Sam's dad told camping stories all through dinner. "Once I saw a snake outside my tent. Did I tell you about that?" Sam shook his head and tried not to look impatient. In fact, he really wanted to get out to the tent in the backyard (后院). His friend, Kent would go there.

    Finally, everyone finished dinner. Sam asked if he could go out. "I think you should help do the dishes first," said Mom. Sam washed all the dishes and helped clean the kitchen, and then he ran to the tent.

Kent was waiting for him. "Have you been waiting long?" asked Sam.

    "Not long,"said Kent. "Oh, well, we're here now. Let's get ready." "Ready for what?" asked Kent.

    "For anything that is going to happen," answered Sam. They played cards for some time in the tent. Then they read some books. After that, Sam told some of his dad's camping stories. When they got tired, they turned out the light ( 灯) and listened for noises in the dark. But they didn't hear any noises for a very long time ...

    Finally, Sam heard something at the tent flap ( 帐篷门帘). He felt very scared and kept his eyes closed.

    "Hey, get up, boys! Breakfast is ready." It was Sam's mom.

    Sam opened his eyes and looked at Kent. He was still sleeping. Sam sighed (叹息道), "We slept through the night, and nothing happened!"

A better town for teenagers

    I believe there are many things that we can do to make life in our town a lot better for teenagers.

    First of all, I think more bike lanes should{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(build). A lot of teenagers in my town ride bikes everywhere, but it's very{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(danger) because there is a lot of traffic. If there are more bike lanes in the future, it will be much {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(safe) for us.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(two), I believe that we need more places for teenagers to go to.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}my opinion, teenagers won't cause problems in the street if there are more places for us to go to. So we need more{#blank#}6{#/blank#}(club) and other places where we can meet.

    Thirdly, teenagers here need more sports facilities. There{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(be) places to play ball games so far like tennis and basketball, but what about other sports,{#blank#}8{#/blank#}skating and rollerblading?

    Finally, I'm sure we'll make the town better{#blank#}9{#/blank#}we don't drop litter. If we all do something{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(help) now, our town will be much better for everyone in the future.

    As more information comes out about 10-year-old Cindy Smith's death(死亡), worries about amusement park safety(游乐场安全性) grow.

Cindy is not the first child who died on an amusement park ride. 25 years ago, the mother of a 14-year-old girl waited to pick up her daughter outside Worlds of Fun. Laura Barry never saw her daughter Rosie alive again.

"My heart goes out to the Smith family more than they can ever possibly know," said Barry. She is one of the few people who truly know the hurt that family is feeling.

In 1995, Rosie's mom said that something went wrong on the Timber Wolf the night Rosie died. Police found no evidence(证据). Two men told the police that they saw Rosie standing before she fell out of the car.

"I couldn't believe that such a thing could happen still and again," said Barry. She believes Rosie's death should have been a wakeup call for amusement park safety.

She finds that not much has changed in the past years. Amusement parks race to build bigger, taller, faster rides. In her opinion, amusement parks just try to bring in visitors and give them the idea that riding is good, safe and fun. She believes that parks should have put safety first.

There is no exact number of amusement park deaths each year. It is quite low according to some websites. But Barry doesn't accept that. "My daughter was the only person that had ever been killed at Worlds of Fun in all of the years, among all of the thousands and thousands of people that went there. The number doesn't mean anything, you know, because when your child is the one, that's one too many," she said.

Lisa is serious about the chores in her house. She gives her children things that they 1 . do according to their age. She started by asking John, the2 of her two sons, to help with the dishes. It is now an easy cho re3 . the 15-year-old. His13-year-old brother, Dave, now4 John, too. They take turns (轮流) washing the5 each week. The boys also clean their study tables, make their beds and6 food from the market on Sunday mornings. Besides(除了) these, the boys also know how to cook easy meals 7 their parents are not at home.

The family of 8 live in a big house but they do all the housework themselves.

Lisa says," When I was young, my father wanted us to do things on our own(独立地)and learn how to9 ourselves. Now I'm doing it to my kids." John says," Doing chores is10 . You learn important life skills and responsibility(责任)."