Let's read the conversations and guess the meaning of the following expressions.

    Almost everyone in China knows David Beckham. He is a famous former English soccer player. He is introducing his three sons to you.

    Hi! My name is David Beckham. I'm 42 years old. I come from the UK. I played soccer, but I retired in 2013 and I didn't play soccer any more from then on. I have four children, three sons and one daughter. I love them very much!

    This is my youngest son Cruz. He is 12 years old. Cruz wants to be an actor(演员). But I think he is too young to act now.  He should stay in school. He can take acting lessons first.

    Here's Romeo, my second son. He is 15 years old. This kid is good-looking. He is a young model(模特) for clothes brand Burberry. He also dances well.

    This is my eldest son Brooklyn.  He is 18 years old. Brooklyn is a shy boy. He likes soccer very much.

    Different countries have different customs in giving presents.

    IN CHINA you must never give a clock to a Chinese person, because the sound of the word for "clock" is similar to the sound for "death" in Chinese. Also, don't wrap（包裹） a present in white, black, or blue paper, because these are the colors for funerals（葬礼）. Don't give a knife, because something sharp（锋利的） can cut a friendship.

    IN RUSSIA if we give flowers as a present, we have to give all odd numbers of them(one, three, five, etc.) because even numbers of flowers(two, four, six, etc.) are for funerals.

    IN GERMANY flowers are a good present to take to your dinner hostess, but don't take her red roses because it means you are in love with her. Don't take thirteen of anything because it's an unlucky number. Don't take an even number of anything, either. Don't wrap your present in white, brown, or black paper.

    One day, the teacher held up an apple in class, stood on the platform(讲台) and said, "Please smell the smell in the air!" One student raised his hand and answered, "I have smelled it. It is the smell of an apple."

    The teacher stepped off the platform, passed by each of the students and said," Please smell again to see if the smell of the apple is still in the air."

    Half of the students raised their hands to show that they could smell it. The teacher returned to the front of the classroom and asked again if the students could smell the apple. Everyone raised their hands except one student. The teacher came to the student and asked," You really can't smell the apple?"

    The student answered," No, I can't smell it. I don't think it's a real apple."

    The teacher smiled at the student and said to the class," He is right! This is not a real apple."

    All of the other students were tricked. They might have thought that perhaps the apple was not real, but they didn't have the self-confidence to speak up. They just "followed the leader" and went along with the first student.

    Please remember "Believe in yourself first, and then others will believe in you".

Billy always loved blueberries. They were his favorite fruit. Today he was going to make juice with his uncle. His uncle liked to make juice out of everything. He made carrot juice, apple juice, vegetable juice, and more juices. He had never made blueberry juice before though!

First, Billy and his uncle went to a blueberry farm. They were each given a basket. They picked for an hour and got several pounds. It was hard work picking the little berries from the trees. Now Billy understood why they were expensive in the store.

Next, they had to wash the fruit. Some of them still had leaves. Those had to be pulled off. Then the bad berries had to be thrown away. They washed the berries and made them air-dry.

After that, they pushed the blueberries through a strainer (过滤器). The strainer caught most of the seeds and skins, and only left a small glass of dark purple juice to them.

When they tasted the juice, it wasn't very sweet. Billy's uncle didn't want to add white sugar (糖) to the juice. It was better to use a naturally sweet juice, like apple juice, pear juice, or grape juice. They use grape juice as a sweetener, because grapes had a similar color to the blueberries.

Finally, they could drink it. It was a lot of work to make juice, but it sure was refreshing!