In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship's captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.

    Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee's skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.

    Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant（助理）, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.

    In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit（因纽特）guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary's feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson's instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.

    In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes' graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.

    On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to the supermarket to buy Christmas gifts. In the supermarket, I noticed a little boy, holding a doll and looking so sad. He turned to the old woman next to him, “Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?” The old lady replied, “You know we don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.” Then she left for something else and the boy still stood there.

    Finally, I went to the boy and asked him who he wanted to give this doll to. “It is the doll that my sister wanted so much for this Christmas. She was so sure that Father Christmas would bring it to her.”

    I told him that maybe Father Christmas will bring it to her. But he replied to me sadly, “No, Father Christmas cannot bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mother so that she can give it to her when she goes there. My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mummy will also go to see God very soon, so I thought that she could bring the doll with her to give it to my sister.”

    Hearing this, I quickly reached into my wallet and took a few notes and said to the boy, “What if we checked again, just in case if you have enough money?”

    “OK,” he said, “I hope that I have enough.”

    I added some of my money to his without his seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll.

    The little boy said, “Thank God for giving me enough money.”

    Then he looked at me and added, “I prayed to God yesterday before I slept to make sure I have enough money to buy this doll. He heard me.”

    If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice. There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills, you should first master the skills of reading and listening.

    Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar(不熟悉) words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example, in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.

    As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.

    For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

    If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve quickly, and you can be a fluent English speaker one day.

    If there is one person who has left a deep impression on me, it's my teacher Mrs. Pathak who was my class teacher for three years. In my childhood, how I wished I had a mother or a sister like her. One moment she could be tough (严厉的) and strict, another moment caring and compassionate (富有同情心的).

    She always encouraged us to tell the truth. For instance, if one had not done the homework, he need not lie. She allowed us to make mistakes, saying we couldn't be perfect all the time, but we should try.

    Another thing she taught me early on was punctuality. She set a good example with her own behaviour. She was always on time, so we students tried our best to be on time.

    She surprised us with her sense of humour. Her classroom teaching was always humorous. After class, she talked to us and told us jokes.

    We really felt free to ask questions and Mrs. Pathak would give the answers. If she did not know — there had been some occasions (场合) — she would say so. We all then tried to find out the answers. Whoever came up with the answer was appreciated and given the due credit (应有的称赞). Now I sometimes wonder whether Mrs. Pathak was pretending just to encourage us to explore and find answers by ourselves.

No matter which place you decide to visit in Spain, you'll find a beautiful beach waiting just for you. These popular beaches can meet the needs of people from all walks of life.

Cala de Algaiarens, Minorea

With soft golden sand and clear water, this beach is perfect for snorkeling (浅滩潜水) and visiting underwater caves. The beach belongs to a local man, so tourists have to pay a small entry fee. The waves here can sometimes be huge so the beach isn't safe for kids.

Cala Tarida, Ibiza

Besides the big music festivals and the exciting nightlife, Ibiza is home to some of the most beautiful beaches; one of them is Cala Tarida. Just relax on the white sand or go swimming in clear water. It is an ideal location to spend a sunny day if you are in Ibiza.

Beach of La Concha, San Sebastian

It has been called the best city beach not just in Spain, but also in Europe. It's so popular during the holidays that tourists have to struggle to get some space. Even though the beach is a 10- minute walk from the city, the white sand and the amzing clear waters do make the city a new world.

Sotavento, Canary Islands

As an ideal choice for travelers, Sotavento offers 17 miles of white sandy beach. It is blessed with strong water and winds, making it a paradise (天堂) for surfers and kite flyers. The beach also hosts the popular World Kite Surf Championship every August.

 Japan is an island country in the Pacific Ocean. As the Japanese students already know, four main islands and more than 3,000 small ones stretch from north to south for about 1,300 miles. As for the climate of the country, well, it's hot and humid(潮湿) in summer, but it is quite cold and wet in Japan during winter. Typhoons, which are violent tropical storms, often threaten Japan during the fall. That's, of course, during the harvest season.

 The population of Japan is about 110,5 million. It may seem hard to believe, but the average population density(密度) of the country is about 678 persons per square mile.

 About two thirds of the entire population lives in Japan's cities. The other one third lives in the suburbs or in the countryside. No other country in southern or eastern Asia has such a large urban, or city population. Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, is the most density-populated city in the world. At last count there were more than 11.5 million people living in Tokyo.