I am in a new school this term. I'm happy here because I have so many good friends.    1    

My school life is busy but interesting.     2     After breakfast, I walk to school. It is good exercise. I like Thursday, because I have English and art that day.     3     But I don't like math, because it's difficult. My classmate Jeremy often helps me with my math. He is really good at it.

    4     After school, I do my homework in the school library. Then I play sports for about an hour with my friends.     5     I usually get home at six.

On weekends, I go to an art club. It is fun to draw pictures with other kids.

My name is Tony. I am English. I am twelve years old this year. I am tall and I am good at playing football. I am in Grade Seven. There are thirty boys and twenty girls in my class. We are learning Chinese in our school. Our Chinese teacher is Mr. Wu. He is a little short, but he is very strong. He is very nice to us, I have some good friends in my class, Tom is a tall boy and has short black hair. He is good at playing football, too. Alice is short and she loves wearing red dresses. She is good at English. Shelly has long hair. She can speak Japanese and she likes swimming. We all study hard.

What about your school and your friend? Please write soon.

Yours.

Tony

【推荐3】Students in China may be watching TV at home. But in other countries(国家), students may be studying at school.

Students in Australia go to school for 200 days a year. The school year lasts(持续) from late January to mid December. It has four terms, with each term lasting 9 to 11 weeks. Students then have two weeks of vacation(假期) between each term. The school day is usually from 9: 00 a.m. to 3: 30 p.m. Students usually go to school for twelve years.

Students in France usually go to school from 6 to 18 years old. The school year is from August to June, and has four seven-week terms, with one to two weeks of vacation in between. The school day usually runs from 8: 00 a.m. to 4: 00 p.m. with a half day on Saturday. Students do not go to school on Wednesday on Sunday.

The school year in South Korea usually runs from March to February. The year has two semesters(半学年) (March to July and September to February). School days are from 8: 00 a.m. to 4: 00 p.m., but many stay later into the evening. Students go to school from Monday to Friday, with some Saturday classes throughout(贯穿) the year.

【推荐3】One day it was raining heavily. I was late for a meeting in a nearby city that I knew only by GPS, and my phone died. I couldn’t find out how to get there or how to reach my friends.

I stopped at a McDonald’s in a poor part of a town and walked up to a mother and her daughter. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Do you mind if I make a call with your phone? I need to let my friends know I’m lost.” She handed me her phone and then told me I was lucky to make the last call—she was about to turn it off because she didn’t have enough money to pay her phone bill.

The young girl and the mother were holding each other and talking together as I made the call. I got in touch with my friends. They, thankfully, knew where I was and told me how to get to them.

As I was leaving, I reached into my wallet. Luckily, there was a $20 bill. I put it into the mother’s hand and then turned to leave quickly. As I walked through the doors, I heard the mother crying. Her daughter called after me and said, “You have no idea how you just helped us.”

I still think back to that day even now. They had no idea how much they helped me, yet I was the one being thanked. It’s funny how that works.

【推荐1】The Intelligent Transportation team at Boston has turned an electric car into a mobile laboratory named “DriveLAB” in order to understand the challenges older drivers face and to discover where the key stress points are. Researches show that giving up driving is one of the reasons for worse health among older people, leading them to become less active.

Led by Professor Phil Blythe the Boston team is developing in-vehicle (汽车) technologies, including navigation (导航) tools, night vision systems and intelligent speed adaptations, to help older drivers continue driving into later life. Phil Blythe explains, “For many older people, especially those living alone or in the country, driving is important for them because it gives them the freedom to get out without depending on others.” “But we all have to accept that as we get older, our reactions slow down and this often results in people avoiding any challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to.”

According to Dr Amy Guo, a researcher on the older driver study, the DriveLAB is helping people understand what the key points and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technologies to solve these problems. He said, For example, most of us would expect older drivers always go slower than everyone else but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph areas they still kept their regular speed and so they were more likely to break the speed limit and be at risk of being fined (罚款). We’re looking at the systems which control their speed as a way of preventing that. We hope that our work will help older drivers stay safer behind the wheel.”

【推荐3】Jarrett Little was road testing his mountain bike outside when his riding partner, Chris Dixon, stopped suddenly. Something in the distance moving among the trees had caught her attention. It turned out to be a five-month-old Great Dane.

"He was really thin and had a lot of road rashes (皮疹) and a broken leg," Little told CBS News. The cyclists fed the dog and shared their water. They also quickly realized that the dog was coming with them although they didn't know how to deal with him. They were more than seven miles from the downtown and riding bikes. "But we couldn't leave him," Little said.

Little had an idea. He carefully picked up his new friend and slipped his back legs into the back pockets of his clothes. Then he put the dog's front paws (爪子) over his shoulders.

"He was injured, so he wasn't trying to fight," Little said. "He was also happy that we were there, touching him, and that we didn't leave him behind."

Their 30-minute ride into town ended at a bike store, where they got more water and food for the dog. That was when Andrea Shaw, who was in town on business, arrived. After learning what had happened to the dog, Shaw decided to keep him.

Shaw called him Columbo and scheduled an operation (安排一场手术) on his leg immediately. Today, Columbo is living happily on a farm. As Dixon said, "He is literally the luckiest dog alive."

【推荐1】I'm often asked the question “How did you become a reporter?” You see, everybody expected me to follow in my father's footsteps and become a doctor. Well, during my last year of school I visited a career counsellor (职业顾问) named Lisa and I drove her crazy with my choices.

My first choice was a chocolate taster. Although Lisa didn't know the job well, she got me some information about it. I discovered that chocolate tasters make a lot of money, so I was sure I had found my dream job. However, when I found out that chocolate tasters don't just sit around eating chocolate all day, I lost my interest.

Next, I thought of becoming a football referee (裁判). I had loved football from a young age, but being a professional footballer was out of the question, as I couldn't play very well. However, it seems that referees must be able to run two and a half miles in less than twelve minutes and they are required to take exams throughout their training. So, my dream of becoming a referee died.

Finally, I had this idea of becoming a dog stylist (造型师). That was after I realized how much money our dog stylist, Shirley, was being paid. However, once, while she was styling Philipo, I noticed that he tried to bite (咬) her. “It happens all the time,” she told me. As you can imagine, that really put me off.

To cut a long story short, all this research made me realize I had a talent for investigation (调查), so by the end of the school year I had decided to become a reporter.

There are six people in my family. There are my grandparents, my parents, my brother and I.

My father is 40 years old. He is an engineer. He works very hard. He gets up very early every day and he works for more than 10 hours a day. So he is always busy, and he looks very tired when he gets home.He likes reading newspapers. He usually reads it after supper. So he gets lots of news. My mother is two years younger than my father. She works as a doctor. She works in a very big hospital. She is hard-working and patient. She is not tall and has two big eyes. She loves my brother and me and she is very nice to us. She always buys some books for us. She wants us to be top students. She also cares for our diet and life.

My grandparents don't go to work any more. They have retired. They usually stay at home every day. In the morning they go to the park and do morning exercises. In the afternoon, they drink tea with their friends. In the evening, they enjoy themselves watching TV and reading newspapers.

I'm 12 years old. I like reading. I always read books after school. I like singing, too. My favourite singer is Angela. Her music is very nice. In my bedroom, there are lots of posters of Angela on the wall. My brother is three years older than I. I love him even though he troubles me sometimes.

We live in a flat in a building. The building is very modern. There are about ten floors and we live on the top floor. I think our flat is very wonderful.