Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

Buy a ticket to the Disgusting Food Museum in Sweden, and you'll find it is not printed on a piece of paper.

"Instead, it is a vomit(呕吐) bag with our logo,"said Samuel West, who set up the museum. It was a joke. But it sounds reasonable in some ways. Inside the museum, the foods with some of the world's most terrible smells are on display. Walking around in it, someone may want to vomit.

Yet making people vomit is not West's purpose. "I want people to know that disgust is always in the eye of the visitors," said West. "We usually find things we're not familiar with disgusting."For example, the tree-ant larvae (幼虫) eaten in Mexico.

There are nearly 80 dishes in the museum. They come from Asia, Europe, the United States, Central and South America, Africa and Australia.

West wants people to know that disgust isn't just about taste or smell. It's also about the way the food is made. In the museum, some foods might taste pretty good, but are made in a terrible way. Those include French foie gras (鹅肝酱). This dish needs to feed ducks or geese with force. Another example is the monkey brain(脑). It is said that in some places, people eat the brain while the animal still lives.

West hopes that the museum will help people rethink what is delicious food. He also wants to encourage people to try more food that are environmentally friendly.

Hi, I'm Jack. I like Sundays 1 I don't need to go to school. 2 do I often do on Sundays?

In the morning, I don't get up 3 . For breakfast I only have some 4 . I think eggs are good for me. Then I do some exercise because it makes me 5 . At about ten o'clock I start to 6 our rooms. My mum says we must make our rooms clean. It's 7 . My family always have a 8 lunch on Sundays. We eat well. Chicken is my favourite 9 . In the afternoon, I usually play 10 with my friends for two hours. It's relaxing for11 to do sports. What about Sunday  12 ? At about seven o'clock I have dinner13 my parents. But sometimes we eat out. Do we also watch TV? Sure, my favourite TV program is CCTV News. After that I 14 with my pen friends on the computer about our 15 . I tell them what I do in the clubs. We talk about the family life, too. At half past ten I go to bed.

The Chinese pingfeng (folding screen) is an ancient invention and traditional Chinese furniture(家具). Its earliest common use dates from the Han Dynasty. The term pingfeng means protection from wind. showing its purpose at the very beginning. 

As time passes, it has been made into different sizes with colourful paintings. On screens usually appears a dragon. It's a symbol of light, growth and life-giving water. It also stands for nobility and power. The peacock, a beautiful bird, can be seen on screens, too. It's a symbol of everlasting life. Beautiful flowers, which mean wealth and good luck, are also chosen as a popular design of the pingfeng. All the designs carry people's beautiful wishes. 

Behind the pingfeng lies an interesting story. In the past the unmarried daughter of a rich family was not supposed to see or be seen by men except her father, brothers or very close male cousins. When an admirer paid a visit, however, she might take a secret look at him from a screen behind which she would be completely hidden. Her father would discuss poems with the young man and ask him to create one. If the daughter and her father were satisfied with the young man's poem and his looks, she might agree to take him as a husband. 

Today the pingfeng is back in fashion for its beauty and its practical(实际的) use as furniture. Acting as a moving wall or divider, it can be the perfect match(相配) for modern sofas and walls, which adds style to them. 

The pingfeng is more than beautiful furniture. 

 If you think of after-school activities as a waste of time, you are wrong ! After-school activities help us grow up in many ways. Above all, they offer us chances to practice what we learn in class. Through various activities, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} and a lot of new things that we can't learn from our books. What's more, they help to develop our abilities that we need both for our studies now and for our work and life in the future.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} , so after school we all need to relax ourselves. After-school activities just make it possible for us to breathe fresh air outside and remove our tiredness. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} .

 Some after-school activities will make us useful and helpful to others. Some can keep us strong and healthy: {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . So, all the students: get out and take an active part in various after-school activities!

What do you think of after-school activities? (回答不超过 10个单词) {#blank#}5{#/blank#}