1 . From my father I have learned a lot. And I’m very thankful to him. I remember when I was a child my father always got up very early, quietly putting on his clothes and going off to work. To arrive in time to open his tiny store at 8:30, he needed to leave our apartment at 6:30. After all, he had to take a bus and then the subway. The last journey was a long walk through a neighborhood much of which was full of the smell of rubbish. I learned: it is very important to work. No excuse.

When I was 12, I would, on some Saturdays, go to my father’s store to help out. After helping set up the outside clothing display, for the rest of the day, I’d watch to make sure no one stole anything. When I noticed someone looking unusual or strange, I would look the person in the eye, smile and say, “May I help you?” Usually that worked, but sometimes someone would run off with something. The first time, I ran after the thief but my father shouted, “Martin, stop! There is no need to do that.” It’s true that safety is more important than money.

After 10 years of hard work, he saved up enough money to buy his first car, a cheap one—he wouldn’t buy one until he could afford to pay for it without borrowing money. I learned: buy only what you can afford. Buying necessary food and clothing won’t make us go in debt (债务). The unnecessary things won’t give us happiness which comes from achievement only.

2 . Sally is a girl. She likes animals very much. Her favorite animal is pandas, and she goes to the zoo to see them every month.

One Sunday afternoon, Sally went to the zoo. When she arrived there, she ran to the pandas’ house quickly.

But when Sally got to the pandas’ house, she saw lots of people talking in front of the house. And it was kind of noisy. “What’s wrong with the pandas?” Sally asked anxiously (焦急地).

“Oh! Don’t worry (担心), little girl. The pandas are healthy,” an old woman answered.

Then Sally looked into the house. There were two pandas. Lucy and Lily were in the house. They were playing with a ball. And she also found another panda in it.

“Who is he?” she asked.

“He’s Peter. He comes from another zoo,” a man in uniform (制服) said. “Next year, you may see a small panda here.”

“A small panda! I love that,” Sally said happily.

4 . Nellie and I were born only a few days apart, so every year we plan a birthday party together. This year, our birthday theme was “Discover the Pyramids”.

“What about inviting Mary?” Nellie asked.

Mary was a loner, and hadn’t made many friends, but she was better at Math Pyramid than anyone else in class.

“Hmm, she wears the same old trousers every day. How could she even afford a party dress?”

After school the next day, Nellie handed me a box. “What’s that?” I asked.

“My birthday gift from my aunt. I thought it would be nice to give this to Mary,” Nellie said.

I opened the box. Inside was a gift certificate (礼品券) for our favorite clothing store.

“Wow,” I gasped. We both knew how many cute clothes that would buy.

“So, are we going to just hand it to her?”

“How embarrassing (尴尬的) that would be!” Nellie answered.

She was right. Mary would be totally embarrassed if we gave her money for clothes.

“What if we ask our teacher…”

“Wait a second. I have an idea.” Nellie said.

“What? What?”

“I’m not going to tell you!”

On the day of our party, Mary arrived, with no surprise—the very old brown trousers.

We sang, danced and ate biscuits. “And now for the big prize game”, Nellie said. “Big prize”?

My mouth dropped. This was not in the plan.

“The big prize game is like this: Tom and Sam were building pyramids……If their pyramids had to be 60 feet high, who would finish first?”

A Math game. Of course! Nellie winked (眨眼示意) at me. No one was surprised when Mary came up with the answer before anyone else and walked off with the box.

The next week, Mary wore a new pair of trousers, and even a new dress. The whole time she had a big smile on her face.

And so did we.

5 . My mum said that cooking was full of happiness. I knew it was a basic skill, but I was not interested in it at all. One day, I found an app. There were different kinds of videos in the app. The videos taught people how to cook dishes. They were quite useful for beginners. Then I picked out a video and cooked fish. When I finished it, it was exactly what I wanted. It was my first time to get such a strong feeling of satisfaction from cooking. Now I can cook more dishes. It seems that I do well in cooking. Next Sunday is my twentieth birthday. I plan to invite my friends to my house next weekend. I will show them my new skill. I hope we will have a good time.

