Hello! I'm Bill Smith. I'm twelve. This is my sister, Jenny. She's ten. We are from the USA. But now we are in China. My father is an English teacher in a school. My mother is a doctor. They work hard.

    At school I have a friend. His name is Ben Jones. He's twelve, too. He's from England. We all like China.

Dear Frank,

    Thank you for your postcard. I'm very glad you are having a good trip now. Ottawa is very beautiful in May. I hope I will have a chance to go there one day.

    Our summer holiday will start next month. I enjoy my summer holiday, although(虽然)it's hot at that time in America. During the summer holiday, I can swim in the sea and go fishing. It's so cool. And I am going to our hometown near Chicago with my sister Linda, and my parents agree(同意). Our uncle lives there, so Linda and I can stay with him.

    We are not going to take a plane. We are going there by train. I am going to fish there. And Linda likes painting. She is going to do some painting there. I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Sincerely,

Jack

    A few years ago, I worked at a church（教堂） and since my son was home schooling, he went with me to the church every day. Most mornings, we'd stop at a local convenience store, getting a chocolate drink for him and a cup of coffee for me.

    The clerk at the store we chose to visit refreshed our lives each day, and so we returned again and again. She had found her own way of enjoying life and her job. I'm not even sure that she was realizing that her energy put a smile on the face of each customer.

    When a customer brought cookies to the counter, any other clerk could have asked, "Would you like some milk with those cookies?" Instead, she inquired, "Would you like a lottery ticket（彩票） with those cookies? "

    She might have asked me if I wanted a donut with my coffee. But instead, she asked, "Would you like some batteries（电池） with that coffee?"

    Yes, life is what you make of it. This clerk's method of dealing with what some think is a boring job, and with the customers she met daily, made the hours in her day more enjoyable. In doing that, she also refreshed the lives of others and made them laugh.

    Sometimes, if my day at the church had been particularly tiring, we'd stop at that store before heading home. We'd giggle（咯咯笑）as we left the store, the clerk's words echoing（回响）behind us. "Would you like some shampoo with that soda?"

From Asia to America and everywhere in between, Swing—an energetic form of dance that includes six-step and eight-step rhythms(节奏) — has taken the world by storm. Making a recent comeback, swing dance floors have popped up all over the world. Many clubs make fans of Swing happy by holding nights when swing music is played, and sometimes even offering classes to attract customers.

Though Swing is now popular worldwide, it first appeared alongside the jazz movements of the 1920s and 1930s in New York City. While listening to jazz, the young black people of that time developed the movements of the Lindy Hop — a style of dance that is best known for a break away or 'swing out' move and sudden improvisation(即兴表演).

It was reportedly given this name when a reporter was interviewing a man at the dance hall who was watching other couples dance. When asked what that dance was called, the watcher looked at a newspaper next to him that had an article about Lindbergh— the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic(大西洋)—which was titled, 'Lindy Hops the Atlantic'. Then the watcher announced that the 'Lindy Hop' was the name of the dance, and it has stuck since then.

    In 1926, the Savoy Ballroom was the first large business to offer a place for people to listen to swing music and dance. With its huge dance floor, the Savoy became a big success overnight, attracting some of the best dancers and musicians in the New York area.

    Within ten years, the Lindy Hops was sweeping through the United States and became a symbol of unity, as young people of all racial(种族的) backgrounds crowded into dance halls to swing the night away. Traditional dance teachers did not welcome it because they thought it was not even a real dance and were quite sure about its demise but Swing has proved them wrong; it continues to be one of the world's most fun dances.

    When a man was walking along the street, he saw a woman carrying a large box. It was half in and half out of her car. So the man went up and said, "The box looks very heavy. Let me give you a hand. "

    "That's very kind of you, "the woman said, "I'm having a lot of trouble with it. Maybe it sticks（卡住）in the car door. "

    ""Together we'll soon move it," the man said. "I'll get in and take the other end." And he got in the car.

    "Right," the man said. "I'm ready," and he began to push the box hard.

    For several minutes, the man and the woman tried to move the box. Soon they felt very tired.

    They rested for a moment. Then the woman said, "Let's try again. One, two, three!" They went on moving the box At last, when they were exhausted, the man said, "I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any way to get it out of your car. "

    "Get it out?" the woman cried. "I'm trying to get it in! You know?"