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    Jack Johnson is one of the most popular singer-songwriters in the world.

Jack was born on May 18,1975 in Hawaii. Being the son of a famous surfer,Jack naturally has an interest in surfing. Most of his life lessons were learned in the water. At the age of 17,Jack entered the finals of the Pineline Masters—the world's most famous surfing competition. Everyone thought Jack would become a professional surfer like his father. Unluckily, one month later,he had a deadly accident while surfing and was seriously hurt.

    Life is like a revolving door. When it closes ,it also opens. Jack started to practice playing the guitar and write songs when he was staying in hospital. At first,his father thought Jack only did it for fun,but soon he was surprised at the great progress his son had made.

When studying in the university, Jack didn't stop practicing his guitar skills. He played the guitar for school parties. He wrote songs and sang them for his teachers and friends. They liked his songs. His first music album Brush fire Fairytales came out in 2001. It was a great success. His second album，On and On ， was much like his first. They were filled with sweet，easy-going songs

that everybody liked listening to. Later Jack had lots of concerts in and out of America. He became popular all over the world.

    Jack had five albums by 2010 and more than 15 million copies of them were sold. His music doesn't fit into any of the popular music styles like pop, rock, R&B or hip-hop. It is more like folk music, played with a guitar and beautiful voice. When listening to his songs, you feel like lying on the beach enjoying the warm sunshine.

    Jack is a talent, though he himself says he is only a surfer who loves music. In his songs we can find his secret of success: Whatever happens in our lives, we have to accept it and do the best we can.

    Professor Xu Yuanchong was born in 1921. He is best known for translating (翻译) Chinese ancient poems into English and French. Xu took foreign language studies at Tsinghua University and then he studied abroad. After that, he became a professor in English and French.

    During these years, he has been working on translating. Up to now, he has translated more than 100 Chinese classics from Chinese to both English and French. The first poem he translated from Chinese to English is Don't Cast Away in 1939. It's a poem written by Lin Huiyin. In fact, he translated this poem to express his love to a girl he liked. Though he failed, he got a life-time career in translation.

    In 2007, Xu had a cancer. During the time, he did what he liked every day and didn't give up translating. What's more, he didn't go to sleep till three or four o'clock in the morning. He still held on to work over twelve ours a day. Also, he became the first Asian to win the"Aurora Borealis"Prize.

    Corky was a brave young man and he dreamed of becoming the best fighter in the world.

    To become stronger and get better fighting skills, he went to many schools. One day, he went to the best school in the world. Before entering the gate, he was made to hand in all his weapons (武器).

    "You won't need those any more. Here you'll get better ones," said the guard. Corky handed his weapons to him. A serious old teacher took Corky to his room. Before he left, he said to Corky, "In a hundred days the training will start." A hundred days! At first Corky thought that was a joke, but he soon realized the old teacher had been serious. Corky felt nervous during the first days and he tried many ways to try to get the teacher to start the training. However, it didn't work. At last Corky waited patiently and enjoyed each day in the school.

    "You've already learned how to use your main weapon—patience," said the old teacher. Corky could hardly believe it, but he really understood that the teacher was right. Finally, the lesson began. "Now it's time to learn how to win every fight," said the old teacher. That sounded good to Corky until he found himself tied hand and foot. Many villagers tried to hit him because they were told that Corky was a dangerous man. The same thing was repeated for days, and Corky knew he had to do something. He realized that the only way would be to deal with the villagers' anger (怒气). In the following days, Corky kept talking to them until he managed to make them believe that he was not an enemy. In the end, the villagers made friends with Corky.

    Finally, Corky knew what the most powerful weapon was. He said thanks to the teacher and left.

    Everybody has different hobbies that they like to do for fun or just to relax. There are many kinds of activities like volleyball, basketball, swimming, or baseball. It all depends on each personality. For me, basketball is a part of my life and it means a lot to me.

    Since I was a little girl, I started to play basketball in the school team and also with my friends in the neighborhood. My mother told me that I liked kicking the ball around and had so much fun with it when I was only about two years old. Since then, playing basketball is my favorite sport. It is my hobby whenever I have free time.

    Playing basketball also helps me to relax and be confident. I often play basketball with my classmates in the playground. After doing my homework or when I come home from school, I play a little bit with my friends outside of my house or we go to the park to play it.

    Whenever I play basketball, I feel healthier and stronger. Besides, I meet new friends from the neighborhood. I not only like playing basketball, but I also enjoy watching basketball games on television.

    Near the village, there is an old famous temple. Some people want to build a new house where the temple now stands, because they can find no other area to build them, while others disagree with them. They meet to decide how to solve the problem. Here are their opinions about it.

The expert wants to protect the temple and believes that there are some interesting things buried in the ground. If it is destroyed or moved, people may never learn about how people lived in the past.

The businessman thinks that the houses should be built. History is important, but we must think about the future. The village needs development and building new houses will offer jobs to hundreds of people.

Villager A says, "We should build the new houses because we need houses to live in."

Villager B says, "We should protect the temple because it can attract many tourists to come for a visit. If the temple is destroyed or moved, we will lose a lot of business."

The village leader thinks that he has a duty to make life better for the villagers. They need jobs and new houses. He also thinks the cultural site (遗迹) is important and they should be careful with it as well.