Steve visits the nursing home near his house two afternoons each week. On one of those days, he reads to his friend Martin. On the other afternoon, he plays cards and talks with Mrs. Johnson. Steve enjoys spending his extra time this way. He is a volunteer. A volunteer is a person who helps another person or has a job for which he or she does not get paid. A volunteer donates his or her time for free.

    Everyone else in Steve's family is also a volunteer. Steve's mother Mary volunteers one afternoon each week at the local hospital. She talks to patients, delivers flowers, and helps the nurses with odd jobs. Steve's sister Gina volunteers two afternoons at the museum. She welcomes visitors and answers their questions. Steve's father David also is a volunteer. He is a volunteer fire fighter for the town in which they live.

    Steve's family thinks volunteering is very important. Steve's parents think being a volunteer helps to teach values. Steve and his sister learn how to be kind and respect other people.

    Steve's family does volunteer work to give something back to the community. They want to help people who are not as fortunate as they are.

    A family of volunteers

    You may know that more people drink coffee than tea around the world．And that, after oil, it is the second biggest traded commodity (商品)．You may also know that the drink comes from beans which are first roasted and then ground (研磨)．But what else do you know about this popular drink?

    It is said that the story of coffee started with an Ethiopian goatherd (牧羊人) named Kaldi．One day Kaldi was surprised to see that his goats were behaving very strangely．Instead of grazing (吃草) quietly, they were jumping around, almost dancing．He also noticed some red "cherries" from a plant that the goats were eating．He tried some himself and was surprised by the feeling of extreme happiness and excitement．He felt like dancing too !

    But it wasn't used as a drink at first．It was used as food．The coffee berries, mixed with animal fat, were used by monks to stay awake during long hours of prayer．From Ethiopia, coffee was later cultivated (培育) in Yemen and the first hot drink was developed there around AD 1000．Three centuries later Muslims were keen coffee drinkers and as Islam spread, so did coffee．Coffee houses appeared in Cairo and Mecca．

    For hundreds of years the plants were protected safely．But some beans were smuggled (偷运) out of Arabia and taken to India．In the 17th century, coffee was soon grown in a new continent．From India to Indonesia, a century later the beans were once again smuggled to Brazil．Brazil is now the largest coffee producer in the world．

    It was the caffeine that made the goats dance and kept the monks awake．Although it is found in other soft drinks and tea, coffee has the most caffeine．In the short term．a couple of cups of coffee can prevent fatigue and delay sleep．But several cups a day, every day, can cause anxiety and restlessness．

    Playgrounds offer kids fresh air, friends, and exercise. However, each year, more than 200,000 kids go to hospital because they are hurt in one way or another when playing on the playground. So what can we do to improve the situation(状况)?

    We should make sure the playground is safe for the children. It should be soft and thick enough, so when the children fall, they won't hurt too much. Things like water, rocks or broken glass might cause danger to the kids. Cleaners should check the playground from time to time and clear away these dangerous things. In fact, children themselves also need to help keep the playground clean and safe. That means each time after playing they should pick up the rubbish they've produced. If someone finds there is something wrong with the equipment(设施), he should report to the keeper of the playground, so people will come to fix it.

    Teaching kids how to play safely is also very important. Kids should know the rules of the playground, so they won't get hurt easily. For example, they should never push when others are on seesaws or swings. If someone is going to jump off some equipment, he should first look down to make sure no other kids are in the way. Of course, wearing right clothes may also help to keep safe. Clothes with strings (绳) can get caught on equipment which may hurt the kid badly.

    In short, our kids can both enjoy themselves and be safe if we are working together to improve the situation.

    Some students are going to some different places this weekend. Where are they going? Can you find their places they want to go?

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Sally: I have a pen pal in Wenchuan. Some days ago, I got a letter from her. She said she needed some school things. I bought some and I want to post them to her. So this weekend, where will I go? Do you know?

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Ricky: I don't like weekends. For me, I have no weekends. My parents usually ask me to go to evening school to learn English and other subjects. I always feel tired. That's why I don't like weekends.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Barbara: I love weekends. I can do what I want to do. I want to go to a quiet place to study because Mid-term Exam（期中考试）is coming. I want to borrow（借）some books from that place and return（还）some to that place. Do you know where I want to go?

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Angle: This weekend will be an exciting one for me. My parents are going to take me to have something special in the place. It is said that we can try some Indian food. Isn't it interesting?

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Stella: I want to relax myself on weekends. This weekend, I want to do something different. I want to go to this place. There, you can see many kinds of animals there. And children like to go there with their parents.

A.   B.    C.

D.    E.

    Mrs. Cooper is over 90, but she can still play a game of Words with Friends, a popular puzzle game app, on her iPad. She says that the Apple product(产品) has changed her life.

    Mrs. Cooper lives in a house close to Manchester Airport in London. She often uses her iPad to track the planes that fly overhead and explore(探索) the world with Google Earth.

    "I'm crazy about the planes, so I choose the Flight Tracker to see where the planes around me are going. It's a wonderful way to keep in touch with the world," she said. "I use it nearly all the hours of daylight, 2-3 hours in the morning, then again in the afternoon."

    Mrs. Cooper taught painting when she left school. She had a laptop（手提电脑）, but struggled（费力）with it. " Her problem was that she couldn't see the cursor（光标）, and her hands shake so hard that she almost can't use the mouse." said her 63-year-old daughter, Jean. "I was in America visiting my daughter, and I played with an iPad and decided to buy one for my mother."

    Jean got some apps for the iPad, so her mother could learn how to use them. "She uses it several hours a day, and is curious(好奇的) to keep up with everything new. She reads the news, sends emails and uses Face Time to make video calls to us all. We're glad that she can enjoy her life with the magic thing." she said.

(No more than 6 words)

    One day, the father of a very rich family took his son on a trip to the countryside. He wanted to show his son that how poor people there were. They spent a few days and nights on the farm. After they came back from their trip, the father asked his son, "How did you like our trip?"

    "It was great, Dad."

    "Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

    "Oh yeah," said the son.

    "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

    "I see that we have one dog and they have four. We have beautiful lights in our garden, and they have the stars at night. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that have no ends. We have servants(仆人) who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, and they grow theirs. We have fences to protect us, and they have friends to protect them."

    "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are," said the son. The boy's father didn't know what to say then.