Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.

There is an English saying:" Laughter is the best medicine." Until {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, few people took the saying seriously. Now however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They find that it {#blank#}2{#/blank#} people's blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing. It {#blank#}3{#/blank#} works the stomach and even the feet. So laughter exercises the body and improves people's health.

As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics; in which they help to improve their patients' condition {#blank#}4{#/blank#} encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.

Jean Champollion was very good at languages. He learnt twelve languages in his life. When he was eighteen , he began {#blank#}1{#/blank#} history(历史) at university. He was younger than many of his students.

Jean was very interested in ancient Egypt and in 1821he began to study the Rosetta Stone(罗塞塔石碑). A group of soldiers found this stone at Rosetta when Jean was still a young boy. It was under the sand for {#blank#}2{#/blank#}years before the soldiers dug it up (挖出来). There was a lot of strange writing on the stone. The writing was a message in three languages. One of the languages was ancient Egyptian. No one could read it at that time. But Jean {#blank#}3{#/blank#}its secret.

The ancient Egyptian was not a language with letters and words like English. It was full of {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. According to many experts (专家) , these signs showed things and ideas. Jean did not completely agree. He thought some of them {#blank#}5{#/blank#} sounds. He found 15 signs of this kind in his study of Rosetta Stone. Today, it is possible to understand ancient Egyptian from 4, 000 years ago because of Jean's discovery (发现). 

Orion Jean，a little boy in the United States，has a big goal.He wants to s {#blank#}1{#/blank#} kindness to as many people as he can.

It all started in August 2020.Jean r {#blank#}2{#/blank#} ＄500 in prize money after winning the U.S.National Kindness Speech Contest.He could have spent the money on Legos，but he quickly realized that it was not e {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to just speak about kindness.The boy set up the "Race to Kindness" project.

Jean started off by helping children in hospital.Because of the COVID﹣19 pandemic，these children were not able to see their family members very often.Jean wanted to put a s {#blank#}4{#/blank#}on their faces.He used his money to buy as many toys as he could while calling on people to do the same.In only a month，he had c {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 619 toys.The boy sent them to a local children's hospital. "It is one of the best e {#blank#}6{#/blank#} of my life，" he said at the time.

Not long after，in October 2020，Jean s {#blank#}7{#/blank#}the ambitious goal of donating 100，000 free Thanksgiving meals to poor families.With the help of a local charity，he was not only able to reach his goal but to go beyond it.As a book lover {#blank#}8{#/blank#} can change a person's life.Last May，after discovered the f {#blank#}9{#/blank#} that two out of three kids from poor family had no books of their own，they boy decided to collect 500，000 book for them.

Will he t {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a break after this？ "Who knows？Maybe something even bigger will come，" Jean says. "Maybe we'll do a 'race' to a million."

Hello! I am Bob. I know Alice and Frank. They(他们) are my friends. I say good morning to them(他们). Alice has(有) a ruler. It's good. What color is it? It's white. Alice says to me, "Can you spell ‘white'?" I say, "Yes, W-H-I-T-E." Frank has a key. It is brown. Frank can say it in English. This is my pen and this is my ruler. My pen is blue and yellow. Oh! What color is my ruler? It's red. I can spell "red".

When I had something difficult to do, I used to ask my mother for help. But she always said, "Do it yourself, dear." I was not glad at all. I thought she was the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} mother in the world!

For example, one day, I decided to invite some friends to my home. My bedroom was not in order. Books were everywhere. And I didn't {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. I asked my mother to help me clean it, but she still said, " Do it yourself, girl."

Because of my "lazy mother" , I have to {#blank#}3{#/blank#} my clothes and clean my room. I have to help my parents cook food and I even have to go to the dentist by myself. It is really hard for me to do everything {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, but I have learned a lot.

As time goes by, I understand my mother. She makes me clever and hard-working! 

What a great mother!