Last week, I visited my friend Pete in his new home. He lives with his wife and daughter there. Pete used to spend his holidays travelling the world —visiting the pyramids in Egypt or scuba diving (水肺潜水)in the Caribbean(加勒比海). ________ , he prefers to spend his holidays and weekends making his house look more beautiful. Like hundreds of thousands of other British people, he’s found the ________ of DIY (do it yourself) home repairs. This means that if there’s ________ that needs fixing around the house, he will try to do the ________ himself.

Pete showed me his new kitchen, which he put together himself, and his newly-painted walls. I asked him ________ he got the idea to do these things. He told me that ________ ideas were from a DIY program on TV—his favourite program.

This got me thinking about ________ popular DIY programs are in the UK. I suppose it’s not really surprising that DIY programs are so popular. There are ________ common sayings in Britain —“an Englishman’s home is his castle” and “there’s no place like home”—which ________ how important our houses are to us. With the economic (经济的) changes of the last ten years, many people can’t afford to buy ________ houses. So they are looking at how they can make their house better without spending a lot of money. DIY, of course, is the perfect choice.

Do you know the two lovely mascots (吉祥物)? You may know the five “Fuwa” dolls from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On September 17 of this year, the two lovely mascots first showed on TV. Now, let’s see who they are.

It is a black and white panda that wears a full-body “shell” made of ice and looks fat, so we call it “Bing Dwen Dwen”.The red heart shape in its left palm(手心）means welcoming the friends from other countries. The bright colours of the circles around its face stand for ice and snow sport tracks, meaning connectivity and advanced technologies. “Bing Dwen Dwen” likes ice sports very much and is good at them. That’s why it is the mascot of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

Do you think the red mascot looks like a lantern? The lantern’s name is “Shuey Rhon Rhon”. When the Chinese New Year comes, people always make or buy red lanterns. Red is the colour of hope and good luck, so people think their dreams will come true in the new year. Take a look at its head. There are paper cuttings of doves(鸽子）. They make up a circle. “Shuey Rhon Rhon” can give players hope and help them do well in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games.

Many people in different countries like the two mascots very much, and they show their love for them on the Internet.

Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future? While express mail (快递) is a fast way to send your letters, there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business—future mail.

“The letter should be sent next Mother’s Day and not a day earlier!” Lin Xiaofan, a college student in Shanghai, tells one of the companies offering the service.

Lin Xiadan wrote the letter to her mother nearly a year earlier to express her love to her mother for next Mother’s Day.

“Offering this service makes people slow down and lets them understand the meaning of ‘time’ in another way,” said Zheng Zhimin, manager of a “future mail” company. Zheng thinks “future mail” letters help remind us of care, friendship and love.

While “future mail” is becoming more and more popular, some people are wondering what will happen if the postal address changes or if the company goes broken before the letters arrive. Zheng said customers are glad to sign a contract (签订合同) to make sure that they can be compensated if their letters are lost or damaged.

Most of the customers are college students and young white-collar (白领) workers. Psychologists (心理学家) said that young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service. Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letter so that they can experience the connection (联系) between the past and the present when they receive the letter.

When I was seven years old, my family made me an ant farm. First, we put clean sand in a thin glass box. Then we waited for the ants to arrive.

After the ants were in the glass farm, they started to make tunnels (地道). I was amazed that each one knew exactly what to do. Each had its own job.

On the fifth day a tragedy (悲剧) happened. I put my face so close to the glass farm that I knocked it over. All the tunnels fell down. Although the ants remained alive after the earthquake, one by one they began to die. I was scared as I watched them give up building their tunnels to carry bodies to a corner of the farm.

My mother said that the ants were dying of sadness. They simply could not understand why their tunnels were gone.

Although much time has passed, I still think of that ant farm. Mom had hoped it would teach me about the natural world, but it taught me much more.

Over the years, I came to realize the importance of teamwork. Working together, the ants were able to make an amazing world for themselves. I also learned that they should be admired for their hard work.

But there was an even larger lesson that I did not realize until recently: Adversity (逆境) is a natural part of life, and must be accepted. Unlike the ants, we cannot give up when we are sad. We have to realize that if a tunnel is gone, we must build another.

Giving up, I say, is not a good choice.

Hobbies can be the first teachers for many of life’s lessons. Kids can learn skills of their future work from hobbies. So what are the best hobbies for kids?

Reading

If a kid can lose himself or herself in a good book, they can find a whole new world at home! It is reported that readers do better in school work and exams than non-readers.

Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts (工艺) are also a great way for teaching kids the importance of using their own hands to create something from nothing.

Collections

Whether they are stamps, coins, baseball cards, model cars, ships, dolls, or what else interests the kids, a collection is a good way to learn about people and places. Anything they choose to collect can be changed into an experience, important events and even all the social skills.

Music

If a kid enjoys singing or dancing, they can become great hobbies. For kids sometimes learning a musical instrument is a good way to obey rules.

Sports and Games

Outdoor sports and indoor games are good for the complete development of a kid’s personality (个性). Skills and teamwork are needed. This is a good hobby for any kid.

My favorite book is The Little Prince written by the French writer Antoine. The book tells about how children see the world. 1. It is so interesting that I can’t help reading it over and over again. A prince fell in love with a red rose that was beautiful but vainglorious(自负的). Later, he left the rose because of her vanity. Then he made friends with a fox. They lived together for some time, but in the end he made up his mind to leave to find his rose. To his surprise, the rose was dead. It’s a pity that he lost his rose forever. The prince is kind and innocent(天真无邪的). 1. So he doesn’t understand the people who want to have power, wealth, and praises. He flew to different planets to find out the reason, but finally he still had no idea.