Gemma Burford

    Gemma was born in 1978 in a quiet village in England. Her mother worked in a library and her father worked in a hospital. When she was a student at Oxford University, she traveled (旅行) to Tanzania and met her husband (丈夫), Lesikar, for the first time. They got married (结婚) in 2003 and had their daughter, Lucia, two years later. Now Lucia studies in a small primary school, and Gemma and Lesikar also teach her at home.

 Judy Boehmer

    Adam is Judy's first child. She now has four sons, seven daughters and a pet dog, Bosco. Judy and her husband, Larry, live in Atlanta, Georgia, but they also have a motorhome (野营车). The Boehmers are a circus (马戏团) family and all the children are performers at the circus. The children don't go to school, but study at home. The family travels more than 40,000 kilometers a year for their work. The first show of the Boehmers was at a park in Lowa in 1989, and they now perform all over America.

    Sarah stood in front of the mirror(镜子). "It looks like a raincoat on me," she said.

    "Perhaps the blue," said Mama, gently.

    "Sure," the shopkeeper said. But when she took the blue coat, there on the shelf behind all of the dark coats, hidden like a spring flower in winter darkness, there, as if by magic, was a pink coat.

    "A pink coat!" Sarah cried. "I want the pink coat."

    "That coat is smaller than the other ones," Papa said.

    Sarah spoke up. "I'm small, too. Papa, please let me try it on, Mama? Please?"

    "It wouldn't hurt to let her try it on," Mama said.

    Without a word, the shopkeeper took the coat from the shelf and held it for Sarah.

    "Ohhh!" Sarah said. The coat was smooth and shiny inside like her sister Sylvia's blouses. "Ahhh!"

    Sarah stood very straight and looked in the mirror. She looked for a very long time. In the pink coat she looked like a spring flower.

    "Sarah!" Mama said.

    Sarah looked up. Mama was standing behind her. She was holding the brown coat.

    "I'm afraid the pink coat will only fit one year," Mama said, taking a step closer.

    "And there's no one to pass it on to," said Papa.

    And the shopkeeper said, "It's wise to save money."

    Sarah backed away. No one was going to put her into a raincoat again. She wanted to be a flower.

    "Sarah!" It was Papa. He came over to her. "You're old enough to know that you can't always have your own way," he said seriously.

    "Wise and true," said the shopkeeper.

    Sarah took off the pink coat, slowly.

    "It is her colour, though," Mama said.

    "Ahh," said the shopkeeper. "Anyone can see how the pink of the coat brings out the roses in her face."

    Papa looked thoughtful for a moment.

    "We are lucky." continued Mama, "that it is only one little coat for Sarah and not also new coats for Sylvia and Susan and Sally."

    Papa looked from the brown coat to the pink coat. "The cows will give milk soon enough," he said "And how can we let Sarah wear a brown coat when she looks like a flower in this one?"

    "Papa!" Sarah cried, putting on the pink coat back, quickly. She threw her arms around Papa's neck. "        " she whispered.

    "Like a rose in spring," Papa said.

    The Whites are French. Now they are in Nanjing. This is their first visit to China. They are going to stay in China for two weeks. They want to visit some big cities and villages. They want to learn some Chinese.

    Mr. White is a doctor. Mrs. White is a teacher. She is visiting a middle school near Nanjing. Their son, Jim, is a middle school student. He meets some Chinese students, and he likes to speak French with them.

    They take a lot of photos in China. When they are back in France, they are going to show the photos to Mrs White's students. They want the students in France to know more about China.

    Do you have to be very smart to live a happy life? The character of McDull (麦兜) tells you that this is not true. He is famous for having a birthmark on his right eye. He is not very clever, but he has a heart of gold. He is also happy, with lots of dreams. McDull wanted to visit the Maldives (马尔代夫). But his mother didn't have enough money for a trip there. So she lied to him and took him to a place called Hong Kong. The place has a sign that says, “Go to the Maldives.” It made McDull very happy. He thought he was really excited in the Maldives!

    McDull is just a common pig. He has many dreams, but they never come true. That doesn't stop him trying. McDull lives his life in a simple and happy way. His idea towards life is “Never give up”.

    The cartoon pig character was created in Hong Kong by Alice Mark and Brian Tse. McDull first showed up as a character in the McMug comics. McMug is another cartoon pig. But McDull is more popular with a huge number of fans everywhere!

    On Miriam's 9th birthday two years ago, her aunt, who lives in Kenya（肯尼亚）, gave money to a group that cares for elephants to celebrate Miriam's birthday. Then Miriam and her mother visited Africa to learn how the group was helping elephants. Later, Miriam fell in love with the animals and wanted to help save them.

    A few months after visiting Africa, Miriam watched How I Became an Elephant, a film about the mistreatment of elephants in Thailand, and a young girl's effort to save them. Miriam decided she wanted to raise money to save elephants.

    Last year, Miriam created a program called They Deserve（应得） to Be Free after seeing how young elephants are abused in Thailand. She learned how people take a baby elephant, don't give it food or water for days and beat it hard. "It made me really sad. I need to do something useful." Miriam said.

    Miriam is working to make money for Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. She asked her friends to give money to the park rather than giving her birthday gifts.

    She recently joined about 12 other students in an art center. They made elephants from clay and decorated（装饰） them. Then she created a plan to sell clay elephants.

    Kate, Miriam's art teacher, opened her art studio（工作室） to Miriam and her friends on weekends so they could make clay elephants. She even gave them the clay." It's great to see a young student wanting to spend her time on something meaningful. This is what we should all work towards," Kate said.

    Miriam says she has sold 180 clay elephants worth 2, 000 dollars, and all of that money has been sent to Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.