A kangaroo is a tall, strong animal. It has large feet, a long tail, thick brown fur (毛) and pointy ears. The kangaroo is regarded as a _______ of Australia. Also, kangaroos have been used _______ mascots (吉祥物) for sports teams.

Kangaroo is the name for an adult. It can grow up to two meters _______, and weigh 90 kilograms. Joey is the name for a baby kangaroo. However, _______ a joey is born, it isn’t like a kangaroo. It is red, and it has no fur. It looks like a peanut (花生).

A new born joey cannot see. It is blind. _______ it has no problem finding a way to its mother’s pouch (育儿袋). It just moves slowly up and goes into the mother’s pouch. The mother’s pouch becomes its _______ home.

A joey _______ in its mother’s pouch. It drinks its mother’s milk and becomes bigger and bigger. Its fur starts to grow. Red fur is for a boy, while grey fur is for a girl. After a few months, a joey’s back legs start to grow. The legs start to grow longer and _______. Now it’s time for a joey to come out of the pouch. It jumps and runs around in the field. And then it comes back to its mother’s pouch to sleep.

A joey has to stay in its mother’s pouch _______ about a year, and be fed by the mother until reaching 18 months. When it becomes bigger than the pouch, it ________ its first home.

Goodbye and good luck, Joey!

Biking keeps you fit. It is a clean and green way to get to work it you live close enough. Also, it’s cheaper than driving a car.

Biking has so many advantages, but why aren’t there more bikers on city roads? According to a survey, the number one reason is the worry about road safety.

Sharing the road with cars can be dangerous. Omar Bakhshi experienced this when a car knocked him down, which had bad effects on his taste and smell for life. Bakhshi realized that what happened to him wasn’t unusual.

Because bikers often experience dangers with cars, Bakhshi set out to make roads safer to share. He started a company, Tether, to improve safety conditions for city bikers.

Tether’s invention is a smart sensor (传感器) that goes on a bike’s handlebars (把手). As the biker rides through the city, the invention makes a “safety zone (地带)” of lights onto the road. These lights will make cars pay attention to the rules of sharing the road. If cars get too close to the biker’s personal spaces, the lights will start flashing.

What makes Bakhshi’s invention different is its smart features (特点). Tether’s tool collects data (数据) from these biking accidents. The data is organized into a central database and can be used to choose which streets are safer for bikers.

Not only can bikers choose a better way to avoid heavy traffic by using the data, but Bakhshi plans to share the data with the government.

Walking, biking, driving and public transportation all have different advantages and disadvantages. When all road users can share the same level of safety knowledge, everyone can get where they need to go quickly and safely.

Lots of kids have been trying to find ways to help save the Earth. Some of them are encouraged by the “30 by 30” plan: Fifty countries have promised to protect 30% of Earth’s land and waters by 2030.

One of the kids is 11-year-old Beckett from Georgetown, Texas. He wants to help protect endangered species (物种). In 2019, he began working with Rainforest Trust. “I was really interested in trying to stop climate (气候) change,” he said.

With the help of his schoolmates, Beckett has started a group called Protection of Earth. The group organized a local Run and raised more than $700. The money helped to save more than 1,000 acres (英亩) of rainforest land. When the COVID-19 came, Beckett put together an online activity called Trivia: People could test their knowledge of birds, endangered species, and climate change. That raised $600 for rainforest land.

In Los Angeles, California, 10-year-old Justin is worried about frogs. Justin calls them “magical, because they come in different colors.” Last year he joined Rainforest Trust to help Ecuador’s rainforest and its frogs. He appeared on local TV news, and many people learned about what he had done. That helped him raise $2,000 to save almost three acres of Cloud Forest.

Justin hopes he can encourage other people to understand why frogs are so cool. “Frogs are telling us the planet needs help,” he said. “If frogs are dying wherever you are, that’s bad because it means the water you are drinking is polluted.”

“Mum says that we should not swim in that deep pool!” said Jim.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” said Ray with a laughter. On this hot June afternoon, the water was so cool and comfortable that the boys couldn’t wait to jump into the pool for a quick swim.

Shaking his head in disapproval (不赞成), Jim walked to the nearby food corner to have a bite. Ray swam ahead like a fish. Julian had just begun his swimming lessons last week.     24     Suddenly, Julian felt a pull in his right leg muscle (肌肉).

“Help!” cried Julian. “It hurts!”

    25     Hearing the cry, Jim turned around and was shocked to see his brother struggling (挣扎) in the water.

“Oh dear! What should I do?” shouted the scared Jim.

Luckily, there was a lifeguard on duty who heard the cries for help.     26     Julian was unconscious (无意识的) and the lifeguard gave first aid (急救) on him. Julian was soon awake. Having a deep breath, Jim and Ray thanked the lifeguard for saving Julian.

