【推荐1】Liu Yu, a 15-year-old boy (A) _________ Shandong, is a running star. He is (B) _________ his school team and has always wanted to be a professional runner when he grows up. However, his parents won’t allow him to train so much. “Of course we want to see him achieve his dreams,” says Mr. Liu. “And we know how much he loves running. My wife and I have supported every one of his races. (C) We have nothing against running. (D) But we think our son needs to think about other possible jobs. He’s getting older now, so he needs to think about what will happen if he doesn’t end up as a professional runner.”

【推荐3】Stamps help connect us with others. They have played an important role in people's lives for a long time.

Stamps pay for a letter to get where it needs to be. When there were no stamps, people did not pay for the letters they sent, but instead they paid for the letters they received. The first stamp ever made is called Penny Black. It is a British stamp made in 1840 with a picture of Queen Victoria on it. The number of people who send letters and use stamps has gone down. But stamp collection is still one of the world' s most popular hobbies. There are even stamp clubs to help people find new stamps to add to their collections. Interestingly enough, the Internet may have reduced the need for stamps, but it is actually helping collectors find more stamps to add to their collections.

【推荐1】You may think that only children go to school but there are special schools for guide dogs! At school, of course, guide dogs do not learn mathematics and science like you. They learn how to help blind people. The dogs live at the school for six months and they learn about twenty words- words like “sit” and “no”. These dogs wear a special coat with a big handle on it for the blind person to hold.

Dogs can also go to school to learn how to help people who cannot hear. If a person cannot hear, we say he or she is deaf.

Dogs who help deaf people must learn many different sounds. Then they must be able to show the deaf person what is making the sound. When they hear a visitor at the door, the dog learns to walk to the deaf person and then walk to the door. And if a telephone rings, they walk to the deaf man or woman and then walk to the telephone.

These dogs can also help deaf mothers. If a baby is crying in another room, the dog walks to the mother and then to the baby. These dogs wear a yellow coat to show that they are special dogs that are helping a deaf person.

There have been many times when these dogs have saved a life. You may see in a newspaper that a dog heard a fire alarm and lay down near the deaf person’s feet. That is the sign for danger. The person knows that something is wrong and can go away from the fire.

Special dogs can also help people who are disabled in various ways. For example, dogs can pull off their gloves or socks! Think how difficult your life would be if you were blind, deaf or disabled! But if you had a special dog like this to help you, your life would be much easier.

【推荐2】There is a tiger there. His name is David and he is from South Africa. He is very scary and also kind of lazy. He always sleeps for about 12 hours every day. David’s birthday is on next Sunday. We will have a birthday party for him.

Anna comes from Thailand. She is friendly and cute. People like her and always take photos with her. She is an elephant. Yesterday was her ninth birthday. Her favorite food is fruit and vegetables. She likes to make friends with people and people can ask her to help do things for them.

Lily is a koala. She is from Australia. She is cute but a little shy. She loves sleeping in the day. But at night she usually gets up and eats food. Lily is six year’s old and healthy.

Joey was happy because he had many special friends, four squirrels, two rabbits, and many colorful birds. At the meal time, these wild animals came near to the family and they would feed these special friends.

In the large yard stood thirteen trees of different sizes. One day, while Joey was playing with his sister under the trees, he noticed that a tree trunk (树干) had a sad look. He ran into the house to tell his mom about it. She told Joey to find the reason why it was sad.

So Joey went into the yard, ran to the sad tree and asked, “Why are you unhappy?”

“I am the smallest tree around. The birds don’t fly to me. The rabbits don’t eat grass under me. The squirrels don’t climb to my top. Nobody needs me or loves me,” replied the sad tree.

After knowing the reason, the family had a meeting. Joey suggested making a seat under the sad tree. Joey’s father said he could help make a seat around the tree. The family would sit under the tree and the tree wouldn’t feel sad anymore.

When Joey told his special friends the tree was sad, they decided to do what they could to help make the sad tree happy again.

Early the next morning, when Joey woke up, he noticed birds singing happily in the little tree and saw squirrels running up and down in it. Rabbits were eating the fresh grass around the tree. The little tree was happy again.

