get stressed. Put your head down, close your eyes, and catch forty winks.

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People like to say:"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."Or theysay:"Behind every successful man,there is a woman." Now some women still like making their husbands and sons successful.But some women want more for themselves.They want to be successful as men. Today the best jobs are still given to men.Even when women do the same work,they are often paid less than men.Some women want these things changed.They want to stand beside the men,with the same chances for success. Now many American women are earning money outside their homes.More than half of the women at the age of eighteen to sixty-five have good jobs.In general,working women have more education than those who stay at home. Among women with jobs,eight out of ten drive a car to work,and most of them often spend their holidays away from home.They like traveling by air.Women's work has made several changes in women's lives and in men's lives,too. But things are quite different from those in the Middle East countries. In the Middle East countries,women have to stay at home.They look after their families and do all the housework.They can't find work outside.When they go out in public.they cover their faces with something and walk behind their husbands. For the past few years the women's life has been changing in those countries.Many women want to play an active role in the society.Though working gives them few chances of getting married,many men still want to marry them in the old ways.

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In general, it's hard to spend enough time in both concentrating on lessons and taking part in social activities. But I wanted to succeed in both. I knew this would be a challenge but I didn't realize how difficult it was until my classes in the high school began. I got on well with other girls. After school, I often had ice cream with them first instead of finishing my homework before it was time to hand it in. I always finished it the next day between classes. I knew it wasn't very good and the grades that I get showed I was not hard-working enough. I realized that I needed to find some kind of balance. So I created a timetable that would divide my time between studying and relaxing. It was a good idea but I was only able to follow it for a few days because it made me under too much pressure. Later, I tried another plan. Each week I listed everything that I had to get done during the week and the time by which I had to get it done. Then under the things I had to do, I made another list of things that I could do if I had time. It worked really well. Ever since I have never missed any important things. At the same time, I enjoyed my spare time a lot. Planning my time has been challenging, but I continue to do it. I'm glad that I've learned to balance things and it has helped prepare for what is coming after graduation.

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Do you feel tired sometimes? Nowadays, stress is everywhere in our daily life. Not just men, women and young people also suffer from stress. There are many causes, such as: death, marriage, money, moving house, changing jobs, ending relationships. So how do you know if you suffer from stress? Do the Stress Test and find out! Stress Test Do you ...? Yes No 1. often sleep badly? 2. get headaches a lot? 3. find it difficult to relax? 4. need alcohol or cigarettes to keep calm? 5. usually hide your feeling? 6. find it difficult to put your heart into something? 7. take sleeping pills? 8. get angry when things go wrong? If you have more than two "Yes" among these questions, you are suffering from stress. So what can you do about it? Doing yoga , chewing gum and playing with worry beads are all common ways of relieving stress. However, doctors now say that there are simpler ways. They say that people should laugh and smile more often. When you laugh and smile, your body relaxes. They also say that people--and especially men--ought to cry more often, because cry ing is the natural way of relieving stress.

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Long long ago, a donkey fell into a well . The animal cried for hours as the farmer tried to think out what to do. Finally, the farmer thought the animal was too old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, so he decided not to save the donkey. The farmer invited his neighbours to help him. They began to shovel dirt into the well. The donkey cried harder. But a few minutes later, he became quiet. The farmer looked into the well, and was surprised by what he saw. While every shovelful of dirt hit his back, the donkey would shake it off and take a step on the new layer of dirt. As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, the donkey would shake it off and take another step up. Soon the donkey stepped up out of the well and ran away, to the surprise of all the neighbours. The lesson we get from this story is that if life shovels some dirt on us, we must get out the well and not let it cover us. We must learn to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping-stone . We can get out of the deepest well by never giving up!

