The 14-year-old girl Susan Davis is having a party. At this party, there are neither cakes nor candles. There is only a room full of art supplies(供应品)and many kids she never met. And all the kids are homeless.

 Susan got the idea last year after her school. She worried that kids who could not afford their own supplies would give up drawing. So she started writing letters to big companies to ask for help. Then the girl received lots of donations(赠品)from some of the biggest art supply companies. Susan collected more than $3000 in supplies, enough to make a home for kids to paint their own watercolors.

By far she's held three parties. What she did was encouraged by the White House. Susan received the President's awards(奖赏). Now Susan does it for a different reason— to get the poor kids to enjoy art.

    My name is Sam. I am a junior high school student. My school is close to my home, so I always go to school on foot. Classes start at 8 a.m., and I am seldom late. I like Geography best. I enjoy learning about different places in the world.

    In the morning, we usually study Chinese, Maths and English. We have our morning break at 9:50 a.m..  When the bell rings, I run to the playground with my best friends Tom and Jack. We often play games. Break ends at 10:10 a.m..

Lunch is from 11:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.. Afternoon classes end at 3:30 p.m. Then Tom, Jack and I take part in the school bank practice. We make great music together.

    I always have a good time at school.

    The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it. Man has been polluting the earth. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to an-other place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world. Air pollution is still the most serious. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO, is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution. The earth is our home. We must take care of it. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time.

    We have always been interested in the Moon. 2,000 years ago, people already knew it moves around the Earth and where it would be in the sky at different times of the year. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    When scientists could use telescopes to study the Moon more closely, their ideas began to change. They could see the Moon was made of rocks. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} And they believed the Moon had once been a planet. It was caught in Earth's gravity millions of years ago.

    In 1969, Moon rocks were finally brought to the Earth by astronauts. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} To their surprise, scientists found that the Moon and the Earth are made of the same things except for water. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    After years of study, some scientists think that the Moon was once part of the Earth. They believe maybe 4 million years ago, something hit the Earth. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}These rocks slowly joined together and after many years became the Moon.

    In the future, even though our ideas about the Moon may change again, we will still be interested in it.

An American in Beijing Lives His Chinese Dream

    Wearing his bright red armband (袖章) and speaking fluent Mandarin (普通话), 62-year-old Terry could be taken for any regular Chinese man from a distance.

    His Chinese name is Gao Tianrui. He became interested in Chinese culture as a teenager when he read the Tao Te Ching by Laozi. At 18, he took a ship to Taiwan to learn Chinese. On the ship the captain advised him to have a Chinese name." He named me Gao Tianrui, based on the pronunciation (发音) of my English name," he said. Then he first visited Beijng in 1987 on business.

    Gao Tianrui lives in a Siheyuan with other three families. His neighbors are very helpful and friendly. Gao Tianrui once didn't know much about Chinese living habits and his neighbors helped him to overcome difficulties. Gradually, he could speak Chinese fluently.

    Having lived in Beijing for more than 20 years, Gao Tianrui has also finally achieved his Chinese dream: becoming a public security (安全) volunteer. Life as a"Xicheng Dama" has even made him an' online celebrity. Xicheng Dama is a club for volunteers, usually women in late middle-age, who roam (漫步) the streets of downtown at Beijing's Xicheng district. And now Gao Tianrui has joined their club.

    "I like helping others", he said. "I live in the Siheyuan and my neighbors and I usually help each other…This is where I live, where my friends are and where I call home."

Information Card

    I have always had a love for traveling abroad. Last year, I took a trip to London alone. Those nights，I stayed in a youth hostel（青年旅社）. For me，hostels are places where I can meet and talk to different people. It is great fun for me. During the stay in the hostel, I met two girls, one from Brazil and the other from Slovakia. We three had very happy talks together. We shared our personal travel stories and the interesting people we met with one another. The girl from Brazil was actually a lawyer（律师）. 她帮助人们解决他们的家庭问题。 She was taking a trip to Europe all by herself. The girl from Slovakia had much interest in photography（摄影）. Because I was also a photography fan, we ended up talking all night and sharing experience in using a camera.

    The best part is that they both became close friends of mine. Even now, sometimes we still talk with each other online. Last month, I got some photos from the Brazilian girl. To my surprise, she had a baby daughter and they were laughing happily in the photos. I was so happy for her. And it's such a great thing to know that there are people remembering you from far away. Though you may just meet each other for a few hours, you have someone caring about you in the other side of the world. And I think that is the most amazing part of traveling. So if you have free time, maybe you can try to travel abroad to relax yourself as I do.