My name is Nancy. I have a brother and a sister, Paul and Laura. For breakfast, Paul likes eggs and bananas. Laura and I like hamburgers and bananas. For lunch Paul likes salad and hamburgers. We like vegetables and oranges. And for dinner Paul has fish and potatoes, we have French fries and bread(面包). We really like French fries.

    It's the Chinese New Year today. Sam gets a red packet from his grandma. That's his favourite part of the festival. He gets four dollars and goes shopping in Chinatown.

    There are a lot of interesting things on the streets — fireworks, lion dances and delicious foods. Then Sam sees an old man. The man sleeps in the street. He doesn't wear shoes. “He doesn't have a home. What a poor man!” Sam thinks.

    At a toy shop, Sam wants to buy a toy Monkey King. But it's six dollars. Sam wants to go back home and get more money. On the way, he sees the old man again. “Why not give the four dollars to him? He can use the lucky money to buy some hot food and drinks,” Sam thinks.

    He gives the money to the old man and goes back home. His grandma knows his story and gives him a big hug (拥抱). What a good boy!

    From a young age, I've had a really deep connection with being outside. I've been skiing since I was eight or nine years old. I've been on expeditions(探险) in many places like China, Pakistan and so on. But it was in my home country, the USA, that I came closest to death.

    It was April 1, 2011. I was skiing in the Tetons with my friends Jeremy and Xavier, both experienced snowboarders. That day, l was the last person to ski. They were watching me from a safe area. Suddenly, I heard someone cry loudly. I turned around and saw the whole mountain start to move behind me. It was a massive avalanche( 大雪崩). The kind of avalanche that destroys trees, cars, buses, even houses! Tens of thousands of tons of snow were coming straight down the mountain behind me. I felt the snow push me forward, hundreds of meters, and then cover me. It was so heavy that I couldn't breathe. And then it pushed me forward again and up, out of the snowpack. I looked around, and for a few seconds I actually stopped being terrified. I had a moment to pause and to look at the power of the avalanche.

    I looked down into the bottom of the valley(峡谷). I could see trees that were 30m tall, because! Was so far away, and they looked tiny to me. "OK, I'm going all the way to the bottom!" I thought. Then the snow pushed me again down the mountain another 450m. I thought the force of the snow would destroy me; it was powerful. But in the end, I felt the avalanche slow down and I just popped ( 迸出 ) right out of the snow at the bottom of the valley.

    It took Jeremy and Xavier about 20 minutes to reach me. There was a pile of debris(碎片) across the bottom of the mountain 300m wide. They couldn't believe it when they saw me. I was so lucky.

    Has the experience changed me? Do I think about life differently? I don't know, maybe. But I do know that it's important to live your life with meaning. Life is a gift. So use it wisely.

    Adam and his parents buy things in different ways. Adam likes shopping on the Internet on weekends. http: /club. 360 buy. com is his favourite website(网站). He often buys things such as mobile phones(手机)and cameras(照相机)on it He spends about two hundred yuan buying things on it each month. It often takes him three days to get his products.

    But Adam's parents never shop on the Internet. They can't see the real products (产品)and they often worry. Adam's mother likes buying clothes but she can't try them on(试穿) if she buys the clothes on the Internet. So she often goes shopping with her husband(丈夫). There are some shops near their home, so Adam's parents often go there to shop.