The Duanwu Festival in China, also called Dragon Boat Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month every year according to the Chinese lunar calendar. For thousands of years, this festival has been marked by people's eating Zongzi and racing dragon boats. (A) To hold the dragon boat races is in memory of Qu Yuan. He was one of the greatest poets in ancient China.

    Qu Yuan was born in Zigui of Hubei Province over 2,200 years ago. Qu Yuan was an honest minister (大臣) of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period (475—22l BC) . He was upright, patriotic (爱国的) and wise. (B) 屈原想给自己的祖国带来和平并让它变得更强大。But the country was in the hands of bad officials, he could do nothing to change it. (C) He was very discouraged. At last, Qu Yuan ended his life by throwing himself into the Miluo River. It is said that people tried to save him by jumping into the river. But it was too late and all their efforts were in vain. Also, they were so sad and they threw rice into the water to feed Qu Yuan's spirit.

    Now we read his poem Li Sao which is filled with deep love for his country. We can see the dragon boat races and have a kind of Chinese food named Zongzi to eat during the Dragon boat Festival.

    Water is very important to us. Every day we drink water, cook with water, take a shower in water, and have many other activities with water. Let's read and learn more about it!

    70percent of an adult's body is water. And about 80percent of a baby's body is water.

    Drinking too much water q{#blank#}1{#/blank#} can cause water intoxication (醉).

People should have about eight c{#blank#}2{#/blank#} of water every day.

    By the time you feel thirsty, your body has l{#blank#}3{#/blank#} over one percent of its water.

    About 80percent of the Earth's surface is covered with water.

    Only one percent of this water is fresh, 97percent is salt water and two percent is f{#blank#}4{#/blank#} in glaciers (冰川).

    And now, it's time to s{#blank#}5{#/blank#} water!

Everyone wants to be successful, but failure (失败) is a common thing for us to meet with. 1, sometimes we fail the exams; sometimes in the sports meeting, others 2 but we fail. So almost 3 meets with the failure in his life.

However, different people have different 4 to deal with(处理)the failure. Some people lose hope when they fail. They seem to think that it is the 5 of the world. But others don't take failure 6. They seem to think that failure is the first step(步骤)to success. They will 7 and try their best to get the final success.

Now let's imagine( 猜想)the ends of the two ways. If we are afraid of the failure and always feel sad, and don't try our best to change ourselves, we may meet with more and more failures. But as 8 as we are hopeful and brave to face the failure, and never give up, we will become 9 and our dreams will come true some day.

So, please remember: Life doesn't give us the pleasure we want. But if we never give up and 10do little by little, it will make a big difference.

    Many students think that learning a new language is very difficult. But if your brain (大脑) is only the same size as a bird's, you will know how difficult it is to learn English. That is what some birds can do.

Many birds can copy (模仿) the sounds of language. A type of African parrot is very good at doing this. This kind of parrot has grey feathers and people say they are clever.

Every December in London, the National Cage and Aviary Bird Show tries to find the best "talking" bird in the world. One bird named Prudle stood out (突出) among the " talking birds"  by winning this prize every year from 1965 to 1977. In 1958, somebody took Prudle from his nest in Uganda, and then sold it to a woman named Iris Frost. She then took care of him at her home in Seaford, England. Before he died in 1994, aged 35, Prudle knew almost 800 words in English. Prudle was also the oldest bird in the world that lived in a cage.

Another parrot named Puck was tested in 1993. It turned out that Puck knew even more words than Prudle. Puck knew more than 1,700 English words. In the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records, Puck was listed as knowing more words than any other bird in the world.

When I was about ten, I was woken up by the shouts（喊声）of my sister one morning. She was hungry, but my mother wasn't at home, so I made a banana cake for her. Let me share the recipe with you.

What you need:

2 eggs  3 bananas  2 cups of flour(面粉)

2 spoons of baking powder(发酵粉)

1/4 spoon of baking soda (小苏打)

1/2 spoon of salt

2/3 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of vegetable oil(油)

What to do:

l  Mix(混合) together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

l  Add the vegetable oil. Then add a little sugar, and stir (搅拌) it.

l  Pour the eggs into the bowl and stir them well.

l  Add the bananas and stir them.

l  Turn the oven to 180℃.

l  Pour them into the oven（烤箱）. Bake（烘焙） the cake for 20 minutes.

l  Get the cake out of the oven, and cut it into pieces to eat.

①Eating good food and getting proper exercise are important to stay healthy. Getting enough sleep is important, too. Experts say that teenagers between the ages of 15 and 20 need 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night. 

②Your body needs to take a rest from all the activities it has done during the day. Your brain needs a rest, too. You are likely to get sick easier without enough sleep. 

③You have a "24-hour clock" inside your body that tells you when to be awake and when to go to sleep.  ▲  Blue light that comes from the Sun tells your brain to keep you awake during the day. When there is no blue light at night, the brain tells the body that it's time for sleep. 

④There are many things that stop the brain from telling your body when it's time to sleep. One of these is blue light at night. Today, people spend a lot of time watching television or looking at screens on computers or smart phones. These devices (装置) give off blue light. If you look at them at night, the blue light can trick your body into thinking it's daytime. Then it is more difficult to go to sleep.

⑤What should you do to get good sleep? Experts say that you shouldn't look at screens that give off blue light for at least one hour before going to sleep. 

⑥ Do not watch TV or use anything with a computer screen in bed. If you need to do something to fall asleep, it is better to read a book. Also, keep your bedroom as dark as you can. This will help you sleep well.