It's Christmas at Clara's home. Many guests arrive to celebrate with the family. Clara's godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, makes toys. He gives Clara a very special gift of a 1 . Her brother, Fritz, is 2 . He takes the nutcracker away and it gets broken! After all the guests leave and the children go to bed, Clara 3 up at night and goes downstairs to get her nutcracker under the tree. She 4 asleep there. She dreams that all her toys come to life and are fighting against the bad Mouse King. The Nutcracker flies to 5 young Clara, but is struck down. Clara saves her Nutcracker by 6 her shoe at the Mouse King.
With the Mouse King out of the way, Clara runs to the Nutcracker. When she kisses him, he turns into a prince! Then she and her prince enjoy a 7 trip along which they see dancing snowflakes and are welcomed by sweets.
On Christmas morning, Clara wakes under the 8 holding her nutcracker. This story of Nutcracker is very popular,9 with kids. It was made into a ballet. Russian 10Tchaikovsky composed his beautiful music and that is one of the reasons why people love to watch it. See it at the theatre and yo'll find the story is also told by beautiful dances, rather than just words.
A lesson in “heart” is my little 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle(肌肉)missing in her foot and wears a brace all the time. She came home on a beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in “field day” 一 that's where they have lots of races and other competitive events.
Because of her leg support, my mind raced as I tried to think of words of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down-things I have heard many famous coaches tell the players when they were faced with defeat(失败)—but before I could get a word out, she looked up and said, “Daddy, I won two of the races.”
I couldn't believe it! Then Sarah said. “I had an advantage.”
Ah. I knew it. I thought she must have been given a head start……some kind of physical advantage. But again, before I could say anything, she said, “Daddy, I didn't get a head start…My advantage was I had to try harder!”
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To write a great news story, you have to make sure it is correct, relevant(相关的)and flesh.
For a start, all the information in a story must be correct. Not only the spelling and grammar, but also the facts.
Any mistakes that appear in a story can get a newspaper into big trouble.
For example, if a newspaper said that Yang Liwei was the first man to go into space, it would be wrong. He wasn't the first. The newspaper would probably lose lots of readers because of that mistake.
A news story is not only correct, but also relevant to its readers. People are mostly interested in news that happens near to them. That is why you care more about what happens at your school than at American schools. It is also why newspapers in Beijing don't talk about much news in Shanghai or Hong Kong.
Finally, news must always be fresh. When you pick up your evening newspaper, you want to read about news that happens that day. You don't want to read about news from last week!
So, now you know what makes a good news story. Have a good look at our newspaper and see if it is full of good news. You can try writing a news story for our newspaper like a real reporter.
Do you want to be a volunteer(志愿者)?Maybe you need some ideas to get you started. Here are just a few. You can pick(挑选)what you really love to do.
Help kids learn and grow. Be a big brother or big sister at an after-school care center. You can help little kids to learn or play with them.
Give back during the holidays. Serve dinner to the homeless or volunteer at your local old people's home. Your local church and temple may also need your help.
Help at a local animal shelter(动物收容所). Most shelters depend on volunteers to keep the cats and dogs happy and well exercised. And when you're walking dogs, you get some exercise, too.
Protect the environment. Take part in a local park clean-up day. Plant a tree in the spring. Join a group to work together to protect your local river.
Help sick people. Lots of us are close to people who have a medical problem. It can make you feel good to donate your time or money to the people with an illness. When you cheer them up, you also feel happy.
If you go into the forest with friends, stay with them. If you don't, you may get lost. If you get lost, this is what you should do. Sit down and stay where you are. Don't try to find your friends. Let them find you. You can help them find you by staying in one place. There is another way to help your friends or other people to find you. You can shout or whistle three times. Stop. Then shout or whistle three times again. Any signal given three times is a call for help.
Keep up shouting or whistling. Always three times together. When people hear you, they will know that you are not just making a noise for fun. They will let you know that they have heard your signal. They will give you two shouts or two whistles. When a signal given twice, it is an answer to a call for help.
If you don't mind that you will get help before night comes, try to make a little house with branches. Make yourself a bed with leaves and grass.
It was a hot day. Everybody wanted (get) cool, so an ice cream store was popular.
A little girl (hold) her money in her hand and went into the store. But the shop (assist) told her to read the sign on the door. The girl couldn't go into the store unless she put on shoes. The little girl left (slow), and a big man followed her out of the store.
He watched the girl quietly when she stood in front of the store and read the sign, said "No Bare Feet”. She turned and started to walk away with tears her eyes. Just then, the big man called her. He took off his shoes put them in front of the girl. “If you walk with them, you can get your ice cream.” he said.
Then he helped the girl put her (foot) into the shoes. He said, “I get (tire) of walking around, and it'll be good to just sit here and eat ice cream.” The little girl was happy. She ran into the store and ordered her ice cream.
