Now many people like to keep dogs as their pets. But how did dogs become humans' close friends?

    In some places of Europe (欧洲), about 10,000 years ago, some wild (野生的) dogs often came to human's houses to find food. The wild dogs looked different from the ones today. They looked like wolves (狼). At first, they felt ① frightened. They always stood and looked for a short time. Then they got the food and ran away. Sometimes the young dogs couldn't run fast and people caught them. People trained them and the young dogs grew up with the help of people. Slowly, the wild dogs became home dogs. They could make home safe when people were away. They helped people hunt (狩猎). They helped people keep warm on cold nights. ② Sometimes, they could smell and hear danger before people could. In some cold places, they helped people pull (拉) things people need.

    Now there are more than 400 different kinds of dogs in the world. And they look different from each other. The number and kind are growing all the time. Today, some people mainly (主要地) regard dogs as pets. In fact, dogs are really our close friends. We should protect them from being killed.

    Today, I'd like to tell you something about the history of the United States. The United States covers a large part of North America. After winning freedom from England, it had only 13 states. Each of the states had a star on the national flag. As the nation grew, new states were formed and there were new stars on the flag. For a long time, there were 48 states. In 1959 and 1960, two more stars, standing for the new states of Alaska and Hawaii（阿拉斯加州和夏威夷州）,were added to the flag. Indians were the first people of the land. Many people came from England. It is for that reason that the language of the US is English.

    One of the Great British Bake Off winners Nadiya is telling us something about her life and her book Bake Me a Story.

Q: {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

A: My kids like reading books, and they also like staying with me in the kitchen when I cook. So I think if I write a book with both stories and recipes (食谱), parents and kids can enjoy cooking together in the kitchen and then read a story when they wait for the food to cook.

Q: You baked (烘烤) the Queen' s birthday cake! {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

A: It' gave me great pleasure to bake for the Queen and to be a part of history. I would like to bake for David Attenborough too!

Q: {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

A: The blueberry and orange soda bread. It's quick and easy, and it's very delicious.

Q: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

A: Of course not! To see the looks on their faces and hear the happy noises they make when they eat the cakes makes all the hard work worth (值得) it.

Q: {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A: My most important advice is "Don't be worried about cleaning up "the kitchen. Try things out in the kitchen and have fun!"

    When you stay away from your home for a long time, you start to miss your good old bed, your good old parents… Believe it or not, you're feeling homesick. You can help yourself to feel less homesick. Here's how:

    What can we do to help protect the environment? It seems useless to just pick up a piece of trash(垃圾) ,but what will happen if you keep doing it every day? Tommy Kleyn, an ordinary man from the Netherlands, may give you the answer. Tommy Kieyn walked past a polluted river on his way to work every day. It used to be a beautiful view, but the trash on the bank made it dirty and smelly. So Tommy decided to pick up the trash along the river a little bit at a time after work. "It took me about 30 minutes to fill one garbage(垃圾) bag with trash, but one garbage bag didn't seem helpful in a place as polluted as this. I decided to fill one bag of trash each day as I passed by," Tommy said. Every day, Tommy took pictures of the river and shared them on his Facebook page. To his surprise, in just six days, he had made great progress with his cleanup effort(努力) . He felt happy and kept doing it. Gradually, more and more people knew about Tommy's story. Other people in the community began following in his footsteps and cleaning up trash on their way home, too. "The idea is to encourage people to fill one garbage bag with litter each day. It only takes 30 minutes, but it really makes a difference and you will be amazed at how good you feel afterwards, "he said. People from all over the world have been moved and inspired(激励)by Tommy's story. No effort is useless if we keep doing it every day. Ordinary people like you and me can also make a difference to the world we live in if we take actions right now.

    There are many people helping to take care of others in every country. For example, some high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages (孤儿院) or the old people's homes.

    They read books to the old people. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}Other young volunteers go and work in the homes of people who are sick. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}For boys who don't have fathers, there is an organization called Big Brothers. College students take these boys to baseball games or take them to go on trips. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    There are a number of clubs in some cities. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Some of these clubs show movies or organize short trips to the mountains, the beaches, the museums or other places of interest. Most of these clubs have a lot of high school and college students as volunteers because they're young enough to remember the problems of younger boys and girls.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}And they always do volunteer work happily.