【推荐1】My mother, a Chinese old lady, is very happy with today's life. She always says people are very happy today. In the past, they used light from candles and heated with wood in the fireplace(壁炉). They had to go to bed when it was dark and they didn't listen to CDs or watch television. Now people can watch TV, play computer games until midnight and live in warm buildings. And she doesn't need to carry water from a well(井) and wood into the house to cook over fire every day. It's a pity that they didn't have a washing machine in the past. Now she only needs to put the dirty clothes into the machine. My mother used to help in the garden, grow most of the food and feed the animals. My mother also says they had to walk where they wanted to go. They didn't have cars. What's more, to my mother's surprise, we don't have to buy things in the shop. Now people can get whatever they want at home. At the beginning, she didn't care but there was one thing shocking her. Doing some shopping online is cheaper than in the shop. That makes my mother feel unfair. My mother decides to learn how to visit Taobao and buy things on it. Now my mother is an online shopping fan. She makes a lot of friends by QQ. Her QQ name is Wendy.

【推荐3】Should kids get paid for doing housework? Here is the result of a vote(表决). 1870 kids voted on it and 1200 kids agree that they should get paid.

Some kids are earning(挣得) up to 1200 dollars for doing chores around the house. The best job is to help to clean the house. Parents will pay an average(平均数) of 2.77 dollars a time. Doing the dishes can also get much money, about 2.52 dollars a time.

Other top paid jobs include:   Washing cars—$2.30

Cleaning cages—$1.92

Doing homework—$1.02

Making the bed—$0.76

Boys do much better than girls. It was reported that boys got more money than girls. The biggest difference was in doing the dishes. Boys can get an average of 5.10 dollars, but girls can get only one dollar.

The most common job kids do is helping to set the table, but they can hardly get paid for doing that.

【推荐2】It was a Christmas night. I was an unlucky nurse who had to work on such a beautiful festival. When I was so tired that I didn’t want to work any longer, three people came to my desk—a tired woman and two children.

“Are you all sick?” I asked.

“Yes,” the woman answered and lowered her head.

But when they started to tell their problems, things became unclear. One child had a fever, but his temperature was OK. The other child had an earache, but she could not tell me which ear hurt. It seemed that the mother was trying to cough.

Something was wrong. But I only explained that it might take a while (需要一段时间) before a doctor could meet them. “Take your time, please,” said the mother. I checked their information—no address. Suddenly I knew, they were homeless (无家可归) and the hospital was warm.

The family stayed together under the Christmas tree, smiling and talking with each other sweetly. Quietly, I went back to the nurses’ station and told them what happened in the waiting room. It was just like the God sending us a gift on Christmas Day. The nurses’ station suddenly came back to life. All the nurses went into action for “a Christmas emergency (急诊).”

We took out our meals for our Christmas “sick people”. We also put oranges and apples together as presents.

We tried to give them a warm place on Christmas night. Later, the little girl kissed me and said, “Thanks for being our angels (天使).”

【推荐3】Today is a fine day. Now it’s 8:00 in the morning. There’s a sports meeting(运动会) in the forest. There are many kinds of animals in the forest.

Look! A panda, a bear and a zebra are running. They run and run. Finally the zebra is the first. The giraffe wants to run too, but he is late. Near the river, two tigers are jumping. The five monkeys are climbing a tree. A lot of birds are singing in the tree.

There are some other animals in the forest, too. A lion is sitting in front of an old elephant. The elephant is holding a flag with his trunk(象鼻). Oh, look! A squirrel(松鼠) is sitting in a tree. What’s she doing? She is watching the sports meeting too.

How happy the animals are!