Dear Sally,

    How are you? I'm happy that you can do the things you 1 at home. I never have fun, because there are too many 2 in my family. My parents are strict. I have to  3 at six o'clock every morning. And I have to make my bedroom4 before breakfast and then go to school. I can't play with my friends after school. I have to do 5 homework. After dinner I have to take the dog for    6 walk in the park. I can't watch TV on school nights. I have to  7 the violin for an hour. I can't go to bed late. I have to be in bed 8 nine o'clock. On weekends I have to clean my room and 9 the dishes. I also have to go to learn the violin on Sundays. I'm 10  tired. Can you help me?

                                                                                                                                                                    Yours,  

                                                                                                                                                                      Lisa

    Mrs. King is an American doctor. She is now in China. She works in a Children's Hospital in Beijing. She also learns Chinese medicine there. She likes Chinese medicine very much. She loves working for children. She works hard in the day and reads English books about Chinese medicine at night. She learns Chinese from the Chinese doctor and her Chinese friends. Now she can speak some Chinese. She can read some Chinese books, too. Her husband(丈夫)Mr. King is a teacher. He works in a junior high school in Beijing. He works hard, too. He works from Monday to Friday. He teaches three classes every day. Sometimes, on Saturdays and Sundays, he teaches other English classes, too. He wants to make more money.

Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.