Captain Nemo seemed very sure that that savages could not harm us. I slept well. When I went outside the next morning, I saw that there were many more natives on the beach. It was low tide, and many of them had come quite close to the Nautilus. I asked Conseil to get a net, and we used it to get some shells from the water. They were very pretty shells. Suddenly, I saw a very rare and beautiful shell. We looked at it together. One of the savages threw a stone at us and broke the shell. Conseil was very angry. He fired his gun at the savage. Then, we noticed that the savages had come very close to the Nautilus in their canoes. A few moments later, they began to shoot their arrows at us. We went inside and told Captain Nemo about it. He ordered his men to close the doors.

    “But what will happen tomorrow?” I asked. “You will have to open the doors to get more air, and the savages will come in.”

    “Do you think they will dare?”

    “I am sure they will.”

    “We have nothing to fear,” he said again.

    Captain Nemo asked me about our trip to the island. I told him what we had seen and done. We talked about another French sailor called D'Urville, whose ship was wrecked in the Torres Strait. He told me again that the high tide the next day would lift the Nautilus off the reef.（选自《海底两万里》）

    My name is Lisa. I'm from America, but now my dad, my mum and I are in Shanghai. My dad and my mom are English teachers. But sometimes My father goes to learn Chinese. So he is a student, too. We are in No.12 Middle School.

    Mary, Liu Ying, Wang Haobin are my friends. Mary is from England and she is thirteen years old. Liu Ying is from the capital of China. She and I are fourteen years old. Her English name is Rose. Wang Haobin is from Wenzhou. But he likes Shanghai.

    In ancient China, a woman told the best stories. She married an emperor(皇帝).Sadly, one day, this woman became ill and died. Everyone thought the emperor would soon find another favourite among his wives, but the emperor was very sad. He spent more and more time in his garden, and less and less time caring for the needs of his people. Everyone in the kingdom was worried.

    One day, a priest(牧师)passed when some children were playing with their dolls. The dolls made dancing shadows on the wall. This gave the priest an idea. He knew the stories the emperor's wife used to tell. What if he could bring those stories to life？

    The priest made a puppet(木偶)out of bits of clay(黏土).He painted the puppet to look somewhat like the emperor's wife. When the puppet was finished, the priest silently walked into the emperor's garden, carrying his puppet, a candle and a curtain. He placed the curtain near the emperor's chair. He placed his candle, his puppet and himself behind the curtain. He waited for the emperor to appear.

    The emperor did not even notice the curtain at first. The dancing shadow drew his eyes. As the priest moved the puppet behind the curtain, he told wonderful stories as the emperor's wife. It seemed as if his wife had been spending time with him. The emperor was no longer sad. At the end of each busy day, the emperor went into his garden to visit his shadow wife and hear her stories once again. That is how shadow puppets first began.

"Everybody， it' s time for our group project. Let's get to work!" says Ms. White. 

Amy is the leader of one group. She is not 1 forward to working with her group because a boy named Ray is always absent from the group meetings. He doesn^' t follow the rules ，and he2 to do any work. This slows the whole group down. 

Amy considers telling Ms. White about these problems， but she doesn't want to get Ray in trouble. 3 ， she decides to talk to him and find out what the4 is. She says，"Everyone is working hard on our project. But so far， you haven't done anything. Is there something wrong？"

Ray thinks5 for a few seconds， and finally says， "It' s not that I don't want to be in the 6 . Sometimes， I don' t really understand the things we' re learning. I know it' s not fair， but I don't want to say something stupid， so I do7 . 

Now Amy understands. Ray isn't 8 he just needs help!"From now on， she says，"I will do my best to help you feel more confident （自信的）. Then you can do your share， and it will be 9 for everyone. "Thank you! I'll try hard to do my part. " says Ray. 

Amy feels happy. She realizes that10 about problems is better than keeping them as secrets. 

Li Fei and his classmates came back from New Zealand yesterday. He wrote about the trip on the Internet. Let's have a look!

Day 1— Arriving

After flying for hours. we arrived in Auckland. Ms. Field welcomed us at the airport. That afternoon she gave us a talk on New Zealand.

Day 2—A visit to the Auckland Museum

After breakfast, we went to the Auckland Museum by bus. At the museum, we learned about Maori culture(文化). Ms. Field was so kind that she taught us some Maori greetings. Those greeting s were so hard to pronounce(发音) and remember.

Day 3— Meeting new friends

We went to Ms. Field's school. The students were very interested in Chinese culture. We made friends with each other later.

Day 4~ Day 7— Wonderful South Island

We traveled from Christchurch to Queenstown. It was very exciting. We sheared (剪羊毛) the sheep on a farm, enjoyed the delicious food and visited the place where The Lord of the Rings was shot(拍摄).

It was a wonderful trip. How I wish to visit New Zealand again!