Tony Wheeler was born to travel. His father worked for an airline. For the first 16 years of his life,Wheeler and his family lived in many different countries.

    In the early 1970s,Tony met a young woman named Maureen. They soon married. Before getting jobs, Tony and Maureen wanted to travel. They took a year long trip from England, through Asia, to Australia. On the trip,they visited places like Iran(伊朗),India,and so on.

    When Tony and Maureen arrived in Australia, people asked many questions about their trip. To answer these questions, Wheeler wrote a book called Across Asia on the Cheap. The book told people about different countries' weather, customs (风俗), and places to see. But unlike other travel books then,Tony Wheeler's book also talked about places most tourists did not go. He also wrote about unusual things to see and do. The book was very popular.

     Tony and Maureen started a company called Lonely Planet. They continued travelling. They wrote books for each place they visited. Today,800 people work {or Lonely Planet. The company has over 650 books. Tony Wheeler,the great traveller, still writes about travels to many places and will bring us more surprises.

B

    On August 21st, 2016, our Chinese National Women's Volleyball Team won the gold medal at 2016 Rio Olympics, 12 years after the last gold medal. All of Chinese were so excited. Thanks to the great coach named Lang Ping whom Chinese people are so proud of. Lang Ping was born in Tianjin. She was once a volleyball player of the Chinese National Volleyball Team. They won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Lang was seen as one of the most respected  people in modern Chinese sports history. Because of her excellent skills and main role in the success of the Chinese Women's Volleyball Team in the 1980s, she is known as the "Iron Hammer ".

    In 1995, Lang as a coach led the national team and guided them to win the silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. But in 2005, she became coach of the USA's women's team. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Lang led the Americans to play against Chinese National Team. In 2013, Lang became coach of China again. It could be difficult to train for the Rio Olympics. In order to get ready for it, she tried her best to teach girls skills, and she is also friendly, just like girls' mother. They get on well with each other and work together. She encouraged them all the time and told them "never give up". In fact, everyone had a strong will for their dream. Now the dream really came true.

    Their success showed the world about their great spirit. Though the success did not come easily, they can make it. Lang is regarded as the most amazing star all the time.

    A horse fair is an interesting place. There were young horses from the country, little Welsh ponies and many beautiful horses too. But there were also a lot of poor, thin horses, tired from hard work. I was very sad to see them.

    At the horse fair there was a man with a gentle voice and kind grey eyes. He offered 23 pounds for me, but they refused. Then a man with a very loud voice came. I was afraid he was going to buy me, but he walked off. Then the grey-eyed man came back again and said:

    "I'll give 24 for him."

    "Done," said the salesman. "He's a quality horse and if you want him for cab (出租马车) work, he's a bargain."

Half an hour later we set off for London, along country roads, until we came to that great city. There were streets to the right, and streets to the left. We went into one of the small streets, and then into a very narrow street, with small, old houses.

    My owner stopped at a house. The door opened, and a woman, a little girl and boy, came out.

    "Is he gentle, father?"

    "Yes, Dolly, as gentle as a kitten; you can pat him."

    Dolly, the little girl, patted my shoulder without fear. It felt so good! They led me into a comfortable, clean stable, and after a delicious meal I lay down to sleep, thinking "I'm going to very happy here".

    My new owner's name was Jerry. His wife was called Polly and they had two children, Harry and Dolly. The next morning they came to see me. I loved it when they patted me and spoke in gentle voices.

    "Let's call him 'Jack', after the old horse, shall we, Harry?" said Dolly.

    "Yes, let's," said Harry.

    The first week of my life as Jack, the London cab horse was very hard. The noise and the people and the traffic on the streets scared me. But Jerry was a very good driver, and that helped a lot Jerry soon found that I was ready to work hard and do my best, and he didn't whip (鞭打) me.

    He kept us very clean, and gave us as much food as we wanted. But the best thing was that we had Sundays off.

The Picture of Peace

When Mike was seven, he knew his dream was to be a photographer. He kept working on it for years. Recently, he was trying to take a picture of a sunset(日落) to enter the school1 competition. 

"Mom，it has been cloudy these days. I don't think I can get this picture!" Mike complained. 

"Why not use one of your photos on the computer?" suggested Mom. 

"I can't-the rules say the photos have to be taken with a traditional camera. We hand in a roll of film, it gets developed(冲洗胶卷), and we2 one photo for the competition. "

"Why is a sunset so important?" Mom asked. 

"The3 of the competition is peace，" Mike explained, "and I feel most peaceful seeing a sunset. "

Zach, his six-year-old brother came out of the bedroom. " Hey, you want to take a picture of me? Look!" He put both arms over his head. 

"Not right now, " said Mike, laughing. 

That very afternoon, Mike felt excited when he saw clear skies. He carefully lined up his shot(镜头) and waited4 till the sun reached the ground. 

"That's it! Perfect!" he shouted cheerfully. 

The next morning, Mike noticed he could take one more picture to complete the roll of film, so he walked into Zach's room. Zach was 5 quietly with a teddy bear under his arm. Mike didn't wake Zach up, and carefully took a picture of him. 

A week later, Mike got the photos. The sunset picture was the one he was most6 to see. There it was! It was as nearly perfect as Mike had expected. 

Then, he looked through the other photos. Suddenly，he stopped. His eyebrows(眉毛) rose as he 7 the photo of Zach. He looked back at the photo of the sunset，which seemed less perfect now. He 8 the two choices. Finally, he decided to hand in the photo of Zach for the competition.