— ________ 8 o'clock.
—Once a month.
— Sorry, I ______. I have to go to a meeting.
— He __________newspaper in the study.
— Next month.
I was in the most beautiful city in the world, yet I only wanted home.
It was an amazing week for my husband and me ——the trip of a lifetime. Months ago, when my husband told me that he would have a meeting in London. I expressed my1 to go to Europe together with him. Then we asked his mother to look after our two children and started off.
During the week's time, we visited London and Paris ——as much as we could, Big Ben, the Louvre and so on. All these were beautiful 2we expected to see before. We really enjoyed ourselves.
On our last night in Paris, after we enjoyed the night view of the Eiffel Tower, my husband called home. His mother3the phone. In a second, my husband's face fell and he looked so worried. I could feel something4 happened.
“What's wrong?” I asked.
He didn't answer and continued to listen. A few minutes later, he said5to me that Tony, our seven-year-old son, had fallen off his bike and 6 his leg. He must be sent to hospital at once.
At that moment, Paris 7lost its charm(魅力).
“I don't want to be here! I shouldn't be here! I should be home with my kids!”
We hurried back to our hotel and then to the airport …
Finally, we got home. We rushed into our children's bedroom. Seeing our two children, I suddenly realized the truth: there is no 8 sight in the world than your children's faces that greet you at home.
| Price: $ 14.9 Number of pages: 127 Storyline: Bean and her best friend, Ivy, decide to create their own camp. They think up all the activities and, of course, they make the rules… Recommendation: I'd give this book a 10 because I love the characters. They are funny and creative. |
| Price: $ 15.9 Number of pages: 128 Storyline: Zoe and Alice's mother might just have the coolest job ever. She saves great pyrenees dogs(大白熊犬)… Recommendation: I'd give this book an 8 because it is a little sad. I think kids who love animals and a good story will really like it. |
| Price: $ 12.9 Number of pages: 192 Storyline: A dog lives in an empty pipe under Highway 16. He has four dog friends. One day, they decide to go on an adventure to steal the food from a human family… Recommendation: I'd give this book a 9. It is funny. I was laughing out loud at all the funny scenes. |
| Price: $ 15.9 Number of pages: 160 Storyline: After their parents are killed in a car accident. Jayna and her elder brother Rob are each other's only family. Soon, Rob goes off to serve in the navy. Recommendation: I'd give this book a 9. I'm interested in romantic novels and science fiction, but not so much in historical fiction. Gingersnap really changed my opinion. |
Miss Bailey taught me English in Junior school. She cycled to school, and then when entering the school gate, she would gave her bicycle to anyone of us to park it for her. It was a privilege（特别恩典）when Miss Bailey gave her bicycle to you. One day Shankar stood at the gate, Shankar was a hunchback（驼背的人）.
We laughed and said, “Move out of the way, Shankar! Miss Bailey is going to enter!” Miss Bailey drove in and we all rushed to offer our hands to her. But Miss Bailey looked past us all. “Will you park it for me?” she asked. We looked back to see who it was and were surprised to see it was towards Shankar. “I don't think so, Miss Bailey!” stammered （结结巴巴地说）Shankar. “Why! You lazy fellow!” said Miss Bailey playfully. “You don't want to help your teacher, do you?” “ Of course I want to, Miss Bailey!” whispered Shankar. “But I might drop your cycle!” “ If you drop it ,you pick it up!” said the teacher with a smile.
With that she gave her cycle to Shankar and didn't look to see how he'd manage. Pretending she had confidence in his abilities, Miss Bailey turned and walked to class. We watched Shankar as he held her bike, we held our breath as we thought it was going to fall. Dines rushed to help. “Leave it!” Shankar said, and we all stopped. It seemed that his hump（驼背）disappeared as he drew himself up to his full height, and then with growing confidence, he pushed Miss Bailey's cycle to the parking lot. The school bell rang, and we rushed to class. Shankar was the last to enter, but we were surprised; it was a different boy who walked in.
Miss Bailey didn't even look at him as he walked to her and handed her the key. From that day on, Shankar was ready to answer the questions in class, his grades went up and a smile appeared on his face.
Elephants losing tusks
People killing elephants for their tusks has long been a problem worldwide. Although laws have been introduced to ban the selling of tusks, they have not been enough to save the elephants.
