In life, everyone once struggles for a dream, whether it's successful or not. I still clearly remember one day when I was in high school. I saw on a website that China's. Got Talent's mass-election（海选）for the best singers was going on. I was very excited and decided to go and try out. But it wasn't as easy as I had thought. When I got there, I saw at least 100 people already waiting in line. My hands started to sweat and shake as my turn got close. I got up and started singing, but I sang so badly that I stopped before I even finished the song. Afterwards I quickly said goodbye to my friends and walked home crying. I thought that I would never be able to show my face in public again.
    However, after about a year, that terrible experience became a funny memory. I realized that I didn't need to care about losing that dream, because I made a new and more realistic one. I'm good at English, as well as other subjects. I made it my goal to get accepted into Columbia University. Columbia is hard to get into, and about 1,300 students from all over the world are accepted every year. Though it is hard to get into, I think my dream will come true someday by working hard.

    Gladys Holm was a secretary(秘书). She worked in an office all his life. Gladys made about $15,000 a year. She died when she was 86 years old. And she left a big surprise—$18 million! She gave the money to a children's hospital.

    Gladys Holm never got married or had any children. But she always liked children, and she wanted to help them. When her friend's daughter was ill in hospital, Gladys brought her a toy bear. After that, she visited the hospital many times. Every time she visited, she brought toy bears for those children. After that, people started to call Gladys the "Toy bear Lady."

    Gladys always gave toys and presents to her friends and family but no one knew she had a lot of money. She lived in a small house outside Chicago. Everyone was very surprised when they learned she was a millionaire. A family friend said, "She always gave us nice presents and things, but we didn't know she was rich."

    How did Gladys get so much money? She asked her boss how to make more money, and she listened to what he said. She bought the stocks(股票) that he told her to buy, and she got very rich. Before she died, she talked to her friends about "giving something to the children's hospital." No one knew that the "something" was $18 million!

    Uncle Lee is coming to have dinner with us. Mom and I go shopping. We don't have any meat. We need to buy some. It's ten yuan a kilo before. But now two kilos are sixty yuan. I say, "Mom, let's buy some fish." Mom answers, "OK." Fish is Uncle Lee's favorite food. We buy one kilo and a half. We also buy some vegetables and some chicken, but we don't buy any hamburgers. Uncle Lee doesn't like them at all. Mom also wants to buy some apples for me. You know, I like bananas, oranges and peaches, but I like apples best. But we can't find any. We go home at a quarter to five in the afternoon.

    One day, my father and I were in line to buy tickets for the circus(马戏表演). And a family was standing in front of us.

    The family had eight children. Their clothes were not expensive but clean．The children talked about the clowns(小 丑), elephants, monkeys and other things excitedly. It was their first time to go to the circus.

    The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly answered, “I want eight children's tickets and two adults' tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.”

    The ticket lady said the price. The man's wife lowered her head and there was no smile on th e man's face. He quietly asked, “How much did you say?”

    The ticket lady said the price again. The man didn't have enough money. How could he tell his eight kids the bad news? My dad put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground．(In fact, we were not rich!) Then my dad said, “Excuse me, sir, this dropped out of your pocket.”

    The man knew what was going on. He looked into my dad's eyes, held my dad's hand in his, and took the $20 bill. “Thank you, sir, thank you. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

    My father and I went back home. We didn't go to see the circus that night, but we didn't care.

Dear Dale,

    I'm David, and I'm your new penfriend. I'm 12 and I live in Vancouver, a city in Canada. I have short black hair and black eyes.

    My mother and father are from Beijing, China and we speak Chinese and English at home. My father is a doctor and my mother is a teacher. My sister Amy is 22. She doesn't live at home, because she works in New York, USA. She likes yellow. My brother Jack is at university (大学) and he studies computer science. He is 18 and we live in the same room. We like blue, so the walls (墙) of our room are

blue.

    Please write and tell me about you and your family.

    All the best,

David

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Have you ever been to Ireland? If not, you should think of spending a vacation there. The Republic of Ireland stands in the south of the island. There are about 3, 470, 000 people in the country and the weather is quite wet but warm. Falls of snow in Ireland are most unusual. 

Ireland is full of interesting things to do. You'll find restaurants and café everywhere. Most of them have a long list（清单） of Irish food and drinks. After your meal, you can take a walk along the shore（岸）. The countryside is good for horse riding. Other sports you may want to do are sailing, boating, swimming, fishing and golfing. Ireland is famous for its theaters and festivals. So, why don't you stay longer for a party or a concert? 

The Irish people are kind and friendly. From mountains to beaches you will find people ready to stop and talk about the weather, the local geography or history and maybe about what you should see next. The Irish people have kept their own culture of music and literature（文学） well. Different areas have different kinds of music. In towns and villages people get together in the evening to sing and play music. They also get together to read their own poems to each other. Meeting such people is really fun, isn't it?