Everybody hates rats. But rats may soon be man's new best friends.

    What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue (援救) dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small space. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.

    How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal. This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.

    Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. "Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that," says a scientist. Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity.

    The "rat project" is not finished, but a scientist says, "It would be fantastic. A rat could get into space we couldn't get to and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe." Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).

I'm Eason. I {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in "New York with my family. I like reading very much, and I have many books at {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, I'm in the school book club now. There're{#blank#}3{#/blank#}students and three teachers in the club. We meet from 7:00 to 8:00 {#blank#}4{#/blank#}  Wednesday afternoon. We usually{#blank#}5{#/blank#}about one book together. Our teacher {#blank#}6{#/blank#} asks us some questions about the book. All of us want to answer them, because it's interesting {#blank#}7{#/blank#}a game. We can borrow (借) a book from the club, but we must take it back {#blank#}8{#/blank#}  It's fun joining the book club, because we can also make {#blank#}9{#/blank#} friends here. There's a new book {#blank#}10{#/blank#}every month in the club. I like the show very much and I never miss (错过)it!

One night, my family was driving back from visiting my uncle in the middle of a very bad snowstorm.

The road was normally two lanes (车道) going in each direction, but there was so much snow that it was down to one lane. We were scared, but we felt safe because my father used to work as a truck driver. He's a very safe driver.

We were all alone on the highway until three cars pulled up right behind us. They used their lights of the car and beeped their horns (按喇叭), wanting to get by us, but there was no place for us to pull over.

After a while, we stopped at a restaurant to wait for the storm to calm down.

The three cars behind us drove in too. They were full of young men. They were talking about how slow we were driving. One of them said loudly enough for us to hear, "If you don't know how to drive, you shouldn't be on the highway."

Soon after, the young men left even though the storm was getting worse. My father decided that we should wait inside, hoping the storm would stop.

After it cleared a little, we headed down the road. Finally, we came around a turning. We could not believe our eyes—the three cars were all in the ditch (沟渠)!

Dad ran to the cars. The young men were all okay, but they were freezing and very frightened. A police officer arrived and took some of the young men to the next gas station. We gave two of them a ride.

It was a very quiet drive. My dad turned to the young driver and said with a little smile, "You know, if you don't know how to drive, you should stay off the road."

The man was very upset. My dad smiled and said, "I was a truck driver for fifteen years and we had a saying: There are old drivers and there are bold (大胆的) drivers, but there aren't any old bold drivers."

The young man understood and hung his head in shame.

As a child，I was a quite active boy. I was running around and getting hurt almost every day. My mom was worried. A neighbor advised me to learn to fish. I liked the idea，but my mom said no. A few years ago，I was kept away from any body of water!

At last，my mom wanted me to read books. Every day，she made me sit on a chair and read for an hour. As a boy，my uncle，a teacher，just put it down and pick another one，" he said. 

I started off with The Enormous Crocodile（《巨大的鳄鱼》）. After twenty pages. I was lying on the floor and laughing. This crocodile wants to eat children for a change，so he makes himself lock like a seesaw（跷跷板），I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Both stories were exciting and easy to understand. 

As time went on，I started reading longer and more serious books. I was in the middle of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when my mom said I should spend more time playing outside. But the book was too interesting to put down. To this day，I make time to read every day. 

If you haven't yet experienced the fun of reading，take my uncle's advice and find the "Right" books. They'll give you enjoyment，teach you something new, and even change your life.

I'm Lin Peng. I'm a student in Guangming Middle School. When I was in Grade Seven, I always did badly in English. And I even got poor grades {#blank#}1{#/blank#} English tests. That made me feel very sad. I wanted to give up at that time, but my parents and my teacher encouraged me to work hard. I was told by {#blank#}2{#/blank#} not to lose hope. My teacher gave me some suggestions. She asked me to speak as much as possible. She said, "The more you speak it, the{#blank#}3{#/blank#} your English will become. Don't be shy and don't be afraid of {#blank#}4{#/blank#} mistakes. " Now I am interested in English. And I put my heart into English study all the time. Last week, I took part in an English {#blank#}5{#/blank#} held by our school, and I won the first prize. How proud I was! Hope is always there, in our hearts. So just keep it in mind and our dreams will come true one day.