Dads work hard every day. Father's Day is the time for us to say “thank you”to our dads.

    The idea for Father's Day started 11909. A woman called Sonora Dodd thought about 2a Father's Day holiday when she was listening to a Mother's Day speech at church. She wanted a special day to honour her father, William Smart. Mr Smart's wife died when she was giving birth to 3sixth child. He raised the baby and his4five children5 a farm.

    When she became 6adult, Sonora Dodd understood how kind her father was. When he was raising his six children7, he worked very 8to make sure his children grow up 9.

    Since 1966, the third Sunday in June has become a national Father's Day in10. In early times, people wore red roses 11respect for fathers who were still living and white flowers for fathers who had died. Today, people all over the world celebrate(庆祝) Father's Day 12many different ways. Some people buy their fathers something useful.Some people just do some simple things that they can do 13preparing a cup of tea or making some nice food for them. However the holiday is celebrated, the idea is for children to let their father 14that he is loved.

    15 give your father a surprise by saying “Thank you”on the coming Father's Day?

    In our country we think being modest(谦虚的) is a virtue(美德) and being proud is a bad thing. One day, I heard an American boy say to a Chinese student, “you speak very good English.” But the girl answered, “No, no. My English is very poor.” The foreigner was quite 1at the answer. Thinking he had not made himself understood or the girl had not heard him 2 He said, “Yes, indeed, you speak very well.”3 the girl still kept saying. “No.” In the end the American boy could not understand and didn't know 4 to say.

    What's wrong with the girl's answer? She didn't 5a compliment(恭维) in the same way as the American people do. She should answer “Thank you” instead of “No.” She 6 understood what the American boy had said, but she thought she should be modest. In the 7 people will feel 8 and confident when they are praised. So if someone says the 9 you have cooked are very delicious, you should say, “Thank you”.

    If you are modest and say. “No, I'm 10 I can't do it well”, while working in a western country, people may think that you really can not do it. If you often say, “No”, you'll certainly be looked down upon by 11 When asking 12 a job, if one says something like, “Yes, I can certainly do it” instead of “ Let me have a try”, he or she will13 get it. So in the west, you should be brave to show your self-confidence. In my opinion, being confident doesn't 14 being proud, so sometimes you should be confident15 being modest.

    Jazz is a type of music. Some people say that jazz is America's only true art form. That's because it began here. Hundreds of years ago, black people worked as slaves (奴隶) and made up songs to pass the time. It wasn't called jazz then, but the way the slaves were playing and singing music was special.

    The music of America's black people began to be called jazz in the early 1900s.

    What makes jazz special is improvisation (即兴创作). That means making the music up on the spot (当场). No music in front of you. No long discussion with other people in your band.

    "It's free. It's beautiful," says Geoffrey, a sixth-grader at Stratford Landing Elementary School. Geoffrey is such a good musician that he has performed at the Kennedy Center.

    Geoffrey says, "It's easy to express your feelings through jazz. You are more focused on being creative and using your imagination in jazz. "

    Washington DC is a very important place in the history of jazz. It has a famous jazz piano player: Duke Ellington.

    Born in Washington in 1899, Ellington as a child wanted to play baseball instead of the piano. But his parents played the piano, so he started playing the piano when he was seven years old.

    In 1920, he played small shows at the Howard Theatre. When he was 24, he moved to New York, but he didn't forget his hometown. He called his band the Washingtonians and later he returned to perform at the Lincoln Theatre.

Environmental protection is one of the hottest topics nowadays. It was also something that ancient Chinese paid great attention to. In fact, the world's earliest environmental protection idea, ministry （部门） and law were all born in China. How did the ancient Chinese protect the environment?

The world's earliest idea of "managing state affairs（政事）through environmental protection"

Xunzi, a famous thinker in the Warring States Period, came up with the idea of "managing state affairs through environmental protection". He wrote in his book that vegetation（植被）should be protected well by humans.

Guan Zhong, a government officer 400 years ahead of Xunzi, was also an environmental protection expert. He said "a king who cannot protect his vegetation is not doing a good job".

The world's earliest environmental protection ministry"

Nine ministries set up by Shim, an ancient Chinese emperor, included "Yu"（虞） , an environmental protection ministry. Hie first " Yu'' leader was Boyi, an environmental protection expert. He invented wells so people could drink clean water. He knew a lot about animals and also called for animal protection.

The world's earliest "environmental protection law"

Over 4, 000 years ago, Dayu, an ancient Chinese water-control expert and also an emperor, made a rule, not allowing people to cut down trees in March or catch fish in June, because it was the time when they grew quickly.

Almost 3,000 years ago, Tianlv, the first environmental protection law, appeared in Qin. It recorded many ancient environmental protection rules. Two of them were interesting: firstly, rivers should not be blocked（堵塞）; secondly, grass and trees should not be burned to be fertilizer （肥料）except for summer. The second one is inspiring even for today. It can help to keep air clean and fresh.

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