"Is it a Chinese school?" Mary asks.

      "Yes, it is." Her mother says.

      It is September(九月) and the new school year begins. Marygoes to school every day. She likes her lessons（功课） and her classmates(同学)very much.Her classmates like her, too. Mary can speak a little Chinese. She likes China.She likes the people of China and Chinese food very much. 

Gemma Burford

    Gemma was born in' 1978 in a quiet (安静的) village in England. Her mother worked in a library and her father worked in a hospital. When she was a student at Oxford University, she travelled to Tanzania and met her husband, Lesikar for the first time. They got married in 2003 and had their daughter, Lucia, two years later. Now Lucia studies in a small primary school, and Gemma and Lesikar also teach her at home.

"Judy Boehmer

    Adam is Judy's first child. She now has four sons, seven daughters and a pet (宠物) dog, Bosco. Judy and her husband, Larry, live in Atlanta, Georgia, but they also have a motorhome (野营车). The Boehmers are a circus (马戏团) family and all the children are performers (演员) at the circus. The- children don't go to school, but study at home. The family travels more than 40.000 kilometres a year for their work The first show of the Boehmers was at a park in Lowa in 1989, and they now perform all over America.

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone(更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance(毅力)and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

    Wonder what it is like to be a chef(厨师)? This weekend you will have your chance to find out. Two local chefs, Monica Sallier and Andrew Gleason, will hold an "open kitchen" at their restaurants this Saturday.

    Monica's restaurant, The Blue Hen, is small but comfortable. Wooden tables and chairs cover the dining area, and sweet music is always on. "I like to laugh and always tell jokes while I cook," Monica said. "Cooking brings people together. The cooks who work with me have become my best friends."

    At Monica's "open kitchen", she plans to teach her guests how to prepare country­style fried chicken. For it, she will use her family's secret spice(香料). She learned how to make it from her father. Monica seldom uses a measuring cup(量杯)when cooking. By doing so, she hopes to offer her guests a special dining experience. "If you come to my restaurant, you'll never get the same dish twice, "she said.

    Also opening his kitchen this Saturday in Shreveport is Andrew Gleason. He is the head chef at Quarter Bistro. "I am not the most talkative chef in the business," Andrew said. "Mostly because I prefer to give my full attention to the food. Every ingredient(食材)must be carefully measured. "

    Andrew's food also makes the dining experience special. He makes every dish look like a piece of art. At his "open kitchen", Andrew plans to teach his visitors how to prepare blackened catfish, a dish of his that has won much praise throughout the city.

    Air pollution influences our health in many ways. No air means death. Though we can't see it, there is air around us. Air is everywhere and it gives a life to every living things. But bad air makes people ill. In the city, there are a great many people and there are too many cars running on the road. The cars send out bad gases (气体). There are many factories too. From the chimneys (烟卤) of these factories, we get the smoke usually in black colour. Every day we breathe it in and out. This makes us feel sick. When people talk about air pollution, they are usually thinking about outdoor air pollution. But a lot of air pollution comes from indoor activities such as smoking and cooking. Indoor air pollution can hurt people's eyes, noses and throats. So air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, can also lead to lung cancer (肺癌) and heart disease.

    Everyone should help fight against pollution. In order to keep us healthy, we have to go out to the countryside to breathe more fresh air. Or we can climb up hills to get more fresh air.