【推荐1】There was a rainstorm last night. What were the four people doing? The following was what they said.

Laura   I was writing a report in my room. Suddenly it got so dark that I could see nothing. I felt quite nervous and didn’t know what to do. Luckily, Dad was in the kitchen. He came to stay with me quickly.

Andy   I was driving home. On the way, my friend Peter called me. He said he would catch the train to Beijing. He was afraid he couldn’t get to the train station on time. Then I drove him to the train station.

Karen   I was watching my favorite cartoon on TV. Suddenly the lights went out and it began to rain heavily. I was so scared that I ran into my bedroom right away. Then I heard my mom shouting, “Don’t be afraid, Karen. I’m coming soon.”

Danny   I was looking through an article on the Internet. I listened to the weather report yesterday morning, but I didn’t think the rainstorm would come so suddenly. I quickly stood up and walked around to see if everything was OK.

【推荐3】Li Shizhen was one of the most famous doctors in Chinese history. He was born in Qichun, Hubei in 1518.

Both of Li Shizhen’s father and grandfather were doctors. Li Shizhen’s grandfather was a country doctor who travelled in the countryside with a bag of herbs（药草） and medications and cured（治愈）people. His father was a doctor who wrote several books.

Li Shizhen used to help his father in his medical practice when he was young. Li Shizhen’s father wanted him to enter politics（从政）. Li Shizhen studied for the exams and passed the country-level examination, but he was never able to pass the imperial（帝国的）examination.

When he was 38, he cured the son of the Prince of Chu and was invited to be an official in that court（宫廷）. A few years later, he became an official at the Imperial Medical Institute.

Even though he realized his father’s dream, he didn’t want to continue working for the court. One year later, he left the court and returned to be a doctor again. Li Shizhen was famous for his book Compendium of Materia Medica《本草纲目》. He spent 27 years writing the book. Unluckily, Li Shizhen died before the book was officially published. It is such a successful book. Now it is still one of the most important medical books in China.

【推荐2】Like almost all the children, I remember believing in Santa Claus (圣诞老人) when I was very young. But as I grew older, I began to doubt it. So I used tests to decide whether Santa was real.

The first test happened when I was five years old. I thought if I stayed up all night on Christmas Eve (前夜), I could see if Santa really came. But I fell asleep. When I woke up, I had a nice present under the tree. The next year, I tested whether Santa knew where I was. My family spent Christmas in another state. I thought if Santa was all knowing, he would know I wasn’t at home. Sure enough, I found a gift the next morning. At the age of seven, I had my final test. That year, I didn’t send out my Christmas letter to Santa. On Christmas Eve, my mother took me to supermarket and led me around the toy-section (区域), I didn’t say a word, but I did look at a beautiful doll a few times. I bet (打赌) that Santa wouldn’t know what to give me because he couldn’t read my mind. But Mom would know everything. On Christmas morning, I did find the doll and knew who Santa was.

The magic and mystery of Santa made Christmas a fun time for me. In the future, I want it to be part of my children’s childhood as well.

【推荐3】

When Tim was a little boy, he liked to stay with his grandpa very much. The old man always played games with Tim and told him interesting stories.

Tim had lots of fun with Grandpa. But later, Grandpa got very ill. He knew he wouldn’t live long. Before he died (去世), Grandpa asked Tim to come and do the last thing for him.

Grandpa gave Tim a cherry seed (樱桃种子). He asked him to plant it in the garden and then water it when he felt happy about something in life, such as eating delicious food and listening to favourite songs. Tim loved his grandpa and he would do as he said.

Several years passed. One day after school, Tim was surprised (惊讶的) when his mother gave him a letter from his grandpa. He opened it after going back to his room. It said, did you share your happiness with your plant? I guess you did it for sure. You may also notice something interesting. When you’re a happy boy and water the tree well, many cute birds will come and live on it. You can enjoy wonderful songs every day and have sweet cherries to cat in the future. But when you are not happy and don’t visit it, I want you to know that happiness (快乐) will bring you many good things.