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Henry was an office worker in a big city. He worked very hard and enjoyed traveling in his holidays. He usually went to the seaside, but one year he saw an advertisement in a newspaper. "Enjoy country life. Spend a few weeks at west hill farm. good food., fresh air, horse riding,Walking,fishing, cheap and interesting." "This sounds a good idea," He thought. "I'll spend a month at west hill farm. I think I can enjoy horse riding, walking and fishing. They'll make a change from sitting by the seaside and swimming." He wrote to the farmer. In the letter he said that he would like to spend all of July there. Then on the first of July, he left for west hill farm.But four days later, he returned home. "What was wrong with west hill farm?" His best friend, Ed, asked him. "Didn't you enjoy country life?" "Country life was very good," Henry said. "But there was another problem." "Oh. what?" "Well," he said, "The first day I was there a sheep died, and we had roast mutton for dinner." "What's wrong with that?" Ed asked. "Fresh meat is the best." "I know, but on the second day a cow died, and we had roast beef for dinner." "Lucky you!" "You don't understand," Henry said. "On the third day a pig died and we had roast pork for dinner." "A different meat every day," Ed said loudly, " And you are ing!" "Let me finish," Henry said. "On the fourth day the farmer died, and i didn't dare stay for dinner!"

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What do you call a school with no tests, no grades, no classes, and no teachers? Students of the Met School and their parents think it to be the best school in the world. The school is in Rhode Island, USA. Dennis Littky opened it in 1996. He was fired from two other schools, because many parents of the school students were happy with his unusual ideas. The school takes poor kids who are failing at schools. Nearly everybody has already given up these students and their parents want to try anything. The Met School gives Littky a great place to try out his new ideas. "The word that most kids use when they talk about high school is 'boring'," says Littky. "But no one would say the Met was boring." Advisors (not teachers) work with small groups of students for four years. Students spend almost half of their school time learning real-life skills , such as working for business , spending time with government people, and helping teach younger children. Instead of tests, the students give shows about their work outside school. In fact, students work harder here than in other schools. All the students from the Met graduate and can choose to go to a good university . Now, Bill Gates is starting schools like this one around the USA.

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Millions of stars are travelling about in space. A few form groups which travel together, but most of them travel alone. And they travel through a universe which is so large that one star seldom comes near to another. For the most important part each star makes its journey in complete loneliness, like a ship on an empty ocean. The ship will be well over a million miles from its nearest neighbour. From this it is easy to understand why a star seldom finds another anywhere near it. We believe, however, that some two thousand million years ago, another star wandering through space, happened to come near our sun just as the sun and the moon raised its tides on the earth, so this star must have raised tides on the surface of the sun. But they were very different from the small tides that are raised in our oceans; A large tidal wave must have travelled over the surface of the sun, at last forming a mountain so high that we cannot imagine it. As the cause of the disturbance came nearer, so the mountain rose higher and higher. And before the star began to move away again, its tidal pull had become so powerful that this mountain was torn to pieces and thrown off small parts of itself into space. These small pieces have been going round the sun ever since. They are the planets.

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Mrs Green lives in a small village . Her husband is dead ,but she has one son .His name is Jack . He is twenty-one .He worked in the shop in the village and lived with his mother , but then he found a job in a faraway town named Green Sea .He went and lived there .Mrs Green was not happy about it . Last Sunday ,Mrs Green was angry .She got on a train and went to her son's house in Green Sea . Then she said to him,"Jack ,why do you never telephone me ?" Jack laughed , "But ,mother ,you don't have a telephone ." "No,"she answered, "I haven't , but you have one !"

