Dean felt his arms and legs were burning. With each breath, Dean wondered if he should be done, but as he touched the wall at the end of the pool he turned for another lap (圈). "I can do one more. This is for Kevin," Dean told himself. He was starting his seventh lap.

    Dean and the other members of his swim team were swimming to raise money for Dean's best friend, Kevin Hawking. Earlier in the year, Kevin fell ill. He needed expensive medical care that his family couldn't afford. After Kevin's friends learned what was happening, they started brainstorming ways to help. Several of Kevin's friends were on the swim team, which led to the idea of swimming.

    For a month, Dean and the other swim team members had asked for pledges (承诺) from anyone who would help: family members, friends, and neighbours. Most people pledged a dollar or two each lap. Dean's grandmother said she would offer $ 10 for each lap Dean swam!

    Finally, as Dean completed his tenth lap, he knew he was too tired to keep going. If I try another lap. I'll end up lying in the middle of the pool, waiting for someone to come and get me, he thought. Dean pulled himself up onto the edge of the pool and sat breathing quickly for a couple of minutes, quietly resting before he tried to stand.

    Dean's father came over and said, "Wow, Dean," shaking his head in amazement, "I am so proud of you. That's farther than anyone else has swum today, and I know it's farther than you've ever swum before."

    Dean stood up and slowly walked with his father back to the seats where the other swimmers sat next to Kevin. "Thank you," Kevin said.

    "It's no big deal. I know you'd do the same for me," Dean said.

As the spring comes, the world comes back to life. Chinese people call this time Jingzhe, or the Awakening of Insects. It's one of the 24 solar terms (节气) in the Chinese lunar calendar. When Jingzhe comes, it begins to thunder(打雷) and everything in the nature begins to 1 . As the temperature rises and more rain starts to fall, insects appear. Not just insects, 2 also show changes—grass breaks ground and out, flowers 3 .

Chinese farmers put a high value on Jingzhe, 4 it means the start of spring plowing (春耕). Farmers gets even 5 than before. They are busy plowing fields.

Here are some fun 6 about Jingzhe. In some old Chinese stories, a white tiger, always bites (咬) people during Jingzhe. People draw the white tiger on paper, and then put some meat in its mouth. The purpose of 7 the white tiger is to prevent the tiger from biting people. Peope in some areas eat pears on Jingzhe. Pears are sweet and juicy. They think 8 eating pears can stop us coughing. What's more, it is said that the god of thunder beats his 9 to make spring thunder during Jingzhe. To 10 him, people on the earth also beat the drums.

I'm Lucy. I am a middle school student now. It seems that my life has changed a lot in the last few years. For example, I was afraid of the sea in the past because I didn't know how to swim.I now I am a good swimmer. I used to be short and was only 150 centimeters tall. But now, I'm ten centimeters taller than before.

As for food, I used to cat meat, but now I eat more vegetables. By the way, I love tomatoes best. When I was younger, I didn't use to read any books, but now I love reading novels, such as Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. I love the magical world in the novels. When I was in primary school, I used to play football after school, but now I have to go home and do homework. I used to be afraid of exams, but now I think exams are necessary and useful.

In the past, I used to spend most of my time doing homework, but now I have more time to communicate with my parents. Every day when I finish dinner, I do my homework in the bedroom. Then I usually talk about something interesting with my parents.

On a hot summer day, Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they lay down in a tent for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes woke up and pushed his friend. "Watson, look! What can you see in the sky?" Watson answered, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" asked Holmes. Watson thought for a while. "First, it tells me that we will have a beautiful clear day tomorrow. Second, it tells me that the time is about twelve o'clock. And..." "What else?" Holmes asked. "Well, it also reminds me that the world is so big and we are so small. What does that tell you?" Holmes said with a grin (咧着嘴笑) on his face, "You silly guy! It only tells me that someone has stolen our tent!"

American boy Rain Price is a student. His dad waved(挥手) him off to school from the bus stop outside his house for half a year. That doesn't sound special, but this was not a/ an 1 goodbye because each day Rain's dad said goodbye wearing the costume(戏服)!

It all started on 13- year- old Rain's first day at middle school. Like many 2 Rochelle and Dale, Rain's mum and dad, sent him to school 3 a big wave. The next morning when Rain got onto the 4 outside his house, he could hear his school friends 5 something. He turned around and to his surprise, his dad dressed up as a football player. Rain felt embarrassed(尴尬的).

For the next 180 school 6 , Dale waved goodbye to his son dressed in a 7 costume. One day he was a king waving his sword, the next a 8 with a violin, the following a superman. Dale even got other family to 9 him. Rain's younger 10 played Batman and he thought Rain would like it. Each day Rochelle took a photo of 11 and put it on the blog to let more people know. That made the family became very 12 . So Rain 13 saw the funny side and thought his dad was cool, not embarrassing.

14 all good things must come to an end. On the last day of school, Dale dressed up as  a teacher and stood next to a sign reading" It's been fun waving at the bus. Have a great summer". He has 15 plans to wave Rain off to school next year. He wants to get a little more sleep each morning.