William Shakespeare was a writer of plays and poems. Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth. He wrote thirty-seven plays in all. They are still popular today.

He was born in 1564 in England. At school he liked watching plays. He decided to be an actor when he finished school at the age of fourteen. In 1582, he married a farmer's daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left his hometown, Stratford- upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

    At twenty-eight he moved to London and joined a theatre company which opened the Globe Theatre in 1599. He became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. He earned almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With the money he bought a large house in his hometown.

    At the age of forty-nine，Shakespeare retired (退休）and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died at the age of fifty-two. He left his money to his family. He left his genius to the world. You still see his plays in English and in many other languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the world.

       Doctor Seuss was born in 1904. By the middle 1950s, he had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. His books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.

In l954, Life Magazine published(刊登) a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss strongly hoped to help children and decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. He did not receive training in art. Yet, he drew the pictures for most of his books.

    In l957, Doctor Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a six-year-old should be able to read it. It was a fun stow and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today it is still one of his stories they like best. In l 960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words. The book is called Green Eggs and Ham.

    In l984, Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize(普利策奖). He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents.

    He died at the age of 87, but his influence remains. Millions of his books have been sold worldwide. People say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages.

    Leon was a postman. Every day after Leon woke up, he would feed his 37 cats. Leon didn't really want 37 cats, but one by one they had turned up on his doorstep, and Leon had taken them in.

    Every day, after feeding the cats, Leon would collect the mail from the red postboxes in the village and take it home to sort（分类）. “If only I had 37 helpers instead of 37 cats, my job would be so much easier,” Leon thought. Just then, the cats started meowing for their dinner. That gave Leon an idea. That night, Leon stayed up making 37 cat-sized postal backpacks. Each backpack fitted neatly onto a cat's back. Then, he went around to each postbox, putting signs up that read: Postbox closed. Please use the Postal Cat Service.

    The next day, Leon put a backpack on each cat and dropped off the cats around the village. Leon knew that the cats would be happy lazing around all day. He also knew that they would always come home for dinner. Leon spent the day relaxing, waiting for his helpers to return. Leon was right. The cats did return, but they did not bring home many letters. Somehow, the cats had managed to wriggle（蜿蜒而行） out of their backpacks. Or lose their letters. Or get the letters wet. “Cats are just too unreliable（不可靠的）” Leon thought. Just then, there was a scratching（刮擦声） at Leon's door. A dog was waiting to be invited inside. That gave Leon an idea.

    As we all know there are all kinds of clubs in US middle schools, such as music club, sports club, chess club, swimming club. But do you know homework club? It is a popular club in many US middle schools. More and more students spend(花费) their afternoons at homework clubs. The US middle school students need a quiet place to study. But games, computers and TVs are all around kids at home. So the homework club is just for them to do their homework. The club is quiet and it's good for students to study. Some teachers are there, too. They can answer students' questions and help with their homework.

    After the students finish their homework, they can go home. Then they can play games or watch TV happily.

Students should like vacations. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} last week, I asked some students what they did last summer vacation. Their answers surprised me a lot. Some said they just {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (stay) at home and played computer games all day. Some said they had many classes in summer school. And many students even said their vacation was {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(real) boring. The summer vacation this year is coming soon. Do you want to have a better one? Here {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (be) some tips(小建议) for you.

First, find out what you are interested in and join some clubs. Next, it's just right {#blank#}5{#/blank#} spending some time and money on some trips. Learn to be {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (friend)when you meet new friends.

If your parents take you to another country, try to learn a {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (two) language.Take some photos of the beautiful places along the way. Finally, remember to finish your homework on time{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(know) more about your new lessons in Grade Eight.

I am sure if you can use {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (you) time well and have a good plan, you will have{#blank#}10{#/blank#}wonderful summer vacation.

It's Sunday afternoon and the weather is sunny and hot, My friends and I are in a large and beautiful park. We' re having a good time. 

Jack and Tom are swinging. Steve, Alice, John and Tim are playing hide-and-seek (捉迷藏). Rose, Mary and Lisa are skipping (跳绳). They re good at skipping. Susan is reading a book. Tina and Kate are chasing after my pet dog. They 're running around happily. 

We can see a lot of people in the park. Some are running and some are walking slowly. Look!

A boy and a girl are drawing pictures. Their parents are sitting next to them. They' re talking about something. 

Everyone is having a good time in the park. The park is a great place to have fun.