The book I would like to talk about is The Merchant of Venice. The book is a dramatic work by Shakespear, an English famous writer in the 16th century. It talks about something happening between merchants in Venice. The main characters are Bassanio, Portia, Shylock and Antonio.

    The drama begins with Antonio, who helps Bassanio borrow money from Shylock, and then brings out other stories. Bassanio is a poor merchant. He needs money to follow his dream to marry Portia—a very beautiful and rich lady. He first wants to borrow money from his friend Antonio, also a merchant in Venice. Antonio borrows the money from a Jewish rich merchant Shylock. Antonio does much harm to Shylock before because Antonio really hates Jewish. Shylock is a little mean and loves money very much. He always gets interest from the people who borrow money from him. Antonio promises he will pay the money back in three months, or Shylock will be allowed to cut out 1 pound of flesh out of Antonio's body.

    Bassanio successfully wins the love of Portia but soon realizes his friend can not pay the money back to Shylock on time. Bassanio returns to Venice as fast as he can and attends a trial(审讯).The reason why Antonio isn't able to pay is because his ships are caught in storm. Portia, dressing up as a young lawyer, claims (声称) that the words " 1 pound of flesh" not "1 pound of flesh and blood". She says that Shylock is only allowed to remove flesh, but not any blood, which is impossible. Thus, she helps make Antonio safe and make Shylock fail. At the same time, Shylock loses most of his money. At the end,          .

    Last year I was very lucky to have a week's holiday. So I wanted to spend 1 in the best hotel I could find. That was 2 I chose The Haven in a country park. I thought I would be able to escape problems and pressures of daily life. But, just 24 hours after arriving there, my wife and I 3 problems with the restaurant and security.

    We were ready to return to our room when we saw two policemen 4  closely at the building outside. One of them showed us how 5 in through the windows into our room. It seems that the hotel has no locks on the windows. 6 we were a little worried, our concerns were forgotten 7 when we saw a good-sized bed, a flat-screen TV, a spa bath which more suggested a comfortable stay.

    Things started to go from bad to worse the following morning when I found the restaurant only served low-fat meals: six days of rabbit food and only 8 meat and fruit. What had I let myself in for? Nobody had told us what the food 9 like before we booked. I ordered my breakfast 10 my will anyway, but I had waited forty-five minutes for it to arrive. This was not the service 11 I had expected.

    That afternoon, when we returned from a tour around 12 university nearby, we found that nearly £200 13 from our room. The Haven refused to pay back the money. They claimed that they 14 not be responsible for any loss if our window was not locked.

    My holiday was then a total failure. I thought a "haven" was sure to be a quiet and peaceful place. But in fact, I have experienced 15 stress and worry in that one day than I usually do working in the office for a week.

This is a story about a storm in Moscow. It happened several years ago. It was my first time that I had seen such a 1 storm.

It was a sunny day in July, and I was at home watching TV. The window was open 2 the weather was so hot. Suddenly, I felt a strong wind from outside. I looked out of the window and saw a black sky and trees 3 over because of the strong wind. I tried to 4 the window, but the wind made me fall down. I was afraid that the glass might break. I stood up and tried to close the window again. 5 , I made it.

Then I looked outside. I found that the big tree in front of my house was going to fall to the ground and its 6 had broken off. There was frequent（频繁的）thunder and lightning. I started to 7 all the appliances as quickly as possible.

After a while, the wind stopped, but it began to hail （下冰雹）. After about ten minutes, everything stopped, and the Sun came out again. How 8 the weather was! A few minutes later, the phone began to ring. It was my friend. We asked each other how it was and how we felt after the storm.

In the streets, many trees died because of the 9 . For a few days, people helped clean parks and gardens. Some people's cars were damaged by trees' falling branches on them. The 10 tells me that in the face of natural disasters, human beings are insignificant（微不足道的）. We can't stop them, but we must protect ourselves from them.

Tom, Jim and Ted are cousins. They study in the same school. They usually go to see their grandparents on weekends.

Their grandparents have a farm. Last weekend, Tom, Jim and Ted went to the farm to see their grandparents by bike. They met at Tom's home on Saturday morning, and started at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Their grandparents were happy. The next day, Tom, Jim and Ted helped with the farm work in the morning. They kept the chickens and then they watered the vegetables. At noon, their grandmother cooked fish and many vegetables for them. She cooked well. In the afternoon, their grandfather helped them to fly kites. Their kites flew high. What an interesting country life! They all had a wonderful weekend.

 Air pollution is one of the world's invisible killers. It causes seven million deaths a year, making it the largest single environmentá l health risk. In cities, air pollution is particularly serious. More than 80% of people live in the areas where pollution levels are beyond WHO limits.

 One well-established way to reduce air pollution is to plant trees, as their leaves catch and absorb(吸收) harmful particulates(微粒). But planting new trees is not always a good choice for lack of enough space. That's why the"City Tree", a mobile tree which removes pollutants from the air, has been becoming popular in cities around the world, including Oslo, Paris, Brussels and' Hong Kong.

 Each City Tree is just under 4 meters tall, nearly 3 meters wide and 2.19 meters deep, acting as a chair or a bench. A screen is included for information or advertising. Berlin-based Green City Organization explains that its invention has the environmental benefit of up to 275 actual trees.

 But the/ City Tree isn't. in fact, a tree at all— it's a moss culture(青苔培植). "Moss cultures have a much larger leaf surface area than any other plant. That means we can catch more pollutants," said Zhengliang Wu, co-founder of Green City Organization.

 The huger surfaces of moss in each tree can remove dust, NO2 and O3 gases from the air. It requires very little care: solar panels provide electricity, while rainwater is collected into a containér and then sent into the soil.

 To monitor the health of the moss, the City Tree has sensors which measure soil humidity (湿度), temperature and water quality"We also have pollution sensors inside the trees, which help monitor the local air quality and tell us how efficient the tree is," Wu said. Its creators say that each City Tree is able to absorb around250 grams of particulate matter a day and contributes to removing 480 tons of CO2 a year.

The swing

How do you like to go upon a swing.

Up in the air so ____?

Oh. I do think it the happiest thing,

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide.

Rivers and trees and sheep and all, over the countryside.

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown.

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!