6 . Isaac Newton was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1643, where he grew up on a farm. When he was a boy, he made lots of great inventions like a windmill (风车), a water clock and a sundial. However, Isaac didn’t get good marks at school and he always failed his tests.

When he was 18, Isaac went to study at Cambridge University. He was very interested in physics, mathematics and astronomy (天文学). But in 1665 the Great Plague, which was a terrible disease, was transmitted in England, and Cambridge University had to close down. Isaac returned home to the farm. Isaac continued studying and experimenting at home.

One day he was drinking a cup of tea in the garden. He saw an apple fall from a tree. “Why do apples fall down instead of up?” From this, he formed the theory of gravity (地球引力). Gravity is an invisible (无形的) force which pulls objects towards the Earth and keeps the planets moving around the Sun.

Isaac was attracted by light. He discovered that white light is in fact made up of all the colors of the rainbow. Isaac also invented a special reflecting telescope (望远镜), using mirrors. It was much more powerful than other telescopes. Isaac made another very important discovery— the Three Laws of Motion (运动定律). These laws explain how objects move. Isaac’s laws are still used today.

Thanks to his discoveries, Isaac became famous. However, he had a bad temper (坏脾气) and often argued with other scientists. Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727 aged 85. He was buried along with English kings and queens in Westminster Abbey in London. He was one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians (数学家) who has ever lived.

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9 . “Look at this,” I said to Mandy, holding up the bright-red paper. “There’s a five-day art camp this summer!”

Mandy looked at it and said, “It’s during the last week of March. That’s the same time as the Hill County Fair and we always go to the fair.” She handed the paper back to me. “Tessa, you’re the artist, but I’m not,” she smiled. “My brother thought the flowers I painted were spaceships.”

I really didn’t want to go alone. I called Emily and Yoshiko. They wouldn’t go with me. I felt upset.

To relax myself, I went outside to draw the pine tree (松树). When sitting on the stone, I thought about the art camp and wished I could be a little braver. Mandy could make friends with other kids in 10 minutes, but I always feel nervous when I don’t know anyone around me. I decided to give up the camp.

Then Mr. Weston, my neighbor, came. He told me something about the pine. The roots (根) of the pine couldn’t be too near the surface or too deep so that they could reach outward. He also praised me that I drew very well. I thought about what he said. It made me think about the art camp and my own roots. I wasn’t reaching them out at all. Instead, I was planting myself deeply to feel safer. I suddenly realized if I wanted to grow, I had to start reaching out too.

That night, I took a deep breath and made a new decision.

I hope when you read this letter you don’t find my writing too messy! At the moment, I’m 15 years old and living at home with my family. I love school and have lots of good friends. We do lots of fun things together like parties, ice skating and swimming.

My biggest worry is not doing well in my school exams, but I’m working really hard so hopefully I have nothing to worry about.

There’s so much I want to do. I hope you’ve travelled all over the world and seen lots of things and met lots of people. I hope you’ve visited the Great Wall in China and the pyramids in Egypt, shopped in New York City and in Paris, seen polar bears in Norway and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I’ve just remembered, you always wanted to see elephants in India—I hope you’ve managed to do that too.

I promise myself I’ll always try my best and have no regrets. I never want to forget where every step of my life has taken me. Already it seems as if so much has happened. I’ve moved from primary to junior middle school (about to graduate), been taught to swim and dance (I love ballet dancing), learned to speak Chinese and French, and raised money for those in need by selling old toy sand books.

I really hope you’re happy. I hope you have a successful career (事业) that you enjoy doing and look forward to each morning when you wake up. I hope you’re surrounded by good friends and family and maybe also have a family of your own. More than anything else, I hope you’ve enjoyed every moment so far!

Love,

Linda