Have you ever ridden a Ferris wheel lately? Can you imagine the flying feeling as you are pulled up to the top and then moved down to the bottom quickly again?

    Today a Ferris wheel is usually 40 to 60 feet tall. That seems very high when you are on the top looking down. But the first Ferris wheel was 264 feet high- taller than a twenty-story building! Can you imagine the view from the top of that?

    The first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The people who planned the fair were looking for an attraction that would bring people to Chicago. George Ferris handed a drawing of a giant wheel that people could ride on. At first everyone laughed at his strange idea. But Mr Ferris did not give up, and finally the idea was accepted. The ride opened in June of 1893.

    Today's Ferris wheels have 12 to 16 seats, which each carry 2 or 3 people. But that first one had 36 enclosed cars, each holding 60 passengers. When filled, it carried 2,160 people. During that summer in Chicago, about 1.5 million people rode the Ferris wheel.

After the fair, the ride was moved to a nearby amusement park built especially to show off the wheel. In 1904, it was moved again一to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. After the fair there, the wheel stood unused. In 1906, it was finally sold to a company for scrap metal(废金属).

    Luckily a Chicago bridge builder, W.E. Sullivan, figured out how to make a smaller Ferris wheel that could easily be taken apart and put together. In 1906, he started the company that still makes many of the Ferris wheels used today.

    But, whenever you ride one, remember that it all began with George Ferris's strange idea!

Next week there will be a special sports game in the forest. All the animals will take part in it, and they're {#blank#}1{#/blank#} for it now. 

Mr. Rabbit is a famous {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. He did {#blank#}3{#/blank#} in the 100-meter race against a tortoise (乌龟) last year. This time he won't fall asleep again. He'll be more {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. And he asked birds to {#blank#}5{#/blank#} him on. He is sure that he can be the first one to cross the finish {#blank#}6{#/blank#}. Mr. Monkey is good at jumping. He'll take part in the high jump and the long jump. It was bad that he only {#blank#}7{#/blank#} the second place in the long jump last year. Now he keeps practicing jumping early in the morning. He {#blank#}8{#/blank#} he'll win this time. Tigers will play {#blank#}9{#/blank#} lions in the 800-meter relay race. Tigers are practicing {#blank#}10{#/blank#} the stick to each other. A tiger's feet were hurt not long ago. But he keeps on running. Tigers will do their best to win the first. Of course, some other animals, such as cats, dogs and elephants are busy playing sports, too. 

All the animals hope to get good grades in this sports game. 

Eimei,a giant panda that has lived in Japan for 28 years,and his twin daughters arrived in Chengdu from Japan on Feb.22,2023.

Speaking of  Giant panda,people may think it is still a kind of 1 animals. But the good news is,populations are on the rise due to lots of efforts by Chinese conservation programs using new 2  technology.By actively guiding adult pandas to mate(交配),more and more panda babies are being 3 .

But today,there is an even bigger challenge.Baby pandas from these breeding programs are being reintroduced to the 4 ,their native home.The first thing they have to  learn  is  how  to  climb  trees.Because  in  the  forest,they  may  face  5 ,such as other bears.The ability of young pandas to survive in the wild is mainly 6 by their mothers.The most important thing he has learned is great 7 ,a natural instinct(天性)he gets from his wild panda mother.

In 2018,in the Daxiangling Nature Reserve,the Panda Returning Home Project  Pilot  Site  was launched,which  means  giant  panda  reintroduction  went  a  step 8 .This is a long yet hard journey,but no matter how 9 the path to the future is,and how many challenges we will 10 ,we will be with you and accompany you home.

Everyone was happy on Saturday morning, but not Tom. He sat in front of a high fence(围栏). "Too bad! It's a nice Saturday morning but I must paint the fence. My friends are playing, but I'm sitting here. " He got up slowly and started to paint. Then he had a great idea. 

His friend Ben was walking down the street and he was eating a big red apple. He saw Tom and said, "Tom, I'm going swimming, but you can't come with me. You're working. "

Tom said, "I like it! I can go swimming every day, but I can't paint a fence every day. "

Ben was surprised and he watched Tom. He painted slowly and carefully, and he often smiled. He looked happy. At this time, Ben wanted to paint too. 

"Listen, Tom, let me paint a little, " said Ben. "I want to try. "

 Tom looked at Ben and said, "I'm really sorry, Ben, but Aunt Polly wants me to do it. You know, I'm very good at painting. My brother Sid wants to do it, but he's not good at painting. "

"Oh, Tom, let me try, please!" said Ben. "Here, you can have my apple. "

Tom was happy but he didn't smile. "OK, Ben, you can paint for a short time. "

Then Tom's other friends came by. They watched Tom paint and they all wanted to try. They gave Tom a new kite, a cat, an old knife, a key and some other things. 

Tom's friends painted the big fence, and Tom just sat under the big tree and watched them. He thought, "When something is difficult to get, everyone wants it. "

(Adapted from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain)