Pack Up and Fly Away

    Hainan Island

Hainan Island is a wonderful place of sun, sand and sea. It is in the south of China. It's famous for its underwater beauty. Tianyahaijiao is also very famous. It attracts lots of tourists around the world every year.

    Thailand

Thailand is in the heart of Southeast Asia. Its capital Bangkok has some of Thailand's greatest buildings, like the Grand Palace(大皇宫). Chiang Mai(清迈) is a big city in Thailand. There are many historic temples(寺庙)there, such as Wat Phra Singh. The temple has a history of over 650 years.

Australia

This country is the land of beauty and diversity(多样性). It is famous for the Sydney Opera House and Ayers Rock(艾尔斯岩). Ayers Rock is 3, 600 meters long and 348 meters high. What's more, children can also see many animals here like koalas, kangaroos and sheep.

    South Korea's Jeju Island(韩国济州岛)

As a volcanic(火山) island, Jeju once was chosen as one of the New Seven Wonders(奇迹)of Nature. Besides that Jeju attracts children with its Teddy Bear Museum. There, people show historical events with teddy bears.

    Once, in a small village, lived a family with two children, James and Jack. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of them loved painting very much, but the family was so {#blank#}2{#/blank#} that it was impossible to send both of them to study at the art college at the same time. After many discussions, the two boys finally worked {#blank#}3{#/blank#} a plan. They would throw a coin. The loser would go to work in the mines（矿井） to support his brother's studies at the college. Then, when the brother at college {#blank#}4{#/blank#} his studies after four years, he would support the other brother's college studies.

    James {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and so Jack went down into the mines. James worked with all his heart, and his paintings were soon much {#blank#}6{#/blank#} than those of most of his teachers. By the time he graduated, he was beginning to make a lot of money from his paintings.

    When James returned, the family held a big dinner to {#blank#}7{#/blank#} his great success. Soon after {#blank#}8{#/blank#} dinner began, James stood up from his seat to drink a toast to his dear brother. He said, "Jack, now you can go to the art college and your dream will come true. I will take care of you."

{#blank#}9{#/blank#} Jack said softly, "Brother, the four years in the mines has done too much to my hands, so it's too late. Now I can't even hold a glass."

James was heart-broken. One hour {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, he drew a simple picture of his brother's hands. This drawing is today known as the famous picture named The Praying Hands.

    Welcome to our museum(博物馆). It is free and you can come only with your ID card. We don't ask you for any money, but we have some rules for you.

    First, don't bring any food to the museum. You can't eat in the museum. But you can bring some water to the museum. Second, you can take photos here, but you can't touch (触摸) the things. Third, keep quiet in the museum. Don't talk loudly. Fourth, don't run in the museum. Finally (最后), our museum closes at half past five in the afternoon. Please leave before five and we need thirty minutes to do some cleaning. Have a good time here! Thank you.

    Have you ever ridden a Ferris wheel lately? Can you imagine the flying feeling as you are pulled up to the top and then moved down to the bottom quickly again?

    Today a Ferris wheel is usually 40 to 60 feet tall. That seems very high when you are on the top looking down. But the first Ferris wheel was 264 feet high- taller than a twenty-story building! Can you imagine the view from the top of that?

    The first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The people who planned the fair were looking for an attraction that would bring people to Chicago. George Ferris handed a drawing of a giant wheel that people could ride on. At first everyone laughed at his strange idea. But Mr Ferris did not give up, and finally the idea was accepted. The ride opened in June of 1893.

    Today's Ferris wheels have 12 to 16 seats, which each carry 2 or 3 people. But that first one had 36 enclosed cars, each holding 60 passengers. When filled, it carried 2,160 people. During that summer in Chicago, about 1.5 million people rode the Ferris wheel.

After the fair, the ride was moved to a nearby amusement park built especially to show off the wheel. In 1904, it was moved again一to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. After the fair there, the wheel stood unused. In 1906, it was finally sold to a company for scrap metal(废金属).

    Luckily a Chicago bridge builder, W.E. Sullivan, figured out how to make a smaller Ferris wheel that could easily be taken apart and put together. In 1906, he started the company that still makes many of the Ferris wheels used today.

    But, whenever you ride one, remember that it all began with George Ferris's strange idea!

I'm forty. I left school 22 years ago. I don't regret many things about my school days but there are a few things I wish I'd known earlier as a girl. So here is my list of three things I'd learned at school.

□As a young child you try many new things. If you fail, you try again until you learn. Then you start school where you are usually only praised for doing things correctly. So what happens? You stop trying new things in case you get it wrong. I always remind myself: I won't give up halfway until I make it.

□I always wanted to be the best and one way of feeling good about myself was to see how much better I was than others. There was only one problem with this. When I saw they were better than me, I felt terrible. Now I compare me with myself. I asked myself if I did things as well as I could.

□How much time do you spend worrying about the future? I used to worry a lot. Now I know most things you fear usually never happen. If they happen, then they will most often not be as bad as you expected. In 6 months you probably won't remember most of the things you worry about now.