“Daddy, can I learn to play the violin?” young Sarah asks her father. She is always asking for things and her father is not very happy. “You cost（花费）me a lot of money, Sarah.” he says, “________ you wanted to lean horse riding, then dancing, then swimming. Now it’s the violin.”

“I’ll try very hard Daddy.” says Sarah. “I’ll play every day.”

“All right,” her father says. “I’ll pay for you to have lessons for six ________. At the end of the lessons you ________ play something for me. If you play badly, I will stop the lessons. If you play well, you can have ________ lessons.”

“OK, Daddy,” says Sarah.

He soon finds a good violin teacher and Sarah begins her lessons. Six weeks passes quickly. It is time for Sarah to play for her father. She begins to play. She plays very ________ . Her father has one of his friends with him, and the friend puts his hands on his ________ . When Sarah finishes, her father says, “Well done, Sarah, You can have more lessons.”

Sarah runs out of the room ________ , her father’s friend, taking his hands off his ears, turns to him. “The lessons cost you a lot of money, ________   she still plays very badly.” he says. “Well, you’re ________. She does play badly,” her father says, “But since（自从）she started learning the violin, I can ________   five apartment（套房）in this building at very good prices. In another six weeks, I’ll have the whole building!”

Good news is for you. Some new animals come to our zoo. They want to meet you. Come and see one big South China tiger and two Indian elephants. Three lions from Africa want to meet you, and four monkeys from Zhang Jiajie are smiling at you. Four cute koalas from Australia are going to welcome you, and two giraffes from America are waiting to look down on you.

Tickets (票)

Adult: $ 4. 00

Children: Over 12 $ 2. 00

Under 12: Free (免费)

Opening Time

From Wednesday to Monday 9:00 a. m.—4:00 p. m. but on Tuesday 10:00 a. m.—3:00 p. m.

Keep the zoo clean! You can take photos of the animals.

Do not touch (摸), give food or go near the animals!

A woman is at the cinema, and she is enjoying the film very much, but there is a man in the next seat, and he begins looking at the floor under her. The woman is angry and asks, “What are you doing there?What are you looking for?” “A piece of chocolate,” the man says to her, “I drop it on the floor.” “A piece of chocolate?” the woman says angrily. “It is dirty now. Take this and be quiet, please. I am watching the film.” she gives the man a big piece of chocolate. But the man says, “One of my teeth is in the chocolate!”

When you are walking down the street in Seattle at one o’clock p.m., you always see a woman holding a white and green paper cup. You also see another man holding a cup in his hand. You see another and another. Everyone has a cup in his or her hand! What are they all drinking? You smell the Seattle air. It’s coffee!

People in Seattle love coffee. Some people say it’s because Seattle has many rainy days, and people need coffee to be happy. Others say coffee shops are popular because Seattle people are very relaxed.

Coffee shops in Seattle are much like teahouses in China. In Seattle, people go to coffee shops to talk to friends, read, play games, work on the computer or relax. Coffee is an important part of people’s day.

The world’s largest coffee shop chain, Starbucks, first opened in Seattle in 1971. But Starbucks is not the only popular coffee shop in the city. There are other large coffee chains, like Seattle’s Best Coffee, Caffe Ladro, or Tully’s. Seattle also has many small neighborhood coffee shops. Everyone has a favorite place to go and drink coffee.

You may know the English letters A, B and C, but do you know there are people called “ABC”? You may like eating bananas, but do you know there are people called “banana persons”? If you don’t know, let me tell you about it. They are some Chinese people like you and me, but they aren’t in China. Why do people call them like that?

If we call somebody an ABC person, we mean he or she is a Chinese but was born (出生) in America. Sometimes, people also call them “banana persons”. A banana is yellow outside and white inside. So if somebody is a “banana person”, he or she is “white” inside and “yellow” outside. By saying that, we mean he or she has yellow skin (皮肤) but does things in an American way. “Banana persons” were born in America and they live in America for a long time, so they think like Americans and do things like Americans. However, these people still have Chinese blood. Their parents, grandparents or even great grandparents are from China. They all have black eyes and black hair, so they look like us Chinese people.