At 5:05 pm on March 19, a loud alarm sounded around the playground of Tanghu Middle School, Sichuan. Students hurried to the playground with something covering their mouths. Don't worry. There wasn't a fire. Students were having a fire drill（演习）. School is a good place for students to study. Yet sometimes, it is easy to have accidents there.

A survey suggests that right safety training could prevent 80 percent of these accidents. In China, fire drills at school are common to teach students to deal with emergencies（紧急情况）. At the same time, many other countries have their own ways to keep children safe around school.

In Japan, public primary schools hold earthquake drills once a month. They teach students safety tips during an earthquake drill. The training teaches students to escape from earthquake-stricken areas without pushing and stampeding（踩踏）.

Most US school buildings have fire escapes on each floor. A fire escape has platforms with stairs and ladders. They are usually made of iron. Students can get to the fire escape through a fire exit door or a window.

In many middle schools in the UK, students can choose to take a bicycle course. There, they learn how to ride to school safely. Also, on roads without traffic lights near schools, there are crossing guards. They wear bright color clothes and stop cars to guide children across the road safely.

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    Mike's eleventh birthday is next Saturday. He wants to have a dinner party at his house. He asks some good friends to his party. David and Sally are two of them. Now they are discussing (讨论)what they will buy for Mike.

    David: Hey, Mike's birthday dinner is next Saturday. Let's thin k about the food.

    Sally: Sure, does he like birthday cake?

    David: No, he doesn't. He is tired of(对……厌烦)butter(奶油)a lot.

    Sally: Well, what does he like?

    David: He likes burgers and fried chicken．

    Sally: That's great. I like them too. What about vegetable salad?

    David: No, he doesn't like. But he likes fruits.

    Sally: What fruits?

    David: I think his favorite fruits are apples and bananas.

    Sally: OK. Oh, don't forget ice-cream. He likes it too.

    Sally: All right. Let's take all.

    In English, people use many expressions(表达) with the word "dog". People in the west love their dogs and treat them well. Dogs without owners to care for them lead a very different kind of life: The expression' to lead a dog's life" means living an unhappy life.

    Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing the same things, like good jobs. They say if a person wants to be successful he has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, this situation would be even worse if they became ill as a dog.

    Sometimes we should let a sleeping dog lie, which means we'd better not trouble a person who may cause problems. And if someone says you are a lucky dog, he is just saying you're very lucky.

    Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people Often have to learn new skills(技能) . Yet, some people say that it's always impossible to teach an old dog new skills. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.

    There are also some other dog expressions. The dog days of summer are the hottest of the year. A rain in summer may cool the weather. But we do not want to have a very heavy rain. In other words, we do not want it to rain cats and dogs.

    Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class and at lunchtime. Students with cars buy the large speaker and play the music loudly as they drive in the street.

    Adult(成年的) drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.

    Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape and radio stations use them in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people will buy his or her tape. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.

    There are other kinds of music that is important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common (普通的) life of Americans. Another is called Western or country music. It is about country life and the love between a country boy and his girlfriend. They are very popular among young people.

    Bike­sharing is new for short journeys in cities. It is a good choice for the big cities to develop healthily.

    A report found that shared bikes started the nation's love for bikes again. The love is not only among young people born in the 1980s and 2000s, but also among people over sixty. Now they are choosing bikes instead of cars to make short journeys in cities. If you have a smart phone, the nearest bike equipped with GPS will be easily found through a certain app on your phone. It can also be unlocked through the app and left anywhere in public for the next user. The cost of riding depends on the time that you spend. Normally, every hour you ride, you just need to pay one yuan.

    It is said that bike­sharing will help improve the cities' environment. It not only helps solve the traffic problems, but also will help to make more use of space in cities. Take Beijing as an example. If more people choose shared bikes, an area of five Bird's Nest Stadiums (体育场)will be saved.

    At the same time, there are some problems with shared bikes that people need to solve properly. For example, some people park the bikes in their home; some break up the bikes on purpose; and others even throw them into the river. Facing all these problems, everyone should raise their own awareness of protecting the bikes. We should not only enjoy them, but also value them and put them to good use.

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