In the mid 1990s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies which sold things in shops. Then, there were Internet companies which didn't have shops; they sold things only over the net.

    Traditional companies didn't want to lose any business. Quickly, they created their own website and began selling things over the net. These are the so-called "brick and click" companies. Many shops are made of brick, and you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That's where the name "brick and click" comes from.

    By the late 1990s, e-businesses like Amazon.com and Buy.com were in trouble. Their profits were not very high, and there was a lot of competition. Many of these businesses lost a lot of money, and in 2000, many e-businesses went out of business.

    Why are "brick and click" companies, like Barnes & Noble, Toys "R" Us, and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites, like walmart.com, are easy to remember. These companies also have a lot of experience. They know how to run a successful business.

    In the world of e-commerce, companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will "brick and click" companies win the war? Only time will tell.

Dear Meimei,

I am happy to receive your last letter. You asked me what my favorite dream job is. To tell you the truth, I am going to be a {#blank#}1{#/blank#}because I like meeting interesting people. I will {#blank#}2{#/blank#}to Beijing. Beijing is a big and fantastic place. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}my free time, I will spend time with my best friends. Maybe I will keep a cat {#blank#}4{#/blank#}a pet.

How about your dream job? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}are you going to be and where are you going to work?

Write soon.

    Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

It was raining heavily as I was walking up the hill towards the station at six o'clock on a Saturday morning. At this early hour there wasn't much traffic and there weren't many people. Just as I was crossing the road near the top of the hill, a car came around the corner. It was traveling very fast. Suddenly it hit a lamp post and turned over.

    I ran to the car to help the driver at once. He was badly hurt and there was a lot of blood on his face. A young woman hurried into the station and phoned for an ambulance, while I took care of the driver. Many people came to see what happened. A policeman arrived a few minutes later and asked me a lot of questions about the accident. After a while the ambulance arrived and the driver was sent to the hospital.

    On Monday morning I went to the hospital to see the man. The doctor told me that he was much better, and he would leave the hospital after a few day's rest.

We usually have three meals a day——breakfast, lunch and dinner. Different people have different food for breakfast. Some children tell us about their breakfast food. 

Simon is an American boy. He usually eats cakes and drinks milk with sugar (糖) for breakfast. He loves sugar. He is short. He doesn't like to drink juice for breakfast.

Jack is from the UK. He usually has bread and a glass of juice for breakfast. His favorite is apple juice, but his family like orange juice. They usually have eggs and hamburgers. 

Lucy is a Chinese girl. She usually has soup (汤) and baozi with meat for breakfast. She doesn't have bread and cakes for breakfast.