An old man died and left his son a lot of money. But the son was a foolish young man, and he quickly spent all the money, so that soon he had nothing left. Of course, when that happened, all his friends left him. When he was quite poor and alone, he went to see Nasreddin, who was a kind, clever old man and often helped people when they had troubles.

    "My money has finished and my friends have gone," said the young man. "What will happen to me now?"

    "Don't worry, young man," answered Nasreddin. "Everything will soon be all right again. Wait, and you will soon feel much happier. "

    The young man was very glad. "Am I going to get rich again then?" he asked Nasreddin.

  "No, I didn't mean that," said the old man. "I meant that you would soon get used to being poor and to having no friends. "

    April 13^th, 1539

    Outside Mexico City

Dear Mariana,

    Today we arrived safe. It was a long and dangerous trip over the ocean. The winter storms were strong. We were always a little sick from high waves.

    The journey from the shore to Mexico City is also long and dangerous. There are robbers in the countryside. We will travel together with the other ship passengers, thinking we will be safer as a group. Tomorrow we will travel into the city to find our uncle.

    Father says it will take a year for this letter to reach you. The trip from New Spain to Spain is very long.

Your loving brother,

Tomas

    April 20^th, 1539

    Mexico City

Dear Mariana,

    Father and I finally arrived at Mexico City. Here, old buildings are being pulled down; new ones are being built. Just around the corner from Uncle's city house, Aztec workers are pulling down a small, beautiful pyramid. Father says it is one of the last Aztec temples.

    In the center of the city, I met an Aztec boy named Carlos. He speaks a little Spanish. Carlos learns Spanish at his new school. He told me that the Spanish set up new schools for the Aztecs. There he got his new name, Carlos. He says he likes his new school but misses his old city. I wonder what this city used to be like before Cortes came.

    Tomorrow we will go to Uncle's farmland. He and father are talking about the Aztec workers that father will oversee.

Your brother,

Tomas

found v. 建立        battle n. 战役        conquer v. 征服

    Bob comes out of the station and at once（立刻） he doesn't know where to go. This is the first time he comes to this town. He comes to see his good friend, Peter. Peter is a worker. He works in a factory. But Bob doesn't know where the factory is.

    He walks in the streets. He passes（经过） a hospital, a post office, a bookshop and at last he gets to a school. Some students are coming out. So he asks one of them for help. "Excuse me. Do you know where the watch factory is?"

    "Of course, I know. I live near there. My father works there. It's outside this town." answers the boy.

    "Is it far from here? Can you show me the way, please?" Bob asks again.

    "It's about 8 kilometres away from here. I'm going home now. Will you go with me? I'll take you there."

    "That's great! Thank you very much!"

    "Now let's take a No. 10 bus. It'll take about 15minutes to get there."

    "It's very kind of you." says Bob.

    When a man was walking along the street, he saw a woman carrying a large box. It was half in and half out of her car. So the man went up and said, "The box looks very heavy. Let me give you a hand. "

    "That's very kind of you, "the woman said, "I'm having a lot of trouble with it. Maybe it sticks（卡住）in the car door. "

    ""Together we'll soon move it," the man said. "I'll get in and take the other end." And he got in the car.

    "Right," the man said. "I'm ready," and he began to push the box hard.

    For several minutes, the man and the woman tried to move the box. Soon they felt very tired.

    They rested for a moment. Then the woman said, "Let's try again. One, two, three!" They went on moving the box At last, when they were exhausted, the man said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any way to get it out of your car. "

    "Get it out?" the woman cried. "I'm trying to get it in! You know?"

    My best friends are John and Ann. We do many things together(--起).

    John lives near my house. He's fifteen years old and he's tall and slim，with blonde hair and blue eyes. He's a little bit shy but very clever. He's very good at math and he helps me with my homework.  He usually wears a T-shirt and jeans. We also play basketball at a nearby park together and sometimes we play video games at my house.

    The other friend is Ann. She's short and strong, with straight brown hair and brown eyes. She likes wearing T-shirts and a baseball cap. She never stops talking. She says she would like to be a boy. We all have kung fu lessons every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. We love it. Ann is really good at kung fu. We call her the "Kung Fu Kid". She often plays basketball with us, too. We often have great fun together.

    Michelle, a famous lady, has found that more than 25% students are too fat in her country. It is a very serious problem. So she starts a health program to deal with it. The health program is to reduce the amount(数量)of fat students today and in the future.

    The program will get families, schools, newspapers, magazines and TVs to join together and deal with the students' obesity so that students will be at a healthier weight. The program includes: food stores should sell healthier food: schools should serve healthier meals with less fat and should also offer gym classes.

    The lady is trying to fight the students' obesity all over the country because it can cause illnesses and higher health cost. She wants the students to eat right, exercise more and control their weight. She also wants the students to understand it is important to have less sweet food, and drink water, milk and fresh juices, but not to choose cokes. At the same time, she has also set a good example by planting a vegetable garden. She hopes that the garden will encourage more people to plant one, too.

    The health program is really helpful to the students today and in the future. As she says, we cannot always build the future for youth, but we can build our youth for the future.