Vienna is a beautiful old city on the River Danube in the center of Europe. It's the capital city of Austria and the center of European classical music. In the 18th century a lot of musicians came to study and work in Vienna.

    In the Strauss family, there were two composers called Johann Strauss: the father and the son. The father, Johann Strauss the elder, wrote and played music for traditional dances, called the waltz. His dance music made him famous all over Europe. The son, Johann Strauss the younger, was also very successful and popular. He wrote over 150 waltzes. In 1866 he wrote The Blue Danube waltz.

    Mozart was another very important composer. He was born in Austria in 1756. Before he was six, he played not only the piano but also the violin. His family took him around Europe and he gave concerts in many cities. He wrote hundreds of wonderful pieces of music. But he became very poor and died in 1791 when he was only 35. Like Johann Strauss, father and son, he was a great European musician, and many people still think his music is perfect.

    John James Audubon loved all kinds of birds. He spent his life studying them. He painted all the birds of North America.

    John James Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785. When he was a young boy, he moved to France with his family. His father was in the French Navy. He had a farm in the United States. When John was 18, his father sent him to the farm, hoping John would take care of it. But John didn't want to do that. He wanted to hunt, fish, and draw birds. John drew lots of pictures of birds. He wanted to make them look real.

    In 1808, John married Lucy Bakewell and they moved to Kentucky. John and a friend went into business there. They ran a shop. John really didn't like working in the shop. The business soon failed. John wanted to paint full-time. Lucy agreed to help. She got a teaching job to support the family. By that time, they had two young sons.

    John wanted his bird paintings made into a book. He finally did find someone to print his bird pictures in a book. Many people wanted John Audubon's book. Although his book was a great success, John wasn't happy with it. He wanted to show every bird found in North America. By 1838, John finished a great work. It wasn't just one book. It was an amazing set of four books called The Birds of America. It had many paintings. Today, these paintings are very famous.

    Michelle, a famous lady, has found that more than 25% students are too fat in her country. It is a very serious problem. So she starts a health program to deal with it. The health program is to reduce the amount(数量)of fat students today and in the future.

    The program will get families, schools, newspapers, magazines and TVs to join together and deal with the students' obesity so that students will be at a healthier weight. The program includes: food stores should sell healthier food: schools should serve healthier meals with less fat and should also offer gym classes.

    The lady is trying to fight the students' obesity all over the country because it can cause illnesses and higher health cost. She wants the students to eat right, exercise more and control their weight. She also wants the students to understand it is important to have less sweet food, and drink water, milk and fresh juices, but not to choose cokes. At the same time, she has also set a good example by planting a vegetable garden. She hopes that the garden will encourage more people to plant one, too.

    The health program is really helpful to the students today and in the future. As she says, we cannot always build the future for youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

It was Mother's Day last year and I was doing{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(shop) at the supermarket with my five-year-old son, Johnson. As we were leaving, we saw{#blank#}2{#/blank#} old woman fall down and hit her head on the ground. Her husband tried{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(look) after her, but there was blood(血) everywhere.

Seeing this, Johnson became very sad about what happened{#blank#}4{#/blank#} the old woman. At the front of the supermarket, a man was selling{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(flower). Johnson suggested(建议) that we should buy the old woman a flower. "It will make her{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(feel) better,"he said. I was glad that he'd come up with such a sweet idea. So we walked towards the flower seller and bought one.

{#blank#}7{#/blank#} we walked up to her, my son became scared(害 怕的) to see the blood. Instead I gave the flower to the husband and told him, "My son is sad to see what happened to your wife and wants{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(buy) this flower to make her calm(镇定的)."

The old man{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(cry) and said,"Thank you very much. You have a wonderful son. Happy Mother's Day." The man then gave his wife the flower, telling her who it was from. She was{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(bad) hurt, but the old woman looked up at Johnson with love in her eyes.

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.