December 25th is Christmas day. In western countries it is the most important day in the year. All the people come back to their homes. On Christmas day, bells ring everywhere. The ringing bells tell people Christmas is coming. People sing and dance day and night. They have a good time.
Most family buys a Christmas tree for their children. And there are some presents in the tree here and there. People also put presents in children's stockings. In many places, Father Christmas himself brings presents to them. He is a kind man in red clothes. There is a big bag on his back. In it there are a lot of presents.
On Christmas Day, people enjoy all kinds of food. But some poor people have no houses to live and no food to eat. They die of chill and hunger on Christmas Day.
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There were two birds living in a tree. Later, they had three little baby birds. They brought fat worms (虫子)to the mouth of the baby birds. But there was a problem. One of the little birds, Jimmy, was always hungry. He ate and ate. Soon he became very fat.
One day the mother birds told the three children to learn to fly. Jimmy's sisters learnt fast. It was Jimmy's turn. Jimmy did as his mother told him to fly. But he was too fat. He couldn't learn to fly. His mom was very worried. She stopped giving Jimmy food to eat. She decided that Jimmy must lose weight. After much effort (努力) Jimmy could fly. He could learn how to find worms to eat. And the whole family lived happily.
In 1620, about half the USA was covered by forests. Today the forests have almost gone. A lot of good land has gone with them, leaving only sand. China doesn't want to copy the USA's example. We're planting a lot of trees. We've built the "Great Green Wall" of trees across northern part of our country. The Great Green Wall is 7,000 kilometers long, and between 400 and 1,700 kilometers wide. It will stop the wind from blowing the earth away. It will stop sand from moving towards the rich farmland in the south. More "Great Green Walls" are needed. Trees must be grown all over the world. Great Green Walls will make the world nicer.
There is a little boy. His name is Peter. His family has much money. But his parents do not want him to tell others. So before Peter goes to school, his mother says to him, "Peter, do not say our family are rich in your new school." And Peter says, "Yes, mum." So Peter goes to school. He meets his new teacher. And he sits down with all the students. The teacher says, "Good morning, children. The first exercise today is to write a passage about your family." All the students write their passages. This is Peter's passage: My name is Peter Rich. My family is poor. My mother is poor. My father is poor. So are my gardener (园丁),the cook and all the servants(仆人) are poor, too.
The Spring Festival (春节) is our Chinese people's festival. There are different names for each year. We all call it the year of monkey, the year of dog… and this year is the year of Mouse. Before the day of the festival, people are busy shopping and cleaning. On the Eve (除夕), there is a big family dinner. After dinner, all the family stay up late (守夜) to welcome the new year. In the middle of the night, we have some dumplings (饺子) and watch TV. On the first day of the New Year, people wear new clothes to visit their relatives and say "Happy New Year" to each other.
