In a faraway kingdom, there was a river. It was the home to many golden swans (天鹅). The swans spent most of their time in the river. Every six months, the swans would leave a golden feather (羽毛) as a paying for using the river. The soldiers of the kingdom would collect the feathers and gave them to the king.

    One day, a homeless bird saw the river. "The water in this river seems so cool and nice. I will make my home here," thought the bird.

    The minute the bird landed near the river, the golden swans noticed her. They came shouting, "This river belongs to us! We pay a golden feather to the king to use this river. You can not live here."

    "I am homeless, brothers. I will also pay. Please give me a place to live in," the bird pleaded (乞求). "How can you pay for it? You do not have golden feathers," said the swans, laughing. They added, "Stop dreaming and leave at once." The poor bird pleaded many times. But the arrogant (傲慢的) swans still drove the bird away.

"I will teach them a lesson!" decided the bird, feeling angry.

    She went to the king and said, "Oh, my king! The swans in your river are rude and unkind. I pleaded for a home but they said that they had paid to live in the river with golden feathers."

    The king was angry with the arrogant swans for having driven the homeless bird away. He ordered his soldiers to bring the swans to his palace. In no time, all the golden swans were brought to the king's palace.

"Do you think our kingdom depends on your golden feathers? You can not decide who lives by the river. Leave the river at once or I will kill you!" shouted the king.

    On hearing the king's words, the swans flew away sadly. The bird built her home near the river and lived there happily. She gave homes to all other birds who came to the river.

C

    The Greens are Americans. They are now in Beijing. This is their first visit to China. They are going to stay(停留) in China for three months. They want to visit some big cities(城市) and villages. They want to learn some Chinese, too. Mr. Green is a driver. He likes to drive in Beijing. Mrs. Green is a school teacher. She is visiting a city school and a village school. Their daughter is a middle school student. She meets some Chinese students. They take a lot of pictures in China. When they are back in American, they are going to show the pictures to their friends. They want the American people to know more about China. 

Meeting a polar bear

I put my day's supply of food into my bag and then began to take down the tent. Suddenly I heard a deep, long growl (嚎叫) from my dog Charlie. I looked at him and then in the direction he was watching closely. A polar bear!

It was a mother 1 by two cubs coming slowly towards me. They were 200 meters away. With a pounding (狂跳) heart, I picked up my flare (照明) gun and 2 walked sideways a few steps to Charlie. Without taking my eyes off the bear, I untied Charlie and, again walked sideways.

The bear, now only 150 meters aways, wasn't stopping. Her cubs had dropped back but she kept going, while I tried to remember all the 3 that had been given. Keep eye contact, move sideways or forward, never backward, stay calm, don't show 4 . Don't wound a bear and you'll make it 5 to control it. Never run. Repeating to myself, "Stay calm, stay calm," I fired a warning shot (射击) to the bear's left. The loud noise had no 6 . She came around. I fired a flare, landing it a little to her right. Her head moved in its direction but she didn't stop. I fired another, this time dropping it right in front of her. She stopped, looked at the flare. She was only 30 meters away now.

By this time, I was so nervous that my heart could have been heard at base camp. The bear began to step around the flare, and I dropped another a meter in front of her. again she 7 , and then she fixed her tiny black eyes on Charlie, who was trying to reach her. She looked back at her cubs, waited, and then moved to my left in a half circle. I fired two more flares, trying to draw a line between her and me. She stopped again and seemed to want to 8 the line of flares but was unsure of the result and of Charlie, so she decided to stay 9 . Finally, with a last long look, she walked north with her cubs behind her.

My hands were still shaking, but I now knew that I could 10 a bear in the wild bravely and stay calm enough to act properly.

It was about two o'clock in the early morning {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 21 September, 1999. Tommy was sleeping when the earthquake started. He felt a slight shake, then he {#blank#}2{#/blank#} a loud noise like thunder. Soon the real noise came, like bombs under the ground. The earth started to {#blank#}3{#/blank#} . People screamed in fear. Some ran out of the building. He tried his {#blank#}4{#/blank#} to run out too, but he couldn't.

Outside, people were running in all directions while pieces of glass and bricks were falling down. Then the {#blank#}5{#/blank#} began to come down too!

Finally, the noise and shaking ended. It was dark and silent around him. He could not see anything at all, and he did not know if anyone else was near him. He felt {#blank#}6{#/blank#} and his heart was beating fast. A moment of fear went through his mind, but he told {#blank#}7{#/blank#} to calm down since he was still alive. He shouted for {#blank#}8{#/blank#} , but no one came. He started to move slowly in the darkness. Luckily, there was just enough space for him to move.

Hours later, Tommy heard {#blank#}9{#/blank#} noise above him. He screamed, "Help! Please help! I'm here!" Then he heard shouts from excited people. They {#blank#}10{#/blank#} moved away the bricks. At last, Tommy was safe.

Shay can never hold her chopsticks (筷子) well. "Like this, Jiajia." her mother holds out her own chopsticks and called Shay's Chinese name. Shay tries but it's too difficult. She makes a face. "I don't want to. Everyone at Abigail's house uses spoons and forks (叉子)." she says and reaches for a spoon.

The next day, Shay's mother prepared noodles for her lunch. Chopsticks, too. Only chopsticks. "I have two forks," Abigail says, "You can borrow if you like." Abigail can't use chopsticks at all, but she doesn't have to. She is pretty and blond and has a last name that isn't Chinese. "Yes, please!" Shay says, "Thanks, Abigail!"

After dinner, Shay sits with her mother at the desk. she takes out some drawing things from the desk. "What do you want to draw?" Mom asks. "A dragon!" Shay says. At school, her class is reading stories and her favorite characters are always dragons. They are big and strong, and they breathe fire (喷火). Mother also draws quietly with Shay, side by side. Shay draws a fire-breathing dragon and she turns to her mother's drawing: a snakelike animal with big teeth. It's a Chinese dragon, a long.

"That's pretty, mom!" Shay says. "I wish long had wings (翅膀). Then they could fly like my dragon does." "They do fly and they can swim, too. The long is a dragon as I know it. And this is a dragon as you know it. But they are both dragons." Mom points to Shay's drawing. "Oh," says Shay, "So it's just like how I know forks and you know chopsticks?" Mother thinks for a while and laughs. "Yes. Just like that. There really is no wrong way to eat, you can use forks or you can use chopsticks."

The next day, Shay gets noodles again, ____.