One day a lonely girl found two weak birds while she was walking in the woods (树林). She took them home and put them in a small cage. She fed them with love and the birds grew strong. Every morning they greeted her with a beautiful song. The girl loved them very much and wanted their singing to last forever.

One day the girl left the cage's door open. The 1arger and stronger of the two birds flew out of the cage. The girl watched worriedly as it circled (盘旋) high above her. She was afraid that it would fly away and she would never see it again. So when it flew close, she grasped (抓) at it wildly. She was very happy that she held it tightly within her hand! Suddenly, she felt something had happened to the bird. She opened her hand and was surprised to find the bird was dead. Her love for the bird killed it.
She noticed the other bird jumping in the cage. She could feel that it wanted to be free. It hoped to fly into the clear, blue sky. She lifted (举起) it from the cage and flew it into the air. The bird circled once, twice, three times …
When the bird was flying happily in the sky, she was so glad. Just then the bird flew closer and sat softly on her shoulder. It sang the sweetest song she had ever heard.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold it tight. The best way to keep love is to let it fly!

    April 13^th, 1539

    Outside Mexico City

Dear Mariana,

    Today we arrived safe. It was a long and dangerous trip over the ocean. The winter storms were strong. We were always a little sick from high waves.

    The journey from the shore to Mexico City is also long and dangerous. There are robbers in the countryside. We will travel together with the other ship passengers, thinking we will be safer as a group. Tomorrow we will travel into the city to find our uncle.

    Father says it will take a year for this letter to reach you. The trip from New Spain to Spain is very long.

Your loving brother,

Tomas

    April 20^th, 1539

    Mexico City

Dear Mariana,

    Father and I finally arrived at Mexico City. Here, old buildings are being pulled down; new ones are being built. Just around the corner from Uncle's city house, Aztec workers are pulling down a small, beautiful pyramid. Father says it is one of the last Aztec temples.

    In the center of the city, I met an Aztec boy named Carlos. He speaks a little Spanish. Carlos learns Spanish at his new school. He told me that the Spanish set up new schools for the Aztecs. There he got his new name, Carlos. He says he likes his new school but misses his old city. I wonder what this city used to be like before Cortes came.

    Tomorrow we will go to Uncle's farmland. He and father are talking about the Aztec workers that father will oversee.

Your brother,

Tomas

found v. 建立        battle n. 战役        conquer v. 征服

D

    He Jiang, a postgraduate（研究生）in biology. will become the first Chinese student to give a speech in the commencement(毕业典礼)at Harvard University on May 26, 2016.

    Given the highest honor by the university, He Jiang, who was born in a small village in Hunan province, said, "People in China often believe that it's useless to study and children from the countryside cannot be successful in the future. However, I cannot agree with them. Education can change a person's life. I hope my experience can encourage the students from the countryside to spare no effort in study and make their dreams come true."

    Different from many other families in the village, his parents never thought about finding a job in big cities and leaving their two sons at home without their care. His father was strict about their studies. He and his younger brother studied at home while the other kids in the village played in the fields. Unlike his strict father, his mother took her sons' side when her husband scolded the boys. She preferred to sit with her sons when they studied rather than chat with other women in the village.

    Getting the chance to speak at the commencement is no accident. During his first days in Harvard, it was quite difficult for him to follow the professors in class and he was speechless in campus because of his poor English. Instead of giving up, He Jiang spent all his free time on English. He also made friends with natives to improve his speaking English. One year later, he had little difficulty in class and soon became one of the top students in his class. With the encouragement from Professor Diana Eck. He Jiang decided to apply(申请）for the chance to speak at the commencement.“Few Chinese students had applied before, but I wanted to have a try. I just want to realize my idea of letting more people hear the voice from China and telling them that China is not what it used to be." said He Jiang. After beating three students from Harvard Kennedy School in the third and final round, He Jiang made it to get the chance to speak at the commencement.

    He Jiang will go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology after graduating from Harvard.

    Mr. and Mrs. Black opened a small restaurant. In order to attract (吸引) customers, they put a notice in front of the restaurant that said "Meals on the House for Three Days."

    A foreign student who didn't know much English happened to pass by the restaurant on the second day. It was lunch time and he felt very hungry. "Well, here is a restaurant. I am going to have something to eat."

    He walked towards the restaurant when he saw the notice. "American people are really strange. They even eat dinners on their houses. But how can I get up to the top of the house?" he said to himself.

    He looked around and found a ladder against a tree nearby. He started climbing up. But as he reached the top，he heard someone shouting at him.

    "Hey, what are you doing up there?" Mr. Black shouted at him. Next to him was a policeman.

    "Doesn't your notice say? "Meals on the House for Three Days'? Is it just a joke?" the foreign student answered.

    On hearing this, both Mr. Black and the policeman laughed. "Do you know what ON THE HOUSE means? Look it up in the dictionary," the policeman said.

    If you want to study in a foreign country, you have to think about where to live. Because I'm still too young to rent a flat by myself. I am living with a homestay family in Canada and I feel like I'm part of the family.

    I had a homestay in 2013 for the first time. During that time, I stayed in Ajax, a town in Canada for a week with a homestay family. Carlton lives with his nephew and hisniece-in-law9侄子和侄媳妇）.Carlton drove me to a school to learn about Canadian culture every morning, and he picked me up in the afternoons. Our free time was in the evening. The meals he made for me were delicious and we usually watched a movie after dinner. I couldn't forget the life there although I didn't live there for a long time.

    I'm now living with a Hungarian（匈牙利）family with another Chinese boy. There are two family members — Mrs. Perger and her son, Robert. I've already lived here for nine months. Once, my roommate went running and didn't come back for a long time. Mrs. Perger called him, but he didn't answer the phone. She began to worry about him and cry. Fortunately, he was fine and got back home later. I was deeply moved.

    However, living with a homestay family also has some problems. when you live with a foreign family, you live a lifestyle different from your own family's. It may take you a long time to get used to (习惯于)it.

    Living with a homestay family teaches me how to communicate with different people and what we should do when different lifestyles and cultures meet together.

    A feral child is a child who, from a young age, has lived with animals in the wild. What makes wild animals adopt these children and raise them as their own is a mystery. Since feral children have often had no contact with humans for a long time, they may be more like wild animals than people. Their stories, although often upsetting can teach us how people learn and use language — and perhaps even what it means to be human.

    In Uganda in 1991, a tribeswoman saw a naked boy living with a troop of wild monkeys in the jungle. The woman was shocked and quickly told the people in her village about the boy. When they tried to take him away from the monkeys, the frightened boy threw sticks at them and climbed up a tree to hide. The monkeys fought fiercely, trying to stop the tribesmen from taking him away, but they did not succeed.

    After his "rescue", the boy was taken to Kamuzinda Chritan Orphanage, outside Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. He was identified as John Ssabunnya, a boy who had disappeared three years earlier after his mother was murdered and his father went missing. John was only two years old when he disappeared.

    John couldn't speak when he arrived at the orphanage. It was obvious that he did not know how to act in a human way-- he knew only how to behave like a monkey. However, he soon began to talk and was found to have a beautiful singing voice.

    John shot to fame at the age of fourteen, when he toured the UK with a children's choir(合唱队). "His is a remarkable story. One day it could even be made into a film." said tour organizer Hillary Cook.