Carol studies at Roosevelt High School. She is having a hard time passing exams. She has no interest in her homework, so she seldom finishes it on time.

     But there is one lesson she is doing well in. It is history. Carol always hands in her history homework on time. She respects the history teacher Mr Aragon. Carol feels that Mr Aragon treats her more than just a student. She feels other teachers look down on her.

      Carol's mother Maria told Mr Aragon that Carol wasn't doing well in her other lessons. Mr Aragon was surprised to learn that. "She is such a smart girl," he told Maria. Mr Aragon told Maria that he would talk to her daughter.

Carol felt embarrassed when Mr Aragon talked to her about the problems she was having in other lessons. But later Carol understood that Mr Aragon just wanted to help her. Mr Aragon and Carol had a discussion about what she could do to improve her marks in other lessons. They made a list of ways to help her to complete her homework on time, including setting a timetable for homework, cutting down some boring after-school activities, and having a friend help her with the homework. Carol decided to try these ways out to see which one would work best for her.

    You may have heard of people who are allergic (过敏) to seafood, smoke or pets. But did you know that some people were allergic to Wi-Fi signals(信号)?

    Rose White, a 44-year-old woman from Britain, first found herself being allergic to Wi-Fi signals in 2015. She had a cough, heart trouble and great pains in her head when she stayed at the places covered with Wi-Fi signals.

    Rose has tried many ways to keep away from Wi-Fi signals. In the past six months, she either slept in her car or in tent which she had put up in the woodland and in the fields. She even tried sleeping in a shed(棚子). Being completely tired, Rose had no choice but to quit her job and moved 370 kilometers away from her home to avoid Wi-Fi signals, but failed. Because of the hard life, she got a stomach problem.

    She is now living in a small house in the rural (乡下的) area in England. There is far fewer Wi-Fi signals. However, the house, which belongs to her friend, will be sold to others, so she has to move again soon.

    Rose is planning to move to a more rural area. She is also planning to buy a camper van (野营车) so that she can drive away from Wi-Fi signals whenever she is feeling uncomfortable. As she can not work to make money, she has to raise money online. She is hoping to raise 15, 000 pounds. So far, she has raised over 1, 600 pounds. She still has a long way to go.

    Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved all kinds of small animals, such as spiders, insects and butterflies and so on.

    One day while walking through the woods, the nice old man found a cocoon（茧） of a butterfly. He took it home.

    A few days later, a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to make its body out of that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared it could go no farther.

    Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then got out of the cocoon easily.

    But it had a swollen（肿胀的） body and small shriveled（枯萎的） wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge to be able to support the body, which would contract（收缩） in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

    What the warm-hearted man in his kindness did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Nature's way of forcing fluid（体液） from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

    Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any difficulties, it would be bad for us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

    Everyone has his own birthday. People in different countries celebrate their birthdays in different ways. Now here are four people from different countries. They will tell us how they celebrate their birthdays in their countries.

    Sandy comes from Madrid(马德里). She says happily," My 21st birthday is on Saturday, and I'm going to go out with some friends. To wish me a happy birthday, they are going to pull on my ear 21 times, once for each year. It's an old custom. Some people pull on the ear just once, but my friends are very traditional."

    Mr. and Mrs. Sato are from Tokyo. Mr. Sato is going to be 60 tomorrow. In Japan, the sixtieth birthday is called Kanreki(花甲)—it's the beginning of a new life. The color red is for a new life, so we always give something red for a sixtieth birthday.

    Liu Mei from Beijing feels very excited and tells us, "Tomorrow is my 16th birthday. It's a special birthday, so we're going to have a family party. Maybe I will get some lucky money from my relatives(亲戚). My mother is going to cook noodles for a long life.

    Phillip, from Paris, smiles to us," I'm going to be thirty next week, so I'm going to invite three very good friends out for dinner. In France, when you have a birthday, you often invite people out."

    How do you usually celebrate your birthday?