Britain is f{#blank#}1{#/blank#}as a country of animal lovers, and a many families have at least one pet. Americans also like animals, and about 60% of American families have a pet. People from other countries say that Americans think so much about animals and take them as well as people.

    At weekends people have many ways to see other animals. Many towns have a river with ducks. In Britain, people v{#blank#}2{#/blank#}farm parks, zoos, bird parks, and sea life parks.

    TV s{#blank#}3{#/blank#}about animals are very popular. Children are i{#blank#}4{#/blank#} in animals when they are very small. Children's life is wonderful b{#blank#}5{#/blank#}there are many different animals. Many animals in books have their own character: foxes are cunning(狡猾的), and cats are kind.

    We can watch stories about animals on TV. Animal World is very good. We can know more about animals. And we can see many other animals we can't see in our life.

    Animals are our friends and we s{#blank#}6{#/blank#}take the animals as our friends.

    Papercutting is a kind of the traditional folk art in China. Papercutting has a long history of about 1,500 years. Let's learn something about papercutting.

    Wonderful meanings

    Papercutting has some wonderful meanings. Some papercutting means happiness and good luck. In the Spring Festival, people paste(粘贴) "Fu" on doors or windows. At a wedding, people paste "Xi".

    The largest Chinese papercutting

    The largest papercutting was made by Gao Xiaodong. It has an area of about 456 square meters. It is as large as a basketball court.

    Why is it red?

    In the old times of China, people think highly of the sun. Red was the color of the sun. They always regarded red as the symbol of hope and life. Now, we can also see red everywhere in China. The walls of old palaces are red. Lanterns are red. Weddings are always full of red things, too.

    Black papercutting in Shanzhou

    Much of the papercutting is red. But papercutting in Shanzhou, Henan Province is black. Black is the best color there. Shanzhou is a dry place. People make black papercutting and wish for rain.

    Once an old man who had four lazy sons fell sick and was counting his last days in bed. He was very worried about his sons' future because they always believed in luck {#blank#}1{#/blank#}of hard work.

    The old man decided to play a trick{#blank#}2{#/blank#} he died to make his sons realize the importance of work. He told them that he would leave them a treasure box {#blank#}3{#/blank#} gold coins and wanted them to share the treasure.

    The young men asked where his father had placed the treasure. The old man replied," I can't exactly remember{#blank#}4{#/blank#}place. However, the treasure is buried in our land."

    After a few days, the old man died. The sons decided to{#blank#}5{#/blank#}the land to find the treasure box. They worked very hard, but they couldn't find the box. They dug even{#blank#}6{#/blank#}, but they still got nothing.

    Later, one of their neighbors {#blank#}7{#/blank#} by and saw the loose (松的) soil. He suggested that the sons should turn it into a farm. Soon, good fruit and vegetables grew out of the land. The four sons sold them at a good{#blank#}8{#/blank#} and made lots of money.

    Then they realized that the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} box their father mentioned was hard work in fact. The father successfully played a trick to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} his sons how important it was to work hard. What a clever father!

    Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White's second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out whether he has broken the record or not.

    White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June, 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe first, and then the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and finally the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

    The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to get away with the little money he had. The worst thing that had happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometers he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and wants to write a book about his adventures.

Tom and Jerry

    Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse are two of the most popular cartoon characters in the world. In the short cartoons, Tom is always trying to catch Jerry, but he never has any success. Almost every cartoon ends with Tom in trouble and Jerry laughing at him. The stories are full of fun and have a long history.

    William Hanna and Joseph Barbera both worked for MGM in the late 1930s. Their boss told them to make funny cartoons. Together they thought of the idea of a cat and a mouse. They thought it would be funny if the mouse was clever and always got the cat into trouble.

    The first Tom and Jerry cartoon was shown in cinemas in 1940. It was a great success. Over the next 17 years, they made many Tom and Jerry cartoons. Most of them are around seven minutes long.

    In total, Hanna and Barbera made 114 Tom and Jerry cartoons. The cartoons were so good that they won a number of awards. The famous cat and mouse remain popular today, as the cartoons are still shown on television around the world.