Joy always rides her bike to school. It's four miles to school and it takes her about fifteen minutes. Joy likes riding to school. She says it's good for her health.

    Edward usually goes to school by bus. He likes talking with his friends on the bus. It's about ten minutes' journey (旅程) to school by bus.

    Mary's home is near the school. She usually walks to school. It's about five minutes' walk. Mary says she likes taking walks after meal.

A. Plant Garden   Our garden is open from 8 am to 6 pm. Green plants are growing here. Would you like to come to the plant festival this month?

B. Kids School   Don't be sad if your Chinese is not good. We help you improve it in a short time. If you like, come to the Room 135 in Fifth Street.

C. White Cinema   We have many new movies on this month. If you buy 4 tickets at one time, we can give you another ticket and you don't need to pay for it.

D. Dogs Home   Can your dog take some things for you? Dogs in our home can. Why not bring it here and let us teach it to do that.

E. Summer Camp   If you feel bored at home, you can go to our summer camp to play with other friends.

F. Ball Club   Many girls play volleyball in our club during the vacation. Welcome you to join us! I think we can be the best friends.

G. Swimming Pool   Swimming all year is a good sports to be healthy and it's also a good way to be thin.

    We all believe we listen well and yet many times we feel others are not listening to us. However, listening goes in both directions -- you may believe you are listening well, but how often have you completely forgotten what was said to you? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Make eye contact.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} When people talk, they put out visual clues that add to the conversation and meaning of their word.

    Stop talking.

    You can't listen, talk and at the same time completely receive the meaning of the other person's words.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    React without words.

    Let the other person know you are listening through physical reactions, such as head nods, smiles, frowns and eye contact. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Behave as an effective listener. The more you continue to behave as a listener, the more you will be an effective listener.

A. Act as a listener.

B. Make eye contact with the person who is talking to you.

C. There are a few ways to become a more effective listener.

D. Wait your turn and take in what has been said to you before you make a reply.

E. These may also help to let the speaker know whether you are fully understanding his words.

    Reading is fun! Besides for fun, we can also analyze (分析) texts to learn more from the texts and more about the texts. One way we can do this is by finding out the theme of the texts.

    The theme of a text is the "big idea" that runs through the text, connecting the characters and events. It is what the writer wants to tell us through the story. Usually the theme of a text isn't told directly, you have to use clues (线索) in the text to find it out. 83 Themes can be ideas like family, friendship, love and so on. The theme might not be just one word, but it might be an idea such as "Friendship is important." There may also be more than one theme in a story. How can we find out the theme of a text? The following steps may help you.

    Read through the whole text, usually characters change as the story goes on, so the theme you get at the beginning might not be true at the end! For this reason, you need to read through the whole text first.

    Find out the clue after reading the whole text, try to answer the following questions. What important events happened during the story? What was the problem? How did the problem get solved? How did the character(s) change? What did the character(s) learn? The answers may help you to get the clues.

    Get the big idea Read again for the writer's purpose of the text by answering the following questions. Was most of the plot(情节) around friendship? Did the characters solve problems with their families? Did the main character learn the importance of friendship? If one of the answers is "yes", you may get the big idea.

    Check the big idea out If you've found a "big idea", go through the text to find the evidence( 证 据 ) that supports this idea in the text. For example, if there was only one small problem with a character's family, then "family" might not be the theme of the text. You might find more evidence for other themes.

    Have you got the way to find out the theme of a text? 84 Get your favorite book quickly and see if you can find the theme out!

    When you hear the name Hollywood, you probably think of excitement, lights, cameras and movie stars. Famous actors are not the only important people in the entertainment business. Directors and producers are important, too. Today, Hollywood is full of producers and directors. And it is one of the tourist destinations in America.

    In 1911 the small, peaceful village of Hollywood in California voted to become part of Los Angeles. Today, over 100 years later, this village has grown into the home of one of the best-known industries in the world- the American film industry.

    With this growth, came many well-known symbols. There is the famous Hollywood sign which stands above the hills of the town. The first sign was built in 1923. Then there is Hollywood Hall of Fame, where great actresses, actors and directors leave their footprints or handprints. Norma Tallmadge was the first actress to do this in 1927. But most famous of all are the Oscar Academy Awards(奥斯卡颁奖). In March of every year a number of actresses, actors and directors wait nervously to find out if they have won an "Oscar". The 85th Oscar Academy Awards was held on February 25, 2013, in Los Angeles. Ang Lee(李安),a Chinese director won the best director again. It was his second time to win an "Oscar".

    Nowadays it becomes more and more common for films to be made away from Hollywood itself, but it remains the home of films, and thousands of hopeful young actresses, actors, writers and directors still come to "the Dream Factory" every year. But not all Hollywood dreams have been happy ones- as one actress, who later died tragically(悲惨地), said," Hollywood is a place where they will pay you 500 dollars for a kiss, and 50 cents for your soul.

    "Mike, what are you doing?" asked Mrs. Green. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Mrs. Green put down her book and went to her 14­year­old son's room. Mike was sitting in front of the computer and playing games.

    "Oh, Mike. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It's 10:30. If you don't go to bed right now, you'll feel tired and sleepy tomorrow, "said Mrs. Green.

    "But I've almost won the game, "Mike said to Mrs. Green. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} She sat beside Mike and then talked to him, "You're always playing games on the computer. You spend more time on this machine than on your homework."

    Today more and more families have computers. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} But in fact many of the children use computers to play games, listen to songs or watch videos instead of studying.

    We often see that the Internet bars are crowded with people, especially young boys. They spend a lot of time and money playing computer games. The result is that they don't want to work or study anymore.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} We should do something to solve the problem.