Campbell Remess, a 12-year-old boy from Tasmania, has an unusual hobby—sewing(缝纫). He makes teddy bears, and gives them to children at the local hospital. “If Campbell could be on that sewing machine for 24 hours, he would,” said his mother, Sonia.

      Campbell is one of nine children, so when he had the idea of giving Christmas presents to kids in hospital, the only choice was to make them himself. “First, I took a lot of practice,” said Campbell. “ I haven't sewn anything before.” He downloaded patterns from the Internet and learned by trial and error （反复试验）. At first, a bear took him five hours to make, but now it only takes him an hour to make a bear.

      Campbell visits the hospital every Thursday, giving out new bears and visiting kids whom he's given gifts before. “He looks at sadness and tries to turn it upside down,” Said Sonia.

      There has been sadness in his family, too. Five years age, his father Nathan had cancer. Even though he received the medical treatment, there was still an 80-percent recurrence rate（复发率）. “When we discovered Dad had cancer, we all felt very upset.,” said Campbell. “As a result, the cancer got worse with stress. So I made my first bear, hoping that Dad could be free from cancer.

      Since Nathan got the bear,   ▲    It's the longest period he has been free from cancer.“ there's a little magic in it,” said Nattan. “ A lot of magic in Campbell though.”

      Campbell explained his project with this: “ I think being kind will change the world.”

    Mr. Chen was puzzled（闲惑的）and a little suspicious（怀疑的）. He sat in the office and studied a letter apparently（看似）from Mrs. Wang, the mother of one of the pupils in his class. There was something about it which worried him.

    "I don't understand," he said to himself. He shook his head as he circled four mistakes in the letter. "Mrs. Wang is an educated woman. She wouldn't make mistakes like these even if she did write the letter in a hurry. "Mr. Chen took out his class register(名册)and said to himself, "Yesterday was Thursday. Let me see. Ah, yes. I thought so. David was absent on Thursday last week and the week before. Hm. Why is he so often absent on Thursdays? Was he really ill yesterday? Could it be a coincidence(巧合)?”

    Mr. Chen stared at the register as if the answers to his questions were hidden in it somewhere. Then he took out a copy of the timetable(课程表)for his class.

    "I wonder." he told to himself. "I wonder if his absence has anything to do with one of these lessons."

    Mr. Chen looked at the subjects for Thursday: Mathematics, English, P. E. He thought about P. E. He knew that the pupils had P. E. twice a week: once on Monday, when they usually played games on the school field, and once on Thursday, when they did exercises in the gym.

    Mr. Chen glanced round the office to find Mr. Long, the rather strict P. E. teacher, but he was not there.

    "I'd better have a chat with Long and David, "Mr. Chen thought.

The bell rang. "I can't do anything right now," Mr. Chen thought. "It's time to go to Class 2. I'll do it later on."

    Mr. Chen picked up his books and walked off to teach Class 2.

Later, on Friday, Mr. Chen spoke to Mr. Long, the P. E. teacher. Mr. Long agreed that it seemed strange for David to be absent so often on gym days. They thought about it for a while.

    "David is a good athlete(运动员)," Mr. Long finally said, "but he's afraid of heights. I was hard on him once because he wouldn't climb more than a couple of meters up the rope. Do you think that's why he's been absent recently?"

    "Yes, I think so," Mr. Chen said. "I'm going to talk to him this afternoon before he goes home."

    "Well, I've got a suggestion to make," said Mr. Long. "If he's scared of heights, he'd better come and see me after school. Quite a few people suffer from (遭受) vertigo. I'll be glad to help him."

    “That's very kind of you," said Mr. Chen. "I'll get him to come and see you on Monday or Tuesday."

    Papercutting is a kind of the traditional folk art in China. Papercutting has a long history of about 1,500 years. Let's learn something about papercutting.

    Wonderful meanings

    Papercutting has some wonderful meanings. Some papercutting means happiness and good luck. In the Spring Festival, people paste(粘贴) "Fu" on doors or windows. At a wedding, people paste "Xi".

    The largest Chinese papercutting

    The largest papercutting was made by Gao Xiaodong. It has an area of about 456 square meters. It is as large as a basketball court.

    Why is it red?

    In the old times of China, people think highly of the sun. Red was the color of the sun. They always regarded red as the symbol of hope and life. Now, we can also see red everywhere in China. The walls of old palaces are red. Lanterns are red. Weddings are always full of red things, too.

    Black papercutting in Shanzhou

    Much of the papercutting is red. But papercutting in Shanzhou, Henan Province is black. Black is the best color there. Shanzhou is a dry place. People make black papercutting and wish for rain.

A barking (吠)dog does not bite (咬)

Tom is a little boy of eight. His father is a doctor. He works in a hospital. He is often very busy (忙).{#blank#}1{#/blank#} After dinner, he says to Tom, "Tom, it's a nice evening. Put on your cap and coat.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}."

Tom is very glad.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} He puts on his cap and coat and says, "Dad, I am ready." Then Tom and his father go out to the park. Suddenly, they see a big, black dog.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Tom is very afraid (害怕) of the dog. He wants to run home. His father, says, "{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Don't you know the proverb (谚语), ‘A barking dog doesn't bite'?"

"Oh, yes! Dad," says Tom. "I know the proverb, you know the proverb, but does the dog know the proverb?"

A: Hi, Henry. You look so worried. What's up?

B: Hello, Jack. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Many people hurt because of it.

A: Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Why did it happen?

B: {#blank#}2{#/blank#} And the weather was dry and windy at that time.

A: That's the point. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

B: You are right. Safety comes first. Some children lost their home.

A: I want to do something for the children. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 

B: Maybe you can make a short video to cheer them up. 

A: Our schoolmates can also help them, too. 

B: That's a good idea. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

A: Let's go and talk with him.

When I was 16 years old, I made my first visit to the US. It wasn't the first time I had been 1 . Like most English children, I learnt French 2  school and I had often been to France. So I was used to speaking a foreign language to people who didn't understand 3 . When I went to America, I was really looking forward to 4  a nice and easy holiday. I hoped there were not any 5  problems. How 6 . I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was 7  a public telephone to give my American friend Daisy a call and tell her that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking like being lost and asked 8  he could help me or not. "Yes, "I said. "I want to give my friend a ring. ""Well, that's 9 . " he said. " Are you getting married? But aren't you a little bit too 10 ?"" Who is talking about marriage?"I replied. "I 11  want to give my friend a ring to tell her I've arrived. Can you tell me 12  the phone box is?""Oh!" he said, "there is a phone downstairs. "

When at last Daisy and I did meet up, Daisy explained the misunderstanding to me. "Don't worry, " she said to me. "I had so many 13  like this at first. There are lots of words that the Americans 14  differently in meaning from us British. You'll soon get used to all the funny things they say. But most of the 15 , British and American people understand each other. "