I'm Sam. My hobby is playing chess（棋）—one of the greatest games in the world. My mom taught me how to play when I was 7. She beat (打败) me every time for the first year. But then on my eighth birthday, I won for the first time. I nearly always beat her from then on.

    It takes about a day to learn the rules (规则). But if you want to be good, you have to practice for years. You don't need much to play chess—just a chess set (棋具) and someone to play with.

    Chess sets can be quite cheap, or very expensive. Some people collect chess sets as a hobby, but some prefers playing.

    There is a chess club in our school, and we meet every week to play with each other. I'm the best player in the club, and the captain of the school chess team. This year we won the All English Schools' Championship (锦标赛), and I had to go up on stage (台子) in front of the whole school to accept the trophy (奖品).

    I'm saving up my money to buy a chess computer. It's very expensive, but very good for practice. In that way, I'll always have someone to play with. One day I will be the world chess champion (冠军).

D

    Linda was Tara's best friend before, but now things are different. Tara is a member of Purple Girls Club and they have some rules about who they can be friends with. Linda isn't very pretty and doesn't wear cool clothes. So she can't be in their club. Now Tara is making a name list for her party, and she decides not to invite Linda.

    “Tara, come here.” her mother calls from the living room. Tara goes to her mother and sees the school report card in her hands.

    “Tara, what's the matter with you? You have failed(不及格)math and English and you did badly in all of your other subjects. You were such a good student before!”

    Tara sees the disappointment in her mom's eyes. She feels terrible. The activities of Purple Girls Club leave her very little time for studies. The girls get together almost daily for movies, shopping and surfing the Internet. She calls every friend in the club and asks them to help her. But they all refuse(拒绝）and say, “Who cares about studies now?” This makes Tara even sadder.

    Later, Tam's mom takes her to Linda's house across the street. Tara says sorry and Linda is glad to have her friend back. She happily helps Tara with her studies.

    Tara now has a new rule for friendship and it is that a friend that lends a helping hand is a true friend.

    In ancient China, there was a man called Zhou Yong. Before his father died, he left Zhou Yong a great number of gold ingots (元宝). Zhou hid them in a safe place in his home. One day, Zhou decided to travel far away. He was afraid that someone would steal the gold ingots. But they were too heavy for him to bring along with him. So he put all the ingots into a jar (坛子) and gave it to his friend Wang Wu, telling Wang that the jar was full of fresh red dates (红枣).

    A year later, one day before Zhou came back, Wang's wife wondered what was in the jar. So she secretly opened it. She was shocked when she saw so many ingots inside. She told Wang about it and they took the ingots out and filled the jar with fresh red dates.

    When Wang returned the jar to Zhou, Zhou found the ingots were missing. They argued about it for a while, then they went to see the county magistrate (县官).

    When the magistrate asked Wang what had happened, he answered, "Zhou said that there were fresh red dates in it when he gave me the jar a year ago."

    The magistrate examined the jar and the fresh red dates in it carefully. Then he said: "Bring the ingots back, Wang Wu!"

    Wang still denied (否认)having taken them. But after the magistrate explained what he knew, Wang finally admitted (承认)that he had taken the ingots.

Should We Help Strangers?

Recently our class had a discussion about {#blank#}1{#/blank#} we should help strangers or not. Different students have different {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (idea).

Some think {#blank#}3{#/blank#}we should try to help strangers. Helping others is a virtue (美德), and helping others is helping {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (we). We may come across some trouble and need others' help some day. If everyone isn't willing to help us just {#blank#}5{#/blank#}we are strangers to them, it's hard to imagine {#blank#}6{#/blank#} our world will be like.

However, some worry {#blank#}7{#/blank#} helping others can sometimes bring us trouble. Sometimes we are just misunderstood and even have to pay the cost of kindness.

In my opinion, we should try our best {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (help) others when they are in need of help, but we should also avoid {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (get) into trouble. If everyone tries a little kindness, our world{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(be) full of love.

One day，only my mother and I were at home. She asked me a question，"1 is the most important part of the body? "2 I was young，I thought sound was very important to us， 3 I said，"My ears，Mom. "

"No. Many people 4 deaf（聋的）， "she said. "But keep 5 about it and I will ask you again soon. "

Last year，my grandpa died.6 w as crying. When it was our turn 7 our final goodbye to him，my mother asked me for the 8 time，"Do you know the most important part of your body now，my dear? "

I didn't know how to answer when she 9 me this. I always thought this was just 10 game between her and me. She saw the confusion（疑惑）11 my face and told me，"My dear，the most important body part is your shoulder （肩膀）

"Is it because it holds up 12 head? "I asked. 

"No，it is because it 13 hold the head of a friend or a 14 one when he or she cries，"she answered. "Everybody 15 to have a shoulder to cry on sometimes in life. My dear，I only hope that you have enough love and friends. And then when you feel sad，you will have a shoulder to cry on. "

The word "sandwich" is an English word. Sandwich was an English man. He lived in England about two hundred years ago. Sandwich had much 1 . He was very rich (富有的). But he liked playing cards very much. He often played day and night. One day he played for twenty-four hours 2 stopping. He did not leave the card table to 3 . He asked his servant (仆人) to bring him some meat and 4 . So he put some meat between two pieces of bread and then began to eat. It tasted delicious. He did not want to stop playing cards when he ate. From the 5 of this man, Sandwich, we have the word "sandwich" today.