A

    A class teacher, in my opinion, plays an important role in a child's development. Every year when my daughter moves to a new class, I have a usual big worry –her new class teacher. This year, she is moving to Class Three and I can't wait to see how things are going on.

    Last year, my daughter did not like her teacher at all. It was so bad that she did not look forward to school. It was a year full of trouble and worries.

    This year, Miss Purity is gentle and humorous. It's hard not to like her. Here are the changes in my daughter.

    She becomes an early bird. Last year, mornings were like a fight because I had to force Tasha to hurry up when she was preparing for school. I had to pull her out of bed, tell her to take breakfast and then drove her to school. But now, our mornings are like a party. She wakes up early, prepares everything at a high speed and then rushes to school to be with Miss Purity.

    She's happy. She enjoys school and school work and keeps talking about what they did at school when she comes home.

    She's responsible. She used to be careless and forgetful. But now she never forgets even her water bottle at school. She makes her bed and helps in the kitchen.

    Her diary is full of praises. The diary is the tool of communication between the teacher and the parents. Last year, her diary was always full of negative reports. One time, she poured water in a child's lunchbox, another time she threw another kid's textbook in the toilet. Now she began to share her snacks with those who did not have anything. She's always volunteering to clean the blackboard, the teacher's chair and desk.

    She does well in school. Finishing her classwork was such a big problem. She had to do it at home. But now, she finished both the classwork and homework at school.

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.

    Dr. Lynn Moorman was a young doctor. She had a strange experience in June when she was spending Saturday night at her parents' house. Whenever she stayed with them, she slept on the long sofa in the sitting room. The sofa was set against a wall under a large picture window (整块玻璃做的景观窗).

    Around three o'clock that morning, Dr. Moorman opened her eyes and noticed a flashing light outside the house. She thought that it was a firefly (萤火虫). A moment later, as the light continued to flash, she realized that it was too bright to be a firefly.

    Then the light moved towards the window and unbelievably through the window into the room. It passed in front of her, perhaps as close as three feet. Then Dr. Moorman noticed that it appeared to have two sets of wires coming from the top and bottom. Each time the object flashed, Dr. Moorman saw it clearly. But when the light turned off, the object was no longer seen.

    Dr. Moorman was quite scared. She thought about shouting, but couldn't open her mouth. When the light moved into the kitchen, she ran to her sister's bedroom. "Move over," she said, "I saw something, maybe an alien, that scared me and I'm coming into bed with you." The next morning at breakfast she told her family what had happened, but no one else had noticed anything. Her experience remains a puzzle.

    Did Dr. Moorman meet an alien? Did she imagine the object? Or did she see a small UFO that had come visiting that night?