John and Ann are from Dublin，Ireland．They've been friends since they were children．They lived in the same neighbourhood(社区)when they were young and they went to the same university．

    Today John is a 34-year-old policeman．He works in the heart of Dublin．He is very busy and doesn't have much free time．He found a maid(女佣)to clean his house on Saturdays，but during the week he has to make the bed and tidy up his room．He must also wash the dishes．Sometimes he cooks a meal，but most of the time he stops at a restaurant near his home and buys a meal for dinner．He often arrives home very late．Luckily．his maid is quite professional and takes good care of the house．In just 6 hours，the house becomes clean，with a flesh look and clean air．

    Ann is 35 years old．She lives in a small village in Dublin．She works as a doctor at the village's health centre．She starts working at 9 a.m and finishes at 4 p.m．There is a half-hour lunch break at 12：30 pm．After work，Ann has to pick up her two daughters from school．After they arrive home ，the children do their homework while Ann prepares dinner．Her husband usually does part of the housework when he gets home．First he prepares the…children's bath and then he washes clothes．Before dinner,he hangs(挂)up the clothes and then the children help him to lay the table(摆放餐具)and…it's dinner time!After dinner,Ann's husband usually does the dishes while she tidies up the kitchen．When there is too much rubbish，she takes it out．

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    John and Jack met at the old bench every afternoon. Then they played football. But they didn't have enough money to buy a real football. So Jack made a ball out of old socks covered with a piece of plastic, Every time, the two friends didn't stop kicking and running until very late.

    On Monday afternoon, John and Jack met again at the old bench. Soon the home-made ball was running across the grass. The boys laughed and shouted happily. The ball was stopped by a boy wearing a nice pair of sports shoes. John was upset when he saw the boy was Steven.

    The next morning, John's mother gave him a bill." Your uncle sent you a birthday present, she smiled. John's eyes grew big when he saw the $100 bill. Later that day，his mother bought a new pair of sports shoes and a real football.

    That afternoon Steven invited John to play football. Steven did not want Jack to join them only because Jack's sports shoes were dirty. When the game was over, John and Steven walked past the old bench where Jack was sitting. Steven picked up a stone and threw it at him. John, holding his new football in his hands, walked on and did not look back.

    Several days later. As John walked. Past the old bench, he saw something lying under it. He looked closer and saw it was the home made ball, John was full of sadness when he saw the ball. As his sadness turned to anger, he picked up his new football and kicked it into the air. Then he walked to the bench, sat down and waited.

    On a farm lived a father and a son. The father always got up early and read by the window. One morning, the son came up to him and said, Dad, I read books at night but forget most of them the next morning. What's the good of reading?

    The father didn't reply to his question at once. He passed him a basket that was used to carry coal (煤). He said, "Get some water from the river with the basket and then I'll tell you the answer."

    The son felt surprised but he did as his father said. He tried many times but every time the water leaked(漏掉) from the basket.

    An hour later, the son came back with the empty basket and told his father it was impossible to hold water with the basket. The father said with a smile, "Yes, you are right, my son. The basket can't hold water. But did you notice the basket was different?" The son found the dirty basket had become clean. The father continued, "Reading is like holding water with the basket. Although we can't remember all we read, we have changed while reading."

    Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835,in the state of Missouri. When he was four, his family moved to the town ofHannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was a port on the Missippi River, and Clemensloved to watch the big steamboats going up and down the river. He said that allthe boys in his school had one ambition in life: to work on a steamboat!

    His father died when he was just 12 yearsold, and Clemens then went to work for a printer to help support his family. Hetravelled around, and worked in many different cities. But when he was 22, heachieved his ambition—he got a job working on a steamboat. He sailed up anddown the wide Missippi River until the American Civil War began.

    He then moved around America, and triedseveral jobs. He was a soldier, and a silver miner. Then he started working asa writer for a newspaper. It was at that time that he decided to use a pen namefor his stories, and he chose the name "Mark Twain".

    The name is interesting. It comes from hisdays on the steamboats. He used to throw a piece of rope into the river. Therewas a heavy weight on the end of the rope, and the rope had some marks on it.He used the rope to find how deep the river was. Then he shouted out, "MarkOne" or "Mark Twain", meaning "Mark Two". Each markwas about two metres, so when he shouted "Mark Twain", it meant thatthe river was deep enough for the big boat.

    In 1865 Clemens wrote a story about ajumping frog. The story and the writer became famous. In 1867 he toured Europe.He married when he returned, and lived for most of the rest of his in Harfort,Connecticut. He wrote many books, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, whichhe wrote in 1876. He also gave many lectures, and became a very famous andpopular man.

    Once two of his friends decided to write tohim, but they had lost his address. So on the envelope they just wrote "MarkTwain, God knows where". Several weeks later, they received a replay fromthe writer. It just said, "He does!"

    Samuel Clemens died in 1910. He isconsidered to be one of America's most important writers.

Tina is a thirteen- year- old middle school student. Last year, she went to a summer school in France and stayed with a local family, the Truffauts.

 At first, things didn't go well 1 she couldn't speak French. Simple things like2 the right bus stop became big problems. The Truffauts helped her a lot and treated her like part of the family. They played games and shared traditional food 3 her. Tina was helpful as well. She did some housework with the family every day. On the weekend, she 4 a community club and did volunteer work. For most of the time, she used body language to communicate. People showed 5 thanks with smiles and she would always smile back. Language was not a problem for her any more. As a new member of the club, Tina 6 to have parties with the other members. Day by day, she made more 7 . Tina began to love her new life."A smile is 8 second language we were born to speak. It is also the best gift I have got," she often said 9 .

 Smiles and a helping hand can always make people 10 closer than a language can.

In the US, about 400,000 students are learning Chinese. Chinese is getting more and more popular there.

Murray is one of the Chinese learners. He became interested in Chinese tea culture when he was 12 years old. To learn more about tea and find the best tea, he started to learn Chinese.

Murray spent two years learning Chinese at the University of Pittsburgh." Those two years of study life were very busy," he said. He went to a class at 8 a. m. on weekdays. All students needed to speak Chinese in class. Every Monday and Wednesday he went to a grammar class at 2 p. m. For Murray, Chinese grammar is easy because the Chinese language has no tense(时态). But the pronunciation is really a hard part of the language. To improve it, Murray needed to practice Chinese four tones(声调) every day.