A girl who graduated from a world famous university wanted to do translation work for authority leaders. She was so happy when she entered the British Embassy (大使馆). She thought it was the greatest happiness in her life as many graduates wanted to get that job and she was one of the few people who got it!

But when she started her new job, she realized that it was just a job of answering calls and recording staff members'arriving and leaving times. It was supposed to have no future. For some time, she felt disappointed and didn't know what to do. However, she didn't want to give up this job. She thought about it for one or two days and finally she decided that she would try her best to do this job. From then on, she learnt to appreciate her own job. She wrote down the names and phone numbers of the staff members on a notebook so that she could remember them. She found great pleasure in dealing with the daily chores. When a phone call came in, she picked up the phone as soon as possible. When someone asked her about who was not in the office, she would give the right name and even the time when he or she left. Nobody could do that except her.

Her excellent work received praise not only from the embassy's members, but also from people in the local government. A leader of a famous company in Britain was deeply impressed by her, so he invited her to work for him. After that she became the leader's personal translator and she was appreciated by the foreigners.

      We cannot choose our destiny(命运), but we can choose the attitude with which we face our life. Maybe the attitude could change our destiny.

    Mary is an American girl. She is now in Beijing with her parents. Mary doesn't know much Chinese, but she is studying it. She often speaks Chinese with her Chinese friends. Sometimes they can't understand her, because she can't speak Chinese very well.

    It's Saturday morning. She goes out. She is walking in the street. She wants to go to the zoo to see the elephants and monkeys, but she doesn't know how to get there. She asks a Chinese boy the way. The boy can't understand her. Then she takes out a pen and a piece of paper. She draws an elephant on it, and shows the picture to the boy. The boy understands, and shows her the way to the zoo.

Mr. Smith is 100 yearsold, but he is very healthy. He can read, play chess with people, and take careof himself(他自己). Many people want toknow his secrets (秘密) about keeping healthy and livinga long life. Here is what Mr. Smith says:

"My secrets aresimple. You can learn them easily. First, you should go to bed early andget up early every day. This is a good habit. For me, I usually go to bed at9:00 at night and get up at 6:00 in the morning."

"Second, do more(更多的) exercise. I always go out for a walkbefore having breakfast. In the morning and afternoon, I do some simple exercise,too.

"Third, make morefriends. I have many friends. Some of them are old. Some of them are not. Itmakes me happy to be with them. That is also important to live a longlife."

Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth, but most Christians celebrate it on December 25th. On this day, many people go to church，they can take part in special religious services. In Britain, Christmas dinner is eaten at noon. During the Christmas season, they also exchange gifts and decorate their homes. 

One German couple tried their best to prepare for their Christmas decorations in a different way. Thomas and Susanne decorated the outside of their house with a few simple Christmas decorations. From the outside, their house looks normal. However, the inside of the house is so different from the outside. 

They started decorating in October. It took them 8 weeks to set everything up. They put 100 Christmas trees into their small house! They decorate the trees with small coloured electric lights and 16, 000 baubles. 

They did not always have so many trees. In the beginning, they had a small Christmas collection. As time went on, they grew their collection rapidly. They started decorating in early October . It's so special even the bathroom has a Santa Claus toilet seat. 

Hello! My name is Ye Ying. My favourite subject is maths. For some students, maths is boring. But for me, it's really interesting {#blank#}1{#/blank#} I can have great fun in class. 

Mr Qiao is our maths teacher. It is Monday today and we have a(n) {#blank#}2{#/blank#} class in the morning. At 8:30 a. m. , Mr. Qiao comes into the classroom with {#blank#}3{#/blank#} "clock". "Look{#blank#}4{#/blank#} the ‘clock'. It's {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, right? Now I want you to draw a ‘clock' like this, but it's different from mine, " he says to {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. We all think it is easy and start to do it. We {#blank#}7{#/blank#} different "clocks" in class. 

Mr Qiao{#blank#}8{#/blank#} these clocks to help us learn maths. And he thinks all of us do very{#blank#}9{#/blank#}, so he praises(表扬)us. Then the class ends at 9:20 a. m. 

We have five maths {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a week, three in the morning and two in the afternoon. We're happy to see Mr Qiao every school day.