Many people can speak one or two languages, but 10-year-old Arthur can s peak many languages. He can speak English, Hindi, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Thai and Polish. Arthur is from Sydney, and he gets his skills (技能) from his parents. He also learns from DVDs by himself. Now Arthur is learning Luganda. It's a language of a country in Africa. Arthur says languages and music are his favourites at school. Arthur hopes his language skills can help him when he grows up (长大). He wants to be a doctor and go around the world to help people.

    Jill Jones got a new job in a different part of the city. She had to go to work every day by train.

    There was only one other person on the train with her. He was a well-dressed man reading a newspaper. Suddenly, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing（撕） his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked them up, opened the window and threw them all out. Then he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey again.

    The next day, Jill got on the same train. The same well-dressed man was there, reading a newspaper. As before, about halfway through the journey, the man began tearing his newspaper into hundreds of small pieces. Then he picked the pieces up, opened the window and threw them all out. This done, he sat down, closed his eyes, and slept for the rest of the journey. This happened every day for a week.

    At last, on Friday, Jill spoke to the man. "Excuse me, sir," she said, "I don't want to be rude, but I must ask you a question. When we are halfway through our journey, you tear your newspaper into hundreds of pieces and then throw them all out of the window. Please tell me, sir. Why do you do this?"

    The well-dressed man smiled. "There is a simple reason," he said. "I like to sleep for part of the journey, but I cannot sleep if the train is full of elephants. So I throw the pieces of paper out to the elephants. It stops them from coming into the train."

    "But there aren't any elephants on the train," Jill said. "I know," the man said. "It works well, doesn't it?

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone (更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance (毅力) and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

    Kate and Ann are new students. Kate is twelve. She is from America. Ann is eleven. She is from England. They arc in Class 5 Grade 7. They can speak English very well and Kate can speak a little Chinese, but Ann can't. They live m Shanghai with their parents. Ann's mother is a teacher. Kate's father is a teacher too. Kate and Ann are studying in the same school. On Sundays, they often play table tennis with their Chinese friends. They love China and their Chinese friends.