Ann is a girl. 1 from Chicago, the USA. She's twelve. She 2 a round face and a small mouth. Her eyes  3 very big. He 4 blue very much. Blue T-shirt and skirt are 5  favorite clothes. She's  6 blue every day. She's very cool. Now, she's a high school student in Hong Kong. She's in 7. Her telephone number is 72585069. JiangShan is her good friend. She's 8. She's from Beijing. She's eleven. She's a high school student 9, but she's in a different class. Her telephone number is 6325625. Her 10 is in Beijing now. Beijing is very beautiful.

    It's Christmas at Clara's home. Many guests arrive to celebrate with the family. Clara's godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, makes toys. He gives Clara a very special gift of a 1 . Her brother, Fritz, is 2 . He takes the nutcracker away and it gets broken! After all the guests leave and the children go to bed, Clara 3 up at night and goes downstairs to get her nutcracker under the tree. She 4 asleep there. She dreams that all her toys come to life and are fighting against the bad Mouse King. The Nutcracker flies to 5 young Clara, but is struck down. Clara saves her Nutcracker by 6 her shoe at the Mouse King.

    With the Mouse King out of the way, Clara runs to the Nutcracker. When she kisses him, he turns into a prince! Then she and her prince enjoy a 7 trip along which they see dancing snowflakes and are welcomed by sweets.

    On Christmas morning, Clara wakes under the 8 holding her nutcracker. This story of Nutcracker is very popular,9 with kids. It was made into a ballet. Russian 10Tchaikovsky composed his beautiful music and that is one of the reasons why people love to watch it. See it at the theatre and yo'll find the story is also told by beautiful dances, rather than just words.

    Maxime and Lise are a young French couple. They are ready to travel across China from Beijing to Yunnan Province on a tandem bicycle (双人自行车). They have two main purposes and one of them is that they want to encourage green 1 through it.

    Maxime, 26, works helping farmers raise their cows, 2his wife Lise, 26, is a teacher. The two also like sharing their travel stores on Facebook.

    We chose a tandem bicycle because it makes it 3 to communicate with each other about interesting people and things we come across during the journey. 4, bicycling is healthier. And it's a cheaper and more environment-friendly way of traveling than 5 cars, motors and so on, “the couple said.

    As for the other 6of their journey, the two said they wanted to get people's good ideas on topics such as health, econnmy (经济) and politics. When they were asked 7they chose to visit China, they said it was because they often talked about its long history and beauty and how much of the country is competitive (有竞争力的) in the world.

    We know China is a country with a large population and will be the 8 of the economy around the world in the future. We want to get a better understanding of the country and its people. We 9the country,” they said.

    The couple will be on the journey to China soon. We hope they can make more people further 10 China by shairing what they see and hear on the way. Meanwhile. We hope they enjoy their travel in China.

    When I was in high school, I didn't do well in my schoolwork at first.1 I wanted to go to college. I went to talk with my favorite teacher. He told 2 that there might be no chance for me to go to college. It made me very 3 .

    But I didn't give up (放弃). I might not be able to get into 4 . But I wouldn't stop 5 . Then I found that my 6 in the past was spending too much time on science. I was not good at my schoolwork, because I wasn't working hard on all 7 .

    So during the following semesters I 8 my plan. I spent more time in studying English, math and other subjects. I worked hard by 9 to the teachers carefully in class and doing more exercises after class. Now I am studying at college.

    If you are not doing well at school at the moment, don't 10 . Forget the past years and restart (重新开始) now! I believe all your dreams can come true.

    Jane is a lovely girl and likes small animals. She often walks to school. There is a pet shop near her home.

    On 1 way back from school every afternoon, She always stops in front of the pet shop to 2 the animals. She likes the 3 there. One of them is a little white dog and Jane likes it 4. She likes watching the white dog 5 in the cage. So she often forgets the time and goes back home very 6. But her parents don't know the 7.

    One day, her parents asked 8 she was late. Jane told them about the dogs in the pet shop.

    The next day, Jane 9 to watch the dogs as usual, but she could not 10 the white dog. She was very 11 and went home early. When she got home, her mother 12 her a big cake and her father 13 her a present.

    It was the white dog. How 14 she was! It was her birthday. Jane was very happy. From that day on, she did not come home 15 any more. She ran home early to play with her dog.

    Once when Kevin was selling hats under a big tree, the monkeys in the tree picked some hats and put them on. So Kevin took off his own hat and threw 1on the ground. The stupid monkeys threw their hats too! Kevin soon 2 all the hats and left happily.

    Fifty years later, young Tony, 3of Kevin, also sold hats for a living. 4 a long walk, Tony was tired, so he put his bag of hats beside him and lay down under a big tree, He was soon 5 

    When he woke up, Tony found that there weren't any hats in his bag! Tony started looking for his hats. To his 6 , he found some monkeys in the tree wearing his hats.

    Tony didn't know what to do.  Then he remembered the story his grandfather7to tell him. "Yes! I can fool these monkeys!" thought Tony. "I'll 8 them imitate(模仿) me and very soon I will get all my hats back !"

    Tony then waved at the monkeys, and the monkeys waved at him. Tony started dancing, the monkeys were also dancing. Tony threw his hat on the ground.

    Just then, one of the monkeys jumped down 9the tree, picked up the hat Tony threw on the ground and 10up to .Tony. He said, "Do you think only you have a grandfather?"