Little Bob was born in a poor family. What's worse is that his father has been ill for a long time and can not do any housework at all. Bob's mother is very busy with the housework besides working in her factory. Bob can understand her mother's hard work and he always does some housework for his mother, though he is only eight years old. Here is what he usually does every day.

    Keep his bedroom clean. Take good care of his things and put them away every day. If he makes them dirty, he will clean them up quickly.

    Ask his mom what he could do. His mother will probably have suggestions for things he could do for her.

    Feed the pets every day. There is a parrot, a cat and a dog in his house. He feeds them and gives them water every day. And after school, he often plays with his dog.

    Wash his own clothes. When his clothes are dirty, he will wash them by himself, he says it's a good thing to make his mother happy.

    On October 17,2016 the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceship was sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu. Two days later the spaceship successfully connected with the space laboratory Tiangong-2. It meant China got closer to its plan of building a space station in 2020.

    The spaceship took two Chinese astronauts to space this time. Jing Haipeng was an experienced astronaut who flew on Shenzhou-7 in 2008 and Shenzhou-9 in 2012. But it was Chen Dong's first space flight.

    Jing and Chen were given a 30-day task on Tiangong-2. They tested new technology and did experiments to prepare for future space station tasks. The astronauts themselves were also the subject(对象) of those experiments. The life support devices(设备) they used and how they lived inside the space laboratory were studied. No Chinese astronaut had stayed in space for that long before.

    A month-long space task was not easy, so Chinese scientists and engineers had come up with lots of new technologies to allow astronauts to stay more safely and more comfortably in space.

One of the new technologies tested during this task was a device called "space hospital". The space hospital was two little silver boxes tied around the two astronauts' legs. Through the "space hospital", scientists and doctors on the Earth could watch the astronauts' heart rate and temperature. When the astronauts felt tired, the "space hospital" could even massage(为……按摩) them.

    After this task, China is expected to send an unmanned cargo spaceship(无人货运飞船) in mid-April next year. It will dock with Tiangong-2 and take new fuel to the space laboratory.

    Hello, everyone! I'm Mike. I live in Beijing with my parents. I'm in Class Two, Grade Seven at Beijing International School. I'm looking forward to the busy weekend. All the students in our class are going to Tian'anmen Square to watch the flag­raising ceremony(升旗仪式) on Saturday morning.

    We're going to gather(集合) at five o'clock at the school gate. It takes us about twenty minutes to get there by subway. After watching the ceremony, we are going to visit the Railway Museum. I hope the weather will be fine! In the afternoon we are going to have a basketball match in the gym. In the evening we're going to see a movie. I don't think we're going home early on Saturday evening.

    On Sunday morning I'm going to Beihai Park with my friends. We're going to take a walk in the park and collect litter there. It must be very interesting.

    In 1978, I was working as a nurse in a small town about 270km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unluckily, the one train a day to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd get a ride.

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours, but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he promised me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made me sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

    Twenty-five years later, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to get a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay(回报) someone for the kindness I'd been given many years earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, "You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same."

    I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

    In ancient times, there was a king who loved flowers, His palace was always decorated with beautiful orchids (兰花) and other flowers. As the king grew older, he knew that one day he would have to give up his throne (王位). So he had to find someone to rule the country.

    The other day, the king had an idea. He asked his servants to travel to every part of the country and give every citizen a single orchid seed (种子), He then announced that the person who grew the most beautiful orchid would take his throne.

    Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited about the news, because he had experience in growing flowers himself.

    David planted his seed in a pot and put it in a place where it would get lots of sunlight. He watched it carefully every day. But as hard as he tried, his flower simply would not grow.

    Finally, it was time for everyone to give their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot to the palace. "Your Majesty (尊敬的陛下), I am sorry to say that I could not grow an orchid, But I hope you can see that I tried my best," he said.

    The king was moved by David's honesty. Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a royal court judge (法官).He believed that David's honesty would make him the right person to make sure the justice (公正) in the country.