Hi, I'm Gina. In February, 2018 my mother had a yard sale. During the sale, she had a conversation with a young girl called Nancy, for they had a common interest in some books she had for sale. They enjoyed their conversation so much that they exchanged their phone numbers. Later they became friends and got together a few times. When my mom moved into her new house, she had a family dinner and invited Nancy and introduced her to my brother. Five months later Nancy married (结婚) my brother.

In 2018, there was another special "yard sale" that I'll never forget. One day, after work from school, I found one of my neighbors had a lot of things out in their front yard with cars and people everywhere. I ran to the yard at once and wanted to find some good cheap things too before everything good was gone. But then I found out it wasn't a yard sale. In fact, policemen were taking the stolen (被偷的) things out of the house. My neighbor was a thief! Luckily, I didn't ask how much the TV was.

    Mary likes to run. Ever since she was in the third grade, she has been training to run long distances. Now that she was in her eighth grade, her parents agreed to let her run in the Banana Classic. The Banana Classic is a ten-kilometre race. It takes place every year in Mattydale. The winners get a lifetime supply (提供) of peanuts and fruit juice.

    Mary practised by running ten kilometres, twice every day. On the average (平时的) run, she would finish in thirty minutes. Last year's winner finished the race in twenty-six minutes and ten seconds!

    On the day of the race, Mary ran faster than she ever had in the past. As she came across the last kilometre, she was in the fourth place. She picked up the pace (步伐) and quickly reached the second place, just as she could see the finishing line. She ran as fast as she could in a mad dash (冲刺) to the finish line, but she just wasn't fast enough to get ahead of the leader.

    Jack and Eason were walking through the forest. They knew that it was dangerous to do this because many wild animals live in the forest. As friends, they agreed that they would stay together and help each other if there was any danger.

    All of a sudden, they saw a large bear running toward them. Jack climbed a nearby tree. He didn't think about his friend at all.

    Unluckily, Eason did not know how to climb. He could only lie down on the ground. He held his breath and pretended(假装) to be dead.

    The bear came close to Eason. He smelled the man for a moment and left. You see, bears do not eat dead animals or people.

    After the bear walked away, Jack climbed down and went to Eason on the ground.

    "Are you okay? Did the bear hurt you? If only you could climb a tree," he said, not knowing that he didn't' follow their agreement(约定).

    Eason then answered, "Do you know what the bear told me? He told me do not believe a false friend!"

    It was very cold, Amaya was warm in her house, thinking about an article she'd read at school. The article was about kids who 1 out their communities, and she thought it would be really cool to help her own town, Harvard.

    The only2 was that she wasn't sure how to help. In the article, the kids had grown food for people who needed food, but it was winter. She couldn't start a garden. Amaya was deep in thought when her mom said it was time to go shopping.

    As they drove along the road, Amaya saw a family wearing only light jackets. The cold wind blew 3 outside. How cold they must be! That gave her an idea! She could 4  winter coats, hats and gloves for people who needed them.

    She shared her idea with her mom, who thought it was great. But how would they 5 the idea to get plenty of winter clothing? Amaya decided to talk to her teacher, because then she could share her idea with her classmates at least.

    Ms. Monroe agreed when Amaya talked about her idea. They decided to call the 6  Hats in Harvard. Then they wrote a letter explaining the project. They also met with the headmaster during lunch time. He was excited about the idea, and said he would make sure copies (复印件) of the letter went home with all the students.

    They collected enough winter clothing in only one week. Then they left the clothes around two parks, so families who needed clothes could get them there. Three days later, Amaya and her mom went shopping again. She saw the same family that had given her the7for Hats in Harvard.  This time, though, the family wore some new coats, hats and gloves. Amaya felt 8 in her heart, and was very glad she could help others.

"Military-style" travel has become the latest fashion among Chinese college students, who spend as little money as possible to travel to as many places as they can during the weekend, hardly taking a break or even sleeping.

To save money, they usually catch a normal-speed train on a Friday night, arrive at the destination city on Saturday morning, travel around in the city, sleep at a 24-hour restaurant for a few hours on Saturday, then repeat the same busy schedule on Sunday before returning to their university in time for classes on Monday morning. These young travelersare less concerned with in-depth(深入详尽的) experiences and more focused on checking off popular tourist destinations on their schedule. 

Hu Die, a student at Inne r Mongolia University of Technology, is one such traveler. She put together a 10-day holiday during the recent May Day holiday period and traveled to six cities. 

On April 26, she took a high-speed train to Beijing and then from Beijing to Tai'an, Shandon g Province, to climb Mount Tai. To save money, she spent 4 hours climbing up to the mountaintop rather than using a cable car. After watching the sunrise from it on April 27, she visited Dai Temple at the foot of the mountain. She then went to Jinan in the afternoon, visited Daming Lake and Quancheng Square in the evening, and on the morning of April 28 went to Baotu Spring and Heihu Spring. She traveled to Zibo to enjoy the famous barbecue in the city, went to Yantai and Weihai before May 4, when she arrived in Luoyang, Henan Province. There, she visited the Longmen Grottoes and then returned to her school on May 5.

Most people can hardly imagine how she traveled extensively in only 10days. "We do not think we are doing something ‘crazy' or ‘amazing'. We are young and energetic enough to experience such a tight travel schedule, "she said. "Moreover, when you travel with your friends, you are happy and you do not feel tired. "

Videos of them taking such trips have been posted on social media platforms, such as TikTok, Red, with much praise for their energetic spirit and high ability to achieve their plans. Others, however, question whether such a busy schedule is healthy.