But the giant animals have now “developed” their own solution to stay safe from hunters—-by not growing tusks at all.
Scientists found that among female African elephants, as many as 98 percent of them now have no tusks, reported The Independent newspaper. The number was 15 percent in 1998 and only 1 percent in 1930, according to the BBC.
But this solution has less been developed by elephants themselves, and more by evolution.
Evolution is all about natural selection（选择）. When an environment changes, for example, animals and plants that can deal with the change will stay alive while others won't. And for elephants, the change came when hunters started killing them for their tusks. As a result, elephants with big tusks couldn't stay alive because hunters wanted to shoot them. Those born with tusks managed to stay alive and give their “tuskless” genes（基因）to their babies. As a result, more and more elephants are now being born without tusks.
But this solution, as effective（有效地）as it might be, is a high price to pay for elephants. Tusks are important and play a number of roles, especially for male elephants, including fighting with other males, lifting and digging things up.
This is why scientists hope there can be other ways to protect elephants against hunters. They believe that when they are less likely to be killed, elephants will be able to grow tusks again.
To David Cowdrey, head of Policy and Campaigns at the International Found for Animal Welfare UK, however, this is not very likely to happen in the near future.
“Unfortunately, it comes down to the markets,” he told The Guardian. “As long as people will pay high prices for products that come from endangered animal and plants, they're going to have price on them and that causes the hunting.”
Just like rice and noodles are different from bread, snacks in China are a world apart from those in the UK and the US. For one thing, I never imagined that sunflower seeds(瓜子) would be so popular here. I spotted people having them while waiting for tables outside restaurants, before dinner and, of course, while watching TV. I also saw that a plate of sunflower seeds is always on offer during the Spring Festival holidays.
I had seldom tried sunflower seeds when I came to China. In the UK, though, young people love their snacks. In fact, young people in Britain eat more snacks than people of the same age in other European countries. A recent survey has discovered that 64 percent of under 20-year-olds snack between meals, according to an article on the British Council website. In comparison, 58.7 percent of young people snack in Germany, 53 percent in France, and only 40.7 percent in Spain.
British snacks are generally unhealthy. Our favorites are probably potato chips, which we call crisps, and chocolate bars. From a very young age, we always looked forward to our crisps and chocolate bars after school, perhaps even included with sandwiches and fruit in our school lunches that our parents made for us.
Snacks are also popular in the US. One of the things that I found the most extraordinary(特别的) when I first visited the US was the number of snacks in their supermarkets; I was surprised to find huge aisles(过道) just for snacks that were bigger than some stores I'd been to in the UK. Snack tastes in the US are much the same as those in the UK, except there's much more choice —— every kind of fatty, sugary food is available to everyone all the time.
All in all, it's probably best for your health if you like sunflower seeds rather than potato chips and chocolate. But eating these delicious treats at times couldn't possibly be wrong, could it?
What is “Walk to School”?
Now we are working on a program of "Walk to School". We would like as many parents and children as possible to take part, even if in a small way. Children who walk to and from school along with their parents can learn essential (基本的) road safety and life skills.
You can take part by…
Walking to and from school with your child every day.
Walking for one or two days during the week.
Encouraging others to walk, if you already do.
Walking is great!
Walking is great exercise! A walk is good for your body and can keep you fit.
You won't have to waste time looking for a parking site .
It's free. You'll save money by not using the car.
It's pollution free.
It's a good chance to talk to your children and to meet other parents, too.
Enjoying walking to school!
Here are some suggestions to help you and your child enjoy walking to school.
Plan a safe route together.
Teach children what a kerb (马路牙子) is and what it means.
Encourage your child to help you choose the safest places to cross the road.
Look at and discuss the things you see on your way－especially road signs and what they mean.
Walk to school! Thousands of parents and children already take part, could you?
Please go to www.walktoschool.org.uk for more information.
提示词语： Muhu Park, pick up, water, put up posters, gloves, shoes
提示问题：When and where will you go?
What will you do in this activity?
What do you advise Peter to prepare for this activity?
Dear Peter,
How is it going?
I'm writing to invite you to take part in the volunteer activity.
I'm looking forward to your early reply.
Li Hua
提示词语：Muhu Park, pick up, water, put up posters, tired，proud
提示问题：● Where did you go?
● What did you do?
● How did you feel?
Last Sunday
