In English, the spelling of words does not always represent(代表)the sound. And some words seem to have too many letters. An American called Noah Webster wanted to do something for the development of English, so he began his work on it. His first book,  The Elementary(基础的)Spelling Book, suggested making the spelling of English words easy. The book was very popular. In fact, Webster is famous for his American Dictionary of the English Language. This dictionary came out in 1828 after it was completed. It introduced lots of new American words, with information about their pronunciation, use and the new spelling. Today,  Webster's dictionary is still widely used in English-speaking countries.

Dear Sir,

    I would like to recommend Liu Hua for this year's Youth Service Award.

    Liu Hua is a clever girl. She is very good at drawing and she often teaches children how to draw after school.

    Liu Hua is kind and friendly. She comes to our community center every day. She does a lot of things for the center. Sometimes she comes to the center at the weekends to teach English. All the members of the community center like her very much.

    Last month, Liu Hua broke her arm while playing tennis, but she did not stop coming to the center. She said that she felt happy to help others.

    Many members think that Liu Hua should get an award for her hard work. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Xiao Hong

A Recommendation {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

    I am Paul. I am in the classroom. What's under the teacher's desk?

It's a black schoolbag. Who lost the schoolbag? Let's look at the things in it. This is a pencil box with a pen, a ruler, an eraser and two pencils in it. This is a Chinese book. I always have my name on my books. But I can't see a name on it. I get the math book from the schoolbag and have a look. There is no name on it, either (either=too). How about the music book? Let me see. Here is a photo in this book. This is Sally but I don't know the other two girls in the photo. Is this Sally's schoolbag? I am not sure. I will call Sally and phone her about the lost schoolbag.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}One of my friends sometimes takes aside another friend to talk to her about something she doesn't want me to hear. It makes me feel sad. What should I do?

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Some of my friends are in a fight. like them all equally(同样地), but they say I have to choose sides. Help!

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}I look up to my sisters. They're both intelligent(聪明的) feel that I'll never be as good as them.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}I am the shortest person in my class, and my classmates call me "Tiny Mouse." How can I make them stop?

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}I always use the computer and can't stop I feel that I'm not getting any smarter and the computer is warping(扭曲) my brain.

    Once upon a time, there was a young man who liked puppets (木偶) so much that he became an apprentice(学徒) to a master puppet-maker. Sadly, the young man was not so clever, and his teacher and the other apprentices were always telling him he had no talent for making puppets, and that he would achieve nothing in making puppets.

    Even so, he was fond of it so much that he worked day after day to improve himself. Though he made every effort, they would always find something wrong with his puppets, and the poor puppets ended up being thrown out of the workshop.

    The young man wasn't going to give up, so he decided that from then on he would spend all his time making just one kind of puppet. Whenever he found a fault in his puppet he would throw it away and start again. Years passed, and with each new attempt his puppet became a little bit better. By that time, his puppet was much better than anything that the other apprentices could make, but he kept making improvements. Living like that, the man wasn't making any money, and many people laughed at how poor he was.

    By the time he was an old man, his puppet was truly wonderful. Finally, after so many years of work, he finished work on his puppet, and said, "I can't find anything wrong with it. This time it is perfect." And for the first time in all those years, instead of throwing his puppet away, he put it up on the shelf, feeling truly satisfied and cheerful.

    It is well-known that the perfect puppet, Pinocchio, came to life after that, had a thousand adventures, and gave that old man –whose name was Geppetto—more joy than any other famous puppet—maker had ever got from any of their creations.

My cousin Tommy was born in a small city in 2009. It's in the {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (西方) of Germany, and it has a population of about 2,000,000. There are lots of things to do, with a library, a park, a zoo and a{#blank#}2{#/blank#} (体育馆). Tommy likes playing basketball, he thinks it is an {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (激动人心的) sport. He does well in it. The city is also famous for its beautiful lakes and some famous {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (大学).

Last weekend, the weather was fine. Tommy's classmates wanted to play with him. Tommy {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (提议) to go to the zoo. There were many people in it, so it's very {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (拥挤的). The children were all interested in the animals from foreign countries, especially pandas. They all {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (同意) that pandas were very cute. {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (然而), they were sorry to know that pandas and many other animals were in {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (危险). Many wild animals don't have a safe place to live, and what's more, there isn't enough clean water to drink. At last, they decided to save their pocket money to help {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (保护) animals.