Leon was a postman. Every day after Leon woke up, he would feed his 37 cats. Leon didn't really want 37 cats, but one by one they had turned up on his doorstep, and Leon had taken them in.

    Every day, after feeding the cats, Leon would collect the mail from the red postboxes in the village and take it home to sort（分类）. “If only I had 37 helpers instead of 37 cats, my job would be so much easier,” Leon thought. Just then, the cats started meowing for their dinner. That gave Leon an idea. That night, Leon stayed up making 37 cat-sized postal backpacks. Each backpack fitted neatly onto a cat's back. Then, he went around to each postbox, putting signs up that read: Postbox closed. Please use the Postal Cat Service.

    The next day, Leon put a backpack on each cat and dropped off the cats around the village. Leon knew that the cats would be happy lazing around all day. He also knew that they would always come home for dinner. Leon spent the day relaxing, waiting for his helpers to return. Leon was right. The cats did return, but they did not bring home many letters. Somehow, the cats had managed to wriggle（蜿蜒而行） out of their backpacks. Or lose their letters. Or get the letters wet. “Cats are just too unreliable（不可靠的）” Leon thought. Just then, there was a scratching（刮擦声） at Leon's door. A dog was waiting to be invited inside. That gave Leon an idea.

    I have a little dog. Its name is Jim. Every morning Jim goes to the shop in the village. The girl in the shop gives him two things: a sweet（糖） and a newspaper. Jim eats the sweet and takes the newspaper in his mouth. Then he runs home.

    I like reading my newspaper in bed before I get up. Jim knows that and he brings the newspaper to my bedroom. When I am eating my breakfast he brings all the letters to me. After that he goes outside to wait for the bus. When he sees the bus coming down the road, he makes a noise（噪音）. I run out, and the bus stops for me. Jim never lets me miss the bus.

Do you know how chocolate is made？Recently my class had a field trip to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Toronto，Canada.

We were divided into 10 groups and visited an old building.The guide first explained the history of the factory.Then we got some earbuds（耳塞） to protect our ears from the noise of the machines.We also needed to wear disposable（一次性的） lab clothes and hairnets（发网）

After these preparations，we went upstairs and entered the chocolate﹣making area.The floor was filled up with many machines.Each machine has a different job.The whole floor only has two people working，because machines do most of the work.Next，and there were more than1，000 people working in the factory.But now the factory is very different.It's amazing how technology is changing people's life.

Later，we saw the chocolate﹣making process.We got a cocoa bean，some powdered（粉状的），kind of like dark chocolate.It is the raw material used to make chocolate.The powdered chocolate tasted good already.It is a combination of cocoa bean，milk and sugar.The final product tasted delicious.

Finally，we bought some chocolate at a shop in the factory.It was at a very low price.I learned about the chocolate industry during the field trip.And I also realized how important technology is.

My town is a great place to live. It's the best place to enjoy your free time. There are three movie theaters in town. They are all good, but the one nearest my house is the best. Shopping is always easy here. There are many shops and most of them are popular. They sell very fashionable clothes. The prices are also lower than those in other towns, so students love to shop here.

There are also a lot of video and music stores. They are very popular with students. I go to the music store every week to buy a new CD. The most crowded place for students to hang out （闲逛） is the park. Everyone goes there, and it's really interesting.

Sometimes there are even street performers. Some students think they're boring but I think they are the most creative people. I want to be a street performer, too.

One day, I happened to meet an Englishman in a store and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be very surprised, gently shaking his head and saying, "You don't say! You don't say!"

I was puzzled（困惑的）, and I thought, "Perhaps this is not a right thing to talk about."So I said to him,"Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? Have you ever been there?" "Certainly. When I'm back home, everyone will laugh at me if I leave here without seeing it. The Great Wall is wonderful!" he answered. "Yes, it is one of the wonders in the world. And people from all over the world have come to visit it," I added. As I was telling him more about it, he said again, "You don't say!" I couldn't help asking, "Why do you ask me not to talk about it?" "Well, I didn't ask you to do so,"he answered, greatly surprised. "Didn't you say ‘You don't say!'?" I asked again. Hearing this, the foreigner laughed loudly. He began to explain. " ‘You don't say!' means‘Really?'. Perhaps you know little about English idioms（习惯用语）."

Wow! How foolish I was! Since then I have been careful with English idioms.