John is a very strong man. He gets a job of cutting(砍) trees in a forest. His boss gives him an axe and showed him the area where he should work.

    The first day, John cuts down 18 trees. "Good," the boss says, "keep it up!" happily, John  tries harder the next day, but he only cuts down 15 trees. The third day he tries even harder, but he can only cut down 10 trees. Day after day he cuts down fewer and fewer trees.

    "I must be losing my strength(力气)," John thinks. He goes to the boss to say sorry and says that he can not know what is going on. "When is the last time you sharpen(锋利) your axe?"  the boss asks. "I'm busy cutting trees, so I have no time to do it. "

    The moral of this story: While John is working hard, he doesn't work “smart”. He doesn't think about the best way to do his job.

    Sometimes talent runs in families. Let's look at some famous (著名的) brothers and sisters.

    Andy Murray and Jamie Murray are very famous brothers. They are both professional (职业的) tennis players and they play in competitions all over the world. Jamie is older than Andy, but only by about a year. They look very similar. They are the same height and they have the same dark hair. Jamie became a professional player in 2004, one year before his younger brother Andy. But Andy wins more competitions than his brother!

    Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue are famous Australian sisters. Kylie began her career (事业) as an actress on Australian TV, then she began singing when she was 19 years old. She soon became famous all over the world. Dannii is younger than Kylie. She is also taller than her sister and she has darker hair. She began singing after Kylie, but she is also very famous. Dannii is also famous as a judge (评判员) on TV talent shows. Sometimes Kylie and Dannii sing together, and they sing really well.

    I remember the first time I got on a horse. I was two years old and we were watching a friend of the family ride. My mom agreed to let me take a short ride around the ground with the friend and that was it' I became crazy about having a horse. From then on, I drove my parents mad beg­ging for a horse. Whenever I saw a horse, I would beg even harder.

    When I was four years old, problems appeared in my life. I had Selective Mutism (选择性缄默症). This is an unusual childhood disorder (失调) in which children stop speaking in certain social situations, many times at around the age of four. I spoke to my parents as usual, my brother and certain other people, but was silent at school and in social situations. I went days, weeks, months without a sound at school. At most, I might very quietly speak to a friend.

    My parents looked for a cure. One psychologist (心理医生) had an idea. Having discussed his plan with my parents in advance, one day I was asked by the psychologist what I wanted more than anything in the world. He explained that I was going to be given a chance to work for what I wanted. I couldn't believe my good luck, but I could not answer. I just stood there. Finally, I was allowed to whisper (低声说) the answer in my mother's ear. "A horse," was all I could say.

    I was to get a little horse, but before we could even start looking, I had to try to talk. I had a chart of weekly tasks I had to finish. I had to answer the phone five times every week, something I had never done before. I did everything that was asked of me and the day came when my parents found the perfect horse. His name was Sequoia, a strong little chestnut (栗子马). He was perfect, of course, and I fell in love immediately. It truly was a dream come true. When I was with Sequoia, I forgot all about my problems and felt strong and life.

    By connecting with them, I have learned to hug what I was once not able to do and I found my voice back.

We usually have three meals a day——breakfast, lunch and dinner. Different people have different food for breakfast. Some children tell us about their breakfast food. 

Simon is an American boy. He usually eats cakes and drinks milk with sugar (糖) for breakfast. He loves sugar. He is short. He doesn't like to drink juice for breakfast.

Jack is from the UK. He usually has bread and a glass of juice for breakfast. His favorite is apple juice, but his family like orange juice. They usually have eggs and hamburgers. 

Lucy is a Chinese girl. She usually has soup (汤) and baozi with meat for breakfast. She doesn't have bread and cakes for breakfast.

My school will hold an English Week. The activity time is from 10 March to 15 March. All1 and English teachers will join in the activities. We will have many activities, such as singing English songs, holding speech contests, and watching English movies. But we have a 2 about the plan for the English Week, and all of us have  3 opinions. Some students think it could be a 4 of time, "We should learn English by ourselves, and studying in groups would 5 a lot of time. What's more, we have much homework to do, and there's no time 6 for us to do anything else." However, some other students said we should hold the activity of English Week because we can learn to 7 in groups in that way. It could 8 our English a lot. Studying together would be more interesting. I agree on the second 9 . We need after-class activities, and English Week is 10 useful and meaningful. I think it is worth well being held.

Hello! My name is Ye Ying. My favourite subject is maths. For some students, maths is boring. But for me, it's really interesting {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I can have great fun in class. 

Mr Qiao is our maths teacher. It is Monday today and we have a(n) {#blank#}2{#/blank#} class in the morning. At 8:30 a. m. , Mr. Qiao comes into the classroom with {#blank#}3{#/blank#} "clock". "Look{#blank#}4{#/blank#} the ‘clock'. It's {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, right? Now I want you to draw a ‘clock' like this, but it's different from mine, " he says to {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. We all think it is easy and start to do it. We {#blank#}7{#/blank#} different "clocks" in class. 

Mr Qiao{#blank#}8{#/blank#} these clocks to help us learn maths. And he thinks all of us do very{#blank#}9{#/blank#}, so he praises(表扬)us. Then the class ends at 9:20 a. m. 

We have five maths {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a week, three in the morning and two in the afternoon. We're happy to see Mr Qiao every school day.