In the town of Lampang in northern Thailand, there is an unusual group of musicians. They play many different kinds of music—everything from traditional Thai songs to music by Beethoven. Both children and adults love this group. What makes them so popular? Is it their music? Their looks7 Yes, it's both of the things, but it's also something else: they're elephants.

    These musical elephants started at the TECC in Lampang. The TECC protects elephants. It teaches people to understand and love them. And, like many zoos around the world, the TECC encourages elephants to paint.

    Richard Lair works for the TECC. He loves his job there and knows a lot about elephants. He says some of the animals' paintings are very good. But, in fact, elephants hear better than they see. And so he had an idea: if elephants are smart and they have good hearing, maybe they can play music. To test his idea, Lair and a friend started the Thai Elephant Orchestra. During a performance, the elephants play a number of instruments, including the drums and the xylophone (木琴).

    But can elephants really make music properly? Yes, says Lair. They are very creative. Human encourage the animals to play, but the elephants make their own songs; they don't just copy their trainers or other people. There are now CDs of the group's music which make money for the TECC. And the music these artists create is pretty amazing

    The first cartoons appeared in newspapers. They told stories using pictures. The first cartoon film appeared in 1906. It was about humorous faces. In the film, an artist drew pictures of two faces on a blackboard. The faces came to life. They smiled and a small dog jumped through a ring. There were a lot of animals in early cartoons. One famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat.

    Walt Disney started to make films in the 1920s. Some of his earliest films were about a famous story, Alice in Wonderland, but in Disney's films it was called Alice in Cartoon Land. Walt Disney's most famous cartoon character was Mickey Mouse, first in a black-and-white film without sound, then very soon after that in a talking film and later in colour. A Mickey Mouse film was the first cartoon film with sound to become really popular.

    Today, the popularity of cartoons has risen around the world. People of all ages still show great interest in cartoons.

    A proverb is a short, well-known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Proverbs are found in most cultures and are often very old.

    In American history, Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, inventor and writer as well as a leader of the American Revolution. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Franklin wrote a book called "Poor Richard's Almanac". {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Some of them are still used today, like this one: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

    Franklin is also remembered for other proverbs like, "A penny saved is a penny earned." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Here are other examples of proverbs that Americans use. The first ones are about love. Some people say, "All is fair in love and war." They mean that anything you do in a relationship or in battle is acceptable.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} In other words, when you are in love with someone, you may refuse to see anything bad about that person.

    Here is another popular saying about love: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Some people believe that a woman can win a man's love if she prepares his favorite foods.

    "{#blank#}5{#/blank#}" This proverb is true in love and war or other situations. It means that what you do is more important than what you say.

    We have to stop here, so we must say, "All good things must come to an end."

    Peter is a smart boy but he doesn't do well at school, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Sometimes he brings food from the school dining room to classroom. He is noisy and doesn't always listen to teachers in class. His head teacher, Ms Smart, are not happy. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    She knows Peter wants to be the monitor(班长) of the class. So she asks Peter to be the monitor for a week. Peter is very happy. He gets up and arrives at school early every morning.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. He doesn't run in the hallways. He wears a uniform at school and keeps it tidy.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. He does his homework first after school and helps do the dishes after dinner. On the weekend, he helps his mother clean the house.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}But Peter doesn't feel happy. Can he be the monitor next week?