Sally Ride was born in California in 1951. She was the first American woman to travel into space. She loved to play tennis and wanted to be a tennis player when she was young. But after three months' professional(专业的) training, she changed her mind. She went to Stanford University and started to study science. She studied stars and planets. She did researches at the university and got her PhD in astrophysics(天体物理学博士学位) after several years' hard work.

 In 1977, she took a test to become an astronaut. And then she was picked up from over 8,000 people. In order to realise her dream of going into space, she had to get different kinds of special and difficult training. She learned how to fly a plane, how to jump out of a plane as well as how to operate(操作)special machines

 Sally and four other astronauts flew a spaceship called Challenger on Jun. 18, 1983. She became the first American woman to travel into space. Later, she taught at the University of California. Then she wrote seven books on space for children, encouraging children to study science. Unfortunately, she died in 2012.

    Peter was a small boy. He lived with his parents in a small house near some hills. The people there were all poor.

    One night it was very dry and windy. When everybody was asleep, Peter suddenly heard some noise. It came out from the kitchen. He got up and walked to the kitchen. He found that the wood beside the stove was burning. There was no water tap (水龙头) in the house, so he could not put out the fire. He shouted loudly to wake up everyone in the house. Then he ran out of his house and knocked on the doors of many houses to wake the people up. They all left their houses quickly.

    At last the firemen put out the fire. Many people lost their homes. But luckily, all of them escaped the fire with a whole skin.

    Once there was a piece of white and new paper. Children loved playing with it. But one day the paper found itself old and dirty. It was sad.

    Before it knew what was going on, it found itself lying in the dustbin(垃圾箱). It was sad when the worker came and put it into a truck with some other old paper.

    It travelled from day to night, from wind to rain. At last someone put it into a machine with other paper. It quickly got sorted(分类). This was the end! There was so many things it wanted to do, for example, be a book for children. But this was the end. The paper tried to run with other paper, but it failed. In the end, the paper closed its eyes. After some time, it woke up. The paper found it was quiet. The paper looked around and realized it was sitting next to some fresh paper. It looked down at itself. It was clean with a very new white coat.

Known as "soft gold", Gambiered Canton gauze (香云纱) is the only silk fabric (织物) that's still hand-dyed (手染的) using natural plants in the world today.

The skill has a history of more than 500 years. In 2008, it was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage (国家非物质文化遗产). Ouyang Yongze is an inheritor of the dyeing skills from Guangdong. The man started learning the skills in 2017.

The dyeing process includes 30 steps. It can take up to six months and is done by hand with materials from nature. "The plant shuliang (薯莨), river mud, sunshine, and grass are all important in dyeing," Ouyang told China Daily.

To dye the fabric, workers put it in shuliang juice and let it dry on the grass. They repeat this many times until it turns brownish yellow. Then, they put river mud on it to help shuliang react fully. After washing and drying it again, the fabric turns black!

Mastering the skills is difficult, according to Ouyang, who put full effort into controlling the density (浓度) of shuliang juice. "Too much may cause color loss, and too little may nor lead to a dark enough fabric," he said. "Better control of the density comes after many failures."

Also, the job can be really tiring as workers have to be at work in the sun for 8 hours each day. Only a few people work in the industry, and skilled masters are getting older as fewer young people take part.

Considering this, Ouyang works harder to develop the traditional craft. He has got together other dyeing skills such as tie-dyeing (扎染法) and batik (蜡染) and has worked with famous fashion designers. They turn the silk into both traditional and fashionable clothes that are popular worldwide. He thinks this can help make the craft stay alive and drew people to the industry.

Who do you think is the greatest English writer of all time? I think that person should be William Shakespeare. His popular sayings, like "To be or not to be, that is a question", and his stories such as the tragedy(悲剧), Romance of Romeo and Juliet, are almost known in every corner of the world.

In 1594, William Shakespeare became a key playwright(剧作家) of a popular acting company in the city. Whether comedies or tragedies, Shakespeare's plays catch people's hearts with the complicated(复杂的) characters and plots(情节) that show truths about human nature.

His comedies are always full of romance, and they always have happy endings. That's why people enjoy his comedies a lot. His tragedies, however, can be very dark, Macbeth tells the story about a Scottish man who becomes the king by killing all his enemies(敌人).

Shakespeare's works have had a big influence(影响) on the English language. He was a master(大师) of words. He created about 1,700 English words, including everyday ones like "lonely", "hurry" and "critical", according to the New YorkPost.

Of course, Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago and his English was very different from that of today. His plays have been translated into many languages and are acted more often than any other playwright. There are over 400 films and TV dramas adapted(改编) from his works. Shakespeare is not for an age, but for all time.

It was Saturday morning when I was six years old. Christmas was still three weeks away, but everyone in town was 1 . Santa Claus, the Father Christmas, was coming in our small Irish town.

The main street was full of children. They cheered 2 as the band passed by. Santa followed on a white 3 . He waved to the crowd while shouting, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" But just as he passed me, his beard （胡须）fell off.  That was when I knew Santa wasn't real and started to4 . Tears were welling up in my eyes.

The man on the horse was my dad.5 ,1 wasn't surprised. Dad was always the most popular person in our town. He sang in church, acted in the theatre and even 6 on TV

Thirty years later, my dad visited me in New York City. It was his 7 time in the United States, and he felt like a very excited child.Atdinner, he told me a story.

Back in the 1950s, my dad left school at the age of 16 to work in a small 8. One summer, his Uncle Ben came home from the US. He told Dad to go to America with him. But my grandma wasn't 9 with the idea. My dad was the only breadwinner in the family. In the end, he stayed and never left.

At that moment, I understood that Dad was once young. Father Christmas also had dreams. But he10 those dreams for______his family. What would he have become if he had gone to New York? Could he have become a famous singer, actor or dancer?

Sadly, dad just worked in that small factory for 40 years.