Mrs. Green is going to hold a birthday party for Mary. Mary is her daughter. She is going to be thirteen years old. Mary's friends are going to come to the party. They are all girls.

    Mrs. Green is getting ready for the party. Mrs. White is helping her.

    "That's a nice cake," says Mrs. White.

    "Thank you very much," says Mrs. Green.

   Mrs. Green is going shopping now. She's buying fruit for the party. She buys a lot of pears, apples, oranges and bananas. Then she goes home.

    It's three o'clock in the afternoon. Now the first girl comes, then another. The party is going to start after thirty minutes.

Beethoven, a famous musician in the world, was born in Germany in 1770.

In his childhood Beethoven didn't have a happy life. His father was a singer. When he was only four, his father began to make him practise hour after hour on different musical instruments (乐器). If he did not put his heart into it, his father would beat him or make it hard on him.

Beethoven loved music and he learned so fast that he was able to go around to give concerts, when he was only a boy of eleven. At the age of seventeen, lie won high praise from Mozart, the greatest musician at that time.

    Beethoven was often poor and in during his life. After one illness, lie suddenly found he couldn't hear at that time, he was only thirty-one. It was a great blow (打击) to him.

    But he still went on working and writing music pieces. To people's surprise, he wrote some of his best pieces after he lost his hearing.

In 1827, the great musician died. He leer more than 300 pieces. But people still remember his name today.

    Two hunters rented(租用) a small plane to fly them to a forest. They told the pilot to come back and pick them up in about two weeks. By the end of the two weeks， they had hunted a lot of animals and they wanted to put all of them onto the plane.

    But the pilot said， “This plane can only take one lamb. You'll have to leave the others behind.”

    Then one hunter said， “But last year， another pilot with the same plane let us take two lambs and some other animals onto the plane.”

    So the new pilot thought about it. Finally he said， “OK， since you did it last year， I think this year we can do it again.” Then they put all the animals they had hunted onto the plane， and the plane took off. Five minutes later， it crashed.

    The three men looked around， and one hunter asked the other one， “Where do you think we are now?”

     The other hunter looked around and said， “I think we're about one mile away from the place where the plane crashed last year.”

    When we talk about stars, especially women stars ,it seems that they are always young, pretty and own charming (迷人的)body shapes. But recently a Britain's Got Talent（英国达人）star Susan Boyle has changed our views absolutely (完全地).

    Simon Cowell, one of the judges of the talent show spoke of his shock over Ms Boyle's voice. “This lady camp up ,and I'm thinking, ‘This will take five seconds and I can go to have a cup of tea. That changed when she began to sing I Dreamed to Dream from Les Miserables. She knew we were going to have that reaction and just to see that look of satisfaction on her face widway through –it was one of my favorite moments,” Cowell said.

    The performance was posted on line and before long,the 47-year-old Scottish woman has been famous all over the world.

    Speaking from her home in Scotland, Ms Boyle said that she hasn't thought of changing her appearance. She said that her friend helped her with make-up. “I mean, that's hardly a makeover,” she added.

    Ms Boyle also spoke of the reason she first began  to explore her vocal talents, “I was kind of slow at school, so getting like singing was a good way of hiding behind that and thus it built my confidence.”

    A dog on a surfboard is something you might enjoy seeing in a funny video. But would you believe that a real surfing dog could help raise money for those in need? A dog named Lucky is using her special talents to do just that.

    Lucky's trainer started coaching her to become a service dog when she was a puppy. Lucky did well during training. She learned how to turn on lights, open doors, and do other jobs. These skills would be useful for her to help a person with special needs.

    Judy, the dog s trainer, concentrated (关注) on Lucky's positive qualities. Like most dogs, Lucky loved water, so Judy look her to the beach. Lucky quickly became good at surfing. Her talent got people's attention. Judy decided that instead of being a service dog. Lucky would become a" surfing" dog. The idea was that Lucky could use her surfing talent to raise money to help people.

    Lucky's first charity event was in 2009. She starred at an activity to help a teenager named Patrick. Patrick was unable to walk, but he had always dreamed of surfing. At the event, Patrick's and Lucky were supposed to use their own surfboards. Lucky decided to jump on Patrick's board, however. They surfed together and raised $10, 00. The money helped pay for Patrick's medical treatment and his own service dog.

    Encouraged by this event, Judy started the organization named Surfing for Paws-abilities. Lucky now travels to different places and surfs at events t0 raise money for the organization that helps people in need.

    Not only does Lucky raise money, but also what she has done inspires many other organizations to help both people and animals. She's surfed to make money to buy pet masks for fire departments. She's surfed al charity events to help fight human and animal cancer. She's even shown off her surfing skills to raise money to buy teddy bears for children in hospitals and people in nursing homes. As of 2012, this amazing dog has raised $250, 000 to help those in need.

    Last year, I went to a summer camp in the United States with my classmates. It was my first time to go abroad.

    I lived with a host family in Los Angeles for five days. My host family was friendly and gave me lots of advice. For example, they said I should say "excuse me" if I have to interrupt (打断) someone or ask for directions.

    I also took some classes. They were different from the classes I had had back home. In the US, each class is like a seminar. Students join groups, speaking freely and creating a cheerful atmosphere (氛围). I had to work hard to learn more vocabularies, so I could better communicate with my international classmates. I used to pay little attention to my word usage (使用), but now I pay more attention.

    During my visit, I also went to some famous universities in Boston, New York and Washington, D. C. We learned about the history behind the universities. At MIT (麻省理工学院), we saw lots of names on a wall in the hall. The tour guide told us they were the names of students who had lost their lives during wars. I was inspired (鼓舞) by the fact that they fought for their country.