Last summer,Cathy's whole family went to New York City for their summer vacation. They stayed there for two weeks.

New York City has more than seven and a half million people.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} It is also the home of the United Nations.

First they visited the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is one of New York's most well-known places.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} On the second day they went to the Empire State Building. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}From the top of the building, they saw most parts of New York. On the third day they visited the Metropolitan Museum.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} During the rest time of the week, Cathy went to Bronx Zoo with her younger brother and sister. There they were glad to see a lot of their favourite animals-tigers, lions, monkeys, and elephants.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} On the island, they spent most of their time swimming sunbathing and playing on the beach. They all had a good time.

There are some computer programs outthere for creating art, such as Photoshop or Microsoft Paint. But you probablywouldn't guess that Microsoft Excel is one of them.

For many of us, Excel is just a type ofoffice software. But for Tatsuo Horiuchi, an 80 year –old Japanese, it is hispaints, his water colours and his canvas (画布)。About 20 years ago, shortly before retiring (退休), the artist thought that he needed a new challenge in his life. Sohe bought a computer and began making beautiful works of art with Excel.

"I didn't use Excel at work before, butI saw other people using Excel to draw pretty graphs (图表). So I thought, I could probably draw with that," Horiuchisays, "Graphics software is expensive but Excel can store on most computers.Besides, it has more functions and is easier to use than Microsoft Paint."

Horiuchi also tried using Word but waslimited (限制) to the paper sizing. Thereis far more freedom for the artist to produce his painting in Excel. Horiuchi'scolourful Excel art deeply describes the richness of traditional Japanesepaintings. It often shows highly- detailed sights, along with people, plantsand animals.

"I set a goal(目标), "Horiuchi says, "that is, in 10 years, I would be ableto paint something excellent enough to show to people. "And he hascertainly achieved that goal.

Since his discovery of Excel's artisticfunctions and his ability. to use. them, Horiuchi has got worldwide praise. He hasgone on to win competitions with his works. Not surprisingly, he took firstprize at the Excel Auto shape Art Contest in 2006. Having made quite a name forhimself, the elderly Japanese artist was given a new name-"the Michelangeloof Excel".

Carol has been studying hard and hoping to make progress in her math. Every day she listens {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in class and does math exercises at lunch time. But her grades in the {#blank#}2{#/blank#} term were disappointing(令人失望的). "I was really sad when I {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the result. I have spent so much time {#blank#}4{#/blank#} it, but I don't know{#blank#}5{#/blank#}," she said. One of the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} feelings in the world is that you have done something hard but it doesn't work. For middle school students, it may make you{#blank#}7{#/blank#} helpless if you have studied for months but only take home disappointing grades.

If this {#blank#}8{#/blank#} to you, you need to ask someone {#blank#}9{#/blank#} help. Maybe a friend, a classmate, or your teacher. And also you need to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} patient. Keep {#blank#}11{#/blank#} and in the end you'll get better grades. Good luck!

The girls spent the rest of the day preparing a play. The sisters often performed plays for their friends. A lot of girls arrived about six o' clock and took their places in the big bedroom. The play was a great success. Everybody enjoyed it very much. The girls were still laughing and clapping when Hannah came in and said," Supper is ready."

A surprise was waiting for them on the dining room table- dishes of ice cream, pink and white, fresh fruit, cakes and real French chocolates. And in the middle of all this delicious food there were four vases of beautiful flowers. The girls couldn't believe their eyes.

" Did the fairies bring the supper?" asked Amy.

" No, Santa Claus brought it," said Beth.

" Mother did it," Meg said.

" No! Aun t March sent it!" cried Jo.

" You are all wrong," said Mrs. March." Old Mr. Laurence sent it."

" The Laurence boy's grandfather!" Said Meg." Why did he do that? We don't know him!"

" Hannah told one of his servants(仆人) the story of the Hummels. Mr. Laurence was sorry to hear about your poor Christmas breakfast, so he decided to give you a surprise."

" My mother says he's very proud," said one of the girls at the table." She says that he doesn't like mixing with his neighbors. His grandson has to stay in the house and study all day. We invited him to a party once, but he didn't come. He's very shy."

"I am going to talk to him one day," said Jo." He needs to have some fun. I am going to invite him to our next play!"

 From Little Women

Once, three fish lived in a pond. One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fish. "This pond is full of fish," they told each other excitedly. "We have never fished here before. We must come back tomorrow morning with our nets and catch these fish!" So saying, the fishermen left.

When the eldest of the three fish heard this, he was afraid. He called the other fish together and said, "Did you hear what the fishermen said? We must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all!"

The second of the three fish agreed. "You are right," he said. "We must leave the pond."

But the youngest of the three fish laughed. "You are worrying without reason," he said. "We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fisherman has ever come here. Why should these men return? I'm not going anywhere—my luck will keep me safe."

The eldest of the three fish left the pond that evening with his entire family. The second fish saw the fishermen coming in the distance early next morning and left the pond at once with all his family. The third fish refused to leave even then.

The fishermen arrived and caught all the fish left in the pond, including the third fish's luck.

This is a {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of Cindy. Cindy is her first name and her {#blank#}2{#/blank#}name is Brown. She is fifteen {#blank#}3{#/blank#}old. She is from the USA．She comes to Beijing with her parents. She and I {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in No.1 Middle School. She's my good {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. What's Cindy's Chinese name? Her {#blank#}6{#/blank#} name is Xin Meili. She likes this name. At school we call her Meili, not Cindy. We tell her that in China, the family name comes {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Xin is her family name and Meili is her given name. When Cindy has some difficult problems at school, she often {#blank#}8{#/blank#} teachers for help. Cindy's favourite {#blank#}9{#/blank#} is blue. She says it's the colour of the sky. She likes Beijing, {#blank#}10{#/blank#}in Beijing, the sky is blue.