This is the story of a little fir(冷杉) tree that dreamed of growing up so that he could be a Christmas tree for humans. The other older trees knew more about life and they told him that being a Christmas tree for humans wasn't as good as he thought. But the little fir tree didn't believe them.

    He was so pleased that day when some children came in with their parents to pick a fir tree as their Christmas tree to decorate the living room. The children adored him at first sight. So he was dug up and brought into the living room. After they finished decorating him, the little fir tree shone with a hundred lights. Christmas was getting closer and everyone admired (欣赏) the little Christmas tree.

    He was the prince of the living room, but he started to lose his leaves after January. Nobody looked at him or touched him. The fir tree started to feel sad that he had been chosen by the family. After several days, the little fir tree was replanted in the family's backyard. He was so happy to be back in the good old earth! In the following years, the family dug him up again to put him back into the living room as their Christmas tree and then replanted him. He was very happy with his new family. And yes, in the end the older trees were wrong. Some humans are good after all.

    I graduated from a college recently and moved to Washington by myself.  While I was in college, it was really easy to meet new people. But “out in the real world”, I was finding it really hard. I live in a big city, and it seems like everyone around me is busy or already has all the friends they want. I was feeling so discouraged (沮丧的) and I didn't know what to do, so I called my sister for some advice.

    My sister is five years older than I am, so she's been though all this already. She's been helping me with my problems all my life. When I explained my problem, she understood completely. She said, “Why don't you try meeting people online?”

  “Online? Are you kidding? ” I asked, “A friend of mine chatted with a guy online, and when she finally met him face to face, he was nothing like what he said.”

    My sister laughed, “You don't have to look for dates online,” she said, “But you can find other people like you—people who have just moved to town and want make some new friends. When I first moved to New York after college, I found a book club and a football team online. I met a lot of people that way. ”

    “But you don't even like football!” I said. 

    “I know,” she replied, “But that didn't matter. I still had a lot of fun. You played volleyball in college. Why don't you look for a volleyball team to join?  Or an art class? ”

    “Yeah! I saw a website about volunteering the other day,” I said, “I could volunteer for an organization here in Washington. I bet I could meet a lot of really nice people that way. ”

    “Good idea!” my sister answered excitedly. “Hey, you might even meet the perfect guy.”

    “OK, now you're starting to sound like Mom,” I said. “Thanks a lot for the advice. I'm going online right now. I'll let you know what happens. Will you be home tonight?”

    “No, but I'll be here all day tomorrow, so give me a call,” my sister replied. “Good luck!”

    Sammy looked out of the classroom window at a bird in a tree. He saw a worm (小虫) in the bird's mouth. "Wow!" he whispered as he looked at the bird eating the worm.

    "Sammy!" his teacher Mr. Maxwell said loudly.

    Sammy jumped and knocked his science book off his desk. Everyone in the class laughed and Sammy blushed. This was the third time today he had been caught not paying attention to the science lesson. It was just so easy to get distracted (分心的) when people read aloud from the science textbook!

    It wasn't that Sammy didn't like science. He loved to learn about machines, Earth and animals. He even thought bugs and plants were great. He wanted to go outside and see how a snake lived. He wanted to watch plants growing from the ground as they did last month. He just didn't want to read about these things.

    Sammy thought Mr. Maxwell would surely understand. "There was a bird with a worm in its mouth..." Sammy began. Then he saw the furious look on his teacher's face. Sammy decided that he had better stop talking before Mr. Maxwell became any angrier.

    It was the best plan ever. First, we would make sure she was out of the house. Then we would get all the work done. By the time she got back, it would be wonderful. So we got to work. How to get her out of the house? Well, we came up with a good idea. We told her that we needed some school things. She went out to get them.

    The first part of the plan was done. Next, we called aunts, uncles and Mum's friends to come to our house quickly and made sure there were no signs that they were there. We put all their shoes away. Then we cleaned the house and hung(悬挂)the balloons. The house really looked nice. Then we waited.

    When we heard her car driving up the porch(门廊), we became quiet. The moment the door opened, we shouted, "Surprise!" The look on her face was worth ten thousand dollars. Smiling and crying at the same time, she hugged all who were there. Lastly, she came to us. She said, "My best present of all is my two lovely daughters." And she hugged us happily.

While Li Ming was in America, he went with his class to visit a space centre. There he heard an astronaut, Piers Sellers, talk about his journey into space. 

Piers told them all about his trip on the space shuttle Discovery. When Li Ming saw Piers, he had just returned to earth after a 13-day journey to the International Space Station. 

Astronauts have to spend years in training before they can go into space. Piers waited a long time before the 'big day'. Piers had been excited but also very nervous before the take-off. He said, "It's difficult to keep calm(平静的) and relaxed during the count-down（倒计时）. The take-off was very frightening. "

Piers said that being in outer space was amazing. He saw the sun and all the planets. He saw the galaxy（银河）with its billions of stars. Unfortunately（遗憾地），he couldn't see China's Great Wall. When Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, went into space, he couldn't see it either. But the earth still looked 'very beautiful'. 

Life was different in space. The food tasted fine but it was like baby food. The astronauts had to eat out of a toothpaste tube（牙膏管）. It was difficult to brush their teeth or have a shower. Water floats（漂浮） in bubbles（气泡） in space. There was a special 'air toilet'. 

Besides all the work Piers had to do, they exercised on exercise bikes and rowed for about two hours every day. Piers also kept a diary. 

A German astronaut stayed at the International Space Station to work for another six months. Piers had to return, but he was glad to be back. His journey into space was a wonderful experience. But he said that now he just wanted to spend time with his family and have a good meal without if floating away!

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