I come from Cambridge, a beautiful city in the cast of England. It is on the River Cam and has a population of about 120, 000. My home town is especially famous for its university. Many famous people studied here, such as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. There are lots of old buildings and churches to visit. Students and tourists enjoy trips along the river by boat.

    Cambridge is 80 kilometers from London. London is in the south of England and it is on the River Thames. It has a population of about; seven and a half million, so it is bigger and busier than Cambridge. It is about 2, 000 years old, and it is famous for Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge.

    England itself is part of an island, and you are always near the sea. The small villages and beaches on the coast are popular for holidays. Tourists like the areas of low mountains and beautiful lakes in the north, and the hills and pretty villages in the south. Everywhere in England, you will notice how green the countryside is.

    It is never very hot in summer or very cold in winter. So come and see England any time of the year, but bring an umbrella with you. It rains a lot all year round. You will need it most days.

    Mark Twain tells a boy's story in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a poor child without a mother and a home. His father drinks too much alcohol and always beats him.

    Huck's situation frees him from the restriction of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not go to school. He also smokes. Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped(逃脱)slavery(奴隶制).They travel together on a raft(木筏)made of wood down the Mississippi River. Mark Twain started writing" Huckleberry Finn" as a children's story. But it soon became serious. The story tells about the social evil of slavery, which is seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Huck's ideas about people are formed by the white society in which he lives. So, at first, he does not question slavery. Huck knows that important people believe slavery is natural and this is the law of God. So he thinks it is his duty to tell Jim's owner where to find him.

    Later, Huck comes to understand that Jim is a good man. He finds he cannot carry out his plan to inform Jim's owner of his whereabouts(下落). Instead, he decides to help Jim escape. He decides to do this, even if God punishes him.

    When you write a text message or an email, you might put a smiling face or other pictures at the end to make the message more fun. These pictures are emojis. The first emojis were on Japanese mobile phones in the 1990s. Later, they were used on Apple's iPhone and Android phones. Now they are everywhere!

Before emojis, there were emoticons. The word is a mixture(混合) of emotion(感情) and icon(图标). Emoticons are made of the signs you can find on your keyboard, for example:) for a smiley or @};—for a rose. The first use of :-)was in 1982 and it was called "joke marker". Emoji is a Japanese word which means pictograph: e(picture) +moji (character). Emojis are real pictures, for example ，or . There are 1851emojis that can be used on mobile phones and other devices. There are all kinds of emojis, from faces and weather to things in the kitchen and animal.

    In England, we have a saying: A picture paints a thousand words. For many people, an emoji is like a punctuation mark(标点). It's like the tone of voice when we speak on the phone, or hand movements(gestures) used in conversation. Emojis are also changing the way we write. The more we use emojis, the less we use slang(俚语), such as LOL or OMG.

    When someone speaks and looks serious, we try to look serious, too, and when someone smiles, we smile as well. This is how we show empathy(同感) and make friends(and enemies!). But when we're online, we can't see the person's face and there's no emotion. The invention of emojis changed that! Scientists in Australia have discovered that when we look at a smiley face online, the same parts of the brain start working as when we look at a real smiley face. Our mood changes, and we try to change our face to match the emoji. This is something we learn as we get older. Our brains have developed this ability over the last two or three years. This means that emojis have created a new brain pattern(模式)in us!

    The summer holiday is coming. Try to take some time off from school and have fun. Here are some ideas for planning your summer holiday.

    First of all, joining a club is a good idea! You can join a music club, a sports club or an art club, it's good for your future and the teachers in the club can give you some good advice (建议). You can also make some new friends.

    Doing something good for society (社会) is also great. There are many volunteer programs(志愿者项目) for you to choose, such as looking after the____①___or the young, cleaning the streets, planting trees or keeping the traffic(交通) in order. You know that students can also make the world better.

    Did you ever live with another family? You can join in a program___②____"Meeting a New Family" .Two families exchange their children for some time so that they can learn how to get on well with others.

Summer camps are still popular today. An English summer camp can be a good one. You can not only make friends but also learn English.

Dear Candy,

I am happy to hear from you. I know that you are 1 in Chinese paper cutting(剪纸). Let me tell you about it.

As we all know, paper cutting is a kind of art in China. It has a long 2 . It is very popular 3 easy to make. People often make paper-cuts when they are free, because they think that paper-cuts can bring good luck to 4 .

People usually use red paper 5 paper-cuts. We can 6 paper-cuts on walls, windows, doors, and so on. In China, people like to make paper-cuts in the shape(形状) of flowers and 7 .

It is easy 8 how to make paper-cuts. What you need is a piece of paper and a pair of scissors(剪刀). But it's difficult to be good 9 paper-cuts, because it needs 10 practice and imagination(想象).

I know you will come to China next month. Hope to see you soon.

Best wishes!

Li Hua

Have you ever watched a movie with your partners on the weekend? Do you know what you should do and what you shouldn't do in the cinema? If you want to figure out the answers, you are supposed to have a look at your film ticket before you go into the cinema. That will tell you everything you want to know.

Here is a ticket from Friendship Theatre.