Once upon a time there was a writer who liked to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the beach. As he looked down the beach, he saw someone moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that a young man was reaching down to the shore, picking something up and very gently throwing it into the ocean.

    As he got closer, he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?"

    The young man stopped, looked up and answered, "Throwing starfish into the ocean."

    "I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"

    "The sun is up, and the tide(潮汐) is going out, and if I don't throw them in, they'll die."

    "But, young man, don't you see that there are miles and miles of beach, and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference!"

    The young man listened politely, then picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean, past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one." And he kept throwing starfish.

    There is something very special in each and every one of us. All of us can make a difference in life. If we know that, we have the power to shape the future.

    Look at this. What's this in English, do you know? Ah, it's a photo. Who's that in the photo? It's Li Yan. Li Yan is my good friend. She is a beautiful girl. Who's that? The boy in black? It's Jim. He is an English boy. He is very cool. He is my friend, too. We are all in Class 3,Grade 7. I like Jim and Li Yan.

    Spiderman is one of the most famous comic book heroes of all time. He was created by Stan Lee in 1963 and was first introduced to the world in the pages of Marvel comic books.

    Spiderman's story is the story of Peter Parker, a child who lost his parents and lives with his aunt and uncle. Peter is a shy, quiet boy wearing glasses and has few friends. One day, on a high school class trip to a science lab, he gets bitten by a special spider. Soon Peter realizes he has amazing powers. He is as strong and quick as a spider and also has a type of sixth sense.  He no longer needs his glasses and he can use his super power to fly through the city streets! Remembering something his Uncle Ben has told him, that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility(责任 )," Peter decides to use his powers to fight enemies who do cruel things to people. And so, Spiderman is born.

    Life is not easy for Peter even though he is a superhero. He is in love with Mary Jane but cannot tell her about his amazing powers. Besides, his best friend Harry hates Spiderman! Peter' is also short of money and time. He has to sell photos of Spiderman (himself) to a newspaper and he keeps losing his other jobs because he's so busy saving people! Yet he has to fight different kinds of cruel enemies.

    It was summertime. Donna walked into the classroom." Good afternoon, everybody!" That was a joke Donna told every day. Usually the class started with only two or three students in the classroom, and then the other students came as the minutes went by.

    Donna knew that the students didn't like studying English. The head teacher had told her the reason. The students thought English was confusing.

    Donna waited until all the students were sitting in their seats. She smiled and said," Okay, well. Let's get started. Please turn to Page 36. Today we're studying participles as adjectives（分词作形容词）. Students often feel confused when they learn about the present and past participles, so we need to practice a lot. Today, we're just going to practice using present participles as adjectives." Donna looked at all the blank faces around the classroom. Then she wrote two sentences on the blackboard.

    "The present participle tells us what kind of emotion the subject（主语）is causing. For example, when we say 'grammar is boring', we mean that the subject—grammar — causes an emotion of boredom. If we say, 'The movie is interesting', we are saying that the movie causes an emotion of interest. Any questions so far? Is anyone confused?"

    The classroom was quiet. Donna knew it would take some time for everyone to understand what she was talking about. After a while, Donna got a little excited because she saw looks of understanding on some of the students' faces.

Inventions usually make a big difference to people's lives. Do you have any great inventions at home? Do they help you a lot in your life or bring you much fun? Here are some of the most useful inventions in families according to a survey.