My pen pal John is a school boy. He is from the USA and he is 13 years old. This is his room. Let's have a look. His computer is on the desk. And a telephone is on it, too. His books are everywhere. Some are on the shelf（书架）and some are on the ground. Look, what's that under the bed? Oh, it's one of his socks. Where's his schoolbag? It's near the bed. You can find a dictionary, a pencil box and a set of keys in it. Where is his hat? Can you find it?

    Tom Smith is English. He is 12. He is in No.8 Middle School. Is he in {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, Grade 7? Yes, he is. There are {#blank#}2{#/blank#}people in his family. Amy Smith is his {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. She is 60. His {#blank#}4{#/blank#} is John Smith. He is 41. What's his mother's name? Her name is Kate Smith. How old（多大年纪）is she? She's 40. Who is Mike Smith? He's Tom's {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. He is only eight.

    In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the population of the Earth will have grown by 10 people. That may not sound much, but it is about 14,000 people an hour. That is the same as adding most of the population of Germany to the world every year!

    Most of these new people are born in developing countries. These countries are found in much of Africa, South America, and parts of Asia. In the developed countries of Europe and North America, the population is growing very slowly. This is because women in these countries have, on average, only one or two children. In the developing countries, many women have five or more children. In 1950, around one quarter of the world's population lived in the developed countries. By 2050, these countries will be the home to only around one tenth of the world's people.

    In the developing countries, more than one billion people already live below the poverty line (贫困线).These people don't have enough food to eat and they live in poor housing; children get little or no time at school and suffer from many kinds of diseases.

    The United Nations (UN) tries to guess population growth. At the beginning of the 21st century, the world's population was around six billion people. The UN has said that the world's population will level off at 12. 5 billion people by the year 2100. Other people think the world's population will continue to grow, reaching 14 billion people before it becomes stable or even falls.

    Students learn their lessons in class. In class, teachers teach them. Students sit in the classroom listening to the teacher. Is this the only way for students to learn? Of course not. There is another way to learn. That is, students can teach themselves. For example, if you cannot remember anything when you are doing your homework, you can look through（浏览） your book to find the answer. This is a way to teach yourself. And it's not a difficult thing. We can do it at any place and at any time.

    How to teach yourself? The first thing you must do is to read. Read something interesting. The second is that you must ask yourself questions. Many clever students often do this. The questions are about something you don't understand or you want to know more about. You can write down these questions. The third is to answer the questions yourself by thinking hard, by reading the texts or other books, and sometimes by asking other people. These are the ways of teaching yourself. And if you do these things for a long time, you can succeed（成功）in your study.

    There are many different kinds of disasters around the world. As an adult you know what to do during a disaster, but what about the children? Some adults think it would probably never happen to them, so they don't teach their children what to do. Before it's too late, here are ways to help you prepare your children for a disaster.

    Educate: It is always good to let your children know about possible disasters. This doesn't mean children have to live in fear. When teaching them about disasters, keep the conversation positive (积极的) by telling them there is a solution (解决办法) to the disaster. Keep the conversations short, allow for questions and answer them honestly.

    Prepare: Always be prepared. And that is the best piece of advice for children. For example, when preparing for bad weather, get the tools you need, like candles, radios, food, water and medicine. Teach your children what is needed in certain disasters so that they know what is available for them, if ever needed.

    Plan: You should always have a plan for you and your children for any dangerous situation. Write out a simple list that they can read. The plan could start with "listen to an adult's advice and/or call 119".

    Practise: Once you have got the correct safety tools and worked out the right plan, practise every few months. Practising what to do during a disaster with your children will help them if the time comes.

    Disasters can't be avoided but they can be lessened once you are prepared and ready for one.

    Some insects, such as butterflies and ladybugs, are quite beautiful, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}did you know that many insects are also edible(可食用的)?

    Aletheia Price knows this—and a lot more about –about bugs(虫子). She also thinks that you should try {#blank#}2{#/blank#}some. If you visit the website www. eatbug.com, you will find all kinds of{#blank#}3{#/blank#} about edible insects. Most of it was {#blank#}4{#/blank#}by Aletheia Price when he was fifteen years old. Aletheia started eating bugs at the age of thirteen. Soon, she found that she really {#blank#}5{#/blank#}eating some of them. She also became interested in finding out more about which kinds of bugs could be eaten and {#blank#}6{#/blank#}to cook them.

    According to Aletheia, there are at least 1,462 kinds of edible {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Some of her favorite dishes include mealworm, chocolate, chip, cookies and chocolate-covered crickets(蟋蟀).

    Aletheia knows eating bugs is not for {#blank#}8{#/blank#} . But if you think about it, you may feel that eating bugs is a good {#blank#}9{#/blank#}. There are millions and millions of edible bugs in this world. If you could get to used to eating {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, we would have plenty of food for everyone.