Earth is our home. It has air that we can breathe(呼吸). It has water for us to drink. It has plants and animals that we can eat. Earth is not too hot or too cold for us. It has everything we need to live.

    We are on earth, but we call see things that are not on earth. Early in the morning, we can see the sun comes up. All day, the sun seems to move across the sky. Later in the day, we can see the sun goes down. But the sun is not really moving around us. We are the ones who are moving. Every morning, we turn towards the sun. Every night, we turn away from it. Every year, we go around it. Earth is our spaceship. All of us in the spaceship are riding around the sun.

    At night, we can often see the moon and stars. From earth stars look like little points of light because they are so far away. But stars are really big. A star is a great mass of burning gas. It gives off light and heat. Our sun is a star.

    There are eight planets moving around our sun. Earth is the third planet around the sun. Some of the planets have moons. A moon goes around a planet just as a planet goes around a star. Earth has only one moon. Some planets have more.

    You may love to see tigers at the zoo. But what if you had to stay with one on a boat on the open sea for over 200 days? Life of Pi《少年派的奇幻漂流》, the movie from American Chinese director(导演), Li An, tells an amazing story.

    Pi is a boy. He lives happily with his family in a beautiful Indian town. His father has a zoo, so Pi knows a lot about animals.

    But one day, his father decides to move to Canada. He will sell all his animals there. The family begin to sail on the Pacific with all the zoo animals. But a big storm(暴风雨) hits their ship at night. Finally, Pi finds the only Survivors(幸存者) are himself and a large tiger called Parker on an 8-meter boat.

    To keep himself alive, Pi has to keep feeding the tiger so that he does not get eaten. He tries to get on well with the tiger during a 227-day sail on the sea.

    The movie is from a Canadian writer Yann Martel's book of the same name. The book has sold 7 million copies world-wide. It discusses not only hope but also relationship(关系) between humans and nature.

    It took Li An four years to make the movie. He also used 3D for his first time. He hopes the movie will “make the people think”. Life of Pi opened in Chinese theaters on November 22, 2012.

    I am Paul. I am in the classroom. What's under the teacher's desk?

It's a black schoolbag. Who lost the schoolbag? Let's look at the things in it. This is a pencil box with a pen, a ruler, an eraser and two pencils in it. This is a Chinese book. I always have my name on my books. But I can't see a name on it. I get the math book from the schoolbag and have a look. There is no name on it, either (either=too). How about the music book? Let me see. Here is a photo in this book. This is Sally but I don't know the other two girls in the photo. Is this Sally's schoolbag? I am not sure. I will call Sally and phone her about the lost schoolbag.

    A different culture keeps my eyes and mind open. When I stayed in Russia (A)an exchange student, I learned about it.

    One day, a Russian trend invited me to a (B)well-known restaurant in Moscow(莫斯科)I looked forward to trying local (当地的)food. After arriving there, I found nothing on the table but several small plates, on which there were nuts, a few slices(片)of tomatoes, and several pieces of onions. Although the dishes were simple, we drank a lot and I felt the passion(热情)from the bottom of his heart. In China, when we invite friends or relatives, we always treat them to a big dinner. We prepare as much food as we can(C)      show our friendliness.

    What a different culture it is l Even though we try our best, it's very (D) difficult to get used to their customs. Another Russian custom also impresses me deeply. As we know, it is very cold in winter there. When winter comes, (E)俄罗斯人喜欢游泳.They even take their kids outside together. Like their parents, (F)Russian kids rub (擦)their bodies with snow before jumping into the water. Although the water is freezing cold, they all play happily in it.

    What fun it is to know about a different culture.

    Do you live in a city? Do you know how cities began? Long long ago, there were only a few thousand people in the world. These people moved from one place to another. They moved over the land, hunting animals for food.

    No one knows how or when these people learned about growing food. But when they did, their lives changed. They did not have to move any more.

    They could stay m one place and grow food there. People began to live near each other, so the first

    Villages appeared. Many people came to work in the villages, and these villages became larger and larger.

    Then people had machines. Life in the villages changed again. People built factories. More and more People lived near the factories, so the villages grew into cities. Some of them grew very big.

    Today, it's strange that some people are moving back to small villages. Can you tell me why?