It was Sunday morning. A butcher（屠夫） 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（排骨）, 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（爪子） to push the "stop" button（按钮）.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（天才）."

    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! "

    There are four people in Simon's family. They have different habits.

    ◆ Simon's father is a doctor. He works in a hospital. He likes reading books very much. There are many books in his bedroom. He doesn't like going to the cinema.

    ◆ Simon's mother is a music teacher. She likes listening to music, but she has no time to go to concerts.

    ◆ Simon's brother is seven years old. He likes watching cartoons. He usually watches cartoons when his parents aren't at home.

    ◆ Simon is a middle school student. He likes playing football. He often plays football with his friends after school. He likes playing computer games at home. But he doesn't like watching TV.

Dear James,

    How are you? I want to tell you about the ways (方式) my family go to work or school. My parents are teachers, but they are not in the same school. My father's school is far from our home. It's about five kilometers. He drives his car to school every day. My mother usually walks to her school, because her school is near our home. I have two brothers, John and Peter. John is a high school student (高中生). He likes taking a bus to school. He thinks it is fun, because he can meet his friends and tall with them on the bus. It takes him thirty minutes to get to school. Peter and I are students in a middle school. My mother is in the school, too. I always go to school with Peter. We ride our bikes to school for ten minutes every school day.

    What about you? How do you get to school?

Yours,

Amy

Are you nervous when you stand in front of the public? Are you 1 to make a speech(演说;讲演)? Li Jun, a middle school student, felt shy 2 he was making a speech the other day. Li had thought it would be quite easy to speak in front of3 classmates.

"I was wrong. It was very different and much 4 than talking to my classmates during playtime,"Li said."I tried, but it was really difficult to speak. I felt like a mute(哑巴) and wanted to leave the classroom 5 ."Li is not alone. Many middle school students now have the same6 as Li. After class, most of them can7 their ideas freely with their best friends. But they8 speak well in public. According to Zhou Hong, a teacher from a university, the main reason is that schools in China pay more attention to writing than 9 .

Zhou hopes schools can give students more chances to open their10 such as speech competitions, English corners and class discussions.11 can join in any one.12 he also gives some advice to students."During your free time, you should13 more. When you're speaking in public, take it easy. Just imagine you're talking to 14 and speak out your ideas clearly," Zhou said."That15 a fine public speech and you'll feel confident."

My son, Kevin, loved wrestling (摔跤运动) as he was growing up. When he entered high school, he showed a lot of athletic ability. Even as a freshman wrestler, we could see the hope of his future, and he went on to improve each year. As a senior, he'd become the leader of a team that set an unbelievable record. Just as we expected, he went into the state tournament (锦标赛). 

Then he won four matches and ranked number one. Here we were, in the finals of the state tournament, ready to win our championship—we still didn't have a state championship when his high school career was over. 

Unluckily, his last match didn't go well! I felt terrible, and I was unwilling to accept what had just happened and unable to believe it. I painfully watched Kevin as he shook hands with his opponent (对手) and stood calmly as the judge raised his opponent's hand in victory. Then he quietly walked out of the gym. 

A few weeks later, I received a letter from Kevin's school. In the letter, the principal praised Kevin's devotion to his team, his respect to his opponents and his spirit of competition. After I read this, I cried. 

For years, I had watched every single match where Kevin had wrestled in high school, but I hadn't noticed all the outstanding qualities that his principal (校长) mentioned. I always focused on the wins. And when he didn't get that final win, I was especially hurt and disappointed. I'd failed to realize that Kevin was working hard to achieve victories, but always performing with character no matter whether he won or lost. 

At that moment, my son became my mentor (导师). He taught me that winners in life appreciate the pursuit more than the victory itself. 

My name's Monifo, a boy from the USA. Amy is my friend. She's Chinese. She lives with her family. We are in the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} grade but we are not in the same class. She often {#blank#}2{#/blank#} basketball with me after class and I think she is very nice.

We have many {#blank#}3{#/blank#} at school but art is our favorite. I like red but it's not my favorite. Amy and I have the same favorite {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. It's green. But we don't like white or brown. At Amy's house, we do our homework first. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Amy watches TV with me. Amy's grandma calls her Mei Jing— that's her Chinese name. And she thinks it is very cool to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} two names.

This Sunday I go with Amy to her {#blank#}7{#/blank#} house. There are many people in the house. They are her aunts, uncles and cousins. I think it's someone's (某人的) {#blank#}8{#/blank#}, but Amy says her big family often eat dinner together(一起). I learn to use(使用) chopsticks(筷子) here. Chinese use{#blank#}9{#/blank#} to eat meals but we use knives and forks(叉子). It's {#blank#}10{#/blank#} interesting!