Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival is the first festival in China forfarmers. The festival starting from 2018, falls1theAutumnal Equinox (秋分) each year. The Autumnal Equinox is one of the 24 solarterms (节气) of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between September22nd and 24th, during2harvest season.

    As we all know, China has the3populationall over the world. It was difficult4somany people in the past. After reform (改革) and opening, with the5ofmodern agriculture (农业), people's life is getting better and better, and theirliving conditions6a lot. Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festivalshows7our government is paying more attentionto agriculture and farmers' life. It will greatly encourage farmers to farm anddevelop8modern agriculture. China has  a long history of agriculture. ChineseFarmers' Harvest Festival, the cultural symbol,9toshow China's long farming culture to the world. It also connects the excellent traditional Chinese culture to modern civilization (文明) andimproves the cultural self-confidence and national pride.

    Since the festival is especially created for farmers, they10tothink of their own ways to celebrateharvest. The celebrations will be11basedon local customs. Someactivities are held across the country,12mostof the celebrations will take place at a local level that comes from localcustoms. Also, local government usually hosts all kinds of activities13attractvarious people for the festival, such as folk culture performances and foodtasting.

    Some people think the festival is the happiest time of a year, evenbetter than the Spring Festival,because food gives people14sense of safety and hope. For15people,the harvest festival is a time to look back at the past and look forward to thefuture.

    Horses are beautiful animals. They can be in different colors, and can run quickly. People like to watch horses because they are strong and beautiful.

    Horses are mammals (哺乳动物). The mother horse usually has one baby in spring, and feeds the baby milk. Horses have long legs and big eyes, so they can see almost all the way around them. They can walk and jump.

    Horses can live up to 20 or 25 years. Sometimes people can tell how old a horse is by looking at its teeth! They usually sleep by standing up. Horses only need about three hours of sleep per day!

    People need to take care of the horses"hooves". If a horse is doing a lot of walking on hard ground, people put horseshoes on them. When the hooves need trimming (修剪), people take off the horseshoes, and then give them new ones.

    For food, horses eat food such as grass, corn, apples and carrots. They don't eat other animals. Their stomachs are small, so they eat a little at one time, but they eat many times.

    Some horses are very famous. For example, Bucephalus, the famous horse of Alexander the Great. When Alexander was a boy, he got a horse. Nobody else could ride on it. Alexander named the horse Bucephalus and the horse carried him in many battles (战役). Here is another example. Napoleon had many horses, and Marengo became famous after Battle of Waterloo.

Li Hua and Wang Tao are two students of Class 4, Grade 7. They both like sports. Li Hua is a basketball fan. His favorite sport is playing basketball. Yao Ming is his favorite basketball player. He wants to be a basketball player like Yao Ming when he grows up. Li Hua is on the school basketball team now. Every Friday afternoon, Li Hua plays basketball with his classmates after class.

Li Hua's friend Wang Tao isn't good at basketball, but he is very good at soccer. Ronaldo is his favorite soccer player. Wang Tao is on the soccer team. He plays soccer with his teammates (队友) every Tuesday afternoon.

The elephant was lying and fast asleep on its side. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it ran after the dogs into the village where they ran for safety. That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a few houses and hurt several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.

Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer(驯兽师). He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up —— how to catch wild elephants.

Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle (丛林). After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to a boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life. "Life in the city is too boring. Catching elephants is an adventure (冒险) and the excitement can last for days after the chase," she says.

But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. "My work," she says,"is to rescue men from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from men." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Nowadays, the Indian elephant becomes angry: for many years, illegal(非法的) hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, people call Parbati to guide the animals back to the forest.

In some cities, we can see more and more people riding sharing- bikes. It's very convenient to use the bikes if you have a smart phone. First, you have to download such an APP on your smart phone. Then, what you need to do is to find a nearest bike through the  APP, scan the QR code on the bike or connect your phone with the bike over a Bluetooth   wireless connection. You will find the bike can be unlocked itself easily. Then, you can enjoy your trip. What's more, the greatest advantage of bike- sharing is that you can easily find one and never worry about where to park it. The cost of riding depends on the time that you spend. Normally, every hour you ride, you need to pay one yuan. It doesn't cost so much, does it?

At the same time, some people park the bikes in their own homes, Besides, some people don't value the bikes. Now service companies are trying to solve the problems like being stolen.

Technology and science have changed our social lifestyles. We have to say bike- sharing brings us more convenience without doubt, And we also hope that people can not only enjoy it but also put it to good use.

Have you read non-fiction (非故事类) books? They tell us facts about nature or science. They are important to read for your personal development, so let's spend some time learning how to read a non-fiction book in a quick and interesting way!