James William comes from America. People call him “Big Cat” because he's two meters tall. He is famous because he plays for the Chicago Bears, an American football team . American football is different from European  football . American football players need to be big and strong , so James needs to eat a lot .

    Every day James has three big meals . For breakfast ,he has orange juice , fruit , bread , milk , eggs and cakes. For lunch , he has fish , meat ,vegetables and ice cream. He loves ice cream best.

In the evening he has his big meal, tomato soup, pork and beef, potatoes, chicken, rice and his favorite chocolate cakes.

    But that isn't everything , James also eats between meals, bread, hamburgers, sweets and two or three bars of chocolates.

    Every year hundreds of people try to climb the world's highest mountain or walk through rainforests(雨林). Let's take a look at two of the 21st century's(世纪的) greatest adventurers(冒险家).

    A mountain climber

    Do you know that more than 4，000 people have climbed Mount Everest? Gerlinde is one of them. She is one of the world's greatest climbers and has climbed all the mountains over 8，000 meters in the world. It's difficult to climb mountains in cold weather, but Gerlinde loves it. She started climbing the mountains near her home as a teenager. When she left school, she became a nurse but always went climbing in her free time.

    An Amazon adventurer

    Ed Stafford is the first person to walk along the Amazon River from the mountains of Peru to the mouth of the river in Brazil. His journey took two years and four months. There are many dangerous animals in the rainforest. But Ed was lucky and he was only bitten(咬) by small insects(昆虫). On his trip, Ed had to look for fruit or catch fish each morning. Sometimes food was hard to find and Ed was often tired and hungry. So he used a radio to ask the people of the rainforest for food and help.

    A son took his old father to a restaurant for an evening dinner. His father was very old and weak. So while his father was eating, he always dropped(落下) food on his clothes. Many people in the restaurant watched him in disgust(厌恶地), but his son kept quiet.

    After he finished eating, his son quietly took him to the washroom, washing the food and the other dirty things carefully. When they came out, the whole restaurant was watching them in silence.  The son paid the waiter for their food and started walking out with his father.

    At that time, an old man in the restaurant called out to the son and asked him, "Don't you think you have left something behind？"

    "No sir, I haven't," the son replied.

    "Yes, you have! You left a lesson for every son and hope for every father," the old man said.

    The restaurant went silent. No one said anything.

 As a young man, Alan was a skilled artist and known for his paintings. He had a wife and two sons. But one night, his older son died of a sudden illness. To make matters worse, his wife left him a short time later, leaving him alone with his 6- year- old son. The pain was more than Alan could stand, and he turned to alcohol (酒). Finally, Alan became an alcoholic(酒鬼).

 Day by day, Alan began to lose everything he had— his home, his job, his art, everything. In the end, Alan died alone in a hotel.

 When I heard of Alan's death,I thought," What a complete failure!"

 As time went by, Alan's son Ernie grew up. He is one of the kindest and most caring men I have ever known. I watched Ernie with his children and saw the free flow of love between them. I knew that kindness and care had to come from somewhere.

I hadn't heard Ernie talk much about his father. It is so hard to excuse an alcoholic. One   day I asked him,"I'm really puzzled by something,"I said."I know your father was basically the only one to raise you. What on earth did he do to make you become such a good person?"

 Ernie sat quietly for a while. Then he said," From my earliest memories as a child until I left home at 18, Alan came into my room every night, gave me a kiss and said,‘I love you, son.'"

 Tears came to my eyes as I realized what a fool I had been to judge Alan as a failure. He had not left any material possessions(物质财富) behind. But he had been a kind and loving father, and he left behind one of the finest men I have ever known.

 Dear Tom, 

 How are you? I'm in a new school this term. And I am writing to tell you some{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(信息) about my school. 

 My new school is big and nice. There are nine {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(年级), 1, 400 students and 140 teachers in our school. My math teacher is a {#blank#}3{#/blank#}('hænsəm/) man. He is very nice to us. My classmates are really friendly too. We play {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(/tə' geðə(r)/) every day. They teach me Chinese and I teach them English. 

 Look! This is our classroom. It's big and {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(/'taIdi/). You can see a map on the wall. You can also find something {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(其他的) in the classroom, such as the bookcase. Behind my school there is a small river, and we often do some {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(活动) by the river and have a great {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(乐趣). 

 We have no classes on Saturdays or Sundays. Sometimes I go to play {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(/'tenIs/) with my classmates. Sometimes I stay at home and play the {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(/gI'tɑː(r)/). We all like China. 

 Please write to me soon!

Yours, 

Jack