I'm Katy. I have many good friends, and Jema is one of them. I'm in Class Six, and Jema is in Class Eight. We first met in our school tennis club. Both (两个) of us like playing tennis, and we often practice together.

    I often visit Jema on the weekend: Sometimes we swim in the pool or go shopping with our friend Sarah. She is in our school dance club and dances beautifully. I went to Jema's house today. It was raining, so we couldn't go out.

    "Let's watch a movie," Jema said. "You're my guest (客人), Katy, so you can pick it."

    I picked a movie called Dance of Joy. It's about a girl called Susan who likes to dance. Susan has a cat named Albert. Albert chews (咬) her dancing shoes, so she can' t dance anymore. Luckily, she gets a new pair of dancing shoes. Albert surprises Susan by bringing her the new shoes in his mouth. It is a wonderful happy ending.

    I told Jema I loved the movie. She laughed and said she found it quite boring. She only kept watching it because I was enjoying it so much. I felt a little bad about it, but it's nice to have a good friend like Jema.

    Years ago I worked at a factory in a small county. Every day I got up very early and often did much extra work at night. I was so tired and exhausted. My whole life was hopeless. Then one day I read the following article from a magazine：

    "A woman went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert（沙漠）during the war. She simply hated the place: the heat was almost unbearable, 125degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand-sand everywhere. Finally, in desperation（不顾-切地）she wrote her parents in Ohio that she couldn't stand it another minute and was coming home.

    Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father just two lines：

    'Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars.'

    The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect（思维）but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post.

    She made friends with the natives, learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it. The desert hadn't changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart to the words her father sent, a whole new world opened up to her. "

    A change of attitude could change everything. After reading the article, I was deep in thought（陷入沉思）.

    After a while attention to Tom ended, and the usual school murmur(嗡嗡读书声) rose upon the boring air once more. Now the boy began to steal secret glances(偷看) at the girl. She noticed it, made a face at him and gave him the back of her head for the space of a minute. When she slowly faced around again, an apple lay before her. She pushed it away. Tom gently put it back. She pushed it away again, but with less animosity(敌意). Tom patiently returned it to its place. Then she let it remain. Tom wrote on his paper, "Please take it. I got more." The girl glanced at the words, but made no sign.

    Now the boy began to draw something on the paper, hiding his work with his left hand. For a time the girl refused to notice, but her human curiosity soon began to show itself by hardly noticeable(明显的) signs. The boy worked on, seemingly not aware. The girl made some non-committal(含糊的) efforts to see, but the boy did not display that he was aware of it. At last she couldn't bear it and whispered: "Let me see it."

    Tom partly uncovered the picture of a house with some smoke rising from the chimney(烟囱). Then the girl's interest began to fasten itself upon the work and she forgot everything else. When it was finished, she gazed a moment, then whispered:

    "It's nice! Draw a man."

    The artist created a man in the front yard. She was satisfied, and whispered:

"It's a beautiful man—now draw me in it."

    Tom drew an hour-glass(沙漏) as the body, a full moon as her head and some arms added to it. The girl said:

    "It's ever so nice. I wish I could draw. No one has ever taught me that."

    "It's easy," whispered Tom, "I'll teach you."

    "Oh, will you? When?"

    "At noon. Do you go home for dinner?"

    "I'll stay if you will."

   "Good, that's a deal. What's your name?"

    "Jenny" Lang Ping, was born in 1960, Tianjin. She is a former Chinese volleyball player and the former head coach of the US Women's National Volleyball Team. Her nickname is the "Tron Hammer".

    In 1987, Lang Ping moved to Los Angeles to study and serve as an assistant volleyball coach at the University of New Mexico. She keeps Chinese nationality although she has lived in the USA for more than 15 years.

    Because of her central role in the success of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team in the 1980s, Lang was seen as a cultural icon and is one of the most respected people in modern Chinese sports history. The Chinese Women's Volleyball Team with Lang was the first team to win the World Championship several times, including the1984 Olympics. She will always be remembered as one of the very first world champions for China. In 1989, she took over Modena, one of the top teams in the Italian League, and enjoyed great success there.

    In 1995, Lang became the head coach of the Chinese National Team and eventually guided the team to the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and the second place at the 1998 World Volleyball Championships in Japan.

    She became the coach of the US National Team in2005. Lang guided the team to the 2008 Olympics, where the US team faced off with China in her home country. The US team won the victory against China 3:2. The US team went on to win the silver medal, losing to Brazil in the final 1:3.

    She was the head coach of the Chinese Women's National Volleyball Team in the World Volleyball Championships in Japan in 1998. In 2014, she was the only female head coach among the 24 teams' coaches in the World Volleyball Championships. On August 21, 2016, Lang Ping guided the Chinese Women's National Team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. With the victory, Lang Ping became the first person in volleyball history, male or female, to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games as a player in 1984(Los Angeles) and as a head coach in 2016(Rio).

    Everyone has his own birthday. People in different countries celebrate their birthdays in different ways. Now here are four people from different countries. They will tell us how they celebrate their birthdays in their countries.

    Sandy comes from Madrid(马德里). She says happily," My 21st birthday is on Saturday, and I'm going to go out with some friends. To wish me a happy birthday, they are going to pull on my ear 21 times, once for each year. It's an old custom. Some people pull on the ear just once, but my friends are very traditional."

    Mr. and Mrs. Sato are from Tokyo. Mr. Sato is going to be 60 tomorrow. In Japan, the sixtieth birthday is called Kanreki(花甲)—it's the beginning of a new life. The color red is for a new life, so we always give something red for a sixtieth birthday.

    Liu Mei from Beijing feels very excited and tells us, "Tomorrow is my 16th birthday. It's a special birthday, so we're going to have a family party. Maybe I will get some lucky money from my relatives(亲戚). My mother is going to cook noodles for a long life.

    Phillip, from Paris, smiles to us," I'm going to be thirty next week, so I'm going to invite three very good friends out for dinner. In France, when you have a birthday, you often invite people out."

    How do you usually celebrate your birthday?

    One day Bob took two of his friends into the mountains. They put up their tents (帐篷) and then rode off to a forest to see how the trees were growing.

    In the afternoon when they were about ten kilometers from their camp(营地), it started to snow. More and more snow fell. Soon Bob could not see his hands before his face. He could not find the road. Bob knew there were two roads. One road went to the camp, and the other went to his house. But all was white snow. Everything was the same. How could he take his friends back to the camp?

    Bob had an idea. The horses! Let the horses take them back! But what would happen if the horses took the road to his house? That would be a trip of thirty-five kilometers in such cold weather!

    It was getting late. They rode on and on. At last the horses stopped. Where were they? John looked around. What was that under the tree? It was one of their tents!