Steve visits the nursing home near his house two afternoons each week. On one of those days, he reads to his friend Martin. On the other afternoon, he plays cards and talks with Mrs. Johnson. Steve enjoys spending his extra time this way. He is a volunteer. A volunteer is a person who helps another person or has a job for which he or she does not get paid. A volunteer donates his or her time for free.

    Everyone else in Steve's family is also a volunteer. Steve's mother Mary volunteers one afternoon each week at the local hospital. She talks to patients, delivers flowers, and helps the nurses with odd jobs. Steve's sister Gina volunteers two afternoons at the museum. She welcomes visitors and answers their questions. Steve's father David also is a volunteer. He is a volunteer fire fighter for the town in which they live.

    Steve's family thinks volunteering is very important. Steve's parents think being a volunteer helps to teach values. Steve and his sister learn how to be kind and respect other people.

    Steve's family does volunteer work to give something back to the community. They want to help people who are not as fortunate as they are.

    A family of volunteers

    Different countries have different ideas about how to be polite. In Britain, table manners are important. But how do you show good table manners in Britain? Here is some advice:

    How to sit: You should sit up straight in your chair. When you eat, don't pick up the bowl. This is called very bad manners.

    Noises at the table: It is never a good idea to make a noise at the table. 

Using your fingers: Usually we don't pick food up with our fingers when we are eating main dishes. But there are some foods such as pizza, sandwiches, chips and fruit we can eat with fingers.

Passing things: If someone asks you to pass something like the salt, only get it if you are the closest person to it. Never lean (倾斜, 倾倒) across someone else's food. It's more polite not to use it yourself first — pass it directly to the person who asked, and then use it later. It's best to taste your food before you put salt in it.

    Your mouth: It is not polite to talk with your mouth full of food, nor to eat with your mouth open.

    How much to eat: It is polite to eat up the food that you have been offered, so a clear plate is a good plate. It shows that you enjoy the food. If you can't finish everything and you can leave a little, that is okay. You could say something like “That was very nice, thank you.”

    Hello!My name is Bob. My classroom is not big but nice. There are 21 desks and 20 chairs. 墙上有一些画和一幅地图。Mrs Brown is our English teacher. She is from a big city.She is nice. Her husband Mr Brown is a teacher too, but he isn't in our school. Tom is my good friend. We like playing football on Saturday. Where is my football? It is under my desk.     

配对阅读：上栏描述了五位同学喜欢看的杂志，下栏是七份杂志的简介，请为上栏的每位同学选择一份合适的杂志。

    Hello, boys and girls. My name is Tony Smith. I'm twelve years old and I'm from London, England. It's a big and busy city. My favourite colour is green and it's the colour of trees. Swimming is my favourite sport. In summer, I often swim with my friends. I have a pen friend. His name is Jim Brown and he'.s eleven years old. He's from New York, America. Yellow is his favourite colour and he likes playing basketball very much.

Some information about Tony and Jim

    Hello, everyone. I'd like to have a brief introduction to the overseas study group. There will be {#blank#}1{#/blank#} group members visiting the USA. We will start our journey at 19:00 on August 15 from Shanghai and will arrive in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} at 22:15. From August 16 through 23 we'll {#blank#}3{#/blank#} in Harrison Middle School. As for the nights, we'll stay at the local students' homes so that we'll have more time to practice our {#blank#}4{#/blank#} English. After that, we'll tour some large {#blank#}5{#/blank#} and the last stop is San Francisco. On August 27, we'll fly back to our homeland, and we will enjoy parents' warm hugs the next day.