Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

    My name is Bill. I 1 in Sun Junior High School. There are many 2 in my school. In the front of my school is the 3 building. It's a building for teachers. Behind it is the library building. It's my favorite place, 4 I like reading. After school, I always read books or do my homework there. 5 is the classroom building? It's next 6 the library. Behind the library is a dinning hall. There are different 7 of food like hamburgers, bread and vegetables. If students want to have lunch there, they 8 pay(付款) 50 yuan a week. There is a gym in my school, too. It's behind the classroom building. My friends and I like playing games there. I 9 like the teachers in my school. They are very kind. They often take us out to 10 pictures or watch movies. We always have a good time.

With only one yuan, could you live in a city for one day? It may sound impossible.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

On April 10th, more than 60 students from a middle school took part in the One Yuan Metropolis Survival(一元城市生存). A charity organization(慈善组织) for teenagers held this activity.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} And it is going to four others, including Beijing.

In the activity, students had to live and deal with difficult tasks. To make money, many students looked for part-time jobs and saw how hard life was. A 14-year-old girl asked more than 10 restaurants for a job and finally got one. "{#blank#}3{#/blank#} But gradually, we got used to it," she said. After being a waiter for an hour, she got 25 yuan.

Living was hard, but finishing the tasks wasn't any easier. The students went to different places to finish tasks in a short time. The most amazing one was when they had to exchange things worth a thousand yuan with only a piece of paper in half an hour. "{#blank#}4{#/blank#} From a balloon to a cake to a bottle of yogurt...after almost 20 tries, we got an expensive ring," a student said. "We will give all of the money we have raised to poor schools in Tibet."

Chopsticks are a pair of small equal-length sticks, usually made of wood, used for eating Asian food. Chopsticks are mainly used in China. And it is believed that the first chopsticks were developed in China. Chopsticks play an important role in Chinese food culture. Chinese chopsticks are usually 9 to 10 inches long. They are round on the eating end which means heaven (天), and the other end is square which means earth. The appearance of chopsticks said goodbye to those days when our Chinese ancestors(祖先)had to use their hands to eat.      

Besides, the use of chopsticks has also been a part of Chinese food culture. There are some taboos that you must pay great attention to when you use chopsticks. Firstly, don't use them to hit your bowl or plate. Secondly, never use them to point at others. Thirdly, don't put them in different food without taking something. Fourthly, don't cross the chopsticks on the table. And lastly, don't leave your chopsticks standing in the rice. Chinese people do this only when they honor (尊重) the dead.

Nowadays, chopsticks have many new usages. For example, you can buy a pair as a gift to your friends and relatives. In Chinese, it reads "筷子", which means having sons soon, so a newly-married couple will be very happy to accept it as their wedding gift.

Walking around the city，you will see girls wearing hanfu on the underground or people wearing T—shirt with Chinese characters in the streets.A new trend （潮流） is getting popular in China.It's guochao or China—Chie.Guochao adds traditional Chinese culture into products

Guochao got people's attention in 2018.Before that，the market was controlled by foreign companies.There were few Chinese brands.To win the market share，many Chinese brands followed the footsteps of these Western brands.In 2018，but also included elements（元素） of traditional Chinese culture.It quickly caught people's attention at home and abroad.And it created amazing sales.

Later，many Chinese brands，from food，started to add Chinese culture into their products.Even the film and music industries made every effort to create Chinese styles."We want our products to be the ones that young people would like to share."They said.

These brands got what they wanted.Young people gradually converted their attention from Western culture to guochao.They accepted it with pleasure.What's more，they started to develop interest in traditional Chinese art and literature.Now they wear traditional clothes，practice Chinese calligraphy（书法）

No matter how guochao develops，there is one thing that won't change——people's confidence in our country's development and culture is growing.