“All our class must hand in compositions tomorrow. We must write 12 linesat least. But I can never write one. I'll have to go to school without acomposition, for I won't copy one from a book, or ask you or papa to write onefor me.”

    “That's right,” said her mother. “You'll be happier with a poorcomposition, if it's your own, than with a fine one written by somebody else.But cheer up. Run into the garden and play. I'll call you in half an hour.Don't think about your composition now. Just have a good time.”

It seemed just a few minutes to Susie before she heard her mother calling her. She wentinto the house immediately — her hands full of sweet flowers, and her face redwith exercise.

Then her mother asked her to sit by the window with a nice piece ofpaper and a pencil, and write something about what she could see. “Never mindyour composition; do this to please me, and we'll talk about that later.”

    Although Susie thought her mother's request was strange, she knew shealways had a good reason for everything she did. So she did as her motherrequested.

    As she looked out, she first saw the western sky and some bright, sunsetclouds. “Oh, mother, what a sunset!”

“Don't talk. Just write.”

The pencil began moving rapidly across the paper. She wrote about the sunsetclouds, the look of the distant hills, the streets, the river, the garden withits flowers, and the birds flying past the window. She forgot all about theterrible composition!

    Just as she had reached the bottom of the page, hermother came in and said with a smile, “Well, Susie, how does that compositioncome on?”

   “Composition! You told me not to think about it, and I've never thoughtof it once. I've had such a nice time writing about what I could see from thewindow.”

    Mrs. Smith took the paper and read what Susie had written. She said,“There, Susie, that's a very nice composition,really.”

   “A composition! Is that a composition?”Susie asked in surprise.

   “Yes, my dear, and a very good one, too, if we find a title for it,”replied her mother. Then she added, “I'm sure it will please your teacher, asit does me. You see, it's easy enough to write a composition if you have anything interesting to write about.”

    A beautiful and very successful actress was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the country，but she didn't want to go back there every night，so she bought an expensive house in the center of the city，got some beautiful furniture and got a man to paint the rooms in new colour.

    It was very difficult to get tickets for her show in the evening，because everyone wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of month，when she got the painter's bill. At the bottom of it were these words "Four hours from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm watching Miss Hall sing and dance：3 pounds," with this note:"Before5：00 pm I get 10 shillings（先令）an hour and after 5:00pm 15 shillings."

    How nice to meet you all! Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

    My name is Li Ming. I am from Shenzhen. There are three people in my family. My father is a Maths teacher and my mother is an English teacher. We all love playing sports very much. My favorite sport is football. My parents are crazy about badminton.

    From now on we study together and live together. I think we should love and help each other. And we must love our school and teachers! Let's be good friends. Let's get to know each other better. Let's become a real family here at school.

    It's time for us to depend on(依靠) ourselves. Never let our parents down! The future belongs to us.

    Miss Miller, the English teacher wants to know about her students. She asks them some questions. The next are some of the students' answers：

Hello, everyone! My name is Peter. I like sports. My favourite sport is football. I often play it with my friends after school. We have a good time.

Of the four seasons, I like summer best. It's hot but I can swim with my friends. I can have ice cream. It's cool!

I have a bird and a dog at home. The bird's name is Polly. It's two years old. It's black, blue and red. The dog's name is Snow. It's one year old. It's white. They are my good friends.

Of all the colours, I like blue best. My pens ,pencils, and bed are blue.In my home, my desk and chair are blue too.

Jane Greenall and Paul Greenall are my parents. My mother likes playing table tennis. Her favourite pets(宠物) are cats. My father likes swimming. His favourite pets are dogs.