In ancient times, there was a king who loved flowers, His palace was always decorated with beautiful orchids (兰花) and other flowers. As the king grew older, he knew that one day he would have to give up his throne (王位). So he had to find someone to rule the country.

    The other day, the king had an idea. He asked his servants to travel to every part of the country and give every citizen a single orchid seed (种子), He then announced that the person who grew the most beautiful orchid would take his throne.

    Everyone in the country then got their own seed. One young man named David was especially excited about the news, because he had experience in growing flowers himself.

    David planted his seed in a pot and put it in a place where it would get lots of sunlight. He watched it carefully every day. But as hard as he tried, his flower simply would not grow.

    Finally, it was time for everyone to give their flowers to the king. David took his empty pot to the palace. "Your Majesty (尊敬的陛下), I am sorry to say that I could not grow an orchid, But I hope you can see that I tried my best," he said.

    The king was moved by David's honesty. Although he did not choose David as the new king, he gave David a job as a royal court judge (法官).He believed that David's honesty would make him the right person to make sure the justice (公正) in the country.

    There is a saying in China that goes, "Women hold up half the sky." Now, let's look at some famous women who have a big influence in China.

Have you seen the movie Marnie's World? It tells a story about a clever and funny cat.

The orange cat Marnie lived a happy life, but it never left home. Marnie liked to watch TV shows. It knew the outside world through these shows. One day, the brother of Marnie's owner (主人) took it out of the house. Then Marnie began its trip in the outside world. On the way, it made three good friends. The dog Elvis always spoke loudly. It looked unfriendly, but in fact it was kind. Anthony was a very stupid and funny donkey (驴). It wanted to be a big star one day. The rooster (公鸡) Eggbert was always afraid. They all looked strange. Later the police wanted to catch Marnie and its friends because they thought they were thieves (贼). Of course they weren't.

How did Marnie save itself and its friends? Could Marnie finally catch the real thieves? Please go and watch the movie with your friends.

In some parts of the world, children don't have enough food to eat or enough money to buy clothes or shoes. Every year at Sunshine Middle School, we do something to collect money for these children. This year we will have a Market Day. 

The Market Day will fall on July 8. We are going to make the student center at our school look just like a big shopping center! People can come at any time from 9:00 a. m. to 5:00 p. m. and buy every- thing from clothes to books, cakes and flowers. 

Luckily for us, many volunteers (志愿者) will help prepare for the big event. Last year, Ms. Grant and Ms. Ali made some wonderful cakes for our charity. They will do it again this year. Bill Thomas will visit Bookworm Bookshop and Mel's Music Shop and ask them to give us things that we can sell at the event. Philip White will e- mail all the teachers and ask them to come to our event. Alice Brow n will put a message online telling the public the event is open to everyone. 

However, there is more to do, and we need your help. We want you to give us things that we can sell- books, old clothes, anything that we can sell to collect money for poor children. We also need some student volunteers to sell the things we get on Market Day. 

With your help, we will certainly have a successful Market Day!

I'm Lisa. Good news! Good news! We have a new house. The rooms are small but they are all nice. There are many rooms in our new house. 

My bedroom is my favorite room in our house. I make the room full of green color because I like green best. First, I paint the wall green. Then I put some pictures on the wall. The pictures are all about plants, flowers and the sky. I put a big red bed in the middle of the room. The quilt is like a big tree. You can see a bird sleeping in the tree. There is a green table on the left side of the bed. And there is a green desk on the right side of the bed. I am so happy because there are many storybooks on it. I love reading very much. Reading makes me wise. There is a big orange bookcase in the room. I also put my things in the bookcase: my schoolbag, CDs, history books, and the model plane. 

My second favorite room is the kitchen because I like cooking. My mother is a good cook, so l want to be a cook. 

I love my new house. Welcome to my new house.