The erhu is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It is the most popular of the huqin family. In the Song Dynasty, musicians began to use this type of huqin to perform different kinds of music, and it became quite a popular instrument. With the rise of some forms of folk art, the art of the erhu developed quickly during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It became an important accompanying (伴奏) instrument in different folk music. Now it is used in both traditional and modern music. It has even become a solo (独奏的) instrument. One of the most famous musical pieces played on the erhu is Erquan Yingyue by Abing.

The erhu used to be mainly played by common people, As the playing skills were passed down by oral (口传) tradition, there are few written records about the erhu that can be found. To study the history and the development of the erhu, historians usually turn to ancient paintings, sculptures and murals (雕塑和璧画). The earliest pictures of this instrument were found in Yulin Caves and Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves in Gansu Province.

Because of so many people's effort, the erhu becomes more and more popular around the world. In fact, we can hear the familiar sound of the erhu in many Hollywood productions, such as Kungfu Panda in 2012 and most recently, the Oscar nominated(提名)film Up in the Air(《在云端》). When people watch these movies, they also enjoy the special music of the erhu. The erhu is also called "Chinese violin" by many westerners, but in many ways, they are quite different.

I'm Mrs Green. This summer holiday, I went to London with my husband and our son Sam. We first spent four days visiting some famous places, such as the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. On the fifth day, I was a bit tired and just wanted to stay at the hotel. But Sam didn't want to. He would like to visit the HMS Belfast, a famous warship(战舰)that joined the Second World War(战争). It is on the River Thames as a museum for people to visit now. It is very famous and Sam read about it in a magazine. Well, boys always love these things, so I promised to go with him. 

We took the underground and it took us about twenty minutes to get to the River Thames from our hotel. After walking another ten minutes we finally saw the HMS Belfast. An adult ticket was £ 24. 5 and my husband bought two. Sam was only 13 years old, so his ticket was half price. The HMS Belfast was really large. Sam was interested in everything on it and took lots of photos. He said it was his favourite place on his trip to London. 

This story is about a young man. He worked hard at his lessons. He was too busy. He didn't have time to rest, so he was ill. Every night, when he went to bed, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. He thought, "I must go to see the doctor." He said to the doctor, "I can't go to sleep at night." "Try counting numbers. When you reach one thousand, you'll be asleep."

The next day the man came back to the doctor's office. "Well," said the doctor, "how are you today?" 

"Yes," he said. "I tried counting one, two, three … up to （直到)one thousand. But when I reached five hundred and sixty-nine, I began to feel sleepy. I had to get up and drank some tea. Then I went on counting up to one thousand. But I still couldn't fall asleep." 

Ann lived in Paris with her parents, but her grandfather lived in a small town in the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of America. It is a beautiful town with many green {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Last summer, Ann visited her grandfather and had a trip in America. Nothing was more{#blank#}3{#/blank#} than that on that day, she went to one of the most famous {#blank#}4{#/blank#}to watch an NBA match. Her favorite team the LA Lakers {#blank#}5{#/blank#}the other team and she was really excited. But when the match was over, she {#blank#}6{#/blank#} the way back to the town. What was worse, she was so {#blank#}7{#/blank#} that she didn't take the right bus. When she noticed it, the bus got to its last stop－a small village in a mountain {#blank#}8{#/blank#}. People there couldn't understand her. It was {#blank#}9{#/blank#} dark and Ann was quite worried. Suddenly, she remembered there were things in her bag, {#blank#}10{#/blank#} the photo of her grandfather's town. She showed it to a man. Finally, the man took her to another bus. Two hours later, Ann got to her grandfather's town safely.

One day, a big red hen is playing with her chickens in the garden. After some time she feels1 and she takes her chickens to2 food. When they are3 , she finds some grains of wheat（几粒麦子）. So she asks4 chickens to plant them in the back of the garden. But5 wants to do it. 6 big red hen has to do it herself. After a long time, they get a lot of wheat. 

She says to her chickens, "7 will take the wheat to the store and get flour（面粉）?" But they don't want to do it. So she8 the wheat to the store and put the flour home. 

After she gets home, she says, "Who will make some bread9 the flour?" They all say they are too busy and don't have10 to do it. 

When she11 the bread, she says to her chickens, "Who wants to eat12 ?"

"I will. " they say. 

"No, you can't. You don't want to do anything13 I make the bread. You must know ‘no pains, no gains'（没有付出就没有收获）. She doesn't14 any bread to her chickens and she eats all the bread15 . All her chickens are regretful（后悔）.