This is the timetable for the final tests(期末考试) of Sunshine NO.2 Middle School.It's for the students in Grade Seven.After the tests, the first term in the school will finish.

Alice is a middle school student. Most of the students in her school are from small villages and their families live a poor (贫穷的) life. Usually they take food for lunch to school. Alice often has lunch with her friend Jenny. Jenny is the same with others. Her food doesn’t look nice. At their lunch time, Jenny sometimes finds hair in the food. Then Alice thinks Jenny’s mother must be careless (粗心的).

One day, Jenny asks Alice to go to her house to do homework. It is the first time for Alice to go to Jenny’s house. When Alice gets to Jenny’s home, Jenny says happily, “Mum, my friend comes here.” Then a door opens and a woman stands there holding (扶着) the door. Alice is surprised because she finds the woman is blind. She can’t see anything with her eyes.

Alice thinks of Jenny’s lunch. That is not only the lunch, but also Jenny’s mother’s love. Even the hair in the food is her mother’s love too. Then Alice walks to Jenny’s mother and helps her sit down.

After that, the two girls often help the mother cook and they have a good meal together.

Many people think it’s important and good for health to wash the food before cooking it. However, for some food like eggs, washing can do more harm (害处) than good.

People like to wash the shell (壳) before they cook the egg. They want to make sure there’s no dirt or germs (细菌) on the egg. But they don’t need to do this, because factories will do the cleaning work when they sell the eggs.

There is a coating on the shell of the egg. The coating can help keep the egg away from germs. When factories do the cleaning work, they wash away the coating and put a kind of special thing on the egg shell. It is there to keep germs from coming inside the egg.

“Of course there’re germs on the egg, but by washing it, you make it worse. The egg shell is porous. The water can get germs into the egg when you wash it,” says health expert Amy Leigh Mercree. “And this can happen more easily when you use cold water or running water.”

“So don’t wash eggs—save yourself some time and keep the germs where they are,” Mercree says.

A king (国王) has a daughter. Her name is Christina. The king loves his daughter a lot and he asks his people to be pleasant (友好的) to her. Every day, Christina stands on the castle wall (城墙). So everyone can be pleasant to her. But every day, only some people look up pleasantly. And no one waves (挥手) or smiles (微笑).     12    

It is fine day. Christina finds a girl in the marketplace (集市). The market girl waves and everyone waves back to her. They also smile at her. They look pleasant. Christina wants to know why they are happy.

    13    

When the market girl comes, Christina asks her, “    14     Why are they pleasant?”

The market girl answers, “    15    ”

After the market girl leaves, Christina thinks for a long time.

A new day comes. Christina stands on the castle wall and waves. She even smiles. Down in the marketplace, the market girl waves and smiles back and some other people wave and smile back.     16