Tom with his family 1 near the sea. Their house is not very high, but it is beautiful. There 2 big trees and a small garden in front 3 their house. They plant flowers in the garden. Some of the flowers are red, some are white 4 some are blue. Tom and his family love 5 garden very much.

      6 Tom and his sister go to school 7 bus. The bus is comfortable. There are air conditioners in the bus. And it is a double-decker bus. After school, they sometimes help their mum 8 some shopping at the shopping centre, and sometimes help their dad in the garden. At weekends, they often take some photos by the sea. 9 summer, they often go swimming 10 their parents.

    On the first day of school our teacher introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

    I turned around to find a little old lady with a warm smile. She said, “Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old.”

    “Why are you in university at such a YOUNG age?” I asked. She replied, “I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of kids, and then retire and travel.”

    I knew she was joking. I was curious what might have encouraged her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

    “I always dreamed of having a university education and now I'm getting one!” she told me. We became friends. Every day we would talk nonstop after class. I always enjoyed listening to this “time machine” as she shared her wisdom and experience with me. And Rose easily made friends wherever she went.

    At the end of the term we invited Rose to make a little speech. She cleared her throat(喉咙) and began, “We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. I've learned a few secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.”

    “There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity(机会) in change...”

    Mr Smith was in trouble those days. He drove a car for Mr Black, a rich businessman. He worked hard and the shopkeeper liked him. But he couldn't work when he drank too much. And once he almost fell into the river when he drove along the bridge. Mr Black become angry and was going to send him away. He had a big family and was afraid of it and promised(许诺) he would stop drinking at once. The man told him to wait to be dealt with(处置).

    One Monday morning Mr Smith came into the office with two badly burnt(烧伤的) ears.

    "What happened to your ears?" asked Mr Black.

    "Well," said the man." I went to watch a football match yesterday while my wife was ironing(熨) clothes. She had put the iron(熨斗) near the telephone before she went to cook supper. Our team lost the game and I felt sorry for it. As soon as I went into the sitting-room, the phone rang and I answered the iron!"

    "And what happened to the other ear ?"

    "When I put the iron down on the table, the telephone rang again!"

    Twenty-two-year-old Timothy Doner from New York City has been able to speak 23 different languages, including some rare African ones.

    Timothy began his foreign language education at the age of 13. Attracted by in Israeli(以色列) musical band. Timothy listened to their album every morning. A month Later, he kept about 20 of their songs in his mind, though he didn't know what the Hebrew(希伯来语) words mean. But once he learned the translation. it was like he had a dictionary in his head.

    Then Timothy moved on to Arabic (阿拉伯语) which he studied every morning by reading newspapers with a dictionary and by talking to street vendors (小贩). After that he learned Persian, then Russian, then Mandarin... and about twenty others and developed a crazy low for languages.

    Now, Timothy is still teaching himself new languages. With the help of language books and word-learning Apps on his iPhone. He can master a language in a few weeks or months.

    What has Timothy got from learning so many languages? "By learning languages, you are learning a lot more. You are learning about culture, everything from cooking to TV，poetry and whatever it may be. That helps you better understand the language,” he said.

I'm Lucy. I am a middle school student now. It seems that my life has changed a lot in the last few years. For example, I was afraid of the sea in the past because I didn't know how to swim.I now I am a good swimmer. I used to be short and was only 150 centimeters tall. But now, I'm ten centimeters taller than before.

As for food, I used to cat meat, but now I eat more vegetables. By the way, I love tomatoes best. When I was younger, I didn't use to read any books, but now I love reading novels, such as Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. I love the magical world in the novels. When I was in primary school, I used to play football after school, but now I have to go home and do homework. I used to be afraid of exams, but now I think exams are necessary and useful.

In the past, I used to spend most of my time doing homework, but now I have more time to communicate with my parents. Every day when I finish dinner, I do my homework in the bedroom. Then I usually talk about something interesting with my parents.