Vienna is a beautiful old city on the River Danube in the center of Europe. It's the capital city of Austria and the center of European classical music. In the 18th century a lot of musicians came to study and work in Vienna.

    In the Strauss family, there were two composers called Johann Strauss: the father and the son. The father, Johann Strauss the elder, wrote and played music for traditional dances, called the waltz. His dance music made him famous all over Europe. The son, Johann Strauss the younger, was also very successful and popular. He wrote over 150 waltzes. In 1866 he wrote The Blue Danube waltz.

    Mozart was another very important composer. He was born in Austria in 1756. Before he was six, he played not only the piano but also the violin. His family took him around Europe and he gave concerts in many cities. He wrote hundreds of wonderful pieces of music. But he became very poor and died in 1791 when he was only 35. Like Johann Strauss, father and son, he was a great European musician, and many people still think his music is perfect.

    John James Audubon loved all kinds of birds. He spent his life studying them. He painted all the birds of North America.

    John James Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785. When he was a young boy, he moved to France with his family. His father was in the French Navy. He had a farm in the United States. When John was 18, his father sent him to the farm, hoping John would take care of it. But John didn't want to do that. He wanted to hunt, fish, and draw birds. John drew lots of pictures of birds. He wanted to make them look real.

    In 1808, John married Lucy Bakewell and they moved to Kentucky. John and a friend went into business there. They ran a shop. John really didn't like working in the shop. The business soon failed. John wanted to paint full-time. Lucy agreed to help. She got a teaching job to support the family. By that time, they had two young sons.

    John wanted his bird paintings made into a book. He finally did find someone to print his bird pictures in a book. Many people wanted John Audubon's book. Although his book was a great success, John wasn't happy with it. He wanted to show every bird found in North America. By 1838, John finished a great work. It wasn't just one book. It was an amazing set of four books called The Birds of America. It had many paintings. Today, these paintings are very famous.

    NO matter what happens, I'll always be there for you!

    In 1989, an8.2 earthquake almost destroyed America, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. In the midst of utter devastation and chaos, a father left his wife safely at home and rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be, only to discover that the building was as flat as a pancake.

    After the unforgettably scare, he remembered the promise he had made to his son: "No matter what, I'll always be there for you!" And tears began to fill his eyes. As he looked at the badly damaged building that once was the school, it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his promise to his son

    He began to direct his attention to where he walked his son to class at school each morning. Remembering his son's classroom would be in the back right comer of the building, he rushed there and started digging through the ruins, As he was digging, other helpless parents tried to pull him off what was left of the school, saying," It's too late! They're all dead! You can't help! Co home! Come on! Face reality. Here's nothing you can do!

    To each parent he replied with one line, "Are you going to help me now?" And then he continued to dig for his son, stone by stone. The firefighter leader showed up and tried to pull him off the school's ruins saying, "Fires are breaking out. Explosions are happening everywhere. You are in danger. We'll take care of it. Go home." To which this loving, caring American father asked, "Are you going to help me now?" The police came and said, "You're angry, worried and it's over. You're making others in danger. Go home. We'll handle it!" To which he replied, "Are you going to help me now?" No one replied.

    He went on alone because he needed to know for himself "is my boy alive or is he dead?" He dug for eight hours … 12 hours ... 24 hours … 36 hours … then, in the 38th hour, he pulled back a large stone and heard his son's voice. He screamed his son's name, "Armand!" He heard back, "Dad? It's me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you would save me and when you saved me, they'd be saved. You promised, no matter what happens, you'll always be there for me. You did it, Dad!" "What's going on in there? How is it?" the father asked, "There are 14 of us left out of 33, Dad. We're scared, hungry, thirsty and thankful you're here. When the building fell down, it made a triangle, and it saved us."

    "Come out, boy!" "No, Dad! Let the other kids out first because I know you'll get me! No matter what happens, I know you'll always be there for me!"

    O. Henry, a famous American writer of short stories, was born in North Carolina in 1862. O. Henry was a pen name. His real name was William Sydney Porter. When he was a young boy, he did not go to school for long because of being born in a poor family, but he tried to teach himself everything he needed to know.

   When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas. There he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. But he got himself into some trouble. Some money went missing from the bank. O. Henry was believed to have stolen it, so he was sent to prison(监狱). During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and went on writing.

   He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because almost all of them finished with a sudden change. This made the readers surprised.

Clark and Dale were staying in the same room in a hospital. Clark was so sick that he could not even move his body._He had to spend all his time lying on his back. Dale could sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon. His bed was next to the room's only window. 

Over time, Clark and Dale became good friends. Every afternoon, Dale would look out of the room's only window, describing the scenery outside for his friend. He told Clark about the flowers in a park outside the window, the people walking by, the green trees beside roads—anything that might interest a man. 

One morning, when a nurse came to check on the two men, she found that Dale had died in his sleep. As soon as the room seemed tidy again, Clark asked if he could move to the bed next to the window so that he could look out of the window himself. The nurse agreed. Slowly, he could take his first look at the world outside. To his surprise, he could see nothing but a blank wall of another building. 

The nurse explained that Dale had been blind. He had never seen anything outside the window at all—but he described beautiful scenes to help his friend feel better. 

There are 520 boys and 500 girls in our school. The school made a survey（调查）about our favorite sports. Here are the results.

After seeing the results, the P. E. teacher advises us to join different sports clubs. He also encourages（鼓励）us to try some new sports. It may bring us some surprises.