People are often free on weekends. But Mike had a busy weekend last week. On Saturday morning, he went to visit his uncle with his parents. His uncle lives on a farm. There Mike helped his uncle feed the chickens. There are many animals on the farm. After lunch, Mike went to mountains with his cousins. Mike was happy to see the trees and flowers. In the evening, they saw an interesting movie. Song Dandan was in the movie. All of them laughed all the time. On Sunday morning, Mike wanted to play soccer, but it rained very hard. So he had to stay home. He did some reading and watched TV. In the afternoon, Mike helped his mother do the housework. In the evening, he played computer games. Then it was time to go to bed.

    One day a little boy came into a fruit shop. He had five dollars and wanted to buy some apples. He said to the shop owner,“Give me $5 worth of apples, please.”

    When the shop owner gave him the apples, the boy counted them and felt very surprised. Then he said:“Last Friday, my mother bought apples here for $5, too. Why did you give me fewer apples?” “Don't ask questions, boy. I have no time for questions.”

    “Excuse me, sir.” said the little boy, “but…”

    “It is all right, my boy,” said the shop owner, “Don't you know? The fewer apples you get, the less fruit you will have to carry.” “All right.” said the boy and he gave $4 to the shop owner. He was just going to leave the shop when he heard the words:“Come back! You must pay me $5.” But the boy replied: “Don't you know? The fewer dollars you get, the less money you will have to count.”

    Look! People are gathering to get water from a huge well in the village of Natwarghad in the western Indian state of Gujarat! ①Because of the large population on the earth, the world is ________hungry, it is ______be thirsty for water now. The world's population has reached 7 billion. And it could possible grow to 15 billion by the year 2100.

    ②On the other hand, about 97% of water on the earth is sea water which we can't drink or use for watering plants directly. Man can only drink or use the other 3% of fresh water which comes from rivers, lakes and underground. And we can't even use all of that, because some of them has been polluted.

    Now more water is needed. The problem is: can we avoid a serious water shortage later on? Firstly, we should all learn how to save water. Secondly, we should find out the ways to reuse it. Today, in most large cities water is used only once, but it can be used again .Even if every large city reuse its water, still there would not be enough. What could people turn to next?

    The sea seems to have the best answer. The sea is very big. Look at the map of the world, there is more sea than land. It covers three quarters of the earth. All that needs to be done is to get the salt out of the sea water. Scientists are trying to find a cheaper way of doing it. So you see,③如果我们可以找出解决方法，我们就不会有干涸（dry up）的危险。

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}You look great in your new overcoat.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}What parts of his body did he hurt?

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Why not write down the new words in your notebook?

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}The sigh says “Smoking allowed outside.” What does it mean?

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}What was your first teacher like?

A. His legs and arms.

B. Good idea.

C. Tall and overweight.

D. It means smoking is not allowed inside the building.

E. Strict but nice.

F. Thank you.

    When you stay away from your home for a long time, you start to miss your good old bed, your good old parents… Believe it or not, you're feeling homesick. You can help yourself to feel less homesick. Here's how:

    I'm forty now. I left school twenty-two years ago. Here's my list of five things I hope to share with you teenagers at school.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    I always wanted to be the best, and one way of feeling good about myself was to see how much better I was than others. There was only one problem with this. When I saw they were better than me, I felt terrible. Now I compare me with myself. I ask myself if I do things as well as I could.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    How much time do you spend worrying about the future? I used to worry a lot. Now I know most things you fear will usually never happen. They're just monsters in your own mind. Even if they happen, they will often not be as bad as you expected. In six months, you probably won't remember most of the things you worry about now.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    When I was young, I often failed to start things I expected to do because I thought they'd taken too long to finish. I always wanted to write a book, for example. But when I thought it might take me more than a year, I lost my enthusiasm(热情). It seemed such a long time. Now I know a year is nothing, if I'd started that book when I was 16, I might have written 10 more by now. I'm upset with myself for not even trying.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    As a young child you try many new things. If you fail, you try again and again until you learn. But at school you are usually encouraged to do things right. Then you stop trying new things in case you get them wrong. You are losing chances to challenge yourselves. I always remind myself: I had fallen off the bike many times before I learned to ride it.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    I hated losing when I was younger. Of course, it's nice to win sometimes and to be the best at something. But we can't all be winners all the time. Learning to lose is one of life's most important lessons. If you try your hardest, then you should never be angry with yourself.