Marco Polo was from Venice, Italy. In 1271, at the age of 17, Marco went on a trip with his father and uncle to China. Today people often travel to different places around the world. But it was very hard for people from Europe to visit China then. After three and a half years, the Polos reached China in 1275.

    While he was there, Marco Polo worked for Kublai Khan, the emperor of China. He was able to learn and experience many things that were new to Europeans. In his diary, he wrote, "Kublai Khan's palace is the greatest I've ever seen. The streets of the new capital, Dadu, are so straight and so wide." Paper money also took him by surprise, since it was not yet in use in the West at that time. Homes were heated with "black stones… which burn like wood." Those stones were coal, and most of the Europeans knew little about it then.

After 17 years in China, Marco and his family finally returned to Venice. After he returned home, Marco completed a book called The Travels of Marco Polo, full of facts about his wonderful experiences in China.

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    How do you get to school? Do you walk or ride a bike? Do you go by bus or by train? For many students, it is easy to get to school. But for the students in one small village in China, it is difficult. There is a very big river between their school and the village. There is no bridge and the river runs too quickly for boats. So these students go on a ropeway to cross the river to school.

    One 11-year-old boy, Liangliang, crosses the river every school day. But he is not afraid. "I love to play with my classmates. And I love my teacher. He is like a father to me."

    Many of the students and villagers never leave the village. It is their dream to have a bridge. Can their dream come true?

    "How are you?" is a nice question. It's a friendly greeting that people in the United States use. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It's a question that often doesn't need an answer. The person who asks, "How are you?" expects to hear the answer "Fine," even if the person isn't fine. The reason is that "How are you?" isn't really a question and "Fine" isn't really an answer. They are common ways of saying "hello" or "hi".

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, when someone asks "Do you agree?", the other person may be thinking, "No, I don't. I think you're wrong." It isn't polite to disagree very strongly, so he might say, "I am not so sure." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

People also don't say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking to other people. For example, many conversations over the phone end when one person says, "I've got to go now," or the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse such as "Someone is at the door," or, "Something is burning on the stove." {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The person who wants to hang up simply doesn't want to talk any more, but it isn't polite to say so. An excuse is polite, and it doesn't hurt the other person's feelings.

    Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an opinion, or ending a conversation, people often don't say exactly what they are thinking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. This is a nicer way to say that you don't agree with someone.

B. You'd better not to tell the truth to your family.

C. However, "How are you?" is also an unusual question.

D. The excuse may be real, or not.

E. Sometimes, people don't say exactly what they mean.

F. If you disagree with others, they will hate you.

G. This is one way of being nice to people, and it's a part of the game of language.

School Rules

A. You must not draw on the wall.

B. You must return the books in time.

C. You must put the balls away after you have used them.

D. You must put the books back after you finish reading them.

E. You must not talk to the drivers when the bus is moving or they are working.

F. You must clean the classroom every day and keep it tidy.

G. You must not jump the queue(队)when you wait in-line for the bus.

    There was an old pear tree in a man's garden. In the past, the tree fruited every year, so the man would get many pears. But now, the tree got old. There were no more pears for the man. So the man decided to cut the tree down.

    When he walked toward the tree with an axe in his hand, the tree said to him, "Please don't cut me down. I have born so many pears for you in the past years."

    "I'm sorry, but I have to do so," the man said, "because I need wood to make a chair." Then he began to wave (挥动) his axe. At that moment, a bird in the old tree shouted at him, "Don't cut it down! Every time you go out and your wife feels lonely, she will come out to the garden and sit under the tree to enjoy its cool shade (树萌), and I sing songs to make her happy. We give much pleasure to your wife."

    The man didn't listen to the bird and drove it away. Just as he was about to cut the tree, some bees flew out of it and said, "Listen! If you agree not to kill this tree, we will give you delicious honey every day. Would you please leave the tree with us?"

    The man got moved. He said, "You are so kind to the tree, although it has become old. Now I see that I shouldn't cut it down. It has done so much for me and my wife. Let the tree stay here, and let the bird continue to sing songs here." With these words, the man left.

    A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.

    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It isn't built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

    Even so, travel isn't difficult. The waterways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can lead you where you want to go.

    People in Venice move from place to place by boat. They like to enjoy cool summer nights while taking boat trips. They can talk to other people as they go along.

    Venice grew out of small islands in saltwater lakes when some Italians escaped(逃跑)from a war more than 1,500 years ago, and built homes there.

    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem.

    Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower, little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimetres.

    Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature has risen over the years. This has made arctic(北极的)ice melt.

    Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower.