Hi, David,

    Guess what? I'm writing to you from Beijing! It's my first summer holiday abroad, and here I'm in China! I'm going to learn Chinese for two weeks at a summer camp. Then my parents are going to join me here. I plan to spend another two weeks here and go on a tour around the country with them. It's going to be very exciting! We're going to visit the Great Wall and the Palace Museum in Beijing. Then we're going to be in Xi'an from July 24th to 27th. My dad says he's going to take lots of photos of the Terracotta Warriors. After that, we're going to Jiuzhaigou. It's famous for its beautiful mountains and clear lakes. Our last stop on the trip is Sanya. My mum's going to spend lots of time on the beach, but I'm going to swim in the sea every day.

    OK, I have to go. I'm going to meet my Chinese penfriend, Daming. He's going to take me to the Bird's Nest tonight. There's going to be a rock concert there. I can't wait!

Yours,

David

    Walt Disney was born in Chicago, America, in 1901. He enjoyed drawing. He was very poor. He drew pictures in his father's garage(车库). One day a mouse came into the garage and played on the floor. Disney gave him some bread. Then the mouse came up and sat on his desk. In this way, the mouse and the poor artist became good friends.

    Later Disney went to Hollywood. He worked very hard, but he was not famous to many people. One day he remembered the mouse. “I will draw that mouse, ”he said to himself. “I hope every child in this country will like my mouse. ”

    He drew many pictures of the mouse. Soon Mickey Mouse was famous all over the world. And the name of Walt Disney was known to many people in the world, too. Disneyland is the world's greatest park for children.

    In Australia there is a famous island called Fraser Island. A great many visitors come here for holidays every year. Why? The reason is that it is special. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. In fact, it is the largest sand island in the world. It's about 175 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide.

    Though the island is a popular place of interest, there is no airport on the island. The long beach along the east coast works as the airport. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    On the island there are sand hills without any plants, but there are forests with old trees, beautiful flowers and over a hundred lakes, too. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Every year, visitors come to enjoy the island's natural beauty. People like camping and hiking here. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Animals were killed for food and this made them in danger of extinction(灭绝). They threw rubbish everywhere, and the lakes were seriously polluted.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Rules have been set up. For example, visitors are not allowed to use motorboats(摩托艇)or go fishing in the lakes, and they mustn't leave any rubbish.

    Have you ever stayed in a hotel? Most Chinese hotels often provide guests with things like disposable(一次性的)toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and slippers.

    Many guests like the idea because they don't have to bring their own. But, if you travel to Beijing, remember to bring your own things. Starting from June, some hotels in Beijing will no longer provide guests with these disposable things. They want to ask people to use less disposable things.

    Many disposable things are made of plastic. People throw them away after only using them once. It is a waste of natural resources(资源)and is very bad for the environment. Do you know, one Chinese person makes as much as 4o0kg of waste a year！ Most of that waste comes from disposable things. In Beijing, people throw away about 19, 00C tons of plastic bags and 1, 320 tons of plastic lunch bowls every year！Plastic can take between 100 and 400 years to break down. So the less plastic we throw out, the better. So, wherever you travel, bring your own things and use them again and again.

    Back at home and school, you can also do something to make our world a better place. Try to do these things in your daily life: Use cloth shopping bags, not plastic ones. After using a plastic bag, wash it out and let it dry. Then you can use it over and over again. Do not use paper cups. At your school dining-room, use your own bowl and chopsticks instead of disposable ones.

    To protect our environment and our home, it is very necessary and important for us to save natural resources.

    Zhou Yan, a Junior 3 students in Taiyuan, wishes he never got a mobile phone. Last week he went to see a doctor because his arms and fingers were in great pain, and he could not see very well. The doctor told him that he had "mobile phone disease". A growing number of teenagers(青少年) are getting "mobile phone disease" because more and more people are using mobile phones.

    Zhou got his mobile phone only five months ago. His mum bought it for him to use when he was out. But Zhou used it to send messages to his friends. He sent messages to them all the time, even after going to bed, Zhou started to do badly in the exams because he spent so much time playing with his mobile phone. His mum got very angry with him but Zhou Yan didn't stop playing with the mobile phone until his arms started to hurt, Yang Ling, a doctor, says that if someone uses his mobile phone too much, like Zhou Yan, he might get "mobile phone disease".

    If teenagers find their arms or fingers hurt, they should go to see a doctor as soon as possible. Yang Ling suggests teenagers should try to use their mobile phones less, especially at school. They should try to have fun in other ways, such as reading and doing sports.

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