Steve visits the nursing home near his house two afternoons each week. On one of those days, he reads to his friend Martin. On the other afternoon, he plays cards and talks with Mrs. Johnson. Steve enjoys spending his extra time this way. He is a volunteer. A volunteer is a person who helps another person or has a job for which he or she does not get paid. A volunteer donates his or her time for free.

    Everyone else in Steve's family is also a volunteer. Steve's mother Mary volunteers one afternoon each week at the local hospital. She talks to patients, delivers flowers, and helps the nurses with odd jobs. Steve's sister Gina volunteers two afternoons at the museum. She welcomes visitors and answers their questions. Steve's father David also is a volunteer. He is a volunteer fire fighter for the town in which they live.

    Steve's family thinks volunteering is very important. Steve's parents think being a volunteer helps to teach values. Steve and his sister learn how to be kind and respect other people.

    Steve's family does volunteer work to give something back to the community. They want to help people who are not as fortunate as they are.

    A family of volunteers

    As is well known, saying “no” is not easy at all. But sometimes we have to learn to say “no”. To learn to say “no”, we have to first understand what's stopping us about it. There are some common reasons why people find it hard to say “no”.

    You want to help others. You are a kind soul(灵魂) at heart. You don't want to turn the person away and you want to help when possible, even if it may take up your time.

    Afraid of being rude. I was brought up under the idea that saying “no”, especially to people who are older, is rude. This thinking is common in Asian culture, where face-saving is important. It means not making others look bad or lose faces.

    Wanting to be agreeable. At times, you find you are not in agreement. You don't want to keep yourself away from the group, so you agree to do others' requests(请求).

    Fear of conflict(冲突). The person might be angry if you refuse him. This might lead to an ugly conflict. Even if there isn't, there might be disagreement which might lead to bad effects(影响) in the future.

        Fear of losing opportunities(机会). Sometimes, saying “no” means closing doors or losing opportunities. It may make you feel worried. For example, one of my friends was asked to work in another department(部门) in her company(公司). Since she liked her team, she didn't want to go. However, she didn't want to say “ no” as she felt it would affect her promotion(晋升) opportunities in the future.

⑴题完成句子；⑵⑶题回答问题；⑷题找出并写下全文的主题句；⑸题将画线句子译成汉语。

    As Grade Nine students, we are as busy as bees. Every day we have to spend a lot of time finishing our homework, so we don't have much time to do sports. However, almost all the students realize the importance of exercise. We still try to spare time(课余时间) to do sports after school.

    Tom (a 15-year-old boy from Class 9)

    Doing sports is part of my life. As soon as the bell of the last class rings every day, I will be excited and rush out of the classroom to play football with my classmates in the football field. Playing football can help me keep healthy and always make me energetic(精力充沛的). In this way I can learn better later on.

    Lucy (a 14-year-old girl from Class 6)

    Rope skipping(跳绳) is my favorite sport. I often do it with my sister Lily. We want to take part in the school rope skipping competition(竞赛). So we practice it again and again so as to win the competition.

    Jim (a 16-year-old boy from Class 2)

My dream is to be a professional runner. I usually train hard every day so that I can make my dream come true. Sometimes my parents are not happy. They say I spend too much time in running. But I never go running during the class. I do it after school. I don't think it has any bad effects on my study.

    Information Card

    Liu Tuchi, an 87­year­old man, has given away thousands of books to kids in five villages in Southwest China and built some reading rooms in the past 13 years by collecting and selling rubbish.

    "After selling the rubbish, I go to bookstores to search for good books," Liu said. When he has enough books, he sends them to the kids in the villages.

    Liu was an officer in Sichuan Province before retiring (退休) in 1993. "I passed by a primary school in Qilong Village in 2005 and was shocked by the poor conditions," he said. With old classrooms and broken desks, the students hardly had any books. So Liu took out more than 5, 000 yuan and raised more than 8, 000 yuan from his family and friends to give away books to the school. Since then, he has kept on giving away books to rural (农村的) kids.

    Liu's work has opened his new lifestyle (生活方式). He collects and sells waste, such as bottles and old newspapers. In 2008, Liu started building reading rooms. So far he has built more than 15 reading rooms. Liu always says, "Children in rural areas should not be left behind, especially in education."

    Once upon a time, there was a king. He only had one leg and one eye, but he was very smart and kind. Everyone lived a happy and healthy life because of the king. One day, the king was walking through the palace hallway and saw the paintings of his ancestors(祖先).He thought that one day his children would also walk in the same hallway and remember all the ancestors through these paintings. He wanted his children to remember him, too. So he invited many famous artists to his palace.

    All of the artists began to think about the king's physical disabilities(生理缺陷). How could his painting be made very beautiful? It was not possible. They weren't sure what his painting would be like. So one by one, they all started to politely refuse to make a painting of the king.

    But suddenly one artist raised his hand and said he would make a very nice painting of the king. The king became happy hearing that. Then the artist started painting. After a long time, the painting was ready.

    When the artist showed the painting, everyone was shocked. In the painting, the king was sitting on a horse, on the one—leg side, holding his bow (弓箭) and aiming (瞄准) something with his one eye closed. The king was very happy and gave him lots of money.

    As we all know, no one is perfect. So we should try to focus on (关注) others' advantages instead of their disadvantages. Just take an optimistic view (乐观的观点) of the event. Everyone can do a good job.