A horse fair is an interesting place. There were young horses from the country, little Welsh ponies and many beautiful horses too. But there were also a lot of poor, thin horses, tired from hard work. I was very sad to see them.

    At the horse fair there was a man with a gentle voice and kind grey eyes. He offered 23 pounds for me, but they refused. Then a man with a very loud voice came. I was afraid he was going to buy me, but he walked off. Then the grey-eyed man came back again and said:

    "I'll give 24 for him."

    "Done," said the salesman. "He's a quality horse and if you want him for cab (出租马车) work, he's a bargain."

Half an hour later we set off for London, along country roads, until we came to that great city. There were streets to the right, and streets to the left. We went into one of the small streets, and then into a very narrow street, with small, old houses.

    My owner stopped at a house. The door opened, and a woman, a little girl and boy, came out.

    "Is he gentle, father?"

    "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as a kitten; you can pat him."

    Dolly, the little girl, patted my shoulder without fear. It felt so good! They led me into a comfortable, clean stable, and after a delicious meal I lay down to sleep, thinking "I'm going to very happy here".

    My new owner's name was Jerry. His wife was called Polly and they had two children, Harry and Dolly. The next morning they came to see me. I loved it when they patted me and spoke in gentle voices.

    "Let's call him 'Jack', after the old horse, shall we, Harry?" said Dolly.

    "Yes, let's," said Harry.

    The first week of my life as Jack, the London cab horse was very hard. The noise and the people and the traffic on the streets scared me. But Jerry was a very good driver, and that helped a lot Jerry soon found that I was ready to work hard and do my best, and he didn't whip (鞭打) me.

    He kept us very clean, and gave us as much food as we wanted. But the best thing was that we had Sundays off.

A neighbor of mine, while visiting his mother in Boston, took her to a shoe store to buy a new pair of shoes. While she was trying on different styles, my neighbor took the manager（经理）beside him. "When she picks out a pair that she likes,' he said, "just tell her that the price is 12 dollars. I'll pay the regular price. I don't care how much it is.'

The following week, my neighbor was walking by the shoe store and the manager recognized (认出)him and called him in.

"What's the problem?' asked my neighbor as he entered the store.

"Wasn't my check any good?'

"That's not it,' answered the manager, "The problem is that your mother is bringing all her friends in for those 12-dollar shoes!'

After winning the first prize at the ASICS Tennis Junior Tour in Guangzhou in late August, 2022, Wang Fa quickly became popular online. Wang was known for carrying his tennis rackets in a bamboo basket, making him get the name of "basket tennis boy".

The boy, Wang Fa, 14, is a member of the Va ethnic group（佤族） from Yunnan. "We always carry bamboo baskets when we work on the farm. This is a typical farming tool（具有代表性的农具） of the Va ethnic group. I carried my rackets this way to honor（致敬） my hometown," Wang said.

Before playing tennis, Wang was just a common boy from a village. But in 2016, he was chosen by a club as one of the first 10 children to learn to play tennis. Over the past six years, Wang has practiced hard along with other players. The children would get up at 6:30 A．m. and practice for more than six hours a day. Every day, they needed to swing a racket more than 7,000 times and run 9 kilometers.

Wang's parents didn't want him to learn tennis at first. They thought it was too expensive. But the tennis club said they would teach him for free. Wang's hometown was just lifted out of poverty （脱贫） in 2019.

For Wang, winning the competition was the beginning of a hopeful future. "I will go for the top places in the tennis world," he said.

In the US, about 400,000 students are learning Chinese. Chinese is getting more and more popular there.

Murray is one of the Chinese learners. He became interested in Chinese tea culture when he was 12 years old. To learn more about tea and find the best tea, he started to learn Chinese.

Murray spent two years learning Chinese at the University of Pittsburgh." Those two years of study life were very busy," he said. He went to a class at 8 a. m. on weekdays. All students needed to speak Chinese in class. Every Monday and Wednesday he went to a grammar class at 2 p. m. For Murray, Chinese grammar is easy because the Chinese language has no tense(时态). But the pronunciation is really a hard part of the language. To improve it, Murray needed to practice Chinese four tones(声调) every day.

One day, my father and I were in line to buy tickets for the circus（马戏表演）. And a family was standing in front of us.

The family had eight children. Their clothes were not expensive but clean. The children talked about the clowns(小丑), elephants, monkeys and other things excitedly. It was their first time to go to the circus.

The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly answered, "I want eight children's tickets and two adults' tickets, so I can take my family to the circus. "

The ticket lady said the price. The man's wife lowered her head and there was no smile on the man's face. He quietly asked, "How much did you say?"

The ticket lady said the price again. The man didn't have enough money. How could he tell his eight kids the bad news? My dad put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a $20 bill and dropped(掉下) it on the ground. (In fact, we were not rich!) Then my dad said, "Excuse me, sir, this dropped out of your pocket. "

The man knew what was going on. He looked into my dad's eyes, held my dad's hand in his, and took the $20 bill. "Thank you, sir, thank you. This really means a lot to me and my family. "

My father and I went back home. We didn't go to see the circus that night, but we didn't care.

Everyone wants to live longer, so to keep healthy is very important. I have a neighbor. She is {#blank#}1{#/blank#} old lady. She can read newspapers, watch TV and search on the Internet to learn {#blank#}2{#/blank#}( anything) new. She often does Tai Chi in the morning and dances in the evening. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} she is over 70, she looks young and beautiful . Last week a reporter from a magazine interviewed(采访) her and asked her {#blank#}4{#/blank#}( tell) the reason why she kept so young and healthy. She answered with a smile.

"I have a secret of {#blank#}5{#/blank#}( stay) young and healthy. It is easy. Keep your mind active, be {#blank#}6{#/blank#}( interest) in the world around you, and learn at {#blank#}7{#/blank#}( little) one new thing every day. Don't think you are too old to go back to school. I know two men entered a college of arts when they were 70 years old. They {#blank#}8{#/blank#}( study) there for 6 years and now they are{#blank#}9{#/blank#}( write). Another man went to a tennis school at the age of 71 and now he is good at playing tennis. He said it's good {#blank#}10{#/blank#} his health. Some people may say staying young is easy only for those who live in the future. In fact, no matter how old you are, you can make it."