Mary is an American schoolgirl. She is now in Beijing with her parents. Mary can't speak Chinese well. But she wants to learn and speak it. She often tries to speak Chinese to her Chinese friends, but sometimes they don't understand her because she can't speak it well.

    Today is Sunday morning. She wants to go to the zoo to see the birds and monkeys, but she doesn't know how to get there. She asks a Chinese boy. The boy can't understand her. So she draws a monkey on a piece of paper and shows it to the boy. Then the boy tells Mary the way to the zoo.

    Hello! I am Jack. I am a student in Class Two, Grade Seven. I am thirteen years old now. I have a telephone. My telephone number is seven two three, eight one three.

    This is my friend. Her name is Cindy. She is my classmate(同学). She is fourteen years old. She has three new books. They are on the desk. She likes to read books very much and she likes to draw, too. Her telephone number is eight five four, two seven eight.

    A farmer had a cow. He took very good care of this cow and one day when it was ill, he was very worried. He telephoned the vet.

    "What's the problem?" The vet asked him when he arrived.

    "My cow's ill," the farmer said. "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and won't eat. She's making a strange noise."

    The vet looked over the cow. "She's certainly ill," he said, "and she needs to take some very strong medicine."

    He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better."

    "How should I give them to her?" the farmer asked.

    The vet gave him a tube (管子)and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it."

    The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked more worried.

    "How's your cow?" the vet asked.

    "No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

    "Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

    "I did what you said," the farmer answered. "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put two pills down it."

    "And?" the vet asked.

    "The cow blew first," the farmer said.

TO DO: Let go of the list

Dear Disappointed,

    I know how you feel! For spring break, my family visited my cousins Sam and Kate. It was a long drive, so I had lots of time to make plans for the world's best vacation.

   "You have been writing for a while!" said my dad." Are you working on the next great American novel?" "Maybe tomorrow!" I joked. "Now, I'm making a list of things to do with Sam this week." Because Sam is my age. We usually hang out when we all get together, while Tex and Indi play with Kate.

    When we finally arrived, I went to find Sam." How about checking out the lake?" I said. "Nah, "said Sam." I have something more fun for us to do." "Awesome" I said, prepared to start checking off activities on my list. Sam turned on his computer." Which bat do you want to be?" Which bat?" I repeated." I got the best new computer game called Bat Adventure." Sam explained," Bats are the coolest creatures, you can learn all interesting facts about bats."

   "Um, this looks fun" I said, "but it's not exactly on my to-do list." "All the things I want to do this week." I explained, "are all outside." "Oh, that's cool." Sam said." You do your thing. And I'll just restart the game in one player mode."

    I wandered out of the room. And Kate called. "Zona, are you coming to play soccer with us?" "Sure, I guess for a minute," I said. Kicking the ball gently in Kate's direction. Kate gave the ball a huge kick. Pow! Tex ran after it.

   "Shhh," whispered Tex, pointing at a hole. We saw two little fuzzy bats! They had mousy ears and their wings were spread." Goodness!" I laughed." Let's show Sam. He knows all about bats." Sure enough. Sam was really excited about our discovery. Later that day. We all looked up bat facts on Sam's computer.

    I managed to do only a couple of things on my list that week. But I had some other great experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. So dear Disappointed, even though it's helpful to have lists, it's also good to stay open-minded. Life almost never goes exactly the way you plan. So if you are open to the possibilities, something even better can pop up out of nowhere and totally make your day.

Arizona

Hong Kong has forty public beaches(海滩). Some of the beaches are among the best in the world. People can go there for a swim. You can go to most of them by bus. To go to some beaches you must take a boat. There are toilets, changing rooms and places to buy food and drink on most of the beaches.

You will swim there without danger if you remember these instructions(提示):

1.Never swim alone. 

2. Never swim after a meal or when you feel hungry or tired. 

3. Do not stay in the water too long. 

4. Never go out in a boat if you cannot swim.

Remember: A red flag (旗)means that it is dangerous for anybody to go into the water. A blue flag means that it is dangerous for children.