Do you know Roma people? They were called Gypsies(吉普赛人) by Europeans because they thought they came from Egypt(a country in Africa). About a thousand years ago, the Roma people left their homeland. They are known as nomads because for hundreds of years many of them have lived in large groups that travel from place to place. They have no real homeland.

    Today, the Roma are now living all over the world. They have kept their language and many customs. For example, it's important for Roma to marry other Roma. It's also a custom for parents to choose the person their children will marry. Roma people get married when they are young, sometimes even as young as 14.

    Romany is the language of the Roma people, which was written down only recently. Because the Roma are nomadic and have moved all over the world, their language has developed in many different ways. It is sometimes hard for Roma in one part of the world to understand Roma from another part.

    Roma music is famous all over the world, because many Roma throughout history have been musicians. Their music has influenced many other kinds of music, like classical and jazz.

    Roma don't usually assimilate(同化) into host countries. Over many centuries, governments have forbidden them to marry each other, travel or wear their traditional bright clothes. They have their gold taken away from them—treasures (财富) from their parents and grandparents. They have been taken as slaves(奴隶), and have been forced to change their names.

    But today, the Roma are finding ways to live in peace with others while keeping the treasures of their culture. "There's a will within us to continue to live as a people," says George Kaslov, whose family arrived in New York from Russia a hundred years ago. "All the other ethnic(种族) groups who came to America assimilate gradually with time going; they lose their customs and language. But not the Roma. We hold out."

Xiao Pei is a student in Xiaogan, China. She is thirteen years old and she is in Grade Seven this year. She has a friend in India. She gets lots of e-mails from his friend.

In their e-mails, Xiao Pei learns that life of Indian children is difficult. And they don't have money to buy desks for school. She feels sad and wants to help them.

She and her friends collect 2750 yuan. Some Indian teachers help them buy 50 desks. "We have many good things in our country," says Xiao Pei . "We should help others." She also hopes to save money to build a well for them. Then the students can get clean water from it. It may be a good gift for the Indian children.

There are some interesting sports at the Paris Olympics. Let's learn about some of them together!

Baseball & Softball

Baseball started in the 1480s in Britain, but later it got very popular in the USA. It came to the Olympics in 1992 for the first time. Softball started in the 1880s and women's soft ball game came to the Olympics in 1996. Now it is really popular in Japan.

Many people think the two sports are the same, but a softball is bigger and softer than a baseball.

Speed climbing

Two athletes(运动员) go head- to- head to see who reaches the top of of a 15- meter- high wall first.

Lead climbing

Athletes have six minutes to climb as high as possible on a 15- meter- high wall.

Surfing

It started in Australia. There people love water sports very much. In the game , four atheltes surf at a time trying to catch the waves(浪) on their boards. The athletes should do difficult moves to win the game.

This is my uncle's farm. It's a big farm.

He has many kinds of animals. Look at the horses. They are white. How many horses can you see? I can see twelve. Does he have cows? Yes, he has. He has ten black and white cows. He has fifteen rabbits, too. They are brown. Look! What are under the big tree? Oh, they are baby chickens. The chickens are yellow. Are those ducks? No, they aren't. They are geese. The geese are white. Do you like sheep? He has eleven white sheep, too. What's that over there ? It's a black dog. I like it.

What else can you see on the farm? I can see apple trees, tomato and potato plants and flowers.

This is a beautiful farm. Do you like it?

Skate boarding, surfing and sport climbing were parts of the 2024 Paris Olympics. But they made their first Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. These are all popular sports among young people. Would you like to give them a try?