【推荐1】The Judge Monkey

A long long time ago, there were two cats who lived in the countryside. One day, they were playing along the riverside. Suddenly they saw a loaf of bread lying under a tree. Both jumped upon it and caught the bread at the same time. "It is mine. I saw it first," said one cat. While the other said, "I got it first, so it belongs to me" After having quarreled for some time, one cat said, "Let's divide it into two and take one piece each. ""A good idea, " said the other cat. "But how do we divide it now?

A monkey sitting on the tree watched what happened between the two cats. "That loaf of bread looks good. I could eat it myself" he thought. Slowly he came down from the tree and walked up to the two cats.

"My dear friends! Can I help you?" asked the monkey. The cats told the monkey what the problem was and said, "Why don't you be the judge between us" When the monkey nodded, the cats said, "Please divide this loaf of bread for us."

The clever monkey broke the bread into two pieces. But one piece was a little bigger than the other. "Oh no! I will take a little bite of this bigger piece to make both equal" said the monkey. But he took a big bite. "Uh oh! Now it has become smaller than the other piece. I will just have to take a little bite from that one, too," said the monkey.

The Judge Monkey took another bite. The two cats sat in front of the monkey, seeing the loaf of bread getting smaller and smaller. When the whole loaf was eaten by the monkey, the monkey said, "I am sorry. It was really difficult to divide the bread. I must be going now." And the monkey jumped onto the tree and was gone. "If only we had not quarreled between ourselves, we would have remained united and we don't need to go to the monkey and become hungry now," said the two cats.

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Many kinds of birds live in the United States, but the number of the birds is becoming smaller and smaller every year. One of the leading reasons is the growing number of pet cats. By keeping your pet cats in your home, you can help give birds a better possible chance to live.

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Of the 90 million pet cats in this country, about two-thirds are allowed to go outside. It is said that these cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year as well as billions of small animals such as rabbits and field mice.

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They can also bring illness to the animals that live in people’s yard, and further weaken(变弱) the health of the natural populations.

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Allowing pet cats to go outside is not just bad for birds and wildlife(野生动物). It is bad for the cats themselves, too. Outdoor cats can get sick very easily. They may be in danger from traffic and attacks(攻击)from other animals. In fact, outdoor cats usually don’t pass the age of five, while indoor cats often live to be 17 or older.

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Keep your pet cat inside! If you raise a young cat, it’s your duty to let it play inside.

【推荐1】Mobile phones are one of the most useful inventions of the last 50 years, but not everything that is said about them is good. Mobiles are often believed to be the cause of a number of things from poor eyesight and headaches to house fires. There’s even one theory(理论) that mobile phones should be responsible for the disappearance of bees!

The theory is that the radiation(辐射) given off by mobile phones does great harm to bees’ navigation systems(导航系统). Bees have a built-in system a bit like BDS and this helps them find their way back to their hives(蜂巢). But recently, thousands of bees have failed to find their way home. It is believed they are dying far from their hives.

The problem was first noticed by beekeepers in America and is a lot more serious than it seemed at first. The important thing about bees is that most of the crops in many countries are pollinated by them. Without bees, crops can’t continue to grow.

Nobody knows for sure whether the theory is true or not, but it’s a fact that bees are disappearing in very large numbers. And we can’t manage without them. Einstein said that if all our bees disappeared, man would only live for four more years! If the mobile phone theory is correct, we need to do something about it right now before it’s too late.

【推荐2】Breakfast gives us energy for the morning, what’s the best drink for breakfast?

Most people may say milk. Yes. Doctors always say it’s a good habit to drink milk every day. It has lots of nutrients (营养物质) to help build up children. Calcium (钙) in milk gives us strong teeth. Vitamins (维生素) in it are necessary nutrients for our body. There are many micro elements (微量元素) in milk, too. They can make children smarter. Also, studies show drinking milk often can even make women look more beautiful.

Milk is great! But you may not believe milk may cause many health problems. For example, drinking lots of milk may make children fat. For those very fat children, stop drinking milk can help a lot. Also, scientists find that some people who drink milk often don’t have very strong bones (骨骼). Instead, some without milk have strong bones. So should we still drink milk?

　★　 But it does give us a lot of nutrients. Drink milk if you like it, but not because you think it is the best thing. And drink proper milk each time.　

【推荐3】Everyone doesn’t want to be sick in the vacation. So what can you do while travelling? There are three things you should remember.

A vacation is a time for relaxing, but very often it is not. There are so many places to visit: shops, parks, churches and temples. You may spend most of the days walking around these places. This can be very tiring. Do not ask your body to do too much. A tired body gets sick easily. So sit down for a few hours in a nice place.

Sleep is also important. If you want to stay healthy, you need to get enough sleep. Your hotel room may be noisy, or the bed may be too hard. Or you may want to stay out late at night. Then you should plan to sleep for an hour during the day. The extra hour can make a big difference.

Finally, if you want to stay healthy, you must eat well. That means eating the right kinds of food. Your body needs fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, milk and cheese.

【推荐1】Americans will long remember President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the UnitedStates.

At the age of 19, Abraham Lincoln took a boat down the Ohio River to New Orleans. There Lincoln saw for the first time slaves being sold in the marketplace. At that time, Lincoln made up his mind to work to end slavery for the rest of his life.

