“Homestay is a form of study abroad program．It allows visitors to rent a room from a local(当地的)family to better understand the local lifestyle．It also helps to improve the visitor's language ability，"said a teacher during a school meeting last term．“Students who wish to learn more about foreign cultures or to get foreign experience should join this kind of holiday．I am sure you won't be disappointed(失望的)．”

    After this special meeting，I always thought about this kind of holiday．Last month I had a chance at last to go on such a holiday with some of my schoolmates and we went to London．a place where I had wanted to go since years ago．

    As we were still young，we had a group leader who planned things for us and looked after us．After we got to London. we went to stay with different families．I was lucky that my host family(寄宿家庭)was a white couple who had a daughter about my age．They treated me as a daughter of their family during my stay there．They were interested in me and I learnt a lot of things from them，too．

    The holiday was filled with activities every day．After breakfast，a local teacher would come to take us in his car．Then we would have classes or go on a sight—seeing trip to different places of interest like the Big Ben，the London Bridge，and the Buckingham Palace．We would go back to our own homes after the activities．

    The holiday was a valuable experience for me．I enjoyed every minute of it．Yet，time really flew fast．Three weeks later，we had to leave “home” for Hong Kong．

D

    Audrey Hepburn won an Academy Award as Best Actress for her first major American movie, Roman Holiday, which was showed in 1953. But she is remembered as much for her help as for her acting.

    Born in Belgium in 1929, Audrey's father was British and her mother was Dutch. Audrey was sent to live at a British school for part of her childhood. During World war Ⅱ, she lived and studied in the Netherlands. Her mother thought it would be safe from German attacks. Audrey studied dance as a teenager and during college. But when she returned to London after the war she realized she wasn't going to be a ballet dancer. So she began taking acting parts in stage shows. Later she began to get small parts in movies.

    But it was Audrey Hepburn's move to America that made her truly famous. In 1951 she played the character "Gigi" in the Broadway play Gigi andwon popular praise. Two years later, Roman Holiday made her a star at the age of 24.

    Audrey made more than 25 movies. Among her most popular roles was "Hoolly Golinghtly" in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961. Three years later she played "Eliza Doolittle" in My Fair Lady. She was married twice. In 1989, the UN Children's Fund named Audrey a goodwill ambassador. She travelled all over the world in support of UNICEF(联合国儿童基金会) projects. The UN agency said she was a tireless worker. She often gave 15 interviews a day to raise money and get support for UNICEF projects.

    Audrey Hepburn often said her love to UNICEF was the result of her experiences as a child during World War II. She said she knew what it was like to be hungry and to be saved by international help. She was a goodwill ambassador until her death in 1993 from cancer.

C

    I'm a 34-year-old man. I lived in a nice house and have a successful career. But my life was not always so great. I had trouble learning from an early age. The school life was difficult for me.

    My life improved quickly when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to an art school and became good at making things with dough. Here I learned my first important lesson: although I had trouble learning, I could still be smart and well express myself with dough. And I became confident from then on.

    I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was frightened from the start. After about five years of climbing, I learned that if you fall in love with something and do it all the time, you will get better at it.

    Later I decided to learn how to read. Every day I practiced reading. After two hard years, I did well in it. And reading changed my life a lot.

    After learning art, rock climbing, and reading, now I've learnt that when we face difficulties, we should not give up. God closes a door for you, and will open another window for you.

    A restaurant had one falled upon hard times. Only five 1 were left: the manager and four others, all over 60 years old.

    In the town near the restaurant there lived a successful businessman who was good at managing business, so the manager2to ask the businessman if he could offer any advice that might save the restaurant. The manager and the businessman talked for a long period of time, but when he was asked for advice, the businessman 3for a while and then said, "I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the saver (救星) is one of you."

    The manager, returning to the restaurant4, told the other people what the businessman had said. In the months that5, the old restaurant workers thought carefully of the words of the businessman, "The saver is one of us?" They asked themselves. As they thought about this possibility, they all began to treat each other with6respect(尊重). And thinking that each of themselves might be the saver, they also began to treat themselves with more care.

    As time went by, people coming to the restaurant7that some respect and warm kindness were around the five old members of the small restaurant. Hardly knowing 8, more people began to come back to the restaurant. They began to bring their friends, and theirs brought more friends. Two 9 later, the small restaurant had once again become a big food company, thanks to the businessman's10. They understood that it was they themselves that were the savers.

    Moziah Bridges was born in 2002 in the USA. He is very young, but he is a successful businessman. He has a company which sells bow ties(领结).

Moziah Bridges always believes in his born sense of fashion. He has made full use of it—by creating his own bow tie company.

    When he was 9, he and his grandmother started making bow ties for him to wear. Some of his friends liked his bow ties and want to buy them. Later Bridges started to sell them under the name of "Mo's Bows".

    His business got better and better. He also tried some different ways to make his business more successful. For example, he even took part in a reality show to get help.

    Bridges company is now worth about 1.5 million dollars. Several months ago, he signed a deal with the NBA to make bow ties with NBA team logos(标志)on them. "My dream is to be a famous person all over the world," Bridges said.