Mr and Mrs Smith have two sons and two daughters. They're Tom,Jack,Sally and Mary. They're quadruplets(四胞胎), so their birthday is on the same day—July 22nd.

    It's their fourteenth birthday today. Their parents buy some things for them:four cakes, two T-shirts and two skirts. The four cakes are the same, and one cake is 15 dollars. The two T-shirts are the same,too. They are yellow and 35 dollars for one. The price of the two skirts is the same and one skirt is 60 dollars. But their colors are not the same. Sally likes blue and Mary likes green, so the blue skirt is for Sally and the green one is for Mary.

    David found that he was a bit fat these days. He went to buy an exercise machine so that he could try to lose some weight(减肥).

    At first, he put it in the basement(地下室).But he did not use it often. He seldom went into the basement.

    Next, he moved it into his bedroom. But he still didn't use it very often. That's because he would only go into the bedroom when it was time for him to go to sleep.

    Finally, he moved it into the living room. He put the machine next to the window. His wife thought maybe this would finally work. He could exercise and look outside at the beautiful garden at the same time.

    After a week or so, his wife asked David how his exercise was going. He said, "Well, yes, I do a little more exercise these days. Every time I want to open the window, I have to walk around the exercise machine."

Northern fur seals

    Northern fur seals spend winter in the warm waters near California. There is lots of food for the seals, but there are also lots of predators. When spring comes, the Northern fur seals go on a long trip to islands near Alaska. These islands are a safe place to breed, as there are not many predators. The male seals arrive at islands first. They fight for the best females to arrive. The females arrive about four weeks later. They each give birth to one seal pup. In the next few days, the seals mate again. When they return to the islands, one year later, the females will give birth to next year's seal pups. After three months, the females and the young seals set off back to the warm waters off the coast of California. Soon after, the males also leave the islands. The fur seals travel about 10,000 kilometers on their trip from California to Alaska and back again.（改编于《七年级新理念第三册》）