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Last Sunday I saw the worst storm in years. It came suddenly and went on for more than three hours. After lunch, I went into my room to have a rest. The air was hot, and all was quiet. The strong wind started blowing into my room. Pieces of paper on my desk flew high into the air and some flew out of the open window. As I ran out to catch them, big drops of rain began to fall. When I came back into the house, it was raining harder and harder. I tried very hard to close the window. Then I heard a loud crashing（碰撞的） sound from the back of the house. I ran out of my room to find out what it was— a big tree had fallen down and broke the top of the back room.

Florida teen band The Garbage-Men is performing on the stage. The band has five members. They are Jack Berry, Ollie Gray, Harrison Paparatto, Austin Siegel and Evan Tucker. The five teens are making music from waste. The Garbage-Men band's instruments are made from recycled things. The guitars are boxes. A horn(号) is made from pipes. The keyboard is formed from old bottles.

    The band started about two years ago. Jack Berry who was in eighth grade at the time decided to make a playable, home-made guitar. After some trial-and-error(反复试验),                he ended up building it from a cereal box,  a yardstick and toothpicks. After Jack showed his creation to his friend Ollie Gray, Ollie had the idea to form a band using other home-made instruments as a way to improve recycling. “We want to show people there is more to recycling than throwing things away in the bin.” Jack, 16, told TFK. “You can actually reuse materials.”

Last year, the Garbage-Men played at local events, including festivals, farmer's markets. Typically， the teens set up on the street and performed popular songs from the 1960s， including classic Beatles and crowd favorite “Wipe Out”. They talked about recycling and offered tips for how to improve the environment. While they were performing, Jack's little brother Trent, 11, gave out leaflets about recycling and helped sell the band's CDs and other musical products.

The band donated the money from sales to charity. They have raised more than $2,500 for Heifer International. The organization gives farm animals, seeds and agricultural training to people in poor countries to help end poverty and hunger. “It's a good, sustainable-development (持续发展的)charity,” Jack says, “By donating one animal, you help the whole community.”

The band, all tenth graders, tries to play a show every week. They've also played on a Florida radio station. The teens hope to take their shows on the road by touring in other states. “Music is a really good way to get a good message across to people because it's really close.” Jack says. Their instruments may be rubbish, but their message isn't.

    When I saw Ronny for the first time, he looked like other kids in the first-grade classroom where I volunteered as a Reading Mom. However, he usually arrived at school wearing old clothes.

    On the day when it was Ronny's turn to read. He sat very close to me. I watched his fingers move slowly under each letter as "he tried to speak out "Bud the Sub". It sounded more like "Baw Daw Saw" when he said it because of his difficulty with the alphabet (字母).

    The year passed quickly and Ronny had made some progress but he was still below the level of grade. A few weeks before the school year ended, I held an award(颁奖) ceremony. I had gifts and certificates(证书) for everyone. It took me a while to think about which Ronny fit; I believed the gift could cheer him up. I finally decided on "The Most Progressive Reader". I showed his certificate and a book.

    A few days later, I saw Ronny reading the book when I went back to the school. His teacher said, "He hasn't put that book down. That's the first book he's ever owned. "

    Fighting back tears(眼泪) I came near Ronny and asked, "Will you read me your book, Ronny?" He nodded.

    And then, for the next few minutes, he read to me more smoothly than I'd ever thought. When he finished reading, Ronny closed his book and said, "Good book."

    At that moment, I knew I should do what an author(作家) had done-care children and make them excellent.

Many people do not like to stay at home on holiday. They want to go on a trip to some exciting places. They want to see something different and do something exciting. So people from the country come to the city and people from the city go to the country for their holidays. During the holidays, trains, buses and planes are all very busy. It is very hard to buy train tickets. Many people take cars for a trip. Last week my family went to the country by car for our holidays. There was too much traffic on the road, so we had to drive very slowly. It took us about an hour to get out of the town. Then we came to a hill. It was green and beautiful. We thought this was a good place for a picnic, so we stopped and took the food, fruit and drinks out of the car. We sat down and began to eat. Suddenly a strong wind blew and soon it started to rain. We had to run back to our car and had our picnic in the car. Then we drove back home. What a bad trip!