Children’s Day is coming. Mrs. Black is reading a newspaper story in her class. The story says: The doctors in Children’s Hospital are asking for money for children’s _________. Some children are ill and have to stay in hospital for many days. They feel sad and always cry, but toys can make sick children feel _________ and quiet.

After Mrs. Black _________ the story, she says, “This story gives me an idea.”

“You want _________ to bring some money for the toys.” “We could bring some of our own toys for the children in hospital,” say the boys and girls one after another.

“Well, your ideas would be nice,” Mrs. Black says, “but my idea is _________.”

“We could make some toys,” says one of them.

Mrs. Black smiles, “Do you think you could make toys?”

“Yes, yes,” the whole class answer.

“Great! Let’s begin to _________ toys tomorrow,” says Mrs. Black.

It is _________. Mrs. Black takes her students to the hospital with the toys made by themselves. The children in hospital feel happy and excited. The toys make the white hospital more colorful.

A few _________ later, Mrs. Black reads another newspaper story to the class: The students of Class Three in Green Street School made toys and brought them to Children’s Hospital on June 1st. The doctor says, “Our children enjoy themselves playing with the toys. It’s really their happiest day. Thank you, Class Three. You bring the best _________ for Children’s Day.”

The whole class smile happily, “We are happy too, __________ we make the best presents.”

One Saturday morning, Holly’s parents and Holly went to Willow Farm. It was very far, so they drove there. On the farm, Holly got a lovely dog. She was so happy, and the dog was happy too! She gave him a name—Eco.

That night, Holly put a glass of water next to her bed, read for ten minutes, and then she fell asleep (入睡).

▲ . The trees were tall with big and green leaves (树叶). Small birds flew between the trees, singing all the time. And when Holly walked through the forest, she saw unusual animals. There were no people. There were no houses or cars or computers. There was only the sound of the falling leaves and birdsong and…something else.

Lap, lap, lap

What was that sound? It sounded like raining. But Holly could see the sky and it was blue. Was it a river?

Lap, lap, lap

Holly walked towards (朝着) the sound.

Lap, lap, lap

The sound was very loud (大声的) now. It seemed very close.

Lap, lap, lap

Holly woke up and opened her eyes. She wasn’t dreaming. But she could still hear the sound.

Lap, lap, lap

Holly turned on the bedside lamp (床头灯) and saw Eco. He was drinking from the glass!

There is an English saying “You are what you eat”, and it means (意思是) what you put in your mouth will become part of you. It tells people having a good eating style is important. For example (例如), too much sweet food makes a person fat. So parents always ask kids to keep away from sweet food. But a team of American scientists (科学家) find something new about eating sweet food.

“When we say some people ‘sweet’, we mean they are kind and friendly to us. This word may help us learn more about people’s feelings,” said Brian Meier, a scientist from the team.

In one of their experiments (实验), scientists asked some young people questions about their character (性格), like “Are you kind or not?” Then young people made a list of their favorite food. From their answers, the scientists found that the students who liked sweet food were nicer.

In their another experiment, the scientists found something interesting: people who liked sweet food such as (例如) cakes and chocolate always helped other people, and those who liked non-sweet food didn’t. That means people with a sweet tooth were more willing to help clean up their city, visit sick children in hospital and so on.

The result (结果) of the experiments is that people’s helpfulness or being nice has something to do with their taste for sweet food.

I’m happy to get your e-mail. Everything is going well here.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Yours,

Li Hai