【推荐2】Most people always like to collect things. For example, they like collecting stamps, books, pictures and so on. But my friend Mr. Johnson, likes collecting clocks. He has five hundred different clocks now. There are clocks everywhere in his house. You can see shelves in every room. All the shelves are full of clocks. However, his wife doesn’t enjoy them at all. She has a lot of work to do every day. It’s not easy for her to clean hundreds of clocks. She is also angry at the noise. Each clock keeps its own time, so she can hear clocks strike almost at any time during the day and the night. She says, “There is something even worse. I really don’t know what time it is with so many clocks in my house.”

【推荐3】Do you like watching movies? If yes, what’s your favorite movie? Here, some students talk about their favorite movies. Do you like the same ones as them?

【推荐1】When I was fourteen years old, I made my first visit to the United States. It wasn’t the first time I had been abroad. Like many English children, I had often been to France. So when I went to America I thought I would have a nice easy holiday without any language problems.

How wrong I was! The misunderstanding began at the airport. I was looking for a public telephone to tell my American friend Danny that I had arrived. A friendly old man saw me looking lost and asked if he could help me.

“Yes,” I said, “I want to give my friend a ring.”

“Well, that’s nice,” he said. “Are you getting married? But aren’t you too young?”

“Who is talking about marriage?” I replied. “I only want to give my friend a ring to tell him I’ve arrived. Can you tell me where there is a phone box?”

“Oh,” he said, “there is a phone downstairs.”

When at last we met, Danny explained the misunderstanding to me.

“Don’t worry.” he said to me. I had so many difficulties at first. There are lots of words which Americans use differently in meaning from British people. You’ll soon get used to all the funny things they say. Most of the time, British and American people understand each other.”

【推荐2】

	Hi, I’m Lily and I live in England. Last week my class went to a museum. It’s about life here in the nineteenth century. There were shops, a school and a house. There were people wearing traditional costurnes. You could talk to them about life in the past. One was a storyteller and I loved her old stories.
	My name’s Eric. I’m from Sweden and the Vikings(维京人) lived here a thousand years ago. Last weekend we visited a Viking village. They live in wooden houses, wear Viking clothes and eat Viking food. You can talk to them and they tell you all about the Vikings. It’s a good way to learn history.
	Hi, my name’s Anya. I live on a tulip farm, in Holland. Tulips are Holland’s national flowers. There are about 3 billion tulips in Holland. The most famous tulip is the Queen of the Night. It looks black, but in fact it’s very dark purple. In May, lots of people visit the fields. You can eat tulip bulbs - and the flowers too!
	My name is Matt and I’m from Canada. The maple tree is our national tree. It has beautiful red and yellow leaves. There is a maple leaf on the Canadian flag, and on one of our coins too. Our favourite breakfast is pancakes with maple syrup(糖浆)! Maple syrup is made from maple sap(树液). One tree produces about 1 litre of syrup.

【推荐3】American teens love their sports

Whether it’s soccer, basketball or tennis, there are lots of fun sports to play when you’re not busy with school. Some sports, like basketball, are universal（世界性的）. Kids all over the world play them. But other sports are more unique（独特的）.

In the US, playing baseball is a common after-school activity for many kids. In fact, it is known as the “national pastime” of the US. But few people outside of the US play this sport. It is popular in some Central American countries, such as Mexico, and some East Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea. But it is almost unknown in other parts of the world.

There is also American football. a sport that is unique to the US and Canada. The sport is similar to rugby（英式橄榄球）, which is more popular in Europe. Players have to carry, throw or kick the ball to a receiving player in the “end zone” in order to score points. But they have to get the ball past a wall of defending（防护的）players first.

US students who play these sports usually take them quite seriously. Some high school athletes（运动员）can go on to play on college teams, receiving scholarships（奖学金）in return for their performance on the field. Talented college players can be picked by national teams and become professional players. So for some young athletes, playing sports after school can lead to a full-time career.

【推荐1】I'm Ann. This is a photo of my classroom. There are (有) 30 students in my class (班级) and two students share (共用) a desk. So (所以) there are 15 desks and 30 chairs. The desks and chairs are yellow. This is my desk. My dictionary is on it. The teacher's desk is in the front of (在……前面) the classroom. It's white and a black cup is on it. The cup is Ms. Green's. Ms. Green is our English teacher. She likes traveling (喜欢旅行). There are some pictures of different cities (不同的城市) on the walls (墙) of our classroom. There is blue sofa in the corner (角落). It is nice.

【推荐2】Can you imagine a cloud floating in the middle of your room? Do you want to know what it feels like to fly like a bird? Here, we have picked out four interesting inventions to share with you.

Talking Gloves

Four foreign students have created a pair of gloves, and it helps people to communicate with people who have hearing and speaking problems. The gloves are equipped with sensors (传感器). They recognize sign language and translate it into text on a smartphone. Then the smartphone changes the text to spoken words. Thus you can understand sign language easily.

Google Glasses

Google Glasses are like a computer built into a pair of glasses. Then the glasses allow you to surf the Internet and make calls without even lifting a finger. The glasses also have a camera and GPS mapping system. Users can take and share photos, check maps and surf the Internet just by looking up, down, left and right.

Indoor Clouds

That’s a real world. An artist, Smilde managed to create a small but perfect white cloud in the middle of a room using a fog machine. But it required careful planning — the temperature, humidity (湿度) and lighting all had to be just right. The cloud only lasted for a short while, though.

Wingsuits

The suit realizes your dream of flying like a bird. Well, not exactly flying, but gliding (滑翔) through the air. It increases the surface area of the human body, which makes it easier for people to float in the air. Fliers wearing wingsuits can glide one kilometer in about 30 seconds.