The Maori people of New Zealand believe that the world began in darkness.

    They say it was dark because Rangi, the sky father, and Papa, the earth mother, were lying together, keeping out of the light.

    Rangi and Papa had many children who were all gods (神). Their children did not like the darkness, so one of them, Tane, the god of the forests, made his mother leave his father. After that, the sky stayed far above the Earth, and let the light in.

    Later, Tane was living on the Earth. He wanted to have a wife. There was no woman around, so he made one from sand. He breathed (呼出) life into her, and she became the first human(人类).

    As Tane breathed life into his wife, he knew that the breath of life would one day leave her. So it was that humans were not like gods — they could not live all the time.

Letter A

    Young people are always told that they should make the most of their time, that they will never be as free again. So, my question is — why fill up all this free time with housework？Parents expect their children to get good grades, be good at sports, and be popular with other kids.

    However，there is not enough time in the day to do these things and then do housework as well. It's not fair to expect teenagers to give up their precious time to do boring housework. Parents and children both have jobs. Parents' jobs are in the work-place. Their children's jobs are at school.

    The only difference is that parents get paid and children don't. Parents say that they make their kids do housework to teach them responsibility. But this is just a trick. Parents trick their kids into doing housework because they are lazy.

Yours,

Overloaded

Letter B

    Both parents and children have jobs. The parents' job is to go to work to earn money. The children's job is to go to school. But we all get hungry. Someone has to cook the meals and clean up afterward. We all wear clothes that get dirty. Someone has to wash them, iron them, and put them away. Children work from 9 until 4. Parents work from 8 until 6. Sure, after 4 o'clock, children have homework. But after 6, parents have homework too. They have to do the shopping, go to the bank, pay the bills, and help their kids with their own homework!

    I think it's only fair that teenagers help out a bit at home. They might not like it, but it's good for them．It teaches them how to look after themselves．This is really useful when they leave home to go to college or to live on their own.

    A young man went to visit a wise man who lived deep in the mountain{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    "Excuse me!{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Is it the day we were born or the day we die？Is it the day we fall in love or the day we are successful？"the young man asked．

    "None．The most important day in our lives is today．The wise man replied calmly．

    "Why？"the young man was very surprised．

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    "So is it because of my visit？"

    "Even if nobody visited me today，today is still very important，because today is the only wealth we have．No matter how important yesterday is，it has gone by；{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    No matter how ordinary and boring today is，it is in our hands．"

    The young man still wanted to ask something，but the wise man stopped him and said，"When we are talking about the importance of today，we have wasted a lot of it．That is to say，part of‘today'has passed．"

    Having understood this，the young man nodded and then went down the mountain．

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Therefore，what we should do now is to forget yesterday and tomorrow and catch hold of today!

A．Is it because there is some unusual event taking place today？

B．Actually today is the only wealth and chance we have．

C．No matter how wonderful tomorrow may be，it hasn't come

D．Could you tell me what is the most important day in our lives？

E．He wanted to ask for the wisdom of life．

    Mr. and Mrs. Brown are our English teachers. They have two sons. They are Dylan and Cole. They are students in the same class in Beijing Yucai School. Dylan and Cole are very cute and they look the same. They have big eyes and blond hair. Their mouths are small.

    Dylan and Cole like different colors and different clothes. Dylan likes black. He is in a black T—shirt and black pants. His shoes are black, too. But Cole's favorite color is blue. He is in a blue coat and blue pants. His shoes are pink. They look very cool.

Information Card

Dear Henry,

    I'm glad to know you are coming to my house next Sunday. But it is a little difficult to find my house. Go out of the train station, and go down West Street to the north. Don't turn left at the crossing, and just walk straight on. You can see a bus stop near a movie theatre on your left. Take the No. 2 bus there and get off at the fifth stop. Then you are on Garden Street. Go down the street and walk until you see a park. Walk across the park and you can find a bank on your right. My house is opposite the bank. I will meet you at the gate of my house. See you then.

Your friend,

Tom

    We did a survey (调查) about students' free time activities yesterday. One of our questions was about exercise and of course, it is the most important one. From the survey, we knew only 25% of the girls often have activities outside. Many girls do little exercise. They don't like P.E. classes and even don't play sports. These girls may face a lot of problems. They may get fatter and weaker, And they may get some kinds of illnesses(疾病) easily. Wang Jing, a 16-year-old girl, said, "I don't like doing exercise. I like watching TV on the sofa. I spend at least three hours watching TV a day. My sleeping time is no more than seven hours a day. I often feel tired

    Some girls said, "We don't have enough time to do exercise. We must help our parents with housework because they are very tired after a day's work. We do some washing, clean the house and finish the homework. We don't have time for doing anything else."

    Everyone may have these excuses(借口) for not doing exercise. However, we must know that if we don't do exercise, we will get sick easily. As students, we'd better exercise every day. That makes us live a healthy life.

Information Card