In 1836, Lincoln became a lawyer and was famous for being hard—working and honest. He believed that the US stood for freedom for all. He wanted to become a senator（参议员）. In 1858, Lincoln debated（争论） against Stephen Douglas who was also a candidate for the Senate from Illinois.

Because of the Lincoln—Douglas debates, Lincoln became known across the country. Then he decided to run for the presidency in 1860. At last he ran against Stephen Douglas and two other candidates.

Lincoln took the oath（誓言） of office to become president of the United States on March 4, 1861. It was a difficult time to be president. Many southern states did not agree with Lincoln about canceling slavery, and declared（宣布） that they were no longer part of the US. The famous Civil War began in April, 1861.

Lincoln’s Union Army fought the Southern Confederate Armies. Many soldiers were killed in the battles. One of the battles took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1863, a ceremony was held to memorize the dead on the Gettysburg battlefield. Lincoln made a famous speech known as the Gettysburg Address.

Unfortunately, Lincoln was shot while watching a play at Ford’s Theatre and passed away on the morning of April 15, 1865.

【推荐2】Hi! I’m Bob. I like table tennis. I have three good friends this term. The first one is a nice girl. Her name is Jenny. Her birthday is on October 28th. She likes baseball and ping-pong. The second is Alan. He is a fat boy. He likes basketball. His birthday is June 16th. It is my birthday, too! The last one is our English teacher Mr Miller. He always helps me with my English. He likes soccer very much. It’s May this month. Teachers’ Day is in next month. Jenny wants to buy him a nice soccer. Alan wants to make a nice card for him by himself (他自己) and buy him some red flowers (花). I want to buy him a white soccer shirt, because he likes white very much.

【推荐3】"The brat（捣蛋鬼）!" said Alice. She ran into her house with her kids.

Every time Gina walked down the street, her neighbors ran away. Gina was the only child of her parents. Her parents never refused her anything. And Gina, in turn, always made sure that she would get whatever she wanted.

One day Gina's mother noticed that her daughter didn't have any friends. Every child knows that Gina is clever but they just don't want to play with her.

Things changed when Rita joined Gina's class. Rita was new to the city and too shy to make any friends. Gina bossed her around as she always does. But Rita didn't mind.

"Rita cried today in front of the class, Rita went to do her math exercises on the blackboard, She wasn't able to do them although the teacher had explained carefully. Everyone laughed at her," Gina told her mother after school. "Why don't you try to explain to her simply." asked her mother.

"Mommy, I don't want to waste time."

"But Rita is your friend and if you don't help her, who will?"

Very unhappy, Gina helped Rita. Gina has the gift（天赋）of explaining thing simply. Rita understood the math questions and the teacher praised her in front of the class. Rita told everyone what a good friend Gina was. From that day Gina and Rita became best friends. And, no one called Gina "the brat" any more.

【推荐1】Andy Murray and Jamie Murray are very famous brothers. They are both professional tennis players. They play in competitions all over the world. Jamie is older than Andy, but only by about one year. They look very similar. They are the same height and they have the same dark hair. Jamie became a professional player in 2004, one year before his younger brother Andy. But Andy has won more competitions than his brother!

Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue are famous Australian sisters. Kylie began her career (事业) as an actress on Australian TV. Then she began singing when she was 19 years old. She soon became famous all over the world. Dannii is younger than Kylie. She is also taller than her sister and she has darker hair. She began singing after Kylie, but she is also very famous. Dannii is also famous as a judge (评判员) on TV talent shows. Sometimes Kylie and Dannii sing together, and they sing really well.

Chores were not popular at my house. My children didn’t like to do chores. They always saw me do chores, but they hardly ever helped me do them.

A year ago, I made a game called “The Endless Chore Game”. It is really great. Here’s how the game works.

I make a card with forty squares (方框), and I write a different chore on each square. These chores can be easy and interesting like making dessert. Then my family rolls the dice (骰子) to decide what chores we have to do. The card also has a few squares with fun things, like watching TV and singing. If you are lucky, you can watch TV when the others are doing the chores.

My son likes the game very much. He goes to the kitchen happily every morning to do the game. It is really a good way to make my children do chores. You can have a try if you have the same problem with me.

It is reported that tea has helped the poor farmers in Yunnan find a way out of poverty（贫穷） thanks to the efforts of a man named Ren Huaican.

Ren was suffering mouth ulcers （溃疡） when he first visited the Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er City in the spring of 2006. However, after picking off several leaves from the old tea trees and chewing （咀嚼） them, he found the pain was gone the next morning. He felt very amazed. Ren began to show great interest in the tea from Yunnan. He found that the local tea business was very scattered （分散的）.He also realized that the local tea farmers were very poor because of the underdeveloped tea market. So he made up his mind to develop the tea industry in order to help the local people get out of poverty.

In September 2006, Ren set up a tea company. He hired（雇佣） poor farmers from neighboring areas to pick tea leaves. Professional technicians（技师） were invited to teach the farmers how to do their jobs scientifically. The company taught them how to manage their trees and produce the best tea. As a result, their tea quality has greatly improved, and the price has gone up. In this way, the tea company has helped many people get out of poverty.