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How do you spend a usual holiday at home? My alarm clock wakes me, which reminds me of school. I usually would sleep like a log, but today is a holiday and I have to be at the pool for swimming practice at a quarter to seven. About 30 swimmers show up for practice. An hour later, I ride my bike home. The suburbs are quiet in the morning, with few cars on the street. I know I should be studying German but instead I wander to my room, lie down on the bed and sleep like a log. When I open my eyes again, the first thing I see is the alarm clock. It's 10:40 and I have a basketball class in less than 20 minutes. With the help of a shortcut I arrive on time. About 15 kids and I spend the rest of the morning "shooting hoops ". A bus takes us home,and I see a neighbour walking her dogs. It's past noon. Lunch is "dousha baozi" ,which my younger brother Richard doesn't eat. He devours part of a cake from the fridge. I wonder if I should practise on the keyboard, study German, finish my homework, play chess,read or sleep like a log. I decide to play computer games for an hour and promise myself that I'll work on German later. As the computer games hit higher and higher levels, Richard and I become more and more bored. He has been aching for someone his own age to play with, and I write , he is _ . He is too sleepy. I think I'll turn off this computer and take him to the park. Then maybe I'll call on some of my old classmates. Holidays can be a time to learn, a time to play, a time to grow or a time to sleep like a log. Whatever you choose to do with your time, do something that you'll remember!

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Mary and Her Friends Mary has some friends. They are Betty, Peter, Alice and Mike. Mary is the oldest of the five. Betty is thirteen years old. She is younger than Mary and older than Peter. Alice is nine and Mike is seven. Betty and Peter are good runners . But Peter runs faster. Mary and Betty like to play basketball. Mary plays better than Betty. Alice sings best of them. Mary and Betty study in a middle school. Peter, Alice and Mike study in a primary school. They all work hard at school. But Betty works hardest. Her handwriting is good, too.

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Happy Children's Palace MONDAY 19:00--20:30 English learning Prof. G. White Would you like to improve your English? This is for middle school students. (2 weeks) TUESDAY 17:30--19:00 Photography Mr. Green Learn to take good pictures. Bring your own camera with you. (4 weeks) WEDNESDAY 18:00--19:00 Office 2000 Prof. Wang Lan Learn how to use the new software. (10 weeks) FRIDAY 19:00--20:30 Painting Miss Yang Jing Would you like to learn painting? It is for beginners only. (16 weeks) SATURDAY 15:00--16:30 Cambridge Young Learner's English Prof. J. Brown This course is for the children at primary school . (20 weeks) SUNDAY 10:00--12:00 Swimming, club Coach: Liu Xin Want to swim as fast as a fish? (9 weeks)

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Today is Linda's mother's birthday. It is also Teachers' Day. Linda's mother is a math teacher. So today is her birthday and also her festival. Linda and her brothers buy presents for their mother. Linda buys a good skirt for Mother. Her two brothers buy Mother a big birthday cake. Linda's father also has a present. He prepares a ring for his _ . Linda's mother is very happy. The family love her so much. It is a great birthday for her.

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Easter is one of the two important Christian festivals.Easter celebrates resurrections of Jesus Christ and Christmas celebrates his birth.It's not a festival as big as Christmas.It starts usually in late March or early April and the Easter holiday is Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.It's quite a long holiday for everybody. The main symbol of Easter is Easter eggs.Children like Easter eggs because they are made of chocolate.Eggs are a symbol of new life. Easter is also a time for families to get together like Christmas.Many people see Easter as a nice long holiday and they have a good time with their families and friends.

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Bob Smith is old. He has two big houses and a new car. He has no wife, but he is a father of four children. He has two sons and two daughters. One son is from Canada. His name is Jack. The other is from England. His name is Mike. One of his daughters is from China. Her name is Meimei. She is eleven years old. The other is from America. Her name is Lucy. She's eleven, too. Bob Smith is not the children's real father, but he loves them very much. The children love their "father", too. Bob Smith has many toys for the children. He gives different toys to different children. The boys play with toy cars. The girls play with doll and toy animals. Bob Smith is their good friend.

