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    Mr. and Mrs. Bell are very forgetful. For example, Mr. Bell sometimes goes to work on Sunday morning, for he thinks it is Monday. And Mrs. Bell sometimes forgets to cook supper for the family.

    One summer, they planned to fly to New York for their holidays. They got to the airport only ten minutes before the plane took off. So time was short. But suddenly Mrs. Bell said she must tell Alice, their daughter, not to forget to lock the front door when she went to school. As Alice was then at school, they couldn't tell her about it by telephone. So they hurried to the post office. Mrs. Bell wrote a short note to Alice when Mr. Bell bought a stamp and an envelope(信封). Soon the note was ready. They put the stamp on the envelope in a hurry and dropped the envelope into the letter box, but suddenly Mrs. Bell began to cry. The short note was still in her hand. She had put the plane tickets in the envelope.

From Asia to America and everywhere in between, Swing—an energetic form of dance that includes six-step and eight-step rhythms(节奏) — has taken the world by storm. Making a recent comeback, swing dance floors have popped up all over the world. Many clubs make fans of Swing happy by holding nights when swing music is played, and sometimes even offering classes to attract customers.

Though Swing is now popular worldwide, it first appeared alongside the jazz movements of the 1920s and 1930s in New York City. While listening to jazz, the young black people of that time developed the movements of the Lindy Hop — a style of dance that is best known for a break away or 'swing out' move and sudden improvisation(即兴表演).

It was reportedly given this name when a reporter was interviewing a man at the dance hall who was watching other couples dance. When asked what that dance was called, the watcher looked at a newspaper next to him that had an article about Lindbergh— the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic(大西洋)—which was titled, 'Lindy Hops the Atlantic'. Then the watcher announced that the 'Lindy Hop' was the name of the dance, and it has stuck since then.

    In 1926, the Savoy Ballroom was the first large business to offer a place for people to listen to swing music and dance. With its huge dance floor, the Savoy became a big success overnight, attracting some of the best dancers and musicians in the New York area.

    Within ten years, the Lindy Hops was sweeping through the United States and became a symbol of unity, as young people of all racial(种族的) backgrounds crowded into dance halls to swing the night away. Traditional dance teachers did not welcome it because they thought it was not even a real dance and were quite sure about its demise but Swing has proved them wrong; it continues to be one of the world's most fun dances.

    Imagine moving to a new country. There you know almost no one and you don't speak the language. Eighty years ago, my grandmother, Jean Rizzi, did just that.

    Like so many immigrants from Europe, her first stop in America was Ellis Island, in New York. The immigration station on Ellis Island opened 125 years ago. From 1892 to 1954, over 12 million foreigners entered America through Ellis Island.

    My grandmother's journey started near Naples, Italy. Her father got a job in New York years earlier. After he saved enough money, he sent for his family to join him. In November 1936, his wife and three kids got on a ship to New York. At just 8 years old, my grandmother didn't know what to expect. "I was nervous," she says. "But I was also excited about finally getting to see my new home in big city."

    For nearly two weeks, they were at sea and couldn't see any land. They all stayed in one small room on the boat.  When the boat arrived at Ellis Island, my grandmother thought the journey was over. But she and her family still had to be examined by doctors. Finally, they were off to their new home in Queens, New York. My grandmother still lives there.

    Ellis Island is now a popular tourist attraction in New York. More than 3 million people visit it each year. To immigrants like my grandmother, the island is a symbol of freedom and the American dream.

     Once there was a good vegetable patch (菜地), and there grew a very big tree. Both the vegetables and the tree 1 the place wonderful. But no one knew that the vegetables in the patch and the tree couldn't 2 each other for a long time. The vegetables didn't like the tree's shade (树荫) because it stopped them from getting enough 3. The tree, on the other hand, hated the vegetables. The 4 was that the vegetables drank nearly all the water before it could get to him, leaving him a little water.

     They kept this situation 5 the vegetables got completely bored with the tree one day. Then they decided to use up all the water in the ground so that the tree would die.

     What would the tree do? Without question, the tree answered back 6 refusing to shade the vegetables from the sun. It was so hot that the vegetables became dry. Before long, all of them 7died.

     At that time, the vegetables and the tree realized that it was 8to help each other than to fight. They learned that they should 9 those around them. From then on, they decided to work together, using both the shade and the water to grow. Before long, they together showed 10 a beautiful picture.