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 Stephen Williams   Friday, June 21

  Today I went to the beach. It was my first day at the ocean for many years. The sound and smell of the ocean brought back memories of the great family vacations when I was a child. We always went to the beach for a week in the summer. I remembered playing for hours in the sand with my sister and crying when I couldn’t have any ice cream. Oh, and I remembered finding a huge jellyfish on the beach, and running away because I was scared! Amazing, really, the things you remember from your childhood.

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  Yeah, I remember going for long walks in the countryside. I guess I was only eight or nine. In the winter, my mom made soup, and I can still remember the wonderful smell! When we got home, I always went straight to sleep…

 Carla, Mexico

 What a great story! I remember going to the beach, too – on Christmas Day! My family lived in Australia when I was young. I remember waking up early. After we opened our presents, we always went to the beach and had a barbecue.

 Leung, Hong Kong

  The best memory I have is playing my first video game, Super Mario. I remember thinking that it was amazing, It was my tenth birthday and I still remember opening the box.

 Daisuke, Japan

    Have you ever asked your relatives or friends if there is Wi-Fi in their houses? Have you ever searched for Wi-Fi when you are at restaurants or hotels? The answers will probably be "Yes". Most of us want Wi-Fi everywhere as if we can't live without it. But we can only use free Wi-Fi in some public places. We still have to spend some money accessing(连接)the Internet at most time. Here comes a piece of good news.

    A rich, powerful organization(组织) in the USA called the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) has decided to change the age of online computing (计算) completely by giving free Wi-Fi to every person on Earth. They will send up hundreds of satellites into low Earth orbit(轨道).

    This is because they have made a survey(调查) and found that only 60% of the world's population have been able to get information on the Internet. And this is also because many countries are unable to offer people the necessary infrastructure(基础设施)to access the web.

    We can hope to use free Wi-Fi everywhere in the near future.

阅读以上信息，用恰当的词完成下面的表格，每空一词。

    Reading is fun! Besides for fun, we can also analyze (分析) texts to learn more from the texts and more about the texts. One way we can do this is by finding out the theme of the texts.

    The theme of a text is the "big idea" that runs through the text, connecting the characters and events. It is what the writer wants to tell us through the story. Usually the theme of a text isn't told directly, you have to use clues (线索) in the text to find it out. 83 Themes can be ideas like family, friendship, love and so on. The theme might not be just one word, but it might be an idea such as "Friendship is important." There may also be more than one theme in a story. How can we find out the theme of a text? The following steps may help you.

    Read through the whole text, usually characters change as the story goes on, so the theme you get at the beginning might not be true at the end! For this reason, you need to read through the whole text first.

    Find out the clue after reading the whole text, try to answer the following questions. What important events happened during the story? What was the problem? How did the problem get solved? How did the character(s) change? What did the character(s) learn? The answers may help you to get the clues.

    Get the big idea Read again for the writer's purpose of the text by answering the following questions. Was most of the plot(情节) around friendship? Did the characters solve problems with their families? Did the main character learn the importance of friendship? If one of the answers is "yes", you may get the big idea.

    Check the big idea out If you've found a "big idea", go through the text to find the evidence( 证 据 ) that supports this idea in the text. For example, if there was only one small problem with a character's family, then "family" might not be the theme of the text. You might find more evidence for other themes.

    Have you got the way to find out the theme of a text? 84 Get your favorite book quickly and see if you can find the theme out!

    In the sea, bigger fish often eat the smaller ones. But sometimes a small fish can be great too!

    There is a small fish like this in the American cartoon film Shark Tale. In the film, Oscar is a small fish and talks a lot. He has very big dreams. He wants to be the No. 1 fish in the sea! But, in fact, he is only a cleaner.

    Angie is his friend. She often helps him. She thinks Oscar does a good job and she loves Oscar.

    One day, a shark named Frankie dies. An anchor(船锚) hits him. But Oscar says he killed Frankie! So, he quickly becomes a hero, People call him the "Shark Killer".

    But it's not a fun game. Oscar gets in to a lot of trouble! Frankie's father, Don Lion, is the shark head. He wants Oscar to die for his son, and sends a group of fish to get him!

    Oscar also meets Lola. Lola is a pretty but bad fish. She tries to make Oscar like her!

    Can Oscar learn a lesson in life, and find Angie's love for him? You have to watch the film to find out!

    Do you often think of life in the future？Will we study at home？Will we have robots？Will we fly to the moon easily？Everyone may have his or her views about that. Life in the future will be very different from life today. Between then and now many changes will take place, but what will the changes be?

    There will be changes in our food. Maybe no one will eat meat. Instead, people will eat more fruit and vegetables. People will stay away from junk food. Maybe people will be healthier.

    Computers will be small and useful. Maybe we will even put the computer into our pockets(口袋). There will be at least two computers in every home. And computer studies will be one of the most important subjects at school.

    Work in the future will be different, too. Dangerous and hard work can be done by robots. People will work fewer hours than they do now. And they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and traveling.

Life in the future