Susan is 14 years old and she is an American girl. She is one of my best friends. She is interested in Chinese and good at it. Every summer she travels with her parents. She believes（相信） that traveling is an important part in her life. She likes London best because it is both clean and beautiful. She knows that China is a large country with lots of interesting places. This July, her family are coming to China. I am very happy to know that they will first come to my city. They will stay here for three days. I will take them to visit the city. Then they will fly to Beijing. I am sure they will have a nice time in China.

    Here are a few ways to motivate(激发)children to do chores.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.Children always watch their parents and learn how to act from them, so the parents must set a good example and take chores seriously. This motivates children to do chores，too.

    Decide what kinds of chores children do. For younger children，give them easy work，like putting away their toys.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Tell children about the importance of doing chores.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.Knowing the importance of the chores helps to motivate children to do them.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.When children finish the chores on the list，parents can reward(奖励）them by giving them a prize. A chore list also gives children a sense of pride(自豪感）when they finish all their chores.

    Give children some money to do more chores.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}.But it is not the best way. It's best to make children feel that doing chores is the work that they should do.

    There was a little boy whose name was Peter. He lived in a village close to the sea. The villagers built sea walls to keep sea water from the doors of the houses. But once the sea walls almost put the village in great danger.

    One day Peter was walking on his way back home along the sea wall when it began to rain. All of a sudden, he saw a hole in the wall, from which the sea water was running. Peter shouted for help because he know the hole meant that the sea was making its way through the sea wall, but no answer came. He realized he should do something else as quickly as possible, or the sea water could be pouring over the whole village. He started to rush towards his village. At the same time, the rain became heavier and heavier.

    It was getting dark, but Peter rushed on and on. He felt cold and hungry. In the rainstorm, he fell down over and over again. Many times he thought about giving up, but he fought on. He remembered his father's words, "Lots of strong men have made every effort to build the walls which can keep the village safe from danger. The sea walls are really important."

    Finally when the boy's father saw him, Peter had been black and blue all over. The boy told the villagers what had happened to the sea wall. They repaired it in time. "Thank God! He saved the village, "they praised Peter. All the villagers called him "Peter the Guard" from then on. Peter's parents were really proud of him!

    A group of high school students from the United States has planted hope by cleaning up an empty lot(一块地) in their neighborhood.

    The students are from Buchtel High School in Akron, Ohio. The empty lot, which is owned by a 1ocal bank, was filled with grass and poison ivy(毒葛). As a project for the school's biohealth(生物健康) class, eight students decided to turn the empty lot into a space that will improve the mental(心里的) and emotional(情感的) health of people who live near it.

    They first came up with a design, did research and created 3D models of their plans. Ideas were then presented and the school leaders picked the winning plans. Finally, the students brought those plans to life.

    Now when you walk into the lot, you can see a wood walkway leading to a purple iron bench. A few beautiful plants are already in the ground. There is also a hopscotch(跳房子游戏) board that is painted bright blue. A wall painting with the words "Love" and "Peace" has taken shape on a back fence, decorated with the students' handprints. The rest of the fence was painted grey to cover plain wood.

    The students said they painted the bench purple because they found that purple has a comforting feeling for people. They thought kids could go there and sit together, communicate with each other in peace and stay out of trouble.

    As for the hopscotch board, it was set up for a group of eight to ten school-age kids who lived in the neighborhood but had nowhere to play.

    It gives the neighborhood a little hope and a little beauty, "said Lyle Jenkins, a member of the Neighborhood Network." A lot of people love the neighborhood and have great hopes for things getting better.

Have you ever wondered what an American high school is really like? This article will describe a typical (典型的) high school and its students.

A typical American high school has several large buildings and enough space for about 1,500 students. Every student is given a locker. When students first arrive at school, they go straight to their lockers to put away or get their textbooks and to hang up their outdoor clothes. As American textbooks are expensive, students would rather loan (租借) than buy them. Students must pay back if they lost any of them.

American students have different types of school transport. They usually take a yellow school bus or walk to school if they live close enough. Sometimes their parents drive them to school.

When they turn 16 years of age, most take a free driving class at school for one term. If students' exam passing grades in the class and also pass their state driver's exam, they can begin driving themselves to school.

Each day, students take six or seven classes. They must take science, math, English and social studies. They can choose art, homemaking, fashion design and other classes. In some schools students are required to take one or more of the following special classes: health education, physical education or foreign language studies. Students move to different classrooms for each subject. This is because cache teacher has their own classroom. There is a five-minute break between classes, to give the students the time to hurry to their next class.

The regular school day usually ends early in the afternoon. After school more than half of the students take part in after-school activities. These activities include sports, specially football, basketball, baseball and soccer or clubs, such as yearbook, speech, school newspaper, photograph or student government.

Title: {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in an American High School