Mara: There are a lot of other people with more experience .,but I just try to do my best .I always go on to the stage thinking good thoughts, never bad thoughts.

  Reporter: Who is your role model or idol(偶像) ? What inspires you?

  Mara: For singing, my idols are Aretha Franklin and Christina Aguilera, but a role model to me would be my mom. I love her with all my heart—she encourages me to believe in my dreams.

  Reporter: What are your other hobbies?

  Mara: I love playing video games, and I usually go to the park with my family. We usually play basketball. We also like to play tennis!

    Jim is an American. He is now living(居住) in China. He gets up at about half past six and has breakfast at seven o'clock. After breakfast, he says goodbye to his parents and leaves home at half past seven. He usually goes to school on foot. He gets there at five minutes to eight. He has his first class at eight.

    Morning classes are over at ten past twelve and he has lunch five minutes later, at about a quarter past twelve. After lunch he plays with his friends.

    Afternoon classes begin at half past one. Usually there are two lessons in the afternoon. They finish at half past three. Usually he plays games or other things at school, and he gets home at about a quarter past five. He has supper at six and then does his homework and then watches TV. He goes to bed at about half past ten.

This summer, when I walked into my grandparents ' house with my little brother Frank, I tried not to look at Grandpa's chair anyway. It still  looked the same. His blue 1 was  there, as if ( 好 像 ) Grandpa was going to pull it over his legs. My cousin Jack was playing in the yard as if 2 had happened. "Let's go to catch fish!" Jack 3 the fish net from the corner, Grandpa's net.

Last summer, I was holding the net when Grandpa asked me 4 I could help him teach Frank how to play chess. I said no because I wanted to catch fish. Grandpa had been the one who'd taught us how to catch fish, but then the 5 made him stay behind.

I regretted saying no to Grandpa, and now I wouldn't have 6 to play chess with him.

When we reached the stream, we began to catch fish. Suddenly, Jack shouted, "Frank is shaking." We hadn't brought anything to keep 7 so I had to send him home.

Grandma was worried to see a wet Frank and 8 put Grandpa's blue blanket around him. As I went to the stream again to meet Jack, I looked back at Frank with that old blanket. Something seemed to 9 me at that moment. Everything was just like before, but Grandpa was gone.

I walked to Frank. "Did Grandpa teach you to play chess last summer?" I asked. "No, Grandpa was too sick then." he said, "I miss him."

"Me, too." When I said it, I knew Grandpa was never gone. What 10 us was still there. It could be the fish net. It could be the chess. It could be the blue blanket.

Hello, my name is Ricky. I'm{#blank#}1{#/blank#}robot (机器人). I come{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Japan and I'm Japanese. Now I am in an{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(America) family. I often help clean the house. Look! The room is really big, but it is in a mess (乱). There{#blank#}4{#/blank#}(be) a cat and some pens on the desk but there{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(not) any books on it. A football is on the left of the desk.{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (Lucy) coat is between the bed and the chair. Where are {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(she) shoes? They are behind the door. How many{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(flower) are there on the floor? Oh, ten.

My owner Lucy is a{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(teach) at a middle school{#blank#}10{#/blank#}she is very busy every day. I am happy that I can help her. It's time to work now. Goodbye.

When it comes to Chinese paper-cutting, many think of typical works like the Chinese characters Fu, meaning luck, or xi, meaning happiness. To change those stereotypes(固有印象) and make paper-cutting more creative, Ye Kaiyuan, a paper-cutting artist from Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, worked many years to make the traditional art more modern and fashionable.

 As a child, Ye would draw and cut. He even won second place in a national competition. In the summer of 2012, he held his first show of his own paper-cuttings. It turned out to be a great success.

 In the traditional way to the skill, cutting comes first, then dyeing(染色). But Ye tries to dye first and then cut. "This means you will not know the final color of your work, which is interesting," he said.

 For Ye, the lines in each paper-cutting are an expression of feelings. He always carries notebooks to write down his ideas. The idea for his work called A Picture of Two Fish came when he saw salted fish at a store. Other inspirations(灵感) come from his observation(观察) of things such as fruit and visits to different places.

 The creative process is slow. It took Ye two weeks to draw and make Farewell My Concubine(《霸王别姬》). He did not cut two of the characters in this story. Instead, he used flowers and curves(曲线) to represent Yu Ji — the heroine of the story.