Mr. Evens works in Sydney. Last week he had a two--week holiday, but he didn't know where to go. He said to his friend Robert, "I hate the hot weather here, but I can't find a cool place in Australia. How will I spend my holiday?"

    "That's easy," said Robert. "You'd better go to Moscow. Snow and ice are covering the ground now."

Mr. Evens agreed with his friend. He bought an air ticket and soon arrived in Moscow. He made a happy journey there. But one day, he got into trouble. After lunch he w ent to a park outside the city. He saw a dog following him while he was walking past a house. It was hungry and wished him to give it some food to eat. Bad luck! He had no piece of bread or cake in his pockets. He tried to send it away, but it began to bark at him. He wanted to look for a stick but couldn't find anything except snow and ice. Suddenly he saw a stone in the ground. He tried to pick it up but he failed.

    "How strange Russians are!" Mr. Evens said to himself. "They do not tie their dogs, but firmly (牢牢地) tie the ground!"

    When my first wartime Christmas came, I was in basic training in New Jersey and not sure if I would make it home for the holidays. Only on the afternoon of December 23 was the list of men who would have the three-day holiday posted. I was one of the lucky soldiers. It was Christmas Eve when I arrived home, and a little snow had fallen. Mother opened the front door. I could see beyond her, into the corner of the living room where the tree had always stood, there were lights, all colors, and ornaments (饰品) shining against the green of a pine.

    “Where did it come from?” I asked.

    “I asked the Gates boy to cut it,” my mother said. “I wouldn't have had one just for myself, but when in great need…such a rush! He just brought it in this afternoon.”

    The pine reached to the proper height, almost to the ceiling, and the Tree Top Crystal Star was in its place. A few green branches reached out a little awkwardly(难看) at the side, I thought, and there was a bit of bare trunk showing in the middle. But the tree filled the room with warm light and the whole house with the pleasant smell of Christmas.

    “It's not like the one you used to find,” my mother went on. “Yours were always in good shape. I suppose the Gates boy didn't know where to look for a better one. But I couldn't be fussy because he had tried his best.”

    “Don't worry,” I told her. “It's perfect.”

    It wasn't, of course, but at the moment I realized something for the first time: all Christmas trees are perfect.

    Joseph Sekar is 62 years old and he is in India(印度). He feeds thousands of parrots(鹦鹉) every day. And he has got himself another new and interesting name "birdman".

    Joseph always left small number of rice on the top of his house. The neighborhood parrots often came to eat them. One day two parrots flew in and Joseph fed them some rice. The birds not only returned the following day, but also brought along other hungry friends. Today between 2,000~4,000 beautiful parrots visit the birdman twice a day.

    Joseph does not feed the birds raw(生的) rice. He cooks the rice! This means that the amazing man usually gets up at 4:30 am every morning and spends over an hour making the breakfast for birds. He then puts the rice on 14 boards on the top of his house carefully.

The breakfast rush begins at about 6:00 am when the beautiful parrots fly in and continues until every last piece of the delicious rice is gone! The similar situation happens in the evening when the birds arrive at around 4:00 pm and stay for almost two hours. Not only the superman feeds them, but also takes in sick and hurt birds and nurses them back to health.

    Of course, feeding so many birds is not a cheap job. Joseph spends 40% of his income(收入) of $13 as a camera repairman on the meals every day. The superman says all of his actions come out of a feeling of love.

    Though Joseph has no plans to stop the action now, he does worry about what will happen to the beautiful birds as he gets older and is unable to go on.

    Once upon a time, a boy was walking through a wood and he thought he could hear a sad cry. Following the sound be came to a big, round, mysterious, grey fountain. The sad sound seemed to be coming from the fountain pool. The boy swept aside the pool's dirty surface water and saw a group of grey fish swimming in a slow circle through the pond.

    Amused by this, the boy tried to catch one of these incredible talking fish. But when be stuck his arm into the water it turned grey right up to the elbow. As this happened, a huge sadness entered into him, and he suddenly understood how sad the fish were feeling.

    He quickly pulled his am out of the water, and ran from that place. But the arm stayed grey, and the boy continued feeling sad. He tried so many times to cheer himself up, but nothing worked. That was, until he realized that if he were to make the earth happy then that happiness would be, in turn, transmitted back to him through the earth on his arm.

    From then on, he at about looking after countryside. He cared for the plants, and he did what he could to keep the water from being polluted. He encouraged others to do the same. He was so successful that his arm started to recover its normal color. When the grey had disappeared completely, he started feeling happy again, and be decided to go and visit the fountain. When he was still some way from the fountain he could hear the fish singing happily.

Last night，John went to a welcome party for foreign students. In the {#blank#}1{#/blank#}something funny happened. He met a Japanese boy {#blank#}2{#/blank#}was called Sato. He didn't know {#blank#}3{#/blank#}the Japanese are supposed to greet each other. As soon as he held out his hand, the boy {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. He just stood there, embarrassed, with his hand out. But finally he {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the bow.

Last weekend, Katie met her French friend Marie for the first time. She did the {#blank#}6{#/blank#}as John did, holding out her hand. To her great surprise, Marie kissed her on {#blank#}7{#/blank#} sides of her face. She also felt embarrassed. Later she came to know that {#blank#}8{#/blank#}people are supposed to kiss when they meet each other.

Li Hua went to the Capital International Airport to meet Tony Garcia from Colombia and Julia Smith {#blank#}9{#/blank#} Britain. After Li met them and introduced {#blank#}10{#/blank#}to each other，Tony went {#blank#}11{#/blank#}to Julia, touched her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. She stepped{#blank#}12{#/blank#} appearing surprised and put up her hands, as if in defense(防卫)!

These actions are not good {#blank#}13{#/blank#}bad, but they are simply ways that cultures have developed. Studying international customs can certainly help avoid difficulties in today's world of cultural crossroads!

My name is Sally. I am a junior high school student from Guangdong. My school life is very busy but exciting. I have eight lessons a day. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But my favourite subject is labour(劳动). I have two labour classes every week. I like labour classes because I can learn much from them.

In June 2024, some junior high school students in Guangzhou visited the Guangdong Museum. As for my school, we also go out of the classroom to learn new things. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}It is usually from 17th to 22nd in September. 

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} We can plant some trees and flowers. We clean our school. We also learn to cook. Now I can cook tomato and egg noodles. It's easy. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} And I can cook the noodles by myself when my parents are not at home.

Sometimes we also go to the farm and help farmers. 

We can pick some fruit and vegetables. We learn that the work on the farm is difficult. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Having labour classes makes us learn something new. I love labour classes so much.