It was my 14th birthday and I would have the biggest party ever. The number of the 1 had quickly grown from seven to seventeen. Nearly every girl in my class was 2.When each guest excitedly 3 the invitation, I was especially happy.
The 4was full of shouts and laughter. We had just finished a game of Twister when the door bell rang. I was so 5 and I could feel my face turning red, because when I6the door, there at the front door stood Sarah Westly the quiet girl who sat next to me in music class﹣and she was holding a 7.I thought about the guest list. How did I 8to invite Sarah？
I remembered that I only added a name to the 9 when someone showed an interest in me. But Sarah had 10 done that. I accepted the box, a gift from Sarah, and asked her to join the party. "I can't 11," she said." My dad's waiting in the car. "At that moment I felt bad about forgetting to invite Sarah and really wanted her to rest for some time in my room." Thanks, but I have to go, "she said, turning 12 towards the door. "See you Monday."
I didn't open the box until the party was 13. Inside the small box was a ceramic(陶瓷) tabby cat. It was the best gift I had received 14 I didn't like cats. I later 15 that the gift looked exactly like Sarah's cat, Seymour. I didn't know it then, but now I realize that Sarah was my true friend.
Please Take my Children to Work Day(PTCW Day) first began as a holiday for hard-working and tired stay-at-home mothers to take a day off. Now, this day is fit for any parent. It was created in 2003 and is celebrated each year on June 25, but it isn't a public holiday. It encourages friends and family to take care of the children so that the stay-at-home parent can have some time to relax.
Kamehameha Day is held on June 11 each year. Kamehameha the Great was the monarch(君主) of Hawaii. He is famous and respected for establishing(建立) the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810.Kamehameha Day is a public holiday in Hawaii, and this is a day off for people School and most businesses are closed.
D-Day is celebrated in the U.S. to memorize the Normandy landings in France on June 6, 1944. On the day, American army and other Allied forces(盟军) fought hard and the World War Ⅱ(WWⅡ) in Europe was over soon. It is not a public holiday. Businesses have normal opening hours.
Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 each year to honor the United States flag. On the same day, the United States Army celebrates its birthday. Although Flag Day is a great celebration across the country, it is not a public holiday.
The Greens got a rather unhappy surprise when they tried to fly from Cardiff to Lanzarote last weekend. Because of a had mistake at the airline check-in desk, the Greens got on the wrong flight(航班) and ended up in Ankara. So how did the mix-up happen？
It was five o' clock on Sunday morning when Charlie and Kate Green arrived at Cardiff airport with their nine-year-old daughter Tina. They checked in properly for their fight to Lanzarote, but the check-in attendant(服务员) made a mistake with their boarding passes and also sent them to the wrong boarding gate. Unluckily, it was so curly and the Greens were feeling so tired that they didn't notice any thing wrong. What was worse, there weren't any announcements in the boarding gate area.
When the Greens finally got on the plane, Charlie and Kate Green fell asleep at once, though there were interesting films, magazines, newspapers and music for them to choose to spend the boring time. Little Tina took out a history book about Rome and read. Two hours later, she fell asleep too. They didn't wake up until six hours later, when the plane was landing. Suddenly, the flight attendant said. "Welcome to Ankara!" The Greens couldn't believe it and little Tina was quite unhappy, The family had to get off the plane and then pay 10 for a tourist visa(签证). In the end, they decided to get back home, living at 5:00 p.m. on the same day.
Joe Connor comes from Kinsley and works in an office in Kansas City. His job is a typical nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday job. So at the weekend, he does something different. He likes traveling but he works as a volunteer too. He helps different people for free. Every weekend, there's a new project.
This weekend, Joe is helping to build a house. You can see him in the photo. He's moving a large blue panel(板子). It's part of a wall. Joe isn't a professional builder, but that's the interesting thing about this project. The other people are" weekend builders" too. These "weekend builders" are from the small town of Greensburg in Kansas. A year ago, a tornado(龙卷风) hit their town. After the tornado, the community started a project to build new homes. The project is for 30 new homes. They get some help from a building company and a group of volunteers. Joe says," I heard about the tornado and the new project. I knew some people in Greensburg. I wanted to help." Joe's friends are here this weekend too. They're working with Jill and Scott.
