One day, while I was walking on the street, I heard the piano music and singing rising above the noise of the people. I stopped and saw a young lady sitting at a piano.

    She was singing songs about love. The way she was singing made me a little comfortable. I stood there watching her playing on such a crowded New York square. I thought that she must be brave enough to perform in front of so many people.

    She noticed me. I walked over and told her how good her music sounded. “Thank you.” she said.

    “I have been going through a hard time recently, but you've made me hopeful again.” I said to her.

    “I'm glad that I could help,” she replied, “Why are you so sad?”

    “Well, my mom has lost her job, and I'm not sure what to do …”

    “Did you notice the way you were walking? Your head was down.” she said. “Don't be upset, because opportunity (机遇) comes in different ways and if your head is down, you might not see it. You should smile more… lift your head up.”

    I looked at her, surprised at how she was encouraging (鼓励) me. “Why are you playing the piano here?” I asked her with a smile.

    She explained that she saw a lot of unhappy people in the world and she tried to cheer them up by playing music.

    I smiled a little wilder, realizing that no difficulties could stop me from going on.

    During his life Dr James Naismith worked as a doctor, taught P.E and wrote several books. While he never thought it very important, Dr Naismith is today best known for one thing. He was the inventor of basketball.

    Dr James Naismith was born in Canada in 1861 and his first job was at a special sports school in the USA.

    One day the school principal（校长） told James he was having a problem with the students. Because of heavy snow, the students could not go outside. He told James that they needed a sport the boys could play indoors and gave the teacher two weeks to think of something.

    It was on the very last day that James came up with his idea. The "birth of basketball" is said to be on December 21, 1891, when two teams from the school played the first game. It was quite different from the basketball games of today. It had 9 players on each team and footballs were used instead of basketballs. Soon after, the game changed to 5 players on each side, using special "basketballs" through nets.

    Although Dr Naismith did not live to see basketball become the worldwide game it is today, in 1936, just three years before his death, basketball became an Olympic sport at the games in Berlin.

    Hello, My name is Dale. I'm 13 years old. This is a photo of my family. Look! This is my father. His name is Tim Brown. He is 45 years old. This is my mother Alice. She is 43 years old. I have a sister and her name is Gina. She is 11 years old. I look like (长得像)my mother and Gina looks like my father. All my family are in the same school. My parents are teachers. They are friendly (友好的) to the students, so the students love them very much. My sister and I are students and we love our school.

    A man came out of the airport. A lot of taxis were there. He asked the name of every taxi-driver. Then he took the 3rd one. It costs 5 dollars from the airport to the hotel. "How much does it cost for the whole day?" the man asked. "One hundred dollars, "said the taxi-driver. This was very expensive, but the man said it was OK.

    The driver took the man everywhere. He showed him all the parks and museums in the city. In the evening, they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver100dollars and said, "What about tomorrow?" The taxi-driver looked at the man and said, "Tomorrow? It's another 100 dollars. "But the man said, "That's OK!

    See you tomorrow. "The driver was very pleased.

    The next day the driver took the man everywhere again. They visited all the parks and museums again. And in the evening they went back to the hotel. The man gave the driver 100 dollars again and was going home tomorrow. The driver was unhappy because he liked the man and above all, 100 dollars a day was a lot of money. "So you're going home. Where do you come from?" he asked. "I come from New York. ""New York!" said the driver. "I have a sister in New York. Her name is Lucy. Do you know her? ""Of course I know her. She gave me 200 dollars for you!"

One autumn afternoon, Maddie was moving her towel at the window."I wish I didn't have to wash these windows," she said 1 ."I think washing windows is the worst housework in the world."

As she washed her towel into the buckets (水桶) again, Maddie saw Mr. Smith, her 2 . standing in his front yard (院子) next door. He looked so 3 .

" Mr. Smith," Maddie called," How are you?"

" Well, Maddie, but I have to rake(用耙子耙) these leaves (叶子)," Mr. Smith said." Raking is the 4 housework for me."

"I' ll ra ke them for you," Maddie said happily."I5 building piles(堆) of fallen yello w leaves."

" You would do that for me, Maddie?" Mr. Smith asked.

" Sure," Maddie answered."I'd be glad to 6 . I' ll finish washing my windows later."

" Thank you," Mr. Smith said, handing Maddie the rake."I really 7 the help." Then he went away.

Maddie raked and finally got all of her small leaves together into one high mountain." It's time to wash my 8 ." she thought. But when she reached her yard, she 9 .

Tom, her neighbor, was standing there, facing the living room window." What is Tom doing?" she thought.

" He's 10 the windows!" she suddenly realized.

" Tom, why are you washing 11 windows?" Maddie asked.

Hearing Maddie's loud voice, Tom was 12 . He turned around and said," Oh, after I came back, I saw Mr. Smith washing my clothes in my yard. I asked him what I could do for him. Then he remembered you didn't finish cleaning your windows 13 you were raking his leaves."

" And I", Tom said," love to wash windows,"

Maddie laughed."I guess there's 14 for everyone," she said." Thank you for doing my windows, Tom. The housework chain(联手) is really 15 !"

I was in the classroom. This was 1 first lesson in junior high school. It was 2 . I used to feel bored in Chinese classes, so I hoped my new Chinese teacher would be 3 . 

Here came a woman teacher. She 4 " Li" on the blackboard. "This is my family name, " she 5 . "You can call me Ms Li. Now tell me what you want me to do in my lessons. " We were surprised. 6 could a student ask a teacher to do things? Everyone was in silence(沉默). 

Ms Li smiled and said, "Don't be 7 . Just tell me what you really want to say about our Chinese 8 . I will try my best to meet all the needs of 9 . " Hearing what she said, we were excited and started to say our needs 10 worries. "Not too much 11 ";"Finish class on time";"Make the class fun". We talked a lot and Ms Li didn't stop us. 

When we finished, Ms Li said, "First, you will not have much homework, but you should 12 it on time. Second, my classes will be fun, 13 you can't play too much. Third, I will finish class on time. But you must 14 me carefully(认真地) in class. All right?""OK!" all of us answered happily. 

I think Chinese is very useful in our life, so it is really 15 to learn Chinese well. I'm sure our Chinese classes will have a lot of fun because of this interesting teacher. I may never get bored with Chinese classes.