Dear Xiao Fang，

    How time flies! It is two years since you moved to America for your study. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    How happy we are! During your staying in America, little companions(小伙伴们 ) kept complaining,"There is no one to play with." Huang Lei talked about the little woods where we

    often played together. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Each time I saw your empty house next door, I held back tears. How much I have missed the days when we played in the woods behind our houses, where we dug up some worms, chasing the birds. I still remember we slipped down along the stream, feeling the spray(浪花) on our faces.

    After reading your letter, Huang Lei and I came up with an idea. How about our families spending a week's vacation together this summer? {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It is located between the downtown of Chunxi and Wulin Town where we used to have fun. July will be the best month for us, so we must enjoy freedom and joy for a long time. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    I can't wait to look forward to the time when we meet again

Yours

Xiao Mei

    My name is Tommy Wang. T-O-M-M-Y, Tommy, W-A-N-G, Wang. I am a Chinese boy. My telephone number is 85523963. My telephone is white. Look! This is my pencil box. ① It's big and beautiful. It's white. What's in it? This is ② ___________ eraser. It's white. This is a pencil. It's white. ③ This is a ruler. It's white, too. I like white. I like green, too. Look! ④ My schoolbag is green. My notebook is green, too. But my favorite color is white.

    This is my good friend. His name is John. ⑤ He is English. Linda is John's sister. I like my friend. I like English.

    O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen（偷）it. Because of that, he was sent to prison（监狱）. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales（故事）were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader's surprise.

    If you ask people of different countries "Could you tell me the way to the post office?" you will get different answers.

    In Japan, people use landmarks（路标）instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, "Go straight down to the corner. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The post office is across from the bus stop. "

    In Kansas, America, there are no towns or buildings within miles. So instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distance. For example, people will say, "Go north two miles. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} "

    People in Greece sometimes do not even try to give directions. They will often say, "Follow me." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Sometimes if a person doesn't know the answer to your question, he or she might say, "Sorry, I have no idea." But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers "I don't know." {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They usually give an answer, but often a wrong one. A visitor can often get lost in Yucatan!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You might not understand a person's words, but maybe you can understand his or her body language. He or she will usually point to the right direction. Go on in that direction and you may find the post office!

    Good news or bad news? It depends on how you see things. You can be angry after being cheated. Or you can choose to move on with your life …

    Robert De Vincenzo, the great golfer (高尔夫球手), once won a competition, after receiving the check (支票) and smiling for the cameras, he went to the club and got ready to leave. While he was walking alone to his car in the parking lot, a middle-aged woman came over to him.

She said "congratulations" to him and then told him that her child was seriously ill and near death. She did not know how she could pay the doctor's bills.

    De Vincenzo was touched by her story, and he took out a pen and signed his winning check for payment to the woman. "Make some good days for the baby," he said as he gave the check to her.

    The next week he was having lunch in a country club when his friend came to his table. "Someone told me you met a middle-aged woman there after you won that golf competition." De Vincenzo nodded. "Well", said the friend, "I have news for you. She cheated you. She has no sick baby. She has not even married."

    "You mean there is no baby who is dying?" said De Vincenzo.

    "That's the best news I've heard all week," De Vincenzo said happily.

You can complain because roses have thorns (刺) , or you can be happy because thorns happy roses.

    In today's world of mobile phones, MP5 players and minicomputers, most people have at least one time­telling tool with them. Since these small machines are so common, will people stop wearing the 500­year­old watches? According to some people, yes. A teenager says it's unnecessary to wear a watch. Many young people agree and they use their mobile phones to tell time. Louis Galie, a president, says that fewer young people wear watches today than five years ago.

    However, watchmakers say that watches get popular again when people reach their 20s and 30s. By then, they want to spend money on a nice time­telling tool which doesn't just keep good time. For this reason, the watch industry has become an accessory business (配件业)in recent years.

    Today's ________ offer a lot of uses that meet the need of almost any personality (个性). They can be used as compasses (指南针)，calendars, and even USB drives...

    People are always trying their best to create new kinds of watches. A certain watchmaker business makes watches that don't even look like watches. Their popular model uses different color lights to tell the time. Another watchmaker business, makes a "handless" watch, using a ring of circles to keep time. This watch makes people talk a lot about modern watches.

    Whether a watch expresses fashion sense, creative ability or a love of sports, people want their time­telling tools to be beautiful, fashionable and practical. All in all, a watch has become more important than the time it tells.