D

    Mike Myers is a teacher at Chauncey Rose High School in Terre Haute, Indiana. Last year, he taught his students about the world's rain forests. They learned that rain forests are important because the plants and animals of the rain forest give us food, wood, and medicine.

    Destruction of the world's rain forests is a serious problem. Unluckily, rain forests are disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute! As part of a class project, Myers' students bought three acres of rain forest in Central America. They paid $25 per acre. The students hope that the land they bought will be protected and not destroyed. The students became so interested in rain forests that they decided to get a closer look at a real rain forest.

    So last June, Myers and four of his students took a boat ride down a river. They saw alligators and crocodiles. In the middle of the week, a guide took Myers and his students into the rain forest. "The monkeys were not happy that we were in their forest. They broke small branches off the trees and threw them at us," one of the students said. "It was a great learning experience for all of us," said Myers.

    Each student chose something specific about Costa Rica to study involving the plants, animals, food, and culture. During the last few days the group had time to do fun activities. They went whitewater rafting and horseback riding, and visited Costa Rica's active volcano.

    Myers hopes to make the trip every year with a different group of kids.

    There are many people on the bus. Some have seats, but some have to stand. At a bus stop, a woman gets on the bus. An old man hears the door and tries to stand up.

    "Oh, no, thank you," the woman forces(强迫)him back to the seat. "Please don't do that. I can stand.''

    "But, madam, let me……" says the man.

    "I ask you to keep your seat." the woman says. She put s her hands on the old man's shoulder.

    But the man still tries to stand up, "Madam, will you please let me……" "Oh, no." says the woman. She again forces the man back.

    At last the old man shouts(喊), "I want to get off the bus!"

    My friend is Li Ming. He was born on September 20th, 2003, in Beijing. Now he is studying in London. He's in Class 1 with 8 students. They're from America, France and Japan. His teacher's name is Mike Brown. He's a very nice and very good teacher.

    Li Ming is living with an English family. Mr. and Mrs. Green have three children. Tom is fifteen, Kate is twelve, and Andrew is eight. They are all very friendly.

London is a very large and interesting city. The weather there is good—-sunny but cool, and the parks are beautiful! Li Ming loves living in London very much. He thinks English food is great, too. He likes traditional dishes like fish and chips.

    Once a young man hoped to study law and he wrote to Lincoln for advice, who lived most of his adult life as a practicing lawyer. Lincoln replied, "If you make up your mind to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already. Always keep in mind that your own decision to succeed is more important than any other thing."

    Lincoln knew this because he had gone through it all. He had never, in his life，had more than a total of one year's schooling. And books? Lincoln once said he had walked to borrow every book fifty miles away from his home. A fire was usually kept going all night in the small house and he read by the light of it.

    He walked twenty or thirty miles to hear a speaker and, returning home, he practiced his talks everywhere—in the fields, in the woods, before the crowds. He joined several societies and practiced speaking on the topics of the day.

    Being short of confidence always troubled him. He was shy before women. Even when he was in love with Mary Todd, he used to sit there, nervous and silent, unable to find words, listening while she did the talking. Yet that was the man who, by practice and home study, made himself into a famous speaker with great eloquence(雄辩).

    When he spoke of his own great painful experiences, he wrote, "If you make up your mind to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already."

    Being able to go to a perfect university is what every high school student dreams of. However, for Jin Chengkuang, a high school senior at Shenzhen Experimental Chenghan School, his long-standing dream has been to be a film director. He has received offers from four top art schools in the United States, which means he is already on the way of making his filming dream come true.

    Although Jin is only 18 years old, he has had some experience of filming. During his three years in high school, Jin produced four more short films besides Choose and Out of Control, which were more successful.

    According to Jin, he shot Choose with an Argentinian student when he was at a summer school programme in New York. It was a short film about freedom. The film was produced in a classroom with only a fish tank as the main prop (道具). To express the opposite of freedom, the tank was empty in the beginning, but suddenly, a fish appeared and swam freely in the tank. In the end, the fish disappeared, leaving us an open ending. It took Jin and his partner one month to finish the six-minute short film.

    As a beginner, Jin has been quite lucky so far. Last winter, he got a chance to join the well-known film director Chen Kaige when they travelled to Northern China to film I Legend of the Demon Cat.

    Jin said, "A great firm takes everyone's efforts. Although the conditions were pretty poor, it was all worth it because I learned a lot."

    Joseph has written a letter to his cousins, James and Susan. Here is the letter.

    Dear James and Susan,

    I am writing to you again because I am at home in bed. I have a cold recently and I am unable to go to school. I've got a fever and a bad headache as well. In addition, I'm always thirsty, probably as a result of the fever. But, with a lot of effort, I'm writing a letter to you.

    The weather here in Toronto is horrible. I am sure the weather is much better in Hong Kong. Do you agree? The snow came a bit early this year and it was freezing cold. It's surprising to see kids playing in the snow happily and building "castles" and snowmen this morning. A few of them made snowballs by pressing snow together and threw them at each other.

    I am going to have my examination soon, I'm worried about it because I'm too sick to get out of bed to hold my text-books. What's more, I haven't attended school for nearly one week. I have to work hard to catch up with my classmates.

    I have got a new mate recently. That is Bobby, our cat. Uncle Tom gave him to me as my birthday present. He is rather disobedient and he runs here and there from time to time. However, I'm glad to have him as my friend at the moment.

    Please write to me if you have time.

Yours,

Joseph