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When you work long hours and Sundays are no longer a day to rest, feeling overworked can become the new normal. Take sportsmen as examples and do the same yourself, so you'll know if you're overworking. Check your resting heart rate . Every day, before you get out of bed, take your pulse . Usually your heart rate will stay within a few beats every minute. But when you're overworked, the rate increases. If your heart rate is up in the morning, get a little more rest or sleep that night. Check your emotions. Getting angry easily? If you can't put your finger on a clear reason, there may be something wrong with your emotions. Hoping to change the condition won't help. The only way out is a break. Check your weight. If you lose or increase more than 1% of body weight from one day to the next, something is wrong. Maybe yesterday you were too busy and failed to notice you didn't eat and drink enough. Or maybe you failed to notice that you were eating too much.

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Roger, a young man from China, has taught Chinese in a primary school in England for 3 years. Many children like his class and he enjoys teaching them very much. All the pupils are quite interested in what Roger teaches them. They learn quickly and do everything carefully. One day he said to the children, "People in a lot of Asian countries wear white clothes at funerals, but the people in America wear white in the weddings because white means purity and happiness. What colour does an English woman wear when she gets married ?" Mary said, "White, sir. Because she is happy." "That is good, Mary." Roger said, "You are quite right. She wears white because she is happy." But then one boy in the class put up his hand. "Yes, Dick?" Roger said, "Do you have a question?" "Yes." Dick said, "Why do men wear black in our country when they get married, sir?"

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Tommy:Hello, Tina. Tina: Hello, Tommy. Tommy: I can't find my cat . Tina, do you see it? Tina: No, I don't. Is it under the chair? Tommy: No. Tina: Is it behind(......)the door? Tommy: Let me see. My schoolbag is here. Where is my cat? Tina: Hey, Tommy. Look,it's on your bed. Tommy: Yes. Thank you,Tina. Mimi,come here.

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Very often, newly-born babies are not beautiful. They are wrinkled or hairless, or they have an angry look on their face. They seem to say, "Get away! I hate everybody." But to a parent, that hairless, wrinkled, angry-faced baby is the most beautiful and perfect child in the world. When that proud father or mother asks you, "Well, what do you think...isn't she beautiful?" What are you going to say? Is this the time for the truth? Of course not! You look at that proud father or mother in the eye and say, "Yes, she is! She is really a beauty. She's one in a million. She's going to be a movie star! I can tell! She's as beautiful as a picture." In English, this is a _ lie. White lies don't hurt people. They are not cruel or angry words. People use them to make a difficult thing a little easier. When people don't want to meet someone, or eat something new that they really don't like at a friend's house, they tell a white lie. They are trying to be kind. They feel that being kind is sometimes more important than telling the truth.

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This August, we'll welcome guests from all over the world. Some of them follow their own special cultural traditions. It's important for us to know about them. *In many countries, such as Thailand, India and Malaysia, people believe that the left hand is unclean. So, it's not proper to use one's left hand to hold food, touch others or pass objects, Doing so may _ certain guests. *Some Westerners may be offended if you touch them or their personal things-even by accident. If this happens, say sorry politely. *Some elderly Westerners may be offended if you try to help them without their agreement. *People think numbers can be lucky or unlucky. Some Westerners avoid the number 13 because they believe it is unlucky. *Muslims do not eat pork, and words like pigs are not considered proper. *People from Brazil, Italy and Pakistan do not give handkerchiefs as gifts. They believe a handkerchief is closely connected with unhappy feelings. *Wine is not sent as a gift in many parts of western and middle Asia, where most Muslims live.

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We live on the Earth. It's our home. But how much do you know about it? The Earth is like a huge ball. Like the other seven planets, the Earth is running around the Sun. It's the third nearest planet to the Sun. It takes the Earth about 365 days to run around the Sun. At the same time, the Earth is going around itself. If you are in space, you can see lots of white clouds over the surface of the Earth. Through the clouds, you can see the blue color of the oceans and the brown color of the land. About 70% of the Earth is covered with water. Why do we have day and night? When the half of the Earth is facing the Sun, it's daytime. As the Earth turns and this half is away from the Sun, night is coming. And it's daytime for the other half.

