【推荐1】I’m Jim. There’s a big zoo in our city. It’s about two kilometers away from my house. I love all kinds of animals there, such as monkeys, bears, pandas, tigers, lions and so on. And I like to spend time watching them there. Some animals are friendly, but some are not. Tigers, lions and bears are dangerous, so they have to stay in cages (笼子). But I don’t think it’s good for animals to stay in cages. They are not happy. Tigers and lions should live in forests. They can run very fast there. They eat small animals like deer and rabbits. But now in the zoo, they can only walk round and round in the cages, and they want to get out. I feel sorry for them.

   Last week, my classmates told me that there were new animals in the zoo. So I walked to the zoo again yesterday. Oh! The new animals were dolphins (海豚). I enjoyed watching them. They swam fast, jumped high and played with balls. Dolphins are very friendly to people. They are very clever. Now dolphins are my favorite animals.

【推荐2】Mrs. Black is an old English woman. She likes cats. She has many cats at home. The students all like to come to her home. They like to play with her cats. More and more (越来越多的) cats come to the old woman’s home. Soon she has too many cats. The old woman can’t feed (喂养) them all. “The students like my cats,” she thinks. So she gives the students her cats. Then she is happy. The students are happy. And the cats are happy, too.

Bees are insects. Bees are special insects because they can fly! They can move through the air like an airplane! Bees can fly because they have wings. They use their wings to fly. Bees can fly fast. Bees can also fly slow. They can fly up and they can fly down. They need to fly to get to the flowers!

Bees can have three colors. They can be yellow, red and orange. All bees are black in some places.

Bees have three main parts. They have a head. They have a body. And, they have a stinger. The stinger is used to defend against enemies. They also have six legs. They use their legs to stand and climb. They also use their legs to eat and collect pollen.

Bees live in many places. They live in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. The only continent that bees do not live on is Antarctica! I understand why they don’t live in Antarctica. It’s too cold!

Most of the time, bees are nice to humans. If you do not bother them, they will not bother you. Have fun watching the bees this summer!

【推荐1】Rethink, Reuse, Recycle!

Do you often throw away things you don’t need anymore? Have you ever thought about how these things can actually be put to good use? Nothing is a waste if you have a creative mind.

You have probably never heard of Amy Hayes, but she is a most unusual woman. She lives in a house in the UK that she built herself out of rubbish. The windows and doors come from old buildings around her town that were pulled down. The top of the house is an old boat turned upside down. And the gate in front of her house is made of rocks and old glass bottles. Amy recently won a prize from the Help Save Our Planet Society. The president said, “Amy is an inspiration to us all.”

Amy isn’t the only one who is good al recycling. Jessica Wong from Hong Kong uses old clothes that people don’t wear anymore to make bags. She has been doing this for a few years now. She opened a small shop where she sells her bags, and she has also set up a website to sell them online. She especially likes to use old jeans to make handbags. Her bags are cute and useful. “I plan to write a book about new ways to use old clothes,” she said. “I hope people can read my book and enjoy it!”

Wang Tao set up a small business in Shanghai four years ago. He is known for using iron and other materials from old cars to make beautiful art pieces. Some are large pieces that look like animals or humans, and some are smaller pieces you can put at home. The more popular works can even be seen in art shops around the city. Wang Tao hopes to set up a “metal art” theme park to show people the importance of environmental protection. Not only can the art bring happiness to others, but it also shows that even cold, hard iron can be back to life with a little creativity.

【推荐3】English is always changing. The English that people used 500 years ago is very different from the English we use now. New words are entering our language all the time. The words—“Internet”, “email” and “mobile phone” are only twenty years old. The word website is even younger. We only started using it fifteen years ago.

But what causes languages to change?

There are many reasons that languages change. One reason is that technology changes. We use new words for new types of technology. Thirty years ago, we only used the word “mouse” to describe an animal. Today, the word “mouse” also means the object you use to control a computer. Languages also change because young people create their own way of talking that is different   from their parents. Teenagers often use new slang (俚语)—informal words and phrases—to talk to their friends. Some slang gets forgotten, but other slang words become a part of normal, everyday language. Words like “bus” and “rock music” started as slang, but now they are in the dictionary and everyone uses them.

But is language change a good thing or a bad thing?

Some people think that we should stop languages from changing. They think that they need to protect their language or it will die or become worse. There are also organizations trying to protect their language in some countries, such as Indonesia and Spain. However, other people believe that languages change is a natural thing and shouldn’t be stopped. They think that it is normal that languages change over time. They think that languages need to change to stay modern and interesting.