In English, the spelling of words does not always represent(代表)the sound. And some words seem to have too many letters. An American called Noah Webster wanted to do something for the development of English, so he began his work on it. His first book,  The Elementary(基础的)Spelling Book, suggested making the spelling of English words easy. The book was very popular. In fact, Webster is famous for his American Dictionary of the English Language. This dictionary came out in 1828 after it was completed. It introduced lots of new American words, with information about their pronunciation, use and the new spelling. Today,  Webster's dictionary is still widely used in English-speaking countries.

① Tian Yi Pavilion (天一阁) is in the center of the city. Xu Zheng wants to write a report about the history of Ningbo. He needs to go to Tian Yi Pavilion to look for some information (信息). There is a bus station near his home.          

②Wang Hao Lives in Shanghai. He likes travelling (旅游). So he is going to Beijing. He'd like to get there quickly. He is sure he will have fun in Beijing.               

③This month Yuan Fang will visit her grandparents in her hometown (家乡). It's about 1,000 kilometers away. Yuan Fang wants to get there in 10 hours. And she can enjoy the sights (风景) along the way.        

④Guo Jing likes taking photos. She likes the photos of rivers and mountains best. She is very happy that her parents will take her to the Three Gorges (三峡). She wishes she can take many photos when they're travelling on the water.           

    195 countries reached an agreement(协议) on Dec. 12, 2015 after two weeks' talks in Paris. They talked about climate(气候) change. It is the first time in history that most of the world's countries, rich or poor, promised to take action to deal with climate problems.

    Below is a chart showing where the greenhouse gas(温室气体) comes from.

Where is greenhouse gas from?

    The Paris Agreement(巴黎协定) sets up a goal of cutting down the earth temperature to less than 2℃. If the warming gets above 2℃， there will be serious problems on the earth like natural disasters.

The agreement also asks countries to volunteer to do things. For developed countries, they will do even more. They have a plan to offer over 100 billion dollars to help poorer countries to develop clean energy like water and wind power.

    However, the Paris Agreement won't solve earth warming by itself. The future also depends on how well each country will carry out their promises.

    I'm Anna, This is my sister Lily's room. It is always tidy(整洁). This is her desk and that is a chair under the desk. That is a bookcase on the desk. You can see many(许多) books and model planes in it. My brother Paul makes(制作) these model planes for her. Look at the tape player on the desk. It is white. Where are the tapes? They are in her bag. Where is her bag? It is on the chair.

    Do you wear large T-shirts and baggy jeans? Or do you like rap? If your answers are “yes”, I think you like Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop is very hot now.

    Hip-Hop music started in the middle of the 1970s in New York. It is a kind of popular dance music with a regular beat (规律的节奏) and spoken words. The music, break-dancing and graffiti(涂鸦) make up Western Hip-Hop culture. Most of the Hip-Hop songs are about love, jobs or even games.

    Usually in rap, singers speak words very quickly to a certain beat. Most of the words are fun. Singers play off words to make fun of themselves or others. Hip-Hop music has few rules. Singers just do what they think and rap it out in a clever or creative way. That's why a lot of kids fall in love with the music. Many of them like wearing large T-shirts and baggy jeans. Today Hip-Hop is more and more popular across most of the world.

    Reading is fun! Besides for fun, we can also analyze (分析) texts to learn more from the texts and more about the texts. One way we can do this is by finding out the theme of the texts.

    The theme of a text is the "big idea" that runs through the text, connecting the characters and events. It is what the writer wants to tell us through the story. Usually the theme of a text isn't told directly, you have to use clues (线索) in the text to find it out. 83 Themes can be ideas like family, friendship, love and so on. The theme might not be just one word, but it might be an idea such as "Friendship is important." There may also be more than one theme in a story. How can we find out the theme of a text? The following steps may help you.

    Read through the whole text, usually characters change as the story goes on, so the theme you get at the beginning might not be true at the end! For this reason, you need to read through the whole text first.

    Find out the clue after reading the whole text, try to answer the following questions. What important events happened during the story? What was the problem? How did the problem get solved? How did the character(s) change? What did the character(s) learn? The answers may help you to get the clues.

    Get the big idea Read again for the writer's purpose of the text by answering the following questions. Was most of the plot(情节) around friendship? Did the characters solve problems with their families? Did the main character learn the importance of friendship? If one of the answers is "yes", you may get the big idea.

    Check the big idea out If you've found a "big idea", go through the text to find the evidence( 证 据 ) that supports this idea in the text. For example, if there was only one small problem with a character's family, then "family" might not be the theme of the text. You might find more evidence for other themes.

    Have you got the way to find out the theme of a text? 84 Get your favorite book quickly and see if you can find the theme out!