Sam is my new classmate. He is 1 American boy. He is from New York. He is thirteen.

    Sam often gets up at about 6: 30 on2. And he often 3 a cup of tea, an egg and some bread for his breakfast. Then he goes to school at 7: 30 a.m. and gets there 4 8: 00 a.m. . They have four classes in the morning and two in the 5. At 3: 50 p.m. they play games. He studies hard and studies 6. He likes English and is good at it. He teaches us 7 and we teach him Chinese. He can speak a little Chinese now, but not 8 . Mike is his good friend. They go home together(一起). He does 9 homework at home, but sometimes at school. On Saturday and Sunday, he likes 10 football games on TV. He often goes to bed at about nine.

    One day town mouse Mike went to visit his cousin Tom in the countryside. Mike lived a rich life and he loved his cousin a lot. Tom was 1 but he loved his town cousin, too. So he made his cousin Mike very welcome.

    For dinner that night Tom took out 2 he had: water and potatoes. Mike said, "Cousin, how can you eat food 3 this, but of course you can't expect anything better in the countryside! Come with me and I' 11 show you how to 4 in the big beautiful town."

    The two mice set off (出发) for the town and 5 the Town Mouse' s home late at night. "Let's have something to eat and drink after 6 long trip," said the Town Mouse. They went into a big dining room. There the two mice had fruit, meat and cakes and drank milk and juice.

    Then they 7 a loud noise (响声). "What's that?" asked Tom. "It is only the dogs of the house," answered Mike. "Only?" said Tom. "I don't like that 8 at my dinner."

    At that time two large dogs came in the dining room. The two mice ran away 9 and hid (隐藏) under a chair.

    "Goodbye, Cousin," said Tom.

    "What? Are you 10 so soon?" said the other.

    "Yes," Tom answered. "I think it's better to enjoy my potatoes at home than meat here."

    I was born and grew up in the small town of Pineville, which I left at the age of sixteen. Twenty years 1 I came back on a visit. I went to see my old friend Tom Clark, who, active as ever, was head of a Reading Club. He was 2 getting ready to welcome a famous writer, who had been invited to come to give a talk on novels at the public library that evening. Since I happened to have read a book or two 3 this famous writer, when Tom asked me to go with him, I gladly 4.

    Tom was going to introduce the writer to the f audience. 5we went to the library a little earlier to welcome him. As the writer hadn't arrived yet, I left Tom and went into the reading room. A large number of people had already been there. I was sorry to find that I didn't know 6person. So I found a seat in the corner and sat quietly waiting.

    When it was just about time for the 7 to begin, I saw Tom standing at the door making a sign for 8 to come out. He looked worried about something, so I got up right away and went to him. He said that he had just had a telephone call from the writer. He had 9 his flight and would not be arriving! While we were considering the problem, Tom suddenly asked me if I would mind giving a talk instead of the writer. I never had time to 10 it when all at once I found I was being pushed back into the reading room to speak to the waiting audience.

Videos of the granddaughter of American President Trump showing her Chinese speaking skills became very popular on the Internet. In the video, Arabella {#blank#}1{#/blank#}a popular Chinese song and recited two Chinese poems by a Tang poet.

More and more kids try to learn Chinese just {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Arabella. About 50. 000 American students {#blank#}3{#/blank#} now studying Chinese." Because of China's fast growth, Chinese is more useful {#blank#}4{#/blank#}other languages, "said Scott Mcginnis, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} language expert(专家).

For example, in 1999, only three Chicago schools had {#blank#}6{#/blank#}classes. This year more than thirty do. In many US cities. students take Chinese lessons during holidays or on weekends. But Chicago schools teach Chinese during the school days. Last year China gave them 3.000 textbooks {#blank#}7{#/blank#}they had done a good job.

Although Chinese classes are becoming popular, it is still {#blank#}8{#/blank#}of the most difficult languages. It {#blank#}9{#/blank#} an English speaker about 1,320 hours all to become good {#blank#}10{#/blank#} Chinese, but 480 hours to learn French, Spanish or Italian.

One day, a boy finds a penguin at his door. The boy doesn't know where it comes from, but it begins to follow him everywhere. The penguin looks sad, and the boy thinks it must be lost. So the boy wants to help the penguin find its way home.

Later, he hears that penguins come from the South Pole*. So together, they carry everything they need during the journey to the South Pole. And the boy takes his rowboat to the sea. They row* south for many days and nights. To help pass the time, the boy keeps telling stories all the way. The penguin listens to everything that the boy says! Sometimes when they getbored, they do exercise together.

They float* through good and bad weather on the sea. Finally, they come to the South Pole. The boy is delighted, but the penguin says nothing. And it looks sad again as the boy helps it out of the boat. Then the boy says good—bye and floats away. When he looks back, the penguin is still there. But it looks sadder than ever.

After a while, he suddenly realises* the pengui n isn't lost. It is just lonely. Quickly he turns the boat around and rows back to the South Pole as fast as he can. He tries to find the penguin, but he can't . Sadly, the boy leaves for home. But then the boy sees something in the water ahead of him. It's the penguin! It is waiting for the boy.

At last, the boy and his friend go home together, talking of wonderful things all the way. The penguin is happy to enjoy those interesting stories again.

On Jayne's {#blank#}1{#/blank#}（twelve） birthday, she called to tell me that she would come to visit me. This morning, she kept sending me {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（message） on her way to our house in Virginia, the US. 

"Grandma, can you put some snow in the fridge? That way, I can feel snow {#blank#}3{#/blank#} I get there, "she wrote. In the past 12 years, Jayne had lived with her parents in the south of Georgia, the US, so she had never seen snow before. 

"Yes, I will, " I wrote. "There is still some snow on the ground in the yard. " And I sent her a few photos of it. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, the weather report brought me bad news. It said. the weather would be sunny at noon. This made me {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（feel） worried. 

In the afternoon, they{#blank#}6{#/blank#}（final） arrived. Jayne got out of the car first. She didn't even have time to hug us. She ran into the yard and put {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（she） hands in the snow. She looked so excited. It was great that the sun didn't come out that day. 

"Grandma, the weather is so cold, but I enjoy playing {#blank#}8{#/blank#} snow, " Jayne said. Then she started to build a snowman. After working for a while, a lovely snowman {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（finish）. At last, she put her hat on its head. It looked nicer and {#blank#}10{#/blank#}（smart）. She kept playing outside until her hands got wet and cold. 

Watching her playing in the snow made me realize that small things can also make us happy.