Jack King

    I work in a TV station from Monday to Friday. My house is near a beautiful park and is about thirty kilometers from my office. I usually go to work by train. I usually get up at 6:30 a. m. and take the train at 7:00 a. m. It usually takes me about thirty minutes to get to my office. The train is quick and cheap. I am never late for work.

    Peter Green

    I am a student, My house is near a beautiful lake. My school is across from the lake. I can walk to school across a bridge. It takes me about thirty minutes. But I often go to school by boat, because it is more fun. It takes me about twenty minutes.

    Molly Smith

    I'm a waitress I work in a restaurant from Monday to Saturday. I often go to work by bus, It is about five kilometers from my house to the restaurant. It takes me twenty five minutes to go to work. Sometimes I am late for work because the traffic is very busy.

    Tom Smith is English. He is 12. He is in No.8 Middle School. Is he in {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, Grade 7? Yes, he is. There are {#blank#}2{#/blank#}people in his family. Amy Smith is his {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. She is 60. His {#blank#}4{#/blank#} is John Smith. He is 41. What's his mother's name? Her name is Kate Smith. How old（多大年纪）is she? She's 40. Who is Mike Smith? He's Tom's {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. He is only eight.

    A rabbit is running into its hole. You may ask, "What happened?"

    Well, when a rabbit sees something dangerous, it runs away. Its tail moves up and down as it runs. When other rabbits see this tail moving up and down, they run too. They know that there is a danger. The rabbit has told them something without making a sound. It has given them a signal.

    Many other animals use this kind of language too. When a bee found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the other bees to go with it to find food.

    Some animals say things by making sounds. A dog barks, for example, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs (发出呼噜呼噜的声音) when it is pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning.

    But human beings have something that no animals have—a large number of words about things, actions, feelings or ideas. We are able to give each other information and to tell or inform other people what is in our mind or how we feel. By writing words down we can remind ourselves of the things that have happened, or send messages to people far away. No animal can do this. No animal has the wonderful power of language.

    No one knows how man learned to make words. As centuries went by, he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language.

    People living in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. A very large English dictionary, for example, contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we do not know all of them. The words we know are called vocabulary. We should try to make our vocabulary larger. Read as many books as possible. When we meet a new word, look it up in the dictionary. A dictionary is the most useful book.

From the Other Side

Lara and Tara are twins. They look like each other, but they are very different in everything else. For example, hot food is Lara's favorite, and Tara has a sweet choice.

However, this isn't the problem with the twin girls. They always argues that the opposite one was wrong. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, while Tara thought mornings were fresh and it was difficult to stay up till midnight.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} To put an end to their fights, their parents decided to create a small drama. They wanted the girls to understand that they were both correct from their own point of view. Their parents covered the girl's eyes with black ribbons (带、条), and brought them to the dining room. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Lara was asked to stand on one side of the board and Tara on the other. They couldn't see the other side of it. When the ribbons were taken away, they were surprised to see a huge board between them.

Now, their father asked Lara, "What's the color of the board?" She replied, "It's black!" {#blank#}4{#/blank#} She replied, "It's white!" The two girls began to argue again. While Lara was confident it was black, Tara was sure it was white. Then, they were asked to exchange (交换) their places. They couldn't believe their eyes. Tara, who insisted (坚持) it was a white board, saw a black one. Similarly, Lara, who argued the board was black, was surprised to see a white one. They understood that each of them was right in her own view. Most of us are like Lara and Tara. We are right most times, but insist that others are wrong!

Many years ago, when I was working as a volunteer(志愿者)at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Lisa. The poor little girl had a very serious disease and was dying. The doctor had done his best but no medicine really worked. The only chance to save her seemed to be a blood transfusion(输血)from her five-year-old brother. The little boy had the same disease before and had developed the antibodies(抗体)to fight the illness.

    The doctor talked to me little boy about what they planned to do, and asked him if he would be willing(愿意的)to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate(迟疑)for a moment. He took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I'll do it if it can save Lisa."

    As the transfusion was going on, the little boy lay quietly in bed next to his sister. He looked at her and smiled all the time. When everything was done and the color returned to his sister's face, his smile disappeared and he looked a little afraid. He looked up at the doctor and asked, "Will I start to die now?"

    He was too young to understand the doctor. He thought he would have to give all his blood to his sister, but he agreed.

Over the past 6 years, Zhang Chaofan has given away 1.35 million yuan and raised 5.2 million yuan from the public to help more than 400 people with health problems—including teachers with cancer (癌症) and disabled children in poor families—learn traditional Chinese culture.

Zhang, 29, was born without a left arm in Changchun, Jilin, but her hard work to become stronger has encouraged many people. She was chosen along with 67 other honorees (领奖人) to receive the Eighth National Ethical Role Model award (第八届全国道德模范提名奖) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 5th, 2021.

In 2015, Zhang set up a handwriting and painting school in Changchun. When she found that some parents were unable to pay for their children's education, she made the lessons free and began providing 300, 000yuan every year to help them.

In early 2020, her school was made to suspend all courses because of COVID-19 (新冠肺炎) but it didn't stop her from helping the poor families. She raised more than 8.9 millionyuan and gave them away to Hubei hospitals.

"Women in the new times should have the courage to create value and also have a sense of social duty," she said. "It is my great honor to be chosen as a model. This will become a driving force for me to move ahead and keep helping the poor and the disabled."