Tina woke up at midnight. She looked out of her window and saw a yellow light in the sky. It suddenly dived towards the ground. She heard a noise and saw a red light.

    The next morning, Tina mentioned it to her brother Tom. "I'm sure something landed in the forest near the hills as I heard a loud noise last night" she said, "Let's go there and have a look after school."

    At 6 p.m., Tina and Tom reached the forest. They heard some voices speaking a strange language, so they hid behind some gees and kept quiet. Then they saw an alien! It was tall, with a round head and a silver body. It was standing next to a long spaceship.

    The children were frightened. Suddenly, another alien appeared from the trees in front of them. It discovered them and made a terrible noise! The children ran away in fear.

    The next morning, Tina and Tom told their parents about the strange aliens. "They were very ugly. They had some hair, but they didn't have any feathers." said Tina.

    "There was something written on the spaceship," said Tom. "It looked like this. I wonder what it means." He drew some lines on a piece of paper.

    But Dad said, "Since no one else saw these aliens. I refuse to believe you. Now go to school!"

    The children opened their wings and flew to school together.

    Dad looked at the piece of paper with the strange marks on it. "It looks strange," he said, as he looked at the word "EARTH".

    My name is Jack. When my family moved to America in 2014 from a small village in Guangdong, China, we brought not only our luggage, but also our village rules, customs as well as culture. One of the rules is that young people always respect elders. This rule, unfortunately, led to my very first embarrassment in America.

    I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One time, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure. My manager, who happened to hear what I said, took me aside and gave me a long lecture about how sensitive Americans are and how they dislike the description "old". I then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.

    In my village, however, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.

    However, in the United States, people think "growing old" is a problem since "old" shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well. Here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young. I had told them something they didn't want to hear.

    After that, I changed the way I had been with senior citizens. It is not that I don't respect them anymore; I still respect them, but now I don't show my feelings through words.

    My friend Alice visited my city last week. She arrived in HongKong on Wednesday morning .She is from Australia. I showed her around the city.

    We visited the Clock Tower first. The Clock Tower was very tall. We took some photos there. Then we went to the City Museum. After that, we saw a good movie.

    The next day, we visited the Ladies' Street. There were a lot of clothes shops. The clothes were cheap and beautiful. Alice bought some clothes for her parents and friends. Then we went to the Seafood Street. We bought some seafood. We also had seafood in a restaurant. Both of us enjoyed the meal. Then we went to a concert in the evening. The music was fantastic!

    On the third day, the weather was very hot, so we decided to visit Hong Kong Wetland Park. We saw many kinds of plants and animals in it. They were very interesting.

    Alice went back to Australia on Friday evening. She enjoyed the trip. She invited me to visit Australia next summer.

Harry and Annie live a mile from the town, but they walk there to school every day. It is a pleasant walk around the pond* on their way to school. In winter, when the ice is thick and hard, they go across the pond. But their mother doesn't like them to do it unless* someone is with them.

"Don't go across the po nd today, children,"she says, as she kisses them goodbye one morning."It is    beginning to thaw."

"All right, mother,"says Harry, not very happy, for he likes running and skating on the ice very much.

When they come to the pond, the ice looks hard and safe.

"There,"Harry says to his sister,"Let's skate over it."

"But you promise mother,"says Annie.

"No, I don't. I only say‘All right', and it is all right."

"I don't say anything, so I can do as I like,"says Annie.

So they step on the ice and start to go across the pond.

They don't go far before the ice melts*, and suddenly they fall into the water.

A man who is at work near the po nd hears the children asking for help and rushes into the water to save them. They are almost drowned * before the man can reach them.

They get home almost frozen* and learn a lesson they will remember for a lifetime.

Just outside a village, there was a pretty but small Fir tree. He lived in a very beautiful forest with a lot of sunshine and fresh air. However, he didn't care about that, and always wished for something more interesting instead of enjoying the simple things in his life. 

One day, the largest trees were cut down. They would be made into masts. The Fir tree thought happily, "I want to be a mast. It seems so cool. "

The air and the sunshine heard the tree and said, "Don't wish for another life. Be happy now. You have warm sunlight. You have a health y trunk. "But the tree did not understand them.

This year, some young trees were cut down. They would live in a warm room and were decorated(装饰) with so many colors and lights. The Fir tree was very interested in this and really wanted to be like that. 

Again, the sunlight and the air said to the tree, "Do not be so silly. Your life in the forest is the best. Be happy with that. "But the tree didn't listen to them.

Finally, the woodcutters came to cut down the Fir tree and put him into a large room. 

On Christmas Day, many servants came in. They decorated the tree. On its top, there was a large golden star. Later, all people came in and sang Christmas carols together. The tree enjoyed watching all of this. 

"This is all for me!"thought the tree, "I will live my life in this warm room. The sunlight and the air were all wrong. "He felt very good about his future.

However, the next morning, some servants came into the room. They put him into a dark room. He was forgotten. 

As many lonely nights passed, the door to that dark room finally opened. Two servants came in and took the tree outside. 

"This is wonderful. "thought the tree. "My new life is beginning. "He relaxed in the sunlight. Just then, he discovered something terrible. His branches were all yellow. They were weak.

At that time. Some children were running around the garden They cned, "Look! The Christmas true is old and ugly. But it still has the yellow star on top of it. "One of the children took the star from the tree. Now, there was nothing beautiful about the tree anymore.

Soon, a gardener came with an axe. He chopped the poor Fir tree into pieces. Then, he placed each piece into a fire. The poor tree burned in the flames. As he burned, he could see the children playing. They were playing with his golden star. But it was too late for regrets now. 

"This really is the end, "thought the tree.

My Hobby

I have many bobbies. such as reading, skating, and watching TV.