Twice a month, Jenny Green sits down, picks up her pen and writes a letter to her best friend. The British woman has been doing it for 80 years. She has sent more than 1,500 letters to her pen pal in America.

The hobby started in 1942. Jenny, then 12 years old, was reading a magazine. Some ads in the magazine were asking for pen pals. One of them caught Jenny’s eye. It was from Alice Miller. She lived in America and was also 12. “It was exciting for me,” Jenny said. “I sat down at once, wrote a letter, put it in an envelope—together with a picture of myself —and posted it.”

Jenny spent every day waiting for the postman. Two weeks later—which felt like a lifetime—a reply dropped through the letter box. “I was overjoyed,” Jenny said. “There was a letter and a picture of my new friend. She was all the way on the other side of the world!”

Jenny and Alice wanted to learn more about each other. They kept writing. The two found that they had a lot in common. They liked the same books and the same films.

However, both Jenny and Alice were too poor to afford a plane ticket. It was not until 1987 that they met. “I was glad to see the person I had been writing to for 40 years,” Jenny said. “We had a big hug and then sat down, chatting for hours.”

Now in their nineties, Jenny and Alice are still writing to each other. And they still write by hand. “Writing is warmer and friendlier. So why shall we change the habit of a lifetime?” Jenny said. “I’m so glad that I wrote that first letter 80 years ago.”

For years, it has been said that newspapers are at death’s door. Each of the past few years has seen many newspapers say goodbye to their readers. But why is the situation so terrible for newspapers?

Newspapers have a long history. The first newspaper was printed in the 1600s. The industry experienced its most successful time in the early 20th century.

With the appearance of radio and TV, however, newspaper circulation（发行量）began to fall. By the mid-20 century, radio and TV had become so popular that people no longer had to depend on newspapers for news. This was especially true for the latest news.

Afternoon newspapers were the first to suffer. More and more people coming home from work turned on the TV, instead of opening a newspaper. But generally, newspapers still managed to survive（生存）. Although they couldn’t compete with TV in spreading the latest news, they could provide in-depth reports that TV news could not.

But newspapers suffered another heavier blow in the 1990s. With the appearance of the Internet, lots of information became free. Many newspaper readers realized that they could conveniently read news online for free. There seemed to be little reason any longer for them to pay for a newspaper.

So what will the future of newspapers be like? Will newspapers die? Maybe not. Many newspapers are now changing. Some are going digital（数字化的）. Some are going even farther by taking the industry to places it has never been to. After all, people still want the news. And many agree that newspapers are important for in-depth news and opinions. If newspapers were to completely disappear, there would be nothing to take their place.

Playground Safety Rules

Playgrounds are great places to have fun. But you need to have fun without getting hurt.     16    

Wear shoes to keep your feet safe.

    17     Wet equipment can be slippery and might lead to a fall.

Don’t play on broken equipment. Tell an adult if any playground equipment is broken.

Go down the slide, one person at a time.

Don’t go down the slide until the person in front of you has reached the ground and moved away from the slide.

Never climb up the front of the slide.     18    

Climb stairs or steps slowly. Hold onto the handrails.

    19    

Sit down on the swings and slow down before getting off.

Be careful when you walk in front of a moving swing. You don’t want to get hit.

Remembering the above rules will help keep you safe and prevent accidents.     20     If there’s a problem or if someone gets hurt in the playground, ask an adult for help at once.

Do you eat rice every day? Rice is the most important food for people all over the world. ______ a survey, rice helps feed one third of the world’s population. Scientists say that China first ______ rice about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Now, rice is common in people’s daily ______. Rice can be cooked in many ways. Snacks made ______ rice are very delicious. And rice is also a popular food on festivals. People make New Year cakes with sticky rice every Spring Festival.

China has the ______ population in the world. In order to feed more people, Chinese great scientist Yuan Longping led the Super Rice Program in 1996. Today half of China’s rice plants are Yuan’s Super Rice.

It was the sports meeting once a year in our school. But my foot still hadn’t healed(痊愈)because of an accident. I wondered whether I should ______ the meeting or not. But I had prepared for it for a long time and I was ready for the 1,500-meter race.

“Ready…set…” The gun sounded and we were off. The other boys rushed ahead of me. I felt ashamed as I fell farther behind.

“Hooray!” The crowd shouted. It was the loudest ______ I had ever heard at a sports meeting.

The first-place runner was one lap(圈)ahead of me when he ______ the finish line.

“Maybe I should ______.” I thought as I ran. However, I kept going. During the last lap, I ran in pain and decided not to race next year, ______ by that time my foot had healed.

When I finished, I heard ______ louder cheers from the girls. “They ______ be cheering for the winners.” I thought.

I was leaving the meeting when several girls came up to me. “Wow, you’ve shown a lot of ______!” One of them told me. “We were cheering for you. Did you hear us?”

I felt ______ again and decided to run again next year. I ______ that strength and courage aren’t always measured in victories. The strongest people are not always those who win, but those who don’t give up even when they are losing.

Peking Opera（京剧）is a traditional form of Chinese culture. In Peking Opera, each character has their face painted in a special way. By looking at the face painting, the audience（观众）can know whether the character is good     46     bad.

Where did this kind of face painting come from? An old story told us that it had something to do     47     the Prince of Lanling. This prince was one of the four most handsome     48    （man）in ancient China. Some soldiers in the prince’s army     49    （think）that he was weak because of his good-looking face. So, to make himself look     50    （strong）than his appearance, the prince wore a mask with an ugly face painted on it.

Another face painting story was about Li Longji,     51     emperor in the Tang Dynasty. He loved opera very much. One day, a clown actor（丑角）fell ill right before a performance. The emperor planned     52    （play）this role himself. Then he covered his face with a piece of white square jade（玉）so that others wouldn’t be able to recognize     53    （he）. Ever since then, clown actors     54    （continue）to paint white squares on their faces.

As time went on, face painting started being     55    （wide）used to show the characters of different roles. It has become one of the many special art forms of Peking Opera.