Washing the Apples

    Mrs. Smith has a shop in the town. There are all kinds of fruit in her shop. She's friendly to the customers and never fools^① anyone. So the customers like to buy fruit in her shop, and she gets more and more money.

    One day, the apples she sold were all fresh and nice. She remembered her son Steve liked them best, so she brought some home for her son. After lunch, she went out and left the apples on the table. That afternoon Steve came back from school, he felt very hungry. He looked for something to eat and found some apples on the table. “Great! They are my favorite.” he cried and ate a lot. Mrs. Smith got home after she closed her fruit shop. When she saw Steve, she asked him, “Did you have the apples? ” Her son answered, “Yes. And I ate lots of them.” “Did you wash them? “Oh, I forgot. I was too hungry^②. What should I do? ”

    A few minutes later, Mrs. Smith found her son kept on drinking water.

    “Are you thirsty? Why are you drinking so much water?” asked the mother.

    “No, Mom.” answered the boy, “I want to wash the apples in my stomach with the water.”

    A son took his old father to a restaurant for an evening dinner. His father was very old and weak. So while his father was eating, he always dropped(落下) food on his clothes. Many people in the restaurant watched him in disgust(厌恶地), but his son kept quiet.

    After he finished eating, his son quietly took him to the washroom, washing the food and the other dirty things carefully. When they came out, the whole restaurant was watching them in silence.  The son paid the waiter for their food and started walking out with his father.

    At that time, an old man in the restaurant called out to the son and asked him, "Don't you think you have left something behind？"

    "No sir, I haven't," the son replied.

    "Yes, you have! You left a lesson for every son and hope for every father," the old man said.

    The restaurant went silent. No one said anything.

It is the 31st year that Zhang Yufei has worked and lived in Faxing Temple. Changzhi，Shanxi province. 

The 52﹣year﹣old man {#blank#}1{#/blank#} the cultural relics （遗产） in the temple very well. "These cultural relics are part of my life and I want {#blank#}2{#/blank#} the culture，art and stories behind them to a wider public，"Zhang says. 

After graduating from junior middle school，Zhang took several part﹣time{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. The turning point was in 1991 when Chongqing and Faxing temples wanted some guards. Zhang became one of {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . "There was no water and electricity in the temple and in winter it was {#blank#}5{#/blank#} cold，"Zhang says. 

Later he became a guide at Faxing Temple. In 1998，he met Shi Yanchun at Faxing Temple. Shi is an expert and helped to rebuild {#blank#}6{#/blank#} than 1，000 cultural artifacts. "That was when I started learning professional knowledge about painted clay statues（雕像）. We talked about the art form at night，"Zhang says. Since then，he {#blank#}7{#/blank#} reading books on the topic. He has also taken every chance to communicate with experts. 

One day，he {#blank#}8{#/blank#} a camera as a gift by an expert. With it，Zhang started to record the painted clay statues in the temples in Shanxi. In 2011，his first book introducing the art form came out. He also wrote over 100 articles telling the{#blank#}9{#/blank#} stories about Shanxi's cultural relics online. Zhang hopes that more people can take part in the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} of cultural relics. In this way，they can truly keep alive. 

I have two good friends. They are Peter and Gina. They are in the s {#blank#}1{#/blank#} class. They both like Chinese very much. Here {#blank#}2{#/blank#}( be) two photos. One is a photo of Peter's f {#blank#}3{#/blank#} and the other is  a photo of a bedroom. In the {#blank#}4{#/blank#}( one) photo you can see four people(人). They are Peter's parents, Peter and his sister. Peter's father and mother are t {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. They work(工作) in a middle school. Can you s {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the boy on the bed? He's Peter. A red hat is on his h {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Who is the girl? Oh, she is Peter's sister. Her name is Nancy. In the next photo, you can see their {#blank#}8{#/blank#}( parent) bedroom. A blue desk,a yellow chair,a green bookcase and a white bed are {#blank#}9{#/blank#} it. A computer and some CDs are on the desk. A red bag is on the chair. Some English- Chinese d {#blank#}10{#/blank#} are in the bookcase. The room is tidy and clean.

Mother's Day is always a fun time at my house every year. This year is no exception. My brother and I want our mom to feel 1 by giving her a day off from family chores. 

In the morning，I woke up before everyone else to hang up a poster that 2 "Happy Mother's Day". My dad also got up3 and helped set up a rose bouquet(玫瑰花束) in a vase. When my mom woke up，she read cards we laid out next to her bed with a big smile. While she was watching the morning news with my dad，it was time to 4 my cooking skills. I made some delicious food with my brother's help. My mom and I love board games，so after a short 5 around the neighborhood，we played all of her favorites. In my family，playing a fun board game turns into a big6 and can become very heated. One of us always becomes a sore loser after being beaten in the game. The afternoon games made all of us tired. A delicious takeout dinner from my mom's favorite restaurant 7 us. The festivities(庆祝活动)8 with ice­cream and more quality family time，while we were watching one of my mom's favorite movies from her teenage years. 

It was such a 9 day，and it was great to be able to show my mom how much we appreciate her and thank her for10 she does for our family. Mother's Day should be every day. 

It's never too late to learn. 66-year-old Xu Baokun is a good example to show that. The grandma learned to play the drums and got popular online because of her drum playing (打鼓).

Xu comes from Guangxi. She is a farmer. When she was young, she worked in the fields (田地) all year round. But, with age, she had some health problems. That stopped her from going here and there. As a result, she lived a boring life.

Xu's son teaches others music in Guangdong Province. Last year, he brought a drum set (架子鼓，爵士鼓，套鼓) home for Xu to play. At first, Xu thought playing the drums was too noisy. But after watching her son play a few times, she became interested in it and decided to learn to play.

Because Xu knew nothing about music, ▲ . She spent lots of time practicing playing the drums every day. Now she can play many songs. What's more, she is healthier than before thanks to drum playing.

Xu's son put her videos (录像) of drum playing online. To his surprise, Xu quickly got popular. Now Xu plays at some weddings (婚礼) and the TV station. She is anxious before she plays in front of others, but when she sees the drum set, she knows she will do a good job.

"Age is just a number," Xu said. "I'll learn more beautiful music to bring happiness to more people."