The story is about a young student. She worked very hard at her lessons. She worked so hard that she became ill. She couldn't go to sleep at night. When she got up the next morning, she felt very tired.

    So she went to see a doctor. Hearing the student's words, the doctor said, "You are too stressed out. You must eat more food like vegetables and tofu. Besides you can try to count(数) numbers when you are lying in bed. By the time you reach one thousand, you will be asleep. I'm sure of it."

    The next day, the student came to see the doctor again. "Well," said the doctor, "how are you feeling today?"

    The student still looked tired. "Yes," she said, "I tried to count one, two, three, four... up to one thousand. But when I reached five hundred and sixty, I feel sleepy. I had to get up and drink some coffee so that I could go on counting up to one thousand. But then I still couldn't be asleep."

    Tom Longboat had always been fast. He learned to run as a young boy on the Six Nations Grand River Reserve in Ontario, Canada. He ran a long distance each day to get to school or to visit his family and friends.

    Sometimes running was the easiest part of Tom Longboat's life. As an aboriginal(土著的) athlete, life was hard for him. Other people tried to control how he trained and where he raced. But he chose to depend on his own spirit, mind and body, and would never back down.

    Tom Longboat won the Boston-Marathon in 1907 with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 24 seconds, 4 minutes and 59 seconds faster than the world record(纪录) at that time. The Boston newspaper said he was the most excellent runner who had sped over their roads.

    He took part in the Olympics and won many international marathons.

    His spirit lives on. Every year, the best aboriginal athlete in Canada is given the Tom Longboat Award.

    My name is Jack. When my family moved to America in 2014 from a small village in Guangdong, China, we brought not only our luggage, but also our village rules, customs as well as culture. One of the rules is that young people always respect elders. This rule, unfortunately, led to my very first embarrassment in America.

    I had a part-time job as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. One time, when I was serving food to a middle-aged couple, the wife asked me how the food could be served so quickly. I told her that I had made sure they got their food quickly because I always respect the elderly. As soon as I said that, her face showed great displeasure. My manager, who happened to hear what I said, took me aside and gave me a long lecture about how sensitive Americans are and how they dislike the description "old". I then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. After the couple heard my reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.

    In my village, however, people are proud of being old. Not so many people live to be seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. Young people always respect older people because they know they can learn from their rich experience.

    However, in the United States, people think "growing old" is a problem since "old" shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well. Here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. When I told the couple in the restaurant that I respect the elderly, they got angry because this caused them to feel they had failed to stay young. I had told them something they didn't want to hear.

    After that, I changed the way I had been with senior citizens. It is not that I don't respect them anymore; I still respect them, but now I don't show my feelings through words.

    How many of us have reached into our drawer(抽屉)and pulled out socks that didn't match? Will you throw them away like most girls or try to reuse them? The story of Carly and Charley may help you.

    Carly and Charley are the girls who often lose their socks. At first, they just matched different colors or styles like some other girls. But most of the time, these socks couldn't match their clothes. So they came up with an idea and started Odd Sox: they collected these socks and gave them away to homeless people. But the problem wasn't solved. They still had missing socks until they realized that they could make a business out of it. So they set up Single Sox: he girls sell socks in packs(包)of three so you can mix and match as you wish. Each pack is super colorful and super inspiring(激励人心的)—Carly and Charley have written words on every sock to encourage girls to celebrate their differences.

    And they carry on the tradition of giving back—for every pair of socks sold, they give away a pair to those in need. Nothing is a waste if you have a creative mind.

Red is the color of China. Of all the colors, red is the easiest one to see in China. People call it China Red. Chinese people{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. (attract) by the color red because it makes Chinese people feel excited. And it means a lot to them.

You may wonder{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Chinese people love the color more than any other people around the world. Red {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (mean) respect for power which was full of mystery in the past centuries. Today, it stands for luck, health, happiness, peace, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (wealthy) and so on. It is{#blank#}5{#/blank#} everlasting character for both the nation and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (it)people. So China uses color red in the way that no other country has ever used in the world.

It is not difficult {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (find) red-colored objects in China. Things with the color can {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (easy) be seen everywhere. The walls of ancient palaces, the lion dances, lanterns, and even tanghulu are filled{#blank#}9{#/blank#} the red tradition. They all have played special roles in the development of China

It is{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (amaze) that red is more than just a color in China. Come to China and experience the richness of China red!

Falling leaves and cold wind show the arrival of another season. December 13th is Lidong. It is a Chinese word for one of the 24 solar terms (二十四节气). {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

To welcome Lidong, people have many colorful customs (风俗) that light up the cold days. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Eating well helps people store energy (存储能量) to beat the cold in winter, and prepare for the growth in the coming spring. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} The Chinese word for dumpling—jiaozi (饺子) has a similar pronunciation (发音) to the word "change"—jiao. Eating dumplings means celebrating (庆祝) the change of autumn to winter. While in the south, eating chicken, duck and fish is common. 

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} In the past, there were not many fresh vegetables to eat in winter. Therefore, around Lidong some people who lived in the north began to store vegetables like cabbages and green onions. However, some of the customs have disappeared (消失) now. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Instead, new winter customs come out in certain places.