The three brothers went home and Jim reported the matter to their mother. Their mother scolded (训斥) Ray and Julian strictly and the boys promised not to do it again. Jim was glad that he was spared the scolding.

    27     The five main ones are speaking, reading, writing, listening and grammar, but each one is important to the others. If you need to improve one, keep up your work on the others at the same time. Remember to improve all your language learning with lots of practice!

    28     Do you remember that time when you couldn’t understand anything at all and when you could hardly communicate? Look how much better you are now and how much you have improved! Believing in yourself is so important. Never say die.

    29     You shouldn’t be worried about how much you are learning, you should enjoy learning new words and being able to compare them to your own language. You should be excited about how much you have learned!

    30     Do you feel you are not progressing? Look back on how you learned the language. Set your goals and decide what you want to do in the short, medium and long term. Then start looking at how you achieve these goals.

    31     Why do you want to learn another language well? Do you want to be able to teach that language or travel to that country and be able to communicate? Remember the reasons for learning a language and keep going for it.

Life is full of pleasure, pain, learning, growth, happiness and sadness. Those can make people better and wiser. E. L. Konigsburg, a famous     32    , tells children, “Before you can be anything, you have to be yourself. That’s the hardest thing to find.” Konigsburg herself     33     many years doing many things before she discovered that she wanted to be and could be a writer.

Konigsburg was     34     in New York City. She was a good student, graduated first in her high school class, and was the first person in her family to go to     35    , where she got a degree in chemistry.     36     finishing college, she got married and then started working on a master’s degree (硕士学位) in chemistry. When she and her husband moved to Florida, she began to teach science at a private girls’ school.

Soon, however, Konigsburg realized she was more     37     in what was going on inside the students than what was going on inside the test tubes (试管). She stopped teaching science and stayed at home to raise her three children. She     38     began to take drawing and painting classes. Some of her works won awards (奖) in competitions.

As her children grew, Konigsburg had a strong wish to write about their experiences and those of her students in the past. So she did. Today, two Newbery Awards, more than 15 books, and     39     of young readers later, she is still writing.

Konigsburg has a one word piece of advice for people     40     want to be a writer. “Finish. Don’t talk about doing it. Do it Finish.” That also makes it     41     to face any challenge in lives.

Hanging a red lantern in front of the door is believed to drive off bad luck. The first Chinese paper lanterns     42     (invent) during the Eastern Han Dynasty (东汉). In ancient China, people raised lanterns to get light and wish for a better life. Also, lanterns were widely used on festivals. Nowadays, it has become a tradition that both big cities     43     small towns are filled with red lanterns during the festival.

The materials for making lanterns are simple. People can     44     (make) bamboo, wood and metal into frames (框架) of lanterns. Paper and silk     45     (be) the main materials for covers. People like to paint beautiful Chinese pictures on     46     (they). The traditional lantern is covered by rice paper with a candle burning inside. Lights shine through the rice paper     47     night. That is really Chinese style. The most common Chinese lanterns are red, round and with red or golden tassels (流苏). They are seen as bright symbols of happiness and good     48     (wish). In Chinese culture, lanterns in different colors express different meanings.

People     49     (usual) light several lanterns for the Chinese New Year, and enjoy lantern shows with family during the Lantern Festival Lanterns light the night of festivals. Happiness and joy spread into different families by these different lanterns. Lanterns are also used in all kinds     50     celebrations. Lanterns have become the national     51     (proud) in China

You often hear “New year, new me” in the UK on the first of January. It is very common to start a new year’s resolution on this day. This can be to give up something, like sweets or chocolate, so you can be healthier. People also like to start doing something new. There are so many things you can do! Many people I know decide to play sports and eat healthier food as their new year’s resolution. Many become heavier after the holidays as they often eat a lot.

I think new year’s resolutions are a great idea to give people motivation (动机) to do something good for themselves. When other people have the same resolution as yours, it helps you to stick to your own. For example, you could go jogging (慢跑) with a group of friends several times a week. That can be so much more fun and help you to keep the resolution.

Also, I think it is important for you to choose something realistic as a new year’s resolution. In the past, I have given up chocolate, stopped eating meat and started doing kung fu. Soon after that, I gave up some of these things, such as not eating chocolate. They were too difficult to keep. And some I kept on with and still do now.

This year, my resolution is to travel less by plane. Living in the UK, it was very difficult to travel without a car and not by plane, but now that I live in Germany I find it much easier to travel by another mode (模式) of transport. There are more environmentally friendly ways that I can choose like travelling by train or bus, though it’s more expensive, I know that I will do harm to the environment much less.