Where weredominoes (多米诺骨牌) from?Modern dominoes first showed up in Italy during the 18th century. But it isbelieved that the earliest dominoes were Chinese playing cards. Italianmissionaries (传教士) in China may have brought the gameto Europe. Do you think so?

    Do youlike to play with dominoes? Dominoes are small rectangular (长方形的) pieces made of wood orplastic (塑料). People can place dominoes in differentshapes. Then, they push one domino down and the rest of the dominoes fall oneby one. It is interesting to watch.

    Butplacing dominoes is hard. To make sure the dominoes fall smoothly, the spacebetween each domino is important. According to domino—play. com, if a domino is about 4cm long, then the space between two dominoes should be1—2 cm. If the space is too big, the dominoes will stop falling halfway.If the space is too small, the dominoes will fall too quickly and won't lookinteresting.

    Beginnerscan start by putting dominoes in a straight line. This is the easiest shape.Professional (专业的) playerscan place dominoes in many other shapes, including big circles, beautifulflowers and even famous paintings.

 Here's a new teaching building and we1 a new classroom this term. We study in it every day. It is nice 2 clean. What's in the classroom? Look! A long blackboard and a picture of Chinese national flag(国旗)3 on the front wall.4 flag is red and I think it's very beautiful. There are thirty- eight small desks and5 . A big desk is in front of the classroom. A computer is on the big desk. Teachers use it to give us classes. We can also 6 it for study.

 Let's look at the back wall. You can see 7 beautiful photos. We took them by ourselves. Our teacher puts them 8 the wall so everyone can see them. What is9 on the floor? Oh, it's our volleyball. We play it 10 after school. Here, look at the barrels(桶) behind the door. We use them to water flowers outside our classroom. I think our classroom is beautiful. Do you like it?

Children love the Spring Festival because they can get gift money. But how do the children spend the gift money? Let's see.

Song Qian, 14

In my family, I can decide how to use my gift money myself. I got 3,600 yuanlast year. I used the money to buy some books and school things. 4 这些钱对于我的课后活动也是有用的。

Zhang Ping, 13

During Spring Festival, I got over 2,000 yuan. I can decide how to spend the money. I chose to put all of it in the bank. 5 I hope to use it if I have a chance to study in other countries in the future. I know studying in other countries is expensive.

Li Lei, 12

The money I got last year was over 1,000 yuan. It was really hard for my parents to make money and they also gave gift money to my cousins, so I gave most of my gift money to my parents. Of course, I still had some money for myself. I bought something I needed and some gifts for my parents on their birthdays.

Li Ai, 14

I can use part of my gift money. This year, my parents helped me to save 1,800 yuanin the bank and left 1,000 yuanfor me. I spent 465 yuanon 8 books and I also bought Taylor Swift's new vinyl record (黑胶唱片) of Midnights in October for 337 yuanbecause she is one of my favorite singers.