A man sat at an underground station in Washington, D.C., and started to play the violin. It was a cold day in January. He played six Bach（巴赫）pieces for about 45 minutes. It was rush hour and thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

    Three minutes went by and the first person, a middle-aged man, noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed down and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

    After a minute, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a young woman threw the money in the box and continued to walk. Then another few minutes went by and someone stood against the wall to listen to him, but the young man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

    During the musician's performance, only six people stopped and stayed for a while, twenty gave him money but continued to walk. When he finished playing, no one applauded（鼓掌）. No one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.

    This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the underground station was organized by The Washington Post（《华盛顿邮报》）as part of a social experiment. One of the conclusions from this experiment could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music, how many other things are we missing?

    Mrs. Smith is Jim's mother. She loves her family very much. She often buys food, fruit and clothes for Jim and his father. Now many clothes are on sale at good prices.

    Mrs. Smith comes to the store and she wants to buy some clothes. It has sweaters in all colors for ￥15 each (每件）and sports shoes for only ￥28. Mrs. Smith likes the red sweater and she buys one for herself. She buys a pair of sports shoes for her son. The T-shirts in the store are just ￥18! She buys a white one for Mr. Smith. And that's not all. The socks, in all colors, are ￥2 each. She buys five pairs.

    Stephen Hawking was born in England in 1942. He is one of the most well-known scientists on space and time in the world. Hawking is researching how the universe began and how it ends. He is called the King of the Universe.

    When he studied math and science at Oxford University, he became seriously ill, which made him unable to speak or breathe without the help of machines. Till now, he can't move or feed himself and he is helped to dress, eat and wash by a nurse. However, he has a wheelchair with a special computer, with which he can communicate with others.

    In spite of all these difficulties, he refused to give up his hope of living and went on to study at Cambridge University after graduating from Oxford University. In 1965, he got a Doctor's Degree of philosophy(哲学). Because of his serious illness, it was difficult for him to draw diagrams or to write. So he started to think in pictures. With this new way of thinking, he is respected by people in the world. Then in 1988, he wrote his first important book, A Brief History of Time. It has been sold more than 5.5 million copies in 33 different languages. He was once invited to China to give lectures. His self-confidence and humorous conversations impressed us deeply.

    From Hawking's unusual experiences , we learn that nobody should lose hope, no matter how bad the situation is .As he once said, “Life is not fair, you just have to do the best you can in your own situation.”

Hi, I am Mo Hongwei from Qihe, Shandong Province. I am going to enjoy myself during the New Year holiday. On 1st January, I am going to stay at home and do my homework. On the morning of 2nd January, I am going to meet my grandfather's friend Mo Yun at the train station. In the afternoon, I am going to take Grandpa Mo around my school. In the evening, we are going to have a welcome party for Grandpa Mo. On the morning of 3rd January, I am going to show Grandpa Mo how to write with left hand. And I am going to ask Grandpa Mo to give me some advice about reading too. I think my New Year holiday is going to be fun. 

Hello! My name is Nancy White. I'm 14. I'm a new student in Miss Lin's class, Class 4. She is very nice. There are 16 boys and 12 girls in my class.

____His name is Musio. He is a robot(机器人). He can speak(说）English very well. And he can spell many words for me. So he can be my English teacher, too.

I want to make friends with you. Do you want to be my friend? Please call me. My telephone number is 582306. Or you can write to me at nancywhite@sina. com. Thank you.

Good morning! I'm Chen Xiaoying. Call me Xiaoying. I'm thirteen years old. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}.

Today is Monday. It's a fine day. I go to school with my good friend Wang Ziyao. He is thirteen years old too. He and I are in the same class. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. He is kind and clever. He often helps us in the class. We all like him very much. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} We are very happy. We meet our English teacher Mrs Zhang at the school gate(大门). Mrs Zhang is also our class teacher. She is nice to us students, We say hello to her. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.Our classroom is tidy and nice. We clean it every day. It is like our home. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} We are classmates and friends.