My name is Peter. I was born in Paris. When I was three, my family moved to London. We stayed there for one year then my dad had to move to New York. We spent about two years there. I moved to Shanghai last May and I like the new country very much.

    I study at an international school in Shanghai. There are people from nearly all parts of the world. I like my school very much and I can learn many things. I love learning Chinese and keep practising it with my classmates. After school, my favourite sport is football. I like drawing and painting, too.

    Shanghai has four seasons and l like spring best here, because I can go out in the evening and play with my friends. In my hometown, the summers are hotter than Shanghai but the winters are not so cold as they are here.

    Shanghai is like a small world where all kinds of people and food can be seen. I like being part of it and I am very happy to stay here.

    Erden Eruc has been rowing across the Pacific Ocean in a rowboat since he left California on July 10, 2007. He has been heading for Australia with only birds, fish, and sharks ever since.

    Crossing the Pacific is only part of his journey. Eruc has decided to go all the way around the world using his own energy. He will row, bike, walk and climb the world without help from any motors(发动机) at all. His plan includes climbing the tallest peak on six of the continents(洲) along the way.

    For the first part of his trip, he bicycled 5,546 miles from Seattle, Washington to Mount McKinley in Alaska and back, walked 67 miles to base camp and climbed 20,320 feet to McKinley's peak. Now in the second part of his adventure(冒险活动), he is rowing to Australia.

    Why would he try to go around the world this way? He explains that he wants to encourage kids to dream their dreams and get to their own goals. He wants to show kids that there might be hard parts along the way, and sometimes they might not even get to that final goal. But they can have adventures and learn a lot along the way.

    When his trip around the world takes him across land, he enjoys meeting people—especially children. He has already visited many schools and shared his story. Eruc encourages all kids to set their eyes on a goal and not give up. He says, "with goals, we will make progress, and we will be farther along than when we started, even if we don't get to some goals. That's called life!"

    Mr Brown is a famous doctor. He lives in Sydney with his wife and three children. His wife's father, Mr Black, lives with them too.

    Mr Black is too old to work and he always sits in his chair near the bed all day; but in spring, if the weather is nice, he will sit outside. Sometimes, he even takes his chair into the garden if it is warm enough.

    Recently, Mr Brown found that spending more than three hours playing outside every day can reduce a child's risk of becoming short-sighted. It challenges the people's belief that short-sightedness is caused by using electronic products or reading in weak light. Many people come to see Mr Brown and ask him why Mr Brown shows his research and believes that natural light has a special chemical which stops the eyeball from growing out of shape and prevents people from becoming short-sighted.

    Mr Brown's oldest son, Andersen Brown, is twenty-seven. He is also a doctor like his father. He agrees with his father's idea and he suggests that everyone should spend some time outside. It doesn't matter that time is spent in travelling, playing sports outside or just sitting outside like his grandfather.

    Mr Brown's oldest daughter, Wendy Brown, is twenty-four. She is a music teacher. She teaches students in a junior high school. She likes teaching very much. She thinks those teenagers are very lovely.

    Mr Brown's youngest son, Mike Brown, is not old enough to go to work. He still goes to school. He is a very clever and hard-working boy. He is good at studying. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up.

Hi, I'm Gina. In February, 2018 my mother had a yard sale. During the sale, she had a conversation with a young girl called Nancy, for they had a common interest in some books she had for sale. They enjoyed their conversation so much that they exchanged their phone numbers. Later they became friends and got together a few times. When my mom moved into her new house, she had a family dinner and invited Nancy and introduced her to my brother. Five months later Nancy married (结婚) my brother.

In 2018, there was another special "yard sale" that I'll never forget. One day, after work from school, I found one of my neighbors had a lot of things out in their front yard with cars and people everywhere. I ran to the yard at once and wanted to find some good cheap things too before everything good was gone. But then I found out it wasn't a yard sale. In fact, policemen were taking the stolen (被偷的) things out of the house. My neighbor was a thief! Luckily, I didn't ask how much the TV was.

At present, many foreigners show great interest in learning Chinese idioms (成语). Terry and Kate are among them. Most Chinese idioms have four characters. For example, qingchuyulan (bluer than indigo), and houjibofa (success comes with time and effort). Terry and Kate are now reading stories behind the Chinese idioms they have learnt recently.

Albert Einstein（1879—1955）

Early Life

Albert Einstein was born in 1879 in Germany. He was an extraordinary person since he wasborn. Einstein wasn't able to speak a word until three. He was always interested in things around and full of imagination. He loved watching things carefully and asked a lot of questions about them. His questions were often hard to answer for teachers. 

Schooling

Einstein started school in 1885. Though he did well in maths and science，he failed in many subjects like history，geography and languages. Einstein finished high school in Switzerland and entered a university in Zurich. He graduated（大学毕业）as a teacher of maths and physics in 1900. 

Scientific Work

After graduation，Einstein worked at the Patent Office. He spent much time studying physics. By 1909，Einstein had become a top scientist. Though he became successful in the field of science，he won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921. 

Later life

Einstein kept at his research until he died in 1955. Scientists studied his brain after his death to see if there was anything special about it. However，there was no answer. 

Today，many famous scientists still think Einstein is the smartest man in the world.