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Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to connect the brain with computers. Braincomputer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines. Recently, two scientists, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytehnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, show a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts. In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts. "Our brain has billions of body cells . These send signals through the spinal cord to the body part to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the body part." Tavella says. "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with outer world and also to control machines." The scientists designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp and sends them to a computer. The computer finds meanings of the signals and commands the wheelchair with an engine. The wheelchair also has two cameras that tell objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain. Prof. Millan , the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that finds meanings of brain signals and turns them into simple commands." The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two kinds: communication, and controlling objects. One example is this wheelchair." He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can get advantages from. And the other is sure that they can use the technology for long.

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One day we invited some friends to dinner. When it was about six o'clock, my wife found that we had little bread. So she asked our five-year-old daughter, Kathy, to buy some. 'Here's a dollar,' my wife said, 'get two loaves of bread, if they have it. If they don't have it, get anything. But hurry!' Kathy hurried off, and we waited and waited. By a quarter past six, all the friends had arrived. But Kathy had not returned. Finally we saw her dancing around the corner with a bright new hula hoop whirling round her middle. "Kathy!" her mother cried. "Where did you get that hula hoop, and where is the bread?" "Well, when I got to the shop, they had sold out all their bread," answered Kathy. "And you said 'If they don't have that, get anything!'"

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In the mid 1990s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies which sold things in stores. Then, there were Internet companies which didn't have stores, they sold things only over the Net. Traditional companies didn't want to lose any business. Quickly, they created their own websites and began selling things over the Net. These are the so-called "brick and click" companies. Many stores are made of brick, and you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That's where the name "brick and click" comes from. By the late 1990s, e-businesses like Amazon.com, Buy.com, and eToys.com were in trouble. Their profits were not very high, and there was a lot of competition. Many of these businesses lost a lot of money, and in 2000, many e-businesses were out of business. In the world of e-commerce , companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will brick and click companies win the war? Only time will tell.

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Alex,Nicole and Vickie are friends.They live in the same neighborhood.They want to make some money to buy Christmas presents. "We need to print out fliers and pass them around to all the houses,"says Nicole.Alex's dad helps them print out fliers.The three friends go to all the houses and put a flier in everyone's mailbox. "It's winter,"says Vickie."There is lots of snow on the ground.Maybe people will need us to sweep the snow for them." First,Mrs.Jones _ the children to sweep the snow from her driveway .She says,"I have twin baby girls.I am much too busy to sweep the snow myself." Then,Mrs.Smith calls them.She says,"I am very old,and the snow is much too heavy for me to move." Then,Mr.Lee visits them.He says,"My garden is much too big to sweep all by myself.Can you help me?" The children work very hard sweeping the snow.It is cold,but they also have great fun.They make 30 dollars in all.Now they can buy nice Christmas presents for their friends and families.

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Once upon a time there lived two friends in a small village. Jay and Victor had been friends since they were little children. Now they were studying in a school which was far away from their village. They had to cross a river, climb hills and go through sandy areas on their way to school. One rainy day, the two friends went to school as usual. They were chatting while walking. Perhaps they were discussing something important, but the two had different opinions, which led to a big argument. Things got so bad that Jay suddenly hit Victor. Then Victor looked at his friend and wrote in the sand, " Today, my best friend hit me." They both continued walking without saying anything . Later, they reached a river. Victor was not a good swimmer. By accident, he fell into the river and was going to be carried away by the water. Jay saw this and jumped into the river at once. With difficulty he pulled victor out of the river when Victor became safe, he wrote on a stone, "Today, my friend saved my life." Jay, who was watching all this, asked,"So way did you write it in the sand when I hit you, and why did you write on a stone when I saved your life?" Victor replied, " we should soon forget the wrong done by our friends as words in sand get _ easily, but if they do something good for us, we should always remember their kindness, just as words in stones are kept forever." Then the two friends walked on as if nothing had happened.

