Can dolphins talk ? They can't talk with words, but they talk with sounds. They show their feelings with sounds.

 Dolphinp travel in a group. We call a group of fish a“school". They don't study, but they travel together Dolphins are mammals, not fish, but they swim together in a school.

 Dolphins talk to the other dolphins in the school. They give information. They tell when they are happy or sad or afraid .They say "Welcome” when a dolphin comes back to the school. They talk when they play.

 They make a few sounds above water They make many more sounds under water. People cannot hear these sounds because the sounds are very, very high. Scientists make tapes of the sounds and study them.

 Sometimes people catch dolphins for a large aquarium. People can watch the dolplains in a show Dolphins don't like to be away from their school in an aquarium. They are sad.

 There are many stories about dolphins. They help people. Sometimes they save somebody's life. Dolphin meat is good, but people don't like to kill them. They say that dolphins bring good luck. Many people believe this.

    With the Chinese language becoming more and more popular, the UK government planned to help more kids learn Chinese, Do you think it is necessary for British pupils to learn Chinese? Three people from different countries have given their opinions.

    Robert (Canada)

    I studied French for 2 years in high school and German for 4 years in college. I studied Chinese for about 4 months before moving to China. Since I speak Chinese every day, my writing, reading and listening are quite good. I think learning other languages is a great thing. It offers a new and different way of living and looking at our life and the world around us.

    Ted (the UK)

    Learning any language can be valuable, but it is not suitable for everyone. Chinese is a difficult language to learn, and the UK is not good at teaching foreign languages. However, China is a very large and developing market for business people. For them, Chinese is worth learning.

    Larry (the USA)

    I don't think Chinese will be as widely spoken throughout the world as English. It is too time-consuming ( 费时的) to learn as a second language. To learn Chinese, you have to devote yourself to learning how to write and read it. It's too difficult to learn Chinese. But some day Chinese will become more popular, and that is a good thing.

    Different people have different opinions. As for me, being able to speak more than just your native language is a great thing.

    Look at this boy. He is an English boy. His first name is Alan. His last name is Brown. This is his school. His school ID card is three six eight seven two three six eight. His teacher is Miss Black. She is a nice teacher. Look! What's that? It's a bag(包). It's blue. It's Alan's bag. His red jacket is in it. Where is his pen? Oh,

    Alan lost(丢失)it this morning.

Birthday Food Around the World

    What would people like to eat on their birthday? The answer would be different in different countries.

    In many countries, people have birthday cakes with candles. The number of the candles is the person's age. The birthday person must make a wish and blow out the candles. 59. If he or she blows out all the candles in one go, the wish will come true. In the UK, people sometimes put a candy in a birthday cake. The child with the candy is lucky. In China, it is getting popular to have a cake on your birthday. But many people still eat very long noodles for their birthday. They never cut up the noodles because the long noodles are a symbol of long life. In some places, Chinese people also eat eggs on their birthday. They are a symbol of life and good luck. All of these birthday foods may be different, but the ideas are the same. 他们会给过生日的人带来好运。

    Mr Brown was at the theatre. He had got his ticket at the moment, so he had not been able to choose tis seat. He now found that he was in the middle of a group of American ladies, some of them middle-aged and some of them quite old. They clearly all knew each other well, as before the curtain went up on the play they bad come to see, they all talked and joked a lot together.

    The lady sitting on Mr Brown's left, who was about sixty years old, seemed to be the happiest and the most amusing of the American group, and after the first act(幕)of the play, she apologized to him for the noisiness of her friends. He answered that he was very glad to see American ladies so obviously enjoying their visit to England, and so they had a friendly talk. Mr Brown's neighbour explained what they were doing there.

    "You know, I have known these ladies all my life, "she said. " We all grew up together back in our hometown in the United States. They have all lost their husbands, and call themselves the Merry Widows(寡妇). It is a sort of club, you know. They go abroad every summer for a month or two and have a lot of fun. They always go everywhere together. I have wanted to join their club for a long time, but I didn't qualify(具备……的资格)for membership until the spring of this year. "

Leonardo da Vinci was a famous artist who was born in Italy. He was also a great inventor. Many of his inventions have become important in modern life. Although Leonardo hated war. he invented many different machines used for war. His most special invention was the machine gun, which was produced and used in war. Besides, Leonardo spent days thinking about how to save time. He developed ideas for something like cutting machines.

Leonardo was a strange man. He never ate meat. That was very unusual in those times. He never published(发表) discoveries about science. He usually used mirror writing, which looks like usual writing in a mirror, starting from the right side of the page and moving to the left side。

Only a few of his paintings are left today. Many paintings were not finished because he thought they were not perfect.

Leonardo was talented and creative. He was regarded as one of the most intelligent men in the world.