Betty is an American girl. She is thirteen. She is in Beijing with her parents. She doesn't know much Chinese. She can't speak Chinese well. Sometimes her friends don't understand her.

    It's Sunday morning. She is going to the zoo to see pandas. She is waiting at a bus stop. At the bus stop she asks a boy which bus to take to go to the zoo. But the boy can't understand her. Then she takes out a pen and a piece of paper. She draws a panda on it and shows the picture to the boy. The boy smiles and then shows her the way to the zoo.

    Simon is a good boy. Today is Sunday and it is fine, so Simon's father takes him to visit the Great Wall. The Great Wall is far away from his home. So they are going there by bus. The Great Wall is about six thousand seven hundred kilometres. It's very long and great. Simon is very happy and his father is happy, too.

    Hello! My name is Jenny. I'm ten. I'm a student. This is my mother. She can cook. But she can't draw. She likes grapes. But she doesn't like oranges. This is my father. He can't fly. But he can swim. He likes noodles. But he doesn't like bread. This is my sister. She's three. She can sing. But she can't read. She likes ice cream. But she doesn't rice. What about me? I can read. But I can't swim. I like peaches. But I don't like pears.

Assistant: Can I help you?

John: Yes, these green gloves are nice. Can I try them on?

Assistant: Sure. Here you are.

John: Oh, they are too big.

Assistant: How do you like these blue ones?

John: They're very pretty. How much are they?

Assistant: They are 34 yuan.

John: OK. I will take them.

Assistant: Here you are.

Today is a fine day. It's Jenny's birthday. Many children are playing in Jenny's house. Kate is singing. Mary, Tom and Ann are dancing. Jenny's mother is making a birthday cake. Jenny is opening a beautiful box. Jim is watching TV. They are all very happy.

Landfills increase pollution problems by Peter Li

Although there are three landfills in Rainbow City, people believe that the landfills will all be full in 20 years because we are producing more rubbish than expected.

Pollution problems are getting worse. Therefore people ought to think about solutions. The environment will get better if people start doing something to help.

Miss Huo from the Environment Department talked about ways to reduce pollution. The Pollution is getting serious. Therefore, we ought to recycle more and stop throwing so many things away without thinking about the environment.

Now we're recycling things such as paper and plastic bags, but that's not enough.

We have to think about recycling more things such as batteries, washing machines and rice cookers.

There are many things we can do to protect our environment. We should take action now so that we all can live in a better environment.