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Riding School: You can start horse-riding at any age. Go riding any day except weekends. But at 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, there are 10 kilometers of rides across farmland and open countryside. You will need a riding hat. Opening Hours: Any weekday: 9:00 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Phone: (412) 396-6754 Fax : (412)396-6752 Sailing Club: Our Young Sailor's Course leads to the Stage 1 Sailing qualification . You'll learn how to sail safely. Have fun with other course members. Opening Hours: Tuesdays: 6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Phone: (412)396-6644 Fax: (412)396-6644 Watersports Club: We have a two-kilometer-long river for boat racing and water-skiing. You will learn to drive boats safely and confidently, but must be able to swim. The club is open every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with lessons all through the day. Opening Hours: From Monday to Friday: 9:00a.m.-4:00 p.m. Phone: (412)396-6899 Fax: (412)396-6890 Diving Centre: Our experienced coaches offer one-month courses in deep-sea diving for beginners. There are two evening lessons a week. Opening Hours: Monday and Friday: 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Phone: (412)396-6312 Fax: (412)396-6706

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What do you usually do after class? When class is over, most students in my class go out of the classroom. We have twenty minutes' rest between classes. Look! Most of us are playing during (......)the rest time. Some students are on the playground. They are having a basketball match. Oh! A boy is running with a ball, and another is trying to stop him. They are so cool. And there are some girls watching the match. Some students are still in the classroom. They are talking. A few of them are reading and doing homework. Look! A girl is looking at the birds in a tree in front of the classroom. She must be thinking of something interesting because she is smiling. What are the teachers doing? Do you know? Some of them are doing work in the office, and some are talking with students. Everyone is busy with his or her things, busy and happy!

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I once had a hard time making a living in France. Three years ago, I moved to a new neighborhood and felt an intense need to meet people so I went to the cinema. Outside the cinema was a woman with long gray hair who had a strong smell and was asking for money. I reached for my wallet to give her a Euro and then something made me stop and enter into conversation with her. I said, "Look, all the women going to the cinema here on a Tuesday night are seeing a film that can change your life. I'd rather buy you a ticket than give you money." She hesitated for a moment and then came in with me. She hid behind me because, she said, the people running the theater didn't like her. I got her a ticket and she sat next to me. There were about 80 women there; I noticed some of them were turning around and looking at me with expressions of surprise and curiosity . I encouraged the woman I had bought the ticket for to come the following night to an event where there would be many representatives of various social services. I thought they could be of some help to her. She did come and I was able to direct her to an agency that helped women in her situation. At the same time, a woman came toward me and said, "Are you the person who bought a ticket for the woman outside the theater asking for _ When I said yes she said, "I want you to come to the community center where I work. I want the other employees there to meet you." This was the beginning of a deep friendship and colleague relationship. I now have a great job and have more work than I've ever had in my 20 years in France. And the woman I took to the cinema that night? I learned that she was not homeless and that she was a secretary.

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Singapore is a beautiful and clean country. It welcomes visitors and tourists. When you come to visit Singapore, please keep the laws of this country. Here is something that you must remember. SMOKING: Cigarette smoking is a danger to health. It's not allowed in lifts, cinemas, theatres, all government offices and on buses. If you break it, you will have to pay a fine of up to Singapore $500. LITTER: Singapore is the Garden City of Asia----clean and green. Dropping litter in public places is not allowed. You can be fined up to Singapore $500 for dropping litter----even if it is only a piece of waste paper or a cigarette end. LONG HAIR: Men visitors should not have longer hair than the top of their shirt collars . Long-haired men will be served last of all visitors in government offices. JAYWALKING: You must always use the zebra crossing. You can be fined Singapore $50 for crossing the streets less than 50 metres from a zebra crossing, These laws are also for children who are old enough to be in the street by themselves.

