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.

    The word "hobby" is an interesting word. Every person has one thing he or she likes to do for fun. Some people like to collect things like stamps or story books. Others like to play football or go window shopping where you can look at many beautiful things without buying them.

    I have many hobbies I do for fun. I sometimes play golf with my sons. I play tennis with all the family. I like to collect music books. I also collect musical instruments from China like the erhu, the dizi, the xiao, the suona, and the pipa. These are the instruments of China which cannot be found in America.

    My favourite hobby is fishing. I like to go and see my brother in the state of Alaska where fishing is wonderful. The two of us take a boat and go to a small river where we fish for salmon, the American most famous fish.

    What do you read when you are travelling by train or bus? What are other people reading? Perhaps a woman sitting near you is reading a love story. A man is reading a serious biography(自传) about a president. And there's a student reading an English textbook.

    What do their choices(选择) say about them? Do you think you can know them by what they are reading? I have got to tell you that your feelings of them may be quite wrong. The woman reading the love story could be a lawyer. She just wants a light read to take her mind off work. The man reading the biography wants you to think that he is very clever. The student reading the textbook isn't a student at all. She's an English teacher.

    Publishers(出版商) know that some people care what they read on trains or buses and so they put out different types of covers. For example， books about Harry Potter have a cartoon cover for young readers and then another more serious cover for grown—ups.

    So next time you are on a train， look around and see what other people are reading， but don't jump to any conclusions(结论). You will be wrong maybe.

Here is a sentence that you could say， “Don't judge（判断） a book by its cover”.

    Swimming is   ①    (popular) than any other sport in summer. People like swimming in summer because water makes them feel much   ②    (cool). If you swim in a wrong place, it may not be safe. These years, ③more than ten people died in this city while they were enjoying in the water and most of them were students. ④So people should be more careful when they are swimming.They often think they swim so well that nothing can happen to them in water. Summer is here again. If you go swimming, don't forget that better swimmers have died in water. They died  ⑤   they were not careful, not because they were not good at swimming. Swimming alone is more dangerous than  ⑥    (swim) with others. ⑦你应该要求其他人和你一块游泳. If there is a "No Swimming" sign, don't get into water, either. If you remember all these, swimming will be safer.

    Do you know Kumamon (熊本熊)? He is the most popular bear in Japan. With the big black body, red cheek (脸颊)and wide-open eyes, Kumamon always looks surprised. It makes him very lovely. And people of different ages love him.

    熊本熊和真正的熊一样高。 He is the mascot (吉祥物) of a place called Kumamoto in Japan. Before the lovely mascot appeared in 2010, few people knew about this place. But now it is very famous and lots of people come to visit it every year.

    Kumamon has his website, blog and facebook page, so people can know what he is doing every day. People can also see him on over 10000 things, like shirts, bags and candy boxes.

    Why is Kumamon so popular? First, he has a cute look. Second, people can find him on so many things that they can hardly forget him. Third, he is very funny. And there are a lot of photos and videos about him on the Internet. They make people laugh a lot. People think he is not just a mascot, but more like a person. 

   The Greens are ready for a dancing party. Mr. Green wears a white shirt and black pants. He looks handsome(英俊的). Mrs. Green is quite pretty today. She wears a white blouse and a blue skirt. What about Gina? She looks beautiful, too. Her T-shirt goes well with her skirt. Her T-shirt is light blue and her skirt is blue. She really likes blue. Gina's brother Tom wears a yellow T-shirt and blue pants. He also wears a hat. He looks cute.