A few days ago, I ran into（撞上）a stranger as he passed by. I said sorry to him, and he said, "Excuse me too, I wasn't even watching for you.” We were very polite, this stranger and I.  Then we went on our way after saying goodbye.

       Later in the kitchen at home, as I cooked our meal, my daughter Betty walked up to me, very quietly. When I turned around (转身), I nearly knocked her down  "Get out of the way!" I shouted angrily. She ran away, crying.

That night, when I lay in bed, my husband said to me, “You were so rude to Betty. Go and look around on the kitchen floor, and you'll find some flowers there. Betty brought those for you. She picked them herself-pink, yellow, and your favourite blue.''

       When I heard this, I thought deeply: While meeting with a stranger, I was calm and polite; but with my daughter, I was not patient.  I felt sad and tears began to fall.

I quietly went to Betty's bed, "Wake up, my dear," I said. "Are these the flowers you picked for me?" She smiled, “I found them by the tree. I knew you'd like them, especially the blue.” I said, ‘‘I am so sorry that I treated (对待) you that way today." And she whispered（悄声地说）, “Mommy, that's okay- I still love you anyway.'' I kissed her and said, “I love you too and I do love the flowers.”

       That day Betty gave me a lesson on how to get along with each other in the family. I spent much time on work before and didn't realize how important family life was. I decided to do better in the future.

    When people travel abroad(国外), they sometimes stay in the homes of the local people. This is a homestay.

    I am living with an old English couple, in the west of London. They have a clean four-bedroom house. This is a new house. It has two bathrooms and a garden with many beautiful flowers. I have a bedroom of my own.

   There are some shopping centres and a restaurant near the house, and the house is close to an underground station. It takes about 30 minutes to take an underground to the centre of London.

    I think a homestay may be a good choice for you if it is your first time to visit abroad. The local people are friendly and helpful. If you want to celebrate the holidays with them, you will get to know more about their culture and customs.

    Lang Lang is only 27 years old, but has already been called "the most popular pianist on the planet" by American television network CNN.Like every successful person, Lang went through years of hard and lonely practice before making his name.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} With great talent (天赋), he won his first competition at the age of five{#blank#}2{#/blank#} When he was nine, Lang went to learn music in Beijing{#blank#}3{#/blank#}But Lang got fired (开除) by the piano teacher six months later{#blank#}4{#/blank#}Hearing about his son's failure, Lang's father was so angry that he told Lang to jump off a building!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}His big break came at age 17, when he gained worldwide fame at "Gala of the Century", a well-known concert in Chicago, the US. Lang said it was his true love of music and piano that made him keep working.

A.however, Lang didn't jump, and pressure(压力)soon changed to power.

B. Lang's father pushed little Lang very hard to succeed.

C. It totally destroyed (毁灭) his piano dream.

D. He began to take piano lessons at the age of 3.

E. His father even gave up his job and moved to Beijing with his son.

    We did a survey(研究) about student's free time activities yesterday. One of our questions was about exercise. According to(根据) the survey, only 25% of the girls often have activities outside. Many girls do little exercise. They don't like PE. classes and don't play sports .These girls may face a lot of problems. They may get fatter and weaker(更虚弱). And they may get some kinds of illness(疾病). Wang Jing, a 16-year-old girl, said, "I don't like doing exercise. I like watching TV from about 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.on the sofa. My sleeping time is no more than seven hours a day. I often feel tired."

    Some girls said they didn't have enough time to do exercise." We must help our parents with housework because they are very tired after a day's work. We have the dishes to do the house to clean and the homework to finish. There really isn't time for anything else."

    Everyone may have his reason for no doing exercise. However, we must know that if we don't do enough exercise, we will never be healthy. As students, we'd better exercise every day to live a healthy life.

Information Card

    My name is Mary. I am a middle school student. I like traveling. And I dreamed of visiting Beijing many times before. Last month I went there with my parents. I was so excited that I couldn't go to sleep the night before we started. I got up early and packed my backpack for the trip the next morning. It took us 25 hours to get there by train .After the breakfast and a short rest, we began our visiting plan. We visited many places of interest in Beijing, such as the Great Wall, the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace. They are all very fascinating, especially the Great Wall. We really enjoyed ourselves that week.

    After visiting so many exciting places of interest, I felt tired but happy because I learned a lot about the history of the city. As soon as I arrived home, I talked about it on the Internet with my classmates and showed them some photos that I took. They were happy to see the photos and they said what a great trip I had had.

    Hong Kong is a shopping heaven (天堂). During the Hong Kong Shopping festival in July and August each year. Hong Kong puts on special events and the stores put on sales for the festival.

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    Hong Kong is a city with many shopping malls, department stores and street markets, but shopping areas are mainly in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

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    Hong Kong is one of the best shopping places in the world. The best three buys are clothes, cosmetics and electrical appliances. As the goods are tax free, the prices are always louver than those found in other countries.

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    When you shop in Hong Kong, you will find the currency (货币) symbol $. It looks like the symbol of US dollars but it always refers to Hong Kong dollars rather than US dollars. You can exchange your currency for Hong Kong dollars at any authorized (授权) money exchanger.

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    There are many street markets in Hong Kong. Exploring street markets is a way to experience the local people's lifestyle and buy souvenirs. The famous street markets are Stanley Market, Ladies' Market and Temple Street Market.

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    Retail shops generally open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. But most department stores and shopping malls in major tourist areas will stay open until 9:30 p.m. or even later. Please check the opening hours before you pay them a visit.