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In Singapore, many school students spend a lot of time on their studies. People always think that good schooling is the key to success . So, many of these students try their best to get good grades in their tests. They have a lot of homework every day and tests are usually a big problem to them. Sometimes, a few students even have to go to evening classes after school because of the pressure of the tests. Students have many after-school activities to do at school, such as sports games, dance groups, swimming and rock-climbing. On weekends, they have enough time to do what they like. Most students like to listen to pop music. Hollywood films, Hong Kong and Singapore films are very popular, too. Some of them also spend free time surfing the Internet, e-mailing their friends, playing computer games. They sometimes go to cafes, fast food restaurants, shopping centers and big bookstores. They also join in community service . So life for students in Singapore is not easy but _ and colorful.

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Waiters wanted King Restaurant needs five waiters. If you want to find a new job, you can come here. Please call John at 678-5342. To get to the restaurant, you just have to cross North Road. It's next to the bank. Teachers wanted Do you want to be a teacher? Are you friendly to kids? Can you sing, dance or play the piano? We need a man teacher and a woman teacher to teach music. It's not difficult! Please call Mr. Clark at 415-3440. My lost pet My pet Nini is a small brown cat. I played ball games with Nini in Central Park last Saturday. Then she ran after the ball and did not come back. I am worried about her. If you see her, please call Sara at 283-2585. Thank you! Specials We have some great specials. We have different kinds of noodles, dumplings and soup. Would you like a big bowl of noodles for 12 yuan or a small one for just 8 yuan? You can also order our delicious chicken soup. It's only 9 yuan. Welcome to our restaurant! ,.

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Miss. Green taught Physics in a London school. Last month she explained to one of her classes about sound, and she decided to test them to see how well she did in her work. She said to them, "Now, I have a sister in Washington. If I was calling her on the telephone, and at the same time you were 20 metres away, and listened to me from the other side of the street, who would hear what I said earlier, my sister or you? And why?" The cleverest boy answered at once, "Your sister, Miss. Green, because electricity travels faster than sound waves." "That's very good." Miss. Green said. But then one of the girls put up her hand. Miss. Green said, "Yes, Betty?""I don't think so," Betty said. "Your sister would hear you earlier because when it's eleven o'clock here, it's six o'clock in Washington."

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An old lady went out shopping last Sunday. She came to a bank and saw a car near the door . A man got out of it and went into the bank . She looked into the car. The keys were in the lock. The old lady took the keys and followed the man into the bank. The man took a gun out of his pockets and said to the clerk , " Give me all the money . " But the old lady didn't see this. She went to the man and put the keys in his hand and said, " Young man , you're foolish . Never leave your keys in your car. Someone's going to steal it . " The man looked at the old woman for a few seconds. Then he looked at the clerk and then he took the keys and ran off the bank, got into his car and drove away quickly without any money . ,.

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My summer holiday began on July 5th. I didn't want to stay at home and did nothing in the hot summer. I called my grandma, and she asked me to go to her village. I was very happy with it. After four hours, I got to my grandma's house by bus. There are many trees around her house. I liked to play games with other children during the day. At night, people in the neighborhood often came and sat together to chat. My grandma liked telling stories. My new friends and I enjoyed her stories very much. There is a pool in the village. My friends and I often went there with some food and _ fish in the pool. Then we cooked the fish and had dinner there. It was not easy to catch fish, but it was interesting and exciting. I stayed there for about a month, and then I went back home.

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Mr Robin had his house in a tree. His four baby robins lived in it. They grew very fast. Soon the house was too little for them. "It is time for you to fly," said Mr Robin. "Oh, we can not fly," said the baby robins. "You can, if you try, " said Mr Robin. A robin tried. He flew into a tree. "Oh, how interesting!" said the little robin. "I like to fly. See me go!" Then the other robins tried. In a little while they could all fly. The robins could fly, but they could not sing. "No, Dad, we can not sing." "You can, if you try. Hear the other birds sing. Look at the pretty flowers and the blue sky. Then you will want to sing. Hear me sing to you. Now sing for me." One little robin sang. Then they all sang. A little girl came by. "Wow, hear the birds sing!" she said. "How happy they are!"

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