Mr. Smith lives in a village, but he works in a big city. He goes to work by train every morning and comes home in the same way.

    This morning, when he is reading his newspaper on the train, a man behind him says "hello" to him and begins to talk to him, "Your life is not interesting, is it? "You take the same  train  every  morning,  and  you  always  sit  in  the  same  seat  and  read  the  same newspaper." "How do you know all that about me?"Mr. Smith says angrily （生气地）.

    "Because I always sit in the same seat behind you." the man answers.

    A man made a nice talking machine. It could weigh people. The man wanted to try the machine before he could make a lot of these kinds of machines. He put the machine into the waiting room of a station. There were always lots of people in and out there.

    The first one began to use the machine. It was an Indian woman. When she stood on the machine, the machine thought for a few minutes to decide which language it should speak. "Good morning, madam," it said in Indian. "Your weight is 72kilos. That's three kilos more. If you eat more fruit and vegetables, you will be soon all right. Wish you a nice day."

    The second one who used the machine was a nice Chinese girl. She stood on the machine and waited to hear weight. "Good morning, Miss," the machine said in Chinese. "Your weight is 45 kilos. It's all right for your age and height. Go on to eat what you eat every day. Wish you a nice day."

    The third one to use the machine was a very fat American woman. She thought for a long time before standing on the machine. But as soon as she stood on the machine, the machine spoke quickly in English, "Good morning. Will one of you get off?"

    People say that George Washington, the first president of the United States, never told a lie. But it seems that the president was not without faults.

    A New York library recently found that Washington borrowed two books from the library in 1789. He would have to pay the library 300,000 dollars for being 220 years late.

    On October 5, 1789, when the first president borrowed the books form the New York Society Library, he didn't sign his name in the borrower's book. He just wrote "president" to show who had taken them out.

    The two books should have been brought back a month later but were never returned. Workers at the library realized the books were missing.

    The New York Society Library doesn't expect anyone to pay the fine. But it hopes that someone will return the books.

    I'm Sharon. One of my favorite countries to go on vacation is China. After falling in love with the country on business（生意）trip two years ago, I took my children to China last summer.

    We visited three cities, but Xi'an was the most interesting one. This old city is amazing and our children loved to ride bicycles on the famous City Wall. The wall is about 14 kilometers long and it has a very long history. Visitors can rent bicycles there and it is very cheap. And on each corner（街角）you can take a rest and enjoy a bottle of cold water, because it was very hot when we visited it in July. Trust（相信）me, your children will love the trip!

    Comments（评论）

    Tina Reply

    Aug 31, 2018

    Hi, Sharon! I also think China is a great country to visit. We just came back from Beijing and we had great fun. Next time, we'll go to Xi'an on vacation. Can you tell me some other interesting activities in Xi'an?

    Sharon Reply

    Sep 1, 2018

    Hi, Tina! I'm glad that you love China, too. I think you can try some Chinese food in Xi'an. There're also a lot of places of interest in Xi'an. I'm sure you'll love them!

    The New Year was coming. Grace and Alice were going shopping with their mother. The mother wanted to{#blank#}1{#/blank#} them to a Farmers' Fair (集市),but Grace wanted to go to the supermarket. The mother explained that they{#blank#}2{#/blank#} buy fresh fruit and vegetables there, and could support (支持) local farmers as well. Grace agreed.

    The girls were{#blank#}3{#/blank#} when they arrived there. The farmers sold things that they grew{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Alice found a stall (货摊) with red strawberries ,and she{#blank#}5{#/blank#}, "Where did you get so many good strawberries?" The woman answered, "I grow them on my farm. You can come to visit my farm{#blank#}6{#/blank#} you like." "That will be great!" said Alice. At last, Alice asked her mother to buy{#blank#}7{#/blank#} strawberries. They also bought something else.

    At the dinner, the father asked each person to say something{#blank#}8{#/blank#} this day. Alice said, "I want to thank not only the strawberries, but also the{#blank#}9{#/blank#} They needed to work so {#blank#}10{#/blank#}to grow strawberries." Grace then said, "We should thank the food and the people who bring it to us every day." Alice and Grace's parents smiled.

"I'm so excited to build sandcastles!" said James. "I'm going to build a big one, with lots of rooms!"

"Your sandcastle will be good, but not as good as 1 !" said Nova. "Why don't we have a competition(比赛)?" James thought it was a good idea and 2 her.

They were busy building their sandcastles. Nova built a great one! It had big towers and little windows. She even made sand chairs for little crabs to relax in!

 When seeing it, James was very 3 . At first, he was so sure his sandcastle would be pretty good for a king. However, each time he tried to build a tower on the top of the sandcastle, it didn't work. Then he tried to place other decorations(装饰品) on it, 4 they only made it worse! The sandcastle finally became a disaster(彻底的失败) and he knew Nova already 5 him.

 Nova looked over at James's sandcastle, and then at James. Watching him sit by his sandcastle sadly, she thought she should offer some 6 .

"Do you know what could be more fun, James?" asked Nova.

"What?" sniffled James.

"You and I, build a sandcastle together!" said Nova. "This one took me too much time, and there are so many crabs. It will be too 7 with only one sandcastle! They' ll need more than one sandcastle!"

"Oh, really?" James said. "I think everyone can do it well 8 me. I'm afraid I' ll ruin(摧毁) it."

"You won't, James!" And so Nova built the sandcastle and James placed all the decorations on it. After finishing it, they looked at their work 9 .

"Now, that's what I call a sandcastle!" James said with a big smile.

"Next time, let's work together again!" said Nova. "We make a great 10 !"