Hello. I'm Tom. I'm a middle school student. It's nice to meet you here. First, let me tell you s{#blank#}1{#/blank#} about my family. There are f{#blank#}2{#/blank#} people in my family. They are my mother, my father, my sister, my brother and me. My father is a worker. My mother is an English teacher. My sister is eighteen and my brother is sixteen. I'm fourteen. We three go to the s{#blank#}3{#/blank#} school. We all enjoy w{#blank#}4{#/blank#} football games. My h{#blank#}5{#/blank#} is at West Street. There is a big tree and some small trees around my house. The big one is a pear tree and the small ones are apple t{#blank#}6{#/blank#}, but there a{#blank#}7{#/blank#} any pears or apples on them now. H{#blank#}8{#/blank#} is a photo of my house. In the photo, you can s{#blank#}9{#/blank#} three cats in my house. They are all black and white. We l{#blank#}10{#/blank#} them very much.

   I'm having a great time on my student exchange program in France. I was a bit nervous before I arrived here but there wasn't {#blank#}1{#/blank#}reason to be. My host family is really nice. The grandmother always helps me practice {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(speak) French. You can't believe how quickly my French{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (improve) because of that. I'm very comfortable speaking French now. My {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(big) challenge is learning how to behave at the dinner table. As you can imagine, things here are very different {#blank#}5{#/blank#}the way they are at home. For example, you're not supposed to put your bread on your plate. You should put it on the table! At first I {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(think) that was pretty strange, but now I'm used to it. I find that it's{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (polite) to say that you're full. If you don't want any{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(much)food, you should just say, "That was delicious." I also find it difficult to remember everything, {#blank#}9{#/blank#}I'm gradually getting used to it. I don't find French customs so strange anymore. I'll write again soon and tell you {#blank#}10{#/blank#}is happening my daily life. Hope you're having a good school year.

    Each country has many kinds of people who volunteer {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(take) care of others. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}example, some high school and university students in America often{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(spend) many hours doing volunteers in hospitals or old people's homes. They read books to the people there, or they just visit them or listen to {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (they) problems.

    Other young volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick. –They clean up or do the shopping. For boys who don't have fathers, there is an organization {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(call) Big Brothers. University students and other people take these boys to baseball games and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers.

    Each city {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(have) a lot of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games or take part in other activities. Some of these clubs show movies or have short trips to the mountains, the {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(beach) or the museums. Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and university students as volunteers {#blank#}8{#/blank#}they are young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls more {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(easy).

    Volunteers believe that {#blank#}10{#/blank#} happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others.

    I went on a camping trip in the mountains {#blank#}1{#/blank#} my classmates. After {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (hike) all day. We found {#blank#}3{#/blank#} good place to camp for the whole night. We made a campfire so that we could cook our dinner. We roasted some hot dogs and {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (potato) and drank some lemonade. When it got dark, we told ghost stories by {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (sit) around the campfire.

    Later when we {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (lie) down to go to sleep, we listened {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the sound of crickets(蟋蟀) and some small animals moving around in the grass We {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (think) there were some ghosts nearby. "What?" We asked. "I think l hear someone walking in the woods, "Kathy said. Soon we all heard footsteps and we were all {#blank#}9{#/blank#} scared that we couldn't get to sleep. {#blank#}10{#/blank#} course, there was no one there, but we had wild imagination.