【推荐1】Long ago, there was a camel who lived alone in the desert. He was lazy. Instead of working, he spent his days chewing (咀嚼) sticks, eating twigs, and drinking water.

Many other animals worked hard, and they tried to get Camel to help them. But each time, the stubborn (固执的) camel simply said, “Humph (哼哼). ”

One day, Zebra carried sticks to make a fire for animals. “Camel, come and carry sticks like the rest of us,” said Zebra. “Humph,” said Camel.

The next day, Hippo carried water for the animals to drink. “Camel, come and carry water like the rest of us,” said Hippo. “Humph,” said Camel.

The third day, Coyote carried food for the animals to eat. “Camel, come and carry food like the rest of us,” said Coyote. Camel didn’t move. He simply responded, “Humph!”

This made the animals very angry. “Camel is lazy, and we work hard,” they said. “We will go to visit Genie (精灵) to see if he can help us. ” Zebra, Hippo and Coyote went to Genie and told him about Camel’s laziness.

Genie went to Camel’s home and found him resting. “Stubborn Camel, you have been lazy. You must work with the other animals and help them,” Genie said. “Humph,” Camel replied. “Do not say that again,” said Genie, “You have given the other animals three days of extra work.” “Humph,” Camel snapped.

Genie waved his arms, and Camel’s flat back began to puff up into a big bump (隆起), as Camel watched in surprise. “You brought this humph (we call it “hump” now) upon yourself by being lazy,” said Genie, “Now you must work for three days without drinking or eating to make up for the work you missed. You can live off your hump (驼峰).” So Camel went off to work, humphing the whole day. And that’s how the camel got his hump.

【推荐2】Once, a circle (圆环) broke. It missed a small part of itself. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around and looked for its missing piece. But, because it wasn’t complete, it could roll (滚动) only very slowly. It smelled the flowers along the way. It talked with the worms (虫子). It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different parts, but none of them fit. It left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching.

One day, the circle found a perfect piece. It was so happy. It could be whole, with nothing missing. It fixed itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, but too fast to notice the flowers or to talk to the worms. The circle missed the flowers and the worms. It left its perfect piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

Perhaps we are more whole when we are missing something. In some ways, a man who has everything is a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to dream of something better. He will never know the experience of finding something he has always wanted and never had.

This is a letter from the year 2050. I want to talk about the life in our age.

Life seems to go easy in 2050. Robots do most things for people, like working, cooking and cleaning. Toys teach and play with children. In such a way, parents will be able to spend more time with the kids and enjoy their own life.

However, that’s not everything. The weather is quite changeable. Sometimes, when you go outside on the street, it is raining hard. And all of sudden, it stops and the sun comes out. People easily get different diseases (疾病)in 2050, We can’t breathe（呼吸）in fresh air on the street because of the air pollution. Forests die because the water gets polluted. Animals die because they lost their homes, food and water. The whole environment is in great danger. Everyone has to pay to see real plants and animals in museums.

How does the world become like this? Well; technologies (科技)have developed too fast in the past 50 years. Some are bad for the earth and people. This is really a good lesson for people in your time. What are we going to do with the money and technologies if we don’t have our home? Please slow down and take time to think about technologies.

Yours truly,

Sarah in 2050

【推荐2】An old man told everyone in his village that his young neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was taken to the police station. Days later, the man was set free, as the police found that he hadn’t stolen anything.

After going home, the young man sued(起诉)the old man for calling him a thief.

In court(法庭), the old man told the judge (法官), “They were just words. They didn’t harm anyone.”

The judge told the old man, “Write down all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut up the paper and on your way home, throw the pieces of paper on the ground. Tomorrow, come back here to hear your sentence(判决).”

The next day, the judge told the old man, “Before hearing your sentence, you will have to go out and find all the pieces of paper that you threw on the ground yesterday.”

The old man said, “I can’t do that! The wind blew them away and I won’t know where to find them.”

The judge then said, “In the same way, simple words can hurt a man’s image in a way that cannot be undone. If you can’t speak well of someone. Don’t say anything at all.”

【推荐1】One early morning, I went into the living room to find my mother reading a thick book called Best Loved Poems to Read Again and Again. My interest was aroused only by the fact that the word “Poems” appeared in big, hot pink letters.

“Is it good?” I asked her.

“Yeah,” she answered. “There’s one I really like and you’ll like it, too.” I leaned forward.

“‘Patty Poem,’” she read the title. Who is Patty? I wondered. The poem began:

She never puts her toys away,

Just leaves them scattered where they lay,…

The poem was just three short sections. The final one came quickly:

When she grows and gathers poise(稳重),

I’ll miss her harum-scarum(莽撞的) noise,

And look in vain for scattered toys.

And I’ll be sad.

A terrible sorrow washed over me. Whoever Patty was, she was a mean girl. Then, the shock.

“It’s you, honey,” My mother said sadly.

To my mother, the poem revealed a parent’s affection when her child grows up and leaves. To me, the “she” in the poem was horror. It was my mama who would be sad. It was so terrible I burst out crying.

“What’s wrong?” my mother asked.

“Oh Mama,” I cried. “I don’t want to grow up ever!”

She smiled. “Honey, it’s okay. You’re not growing up anytime soon. And when you do, I’ll still love you, okay?”

“Okay,” I was still weeping. My panic has gone. But I could not help thinking about that silly poem. After what seemed like a safe amount of time, I read the poem again and was confused. It all fit so well together, like a puzzle. The language was simple, so simple I could plainly understand its meaning, yet it was still beautiful. I was now fascinated by the idea of poetry, words that had the power to make or break a person’s world.

I have since fallen in love with other poems, but “Patty Poem” remains my poem. After all, “Patty Poem” gave me my love for poetry not because it was the poem that lifted my spirits, but because it was the one that hurt me the most.

【推荐2】Thomas Suarez is a 12-year-old schoolboy. He is now in the 7th grade at a middle school in Los Angeles. While most children of Thomas' age are playing basketball or watching the Disney channel, he's creating apps（应用程序）and giving talks at TED（美国一家非营利机构组织的演讲大会）.

Thomas is not even old enough to have a Facebook account（脸谱网账号）, but he has been strongly interested in computers and technology since kindergarten. He's established（建立）his own company, CarrotCorp, and has made two popular apps that are now sold in the app store.

"A lot of kids these days like to play games, but now they want to make them," he says. "And it's difficult because not many kids know where to go to find out how to make a program…And not many parents have written apps." So Thomas started an app club at school. Any student can come to learn to design an app. He says he was inspired（启发）by Steve Jobs.

In the future, Thomas wants to create more apps and more games. He also plans on continuing his app club and finding other ways for students to share knowledge with each other.

【推荐3】Over the years, the number of whales has dropped rapidly. From 1946 to 1986, about 340,000 whales were killed. People worry that children in the future can only see whales in pictures, They believe all kinds of whale hunting (捕猎) should be stopped before it is too late.

Some people are trying to stop whale hunting all over the world. But they fail to notice one fact. Whale hunting was going on for a long time before the number of whales went down and became a problem.

Whale hunting started as early as 1,500 years ago. This was how tribes people (部落成员) fed their families. They hunted whales for meat because almost nothing could grow on their land. They also made whale fat into oil and used it to make candles or oil lamps. Over the years, whale hunting became their way of living, and even part of who they are.

Tribe whale hunting is not the thing we should worry about. Of all the whales that were killed over the past forty years, only 10%were hunted by tribes people. The other 90%died at the hands of the money-making hunting business. When we try to stop all kinds of whale hunting, we should think what we are asking tribes people to give up and whether this is the best answer to the problem of whale hunting.