The CCTV Spring Festival Gala is commonly known as “chunwan” in Chinese. It was first broadcast in 1983. The live TV show has been entertaining（娱乐）Chinese people one New Year’s Eve after another. And it is popular with more than 700 million viewers（观众）.

The live broadcast（直播）lasts four and a half hours. It includes dances, cross talk, magic shows and many other performances（表演）. The performers at the gala are chosen from all walks of life. They represent（代表）the best part of Chinese art and culture. With the gala, many Chinese people stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Family members sit in front of the television, sharing happiness and waiting for the arrival of the New Year.

In 2005, the gala was broadcast live on the Internet for the first time. During the live broadcast, viewers can get online red envelopes（红包）by shaking their phones.

The Spring Festival Gala has been held for 37 years. It has also been a witness（见证）to China’s rapid development over the past few years.

Today we walked in the rainforest with our guides. Wow! It was great. The trees are really tall here. There are a lot of beautiful birds in them. I saw black and yellow toucans（巨嘴鸟）and big red and green parrots（鹦鹉）. I also saw the biggest bird in the rainforest, the Black Guan. It’s black, but it has a blue face and red legs.

In the evening, we sat next to a campfire. The guides cooked us rice and fish. The food was really delicious. We talked about the rainforest.

Today we got up early. Then we went boating on the Tenorio River. We saw more birds and also some monkeys in the trees. The monkeys are called howler monkeys. They are big and black or brown. They are also very noisy! We saw some baby crocodiles（鳄鱼）, too. They are not big but very scary, so we didn’t stay there long!

In the evening, we had porridge and pancakes and we ate some fruit. We talked about the crocodiles!

Tomorrow we’re going to a volcano（火山）! It’s called Arenal and I can’t wait!

Typhoons（台风）in the northern part of the world have girls’ names. Sometimes they have very beautiful names. Rose is a pretty name but there was nothing pretty about Typhoon Rose. It was the worst typhoon to hit Hong Kong in more than thirty years.

It began to rain early on the morning of Monday, August 16^th, 1971. At ten o’clock in the morning, Typhoon Rose was still 130 miles away but already the wind was blowing people’s umbrellas away. The wind became stronger and stronger. The typhoon shelters（避风港）were soon full of boats. Ships that were too big to go inside the shelters put down more anchors（锚）. Some very big ships went out to sea. It is safer for a big ship to be at sea in a typhoon because then it cannot be blown onto rocks. Kai Tak Airport closed. No planes were able to take off or land. At 9:00 in the evening, all lights went out.

No one slept well that night. It is difficult to sleep in such bad weather.

In Typhoon Rose, more than one hundred people died. 229 people were injured（受伤）and 66 of these had to go to hospital. 1,500 people lost their homes. The people of Hong Kong will no quickly forget Typhoon Rose!

Dolphins are clever. It seems that they can think and learn things quickly. Studies show that dolphins and humans have something in common（共同的）. Let’s have a look.

Like humans, every dolphin has its “name”. The name is a special（特别的）whistle（口哨）. Each dolphin chooses a different whistle for itself, usually by its first birthday. Dolphins are like humans in other ways, too. They use sound and body language to “talk” with each other about a lot of things-such as their age, their feelings and finding food.

Dolphins live in groups. And they often join others from different groups to play games and have fun, just like humans. Playing together is something only clever animals can do.

Dolphins and humans are similar（相似的）in another way. Both of them make plans to get things they want. In the water of southern Brazil, for example, dolphins use a smart way to get food. When there are fish near a boat, dolphins signal to the fishermen to put their nets（网）in the water. In this way, the fishermen can get a lot of fish. Why do dolphins help the fishermen? That’s because they can eat some of the fish that run away from the net.

September and October may be the most beautiful months in Beijing. People say goodbye to summer and welcome the cool    56    . The weather is not hot any    57    . There is plenty of    58    and cooler temperature. The sky is always so clear. This is a harvest    59    . Most fruit and vegetables are ripe（成熟的）. One great activity in these months is to pick    60    fruit and vegetables on local farms. They are nice and don’t    61    too much. People also think it is a great way to    62    and get nice air when get close to nature.    63    popular activity people enjoy is to see the red maples（枫树）in Fragrant Hills. When autumn arrives, flaming（火红的）leaves    64    the park and make them look like a colorful painting. The weather becomes cooler and cooler. People should wear warm    65    like jackets or sweaters.