Reading books is a good hobby for all kinds of reasons. First, reading books is fun. You can always keep yourself happy if you like reading. This is especially useful when the weather is bad. It is a relaxing hobby, too. You can really become lost in a book.

Next, you can read a book almost anywhere: in a car, in a waiting room, on a plane, in bed — even in a bath. All you need is a book. Reading is a convenient(方便的) hobby as it is easy to stop and then start again.

    Another good reason for reading books is that it is useful. If you keep reading as a hobby, you will get better and better at it. This means that you will read faster and will become better at understanding what you read. As your reading improves, you will find that your schoolwork becomes much easier.

    Some people say that reading is out of date. This is not true. You have to be able to read on the Internet. And the better you read, the better your computer skills will be. Reading is hardly (几乎没有)out of date!

    Good readers are most likely to be good writers, too. They are usually good at spelling as well, and have more things to write about.

Reading books is a wonderful hobby, one of the best. What other hobbies could be more useful or more enjoyable?

    Think about the distance（距离） you traveled in the last six months of your life. About how many miles（kilometers） did you go? Lucid went quite a distance. On March 22, 1996, she started a journey. She traveled 188 days, 4 hours, and 14 seconds in total. This is a little over six months. So what distance did Lucid travel? She went 75.2 million miles（1,203,200,000 kilometers）!

    How could Lucid go so far? How could she journey so fast? Lucid was an American astronaut and she was in space. She lived on a space station. The space station was the Russian space station Mir. She lived and worked with two Russian astronauts.

    On Mir, it was hard for Lucid to know what day it was. Why? Mir. did not stay in one place. It orbited the Earth. It went around the Earth. Mir's orbit meant that darkness did not mean the day was over. Darkness fell many times during a 24-hour period. Darkness fell about every 45 minutes. Lucid did something to help her remember what day it was. She wore pink socks on every seventh day. The pink socks reminded Lucid about something else, too. The pink socks helped Lucid remember that Jell-O would be served for dinner. On Mir, Jell-O was a special treat. It was only served on Sunday.

    Lucid worked hard to deserve the honor of working on Mir. She went to school for a long time. She was one of the first six women to be accepted into the astronaut-training program. She flew on several American missions. When accepted for Mir, she had to learn Russian in less than 18 months. On Mir, Lucid conducted many experiments. One experiment she conducted was with wheat. Lucid grew wheat. Growing plants in space was important, because green plants could provide oxygen and food for space travelers.

    Why should students play sports? Some people think that students play sports in order to get exercise. Others think it can help students have fun. But that is not enough.

    If students play sports, they can get more than healthy bodies. Why? Here are three more reasons.

    Students who play sports do better in school. Some people think that doing exercise will take up students' study time. But a recent study has shown that students who play sports get better scores in school than those who don't. Exercise gets students to learn, remember things and concentrate better.

    Students who play sports develop their teamwork spirits and learn problem-solving skills. When they are working together with others to win games and reach goals, they're learning how to be successful in practice. And these skills will be useful to them for study or their future work.

    Playing sports can also improve confidence. Students who play sports feel better about themselves. When they know they can improve and reach their goals by practicing, it builds their confidence. And sports can also help them communicate with others actively and make new friends.

Once upon a time, there was a young man called Ma Liang He was poor. But he was kind and hard-working and liked drawing. One night, he dreamed(梦见)that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush(神奇的画笔)and asked him to use it to help poor people. When he woke up, he found the magic paintbrush in his desk.

From that day on, he used the paintbrush whenever people needed help. When he saw that people had no water to use or drink, he drew a river and the river came to life. People could bring water from the river.

Then many people knew about the magic paintbrush. But a few days later, a rich and bad man heard that the magic paintbrush could turn everything to life. He took the magic paintbrush away from Ma Liang's house and put Ma Liang into prison(监牢). Then he drew a lot of pictures with the paintbrush, but they could not become real.

So he said to Ma Liang, "If you draw some pictures for me and make them real, I will make you free."

The young man agreed and drew a sea first. Then he drew a golden mountain which was far away from the sea. The bad man said, Draw a big ship quickly. I want to go there to get the gold."

After the young man drew a big ship, the bad man jumped into the ship with his family and friends quickly. When the ship moved to the middle of the sea, the young man drew a large wave(波浪)and they never came back.