This story happened three years ago. Jack was an eight-year-old boy at that time. He was a good pupil. He was good at every subject at school. But he could not get up early. He often slept until nine or ten o'clock in the morning. So he was often late for school.

    Jack's mother didn't want him to be late for school again. So she bought him a clock. She said to him,“ You must get up when you hear the clock ring.”

    “Yes, Mum.” said Jack. After that Jack got up at twenty to seven when he heard the clock ring.

    One day his mother forgot to make the clock ring at the usual time. And the next morning Jack didn't get up. It was six forty-two at that moment. It was time for breakfast. Mother went to see him. Jack was still in bed and his eyes were open.

    “Why didn't you get up?” Mother was angry.

    “You told me to get up when I heard the clock ring. So I am waiting for the bell.”

    “Mum, is the clock still sleeping?” Jack asked.

    Yuri Gagarin was a famous Soviet astronaut. He was born in a town in the west of Moscow on 9 March, 1934. He showed great interest in flight and universe when he was a school boy. His Maths teacher was a pilot during the Second World War. Yruri Gagarin learnt a lot from him.

    Later, Yuri Gagarin went to a technical school and learnt to fly a small plane. In 1955, after graduating from the technical school, he entered a flight training school.

    In 1960, Gagarin was selected as one of the 20 astronauts for the space programme of his country. Along with the others, he had a lot of tests of his physical and mental abilities. He was the best.

    On 12 April, 1961, he made history. He orbited(绕……轨道而行) the Earth for 108 minutes. After returning safely, Gagarin became a hero in his country, and people in other countries were also very interested in his flight.

    Gagarin never went into space again, but he trained other astronauts, including the first woman in space.

    On 27 March, 1968, the first spaceman died in a plane crash because of bad weather.

    I am 13. It's my first time to go to New York. I go there with my friend Emma. We get to New York at about 10pm, and we want to do some sightseeing(观光). So we go to the Empire State Building. But the 86^th floor(层) is cold. A long time later, we go to the hotel(酒店).

    On the second day, we go shopping in the morning, visit the Statue of Liberty at noon, and go shopping again in the afternoon.

    It is rainy on the third day, but we get up early in the morning. We have some bread and go to Rockefeller Center. We see the whole city there. I feel like I am on top(顶部) of the world. In the evening, we walk around Times Square, watch all the people and the street performers(街头艺人). At 11pm, Emma and I go back to the hotel. We go back home the next day. New York is really a good place.

    My cousin Bill likes going to the beach on Sunday. There was much sunshine that day. He went there with his brother. They got there at 9:00. There were lots of people there on vacation. Bill and his brother sat down and began to relax.

    Soon Bill found there were lots of empty water bottles on the beach. He also saw some paper bags on the beach. That made Bill sad. He and his brother began to work. To clean the beach, they worked hard. About two hours later, the beach was clean again.  At last they put up a sign, saying, "No Littering(乱扔)" on the beach. They wanted people to keep the beach clean. After that, they were very hungry. So they went to a restaurant nearby to have lunch. They had two large bowls of beef noodles there, and then went home.