Jill and Scott are both from Pratt, and they are building their" dream house". Jill (on the right) is standing near his new house. He's holding a part of the new wall. They're making the house that can fight against tornadoes ﹣that's why it has an unusual shape.
Their house is almost ready, so next weekend, Joe is moving to a different project. Why does he do? "Though busy, I can help people. I can make friends and that is fun! So, why not?" he says.
Students in Kenya are returning for their third term. They begin their school year in January and it is broken up into three terms. In Kenya, in the past, students were not required to attend school and the education was not free, either.
I taught math, English and physics at Chamasiri Secondary School while I was a teacher in Kenya. This school had four classrooms ﹣one for each grade, Form 1, Form 2, Form 3 and Form 4. They are the equivalent(对等) to our 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. Teachers traveled from classroom to classroom instead of the students going from room to room. The Form I class had 60 students, Form 2 had 45, Form 3 had 30, and Form 4 about 12 students. The class sizes became smaller as the grades continued on. Why did this happn? Many families were very poor and could not afford the school fees(学费).
Most countryside schools in Kenya did not have a lot of money. As a result, there were very few textbooks for the students to use. I had seven math texts for my Form 2 class and 14 for the Form I class. Anything the students needed to know was put up on the blackboard and the students copied it down into their notebooks. The notebooks became the students' textbooks.
Kenyan students study ten different subject areas. Some of the students spend over an hour running home. They do chores at home and hopefully manage to find some time to study before it gets dark. Most families do not have electricity and may not even have candies for their children to study by.
Luckily, Kenyan education has been becoming better and better in the past few years. I'm sure it will have a good future.
For thousands of years, humans have explored(探索)the Earth. Nowadays, we are exploring space. Astronomers (天文学家) are the modern﹣day explorers, Now, many astronomers are looking for new planets and new places for humans to live in the future. But where do astronomers start looking？
First of all, astronomers look for a star. That's because our own Earth moves around a star (the Sun). More importantly, it is the correct distance( 距离) from the Sun for heat and light. So when astronomers have found the star, they look at the planets around it. In recent years, astronomers have found nearly 400 new planets with stars. However, many of these planets are either too near to the star or too far away.
However, if the planet is in a good position, astronomers look for three key things: water, air and rock. Water is important because all life needs water. Humans can drink it and they can also grow plants with water. And plants produce air for humans to breathe and food to eat. Rock on a planet is also important. That's because there is often water under the rock.
After many years of scrutinizing, astronomers have found a planet that is similar to the Earth. It's Gliese 581g and it's near a star. The astronomers think it has water and rock and the average(平均的) temperature is between -31℃ and -12℃.That's cold, but not colder than Antarctica or the Arctic Circle, for example. Gliese 581g is bigger than the Earth. A year on Gliese 581g is only 37 Earth days instead of 365. But astronomers do not think these are big differences and some of them think Gliese 581g will be a new Earth. However, Gliese 58Ig is twenty light years from the Earth.
The seed vault(种子地窖)
A lot of countries need different kinds of seeds so that they can plant them again. There is an important reason for this, Sometimes plants can't grow in a country because of bad weather or disease, so farmers need new seeds.
You can keep seeds in a" seed vault". It's a place at a special temperature. The seeds don't grow, but they can live for a long time. Norway has the biggest seed vault in the world ﹣the Svalbard Global Seed Vault﹣and it has seeds from a lot of different countries.
The vault is on the island of Spitsbergen. The island is about one thousand kilometers from the North Pole. It's a very cold place so it's good for seeds. Above the ground, the doorway is small, but inside, the building is huge. You walk down a long corridor (走廊), which is one hundred and thirty meters inside a mountain. At the end of it, there are three large areas with seeds.
There are about half a million kinds of seeds inside the vault. For example, there are kinds of seeds for rice from Asia and Africa, 32 kinds of seeds for potatoes from Ireland and seeds for different tomatoes from the USA.
The seed vault has space for a lot more seeds. You can put about 2.2 billion(十亿)seeds inside. The seeds can live here for thousands of years because of the cold temperature of ﹣18℃. So in the future, humans can grow any seed they want. In other words, the seed vault is the difference between life and death.