Joey ran inside to tell the good news to his family. Joey’s mother and father went into the yard and saw the happy tree.

“Let s start to build the seats, around the trees. I will need help to build them. Get the nails (钉子) for me, Joey,” said the father.

“I can help you hold the nails, Dad,” said Joey’s sister.

I live in a beautiful city. Many visitors come to my city every year because there are so many colorful peacocks here.

The peacocks mostly live on the grassland of Dongfeng Square. Visitors usually throw food to them but they don’t think about at all whether the food is good or not. Some of the peacocks became ill, and some even died after eating the bad food given by visitors.

I’m sure most of the visitors who throw food to the peacocks really like the birds. But they don’t realize that they may be doing them harm. Visitors should be told that what they have done is harmful to the birds, and this kind of thing must be stopped.

Perhaps we can build some small shops beside Dongfeng Square to sell peacock food. For us every person, it’s our duty to give more love to these beautiful birds and to look after them carefully.

Yours,

Xiao Li

Taking your dog for a walk can be fun to you, but it can also be a danger to others. According to the World Health Organization(WHO), over 10 million people in China are bitten（咬） by dogs every year.

People in Beijing and Shanghai are already asked to keep their dogs on a leash（绳子）. A similar law will soon be carried out across the county. It’s listed in the new Animal Quarantine Law（《动物防疫法》）. The law will come into effect（生效）on May 1.

The law focuses on the prevention of rabies（狂犬病）. The rabies virus is mainly carried by dogs. The law makes it clear that anyone who keeps dogs must regularly vaccinate（给……接种疫苗）them. Those who walk their dogs outdoors must keep their dogs on a leash to prevent them from hurting people or spreading disease. Those who don’t follow the law will face a fine（罚款）.

In the past, it was up to dog owners whether to get their dogs vaccinated or not. This meant that if someone was bitten by a dog, they would have to go to a hospital and get treated and vaccinated immediately.

Gao Fu, head of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said it makes more sense to vaccinate dogs than humans.

Many other diseases can also spread between animals and humans: According to experts, 70 percent of animal disease can be passed on to humans. And 75 percent of all new infectious（传染性的）human diseases come from animals, China Daily reported.

When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the countryside with our uncle. He was a geologist and loved to go on long walks to find stones to add to his collection at the university. More often than not, we followed him.

One day, we left early and this time, our uncle gave us two backpacks. "You can help me carry the samples, " he explained.

Sure, why not? The whole day, we walked around the countryside, and every now and then,our uncle put stones in our bags.We were a bit surprised that sometimes he also took some stones out from our bags, but thought he had just found better samples.

We reached the house in the late afternoon. The backpacks were so heavy that we were really tired out when we put them on the ground. Yet our uncle's backpack was half-empty.

"Why did you give us so many stones? " we asked. "I didn't. You did, " he said, waiting for a while before continuing. "You did not know it, but made you go through a little attitude test today."

"What do you mean an 'attitude test'?" we wanted to know.

"It is something someone once did to me. You see, I listened to every word you said. And whenever   you complained about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. And whenever you talked about something in an attitude of positive thinking, I took out a stone. And now look at your backpacks.

We did. They were full. "I hope you remember this little attitude test. You see, your negative thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in a backpack. The more negative thoughts you have, the heavier your mind is. So look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say things."

This little lesson was one of the most important I ever had. And I remember my uncle with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life—the power of attitude.

【推荐3】Mr. Black gives Mrs. Black 100 yuan. Then Mrs. Black goes shopping. She gets on the bus and sits down near an old woman. She sees the old woman's handbag is open. There is 100 yuan in it. She quickly looks into her own bag. The money isn't there!   Mrs. Black is sure that the old woman is a thief（小偷）and she steals（偷）her money. She decides to take back the money from the old woman's bag. She carefully puts her hand into the woman's bag, takes out the money and says nothing. When she gets back home, she shows her husband the beautiful hat she buys. "How do you pay for it?" Mr Black asks. "With the money you give me, of course." "Oh, but what's that?" he asks and points to（指向）the money on the table.

Mrs. Black feels very sorry about it and she says to Mr. Black, "What should I do now? I steal the old woman's money. I become a thief now.”