Dear Dale,

    I'm David, and I'm your new penfriend. I'm 12 and I live in Vancouver, a city in Canada. I have short black hair and black eyes.

    My mother and father are from Beijing, China and we speak Chinese and English at home. My father is a doctor and my mother is a teacher. My sister Amy is 22. She doesn't live at home, because she works in New York, USA. She likes yellow. My brother Jack is at university (大学) and he studies computer science. He is 18 and we live in the same room. We like blue, so the walls (墙) of our room are

blue.

    Please write and tell me about you and your family.

    All the best,

David

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。

    There are two twin boys. They are very different. One of them is happy and outgoing. He always looks on the bright side of things. His brother, however, is sad and unhappy. He has a negative outlook on life. The parents want to cheer up the sad child. They came up with a plan and put the two boys into different rooms.

    The sad boy was put in a clean room with all kinds of wonderful, interesting toys, while the happy boy was put in a dirty room with a lot of horse manure（马粪）.

    After an hour, the parents opened the door into the clean room. To their surprise, the sad boy was sitting, crying. He even didn't move or play with any toys.

    "Why are you crying?" asked the parents.

    "I don't have anyone to play with." he said.

    The parents then opened the second door. They were amazed. Their son was running excitedly around the room, and throwing handfuls（一把）of horse manure into the air. "What are you doing?" they asked.

    "Well, "said the excited little boy." With all this horse manure lying around, I guess there may be a baby horse hiding in this room and I'm going to find him!"

    If we have a positive（积极的）attitude, difficulties are easy to overcome.

    I was born in Mississippi, America in the 1960s. When I was a five year old boy, I was badly ill and became disabled. I grew up knowing I was different. The first time I felt hurt and left out was in Grade Five. The other fourth and fifth graders played together in gym class, while I was put in the second grade gym class. 'Mom called the school to say it was unfair, but the school scolded me for complaining too much.

    In the 1980s, when my mom was giving birth to my sister, she died. My dad became even more distant. I was very sad and began drinking wine to ease the pain.

    Dad got remarried in 1985. Everyone went to his wedding except me. He told me to stay at home and watch the house. When my high school bail came around, I wanted to go out but wasn't allowed. When I graduated, my dad and step-mom weren't willing to hold a party for me. They put me into a group home after graduation.

    However, my life changed when I became a local leader of the National Self-advocacy(自我辩护) Group. At first, I thought the group wasn't for me until I found out it was all about empowerment(授权) ! My goal is to be the voice for people who haven't been heard and to help them. Many families, like mine, don't believe their disabled family members have a voice of their own.

    Looking back over my 16 years of leadership experience, I'm proud that I've helped so many disabled people. They should be encouraged to never give up and to follow their own way.

    Esperanza lives in a poor Latino(拉丁美洲的) neighbourhood in Chicago, America. She dreams of having her own house one day. Her parents told her that when they moved from their last house, they would have a new and shiny(亮闪闪的) house. But the house is small and old.

    Many people live in Mango Street, in a big old house, Esperanza lives behind it with her family. A lot of the people who have come from Mexico don't speak English. Many miss their home country. Esperanza understands their sadness, but she also feels at home in America. She is an American, but her roots(根) will always be Latino.

    Esperanza is young. Like her friends, she has to grow up fast. She is stuck between being a girl and being a woman. In the poor and dangerous area where she lives, this is difficult for her. Mexican people usually live in a close neighbourhood. This means that people live packed(挤塞的) in together. Everyone knows everyone else. So Esperanza knows other older girls that do things she is not comfortable doing. It is just a fact of her life.

    But Esperanza has good friends too. She becomes friends with two sisters named Lucy and Rachel. They ride bikes and have adventures(冒险) together. Esperanza is also friends with a girl named Alicia. Alicia is afraid of the rats in her apartment. She shares her poems with Esperanza.

    Doctor Seuss was born in 1904

    In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read well. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss strongly hoped to help children and decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. He hadn't received training in art. Yet, he drew pictures for most of his books.

    By the middle 1950s, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. His books were very popular with young readers. They enjoyed the invented words and the pictures of unusual funny animals and plants.

    In 1957, Doctor Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 230 words to write the book and even a six-year-old child was able to read it. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it too. The success of The Cat in the Hat made him want to write more books with very few words for children. In 1960, he wrote a book using less than fifty words. The book was called Green Eggs and Ham.

    In 1984. Doctor Seuss won a Pulitzer Prize. He was honoured for education and enjoyment that his books provided for American children and their parents.

    Doctor Seuss died in 1991 at the age of 87. But his influence remains. Today his books are still very popular. Millions of his books have been sold worldwide. People say his books help change the way American children learn to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said, "I do not write for children. I write for people."