2 . One day Mrs.Wilson took Trudy and Ben to go shopping. They went to the supermarket in the new shopping mall.

“Why do you buy things here, Mum?” Trudy asked.

“Because they are cheaper than those at the corner store,” Mrs.Wilson said. “Help me check the prices.”

The Wilsons were not wealthy (富有的) and Mrs.Wilson was always careful with her money. She looked carefully at the prices of things. She bought some groceries (杂货) in the supermarket. When they got home, the children said, “We don’t think you saved money by going to the supermarket there.”

“Of course I did,” said Mrs.Wilson. “Everything was cheap there.”

“We know,” said the children, “but we came home by taxi because we had too many things to carry. The cost of the taxi was more than the money you saved!”

Mrs.Wilson added everything up and found her children were right.

“Well,” she said, “next time we will do the shopping near our home.”

4 . With the development of science and technology, communications are becoming easier and quicker now—people can use telephones, cellphones, fax machines and the Internet. It means that we seldom write letters now. But a TV show, Letters Alive(《见字如面》), is bringing back this old habit.

Letters Alive invites famous actors and actresses, but there are no funny jokes or different competitions. Instead, only one person walks up to a microphone and reads a letter. The letters were written by people from different times in history. For example, in one episode(集), they read a letter written by the famous writer Xiao Hong to her younger brother in 1941. The letter shows that Xiao Hong missed her brother so much and had great hopes for his future.

“Every letter opens another world for us,” said Guan Zhangwen, the director of the TV show. “It seems that we can experience the real lives and feelings of the writers”. Since its first episode was on, Letters Alive has been widely praised. Many audiences(观众) say that it has provided a breath of fresh air to today's TV shows.

Besides Letters Alive, some other cultural TV shows have also attracted Chinese audiences. They include the Chinese Poetry Conference, a traditional Chinese poetry competition and Readers, a program that invites people to read poems and articles they like or wrote. It suggests that cultural values and true feelings are becoming our interest.

6 . Ancient China produced many types of beautiful works of art. Among them, calligraphy(书法), poetry and painting were the most famous. Often they would be put together in art. These became important starting with the Song Dynasty.

Calligraphy is the art of handwriting. In the old time, the Chinese considered writing as an important form of art. Calligraphers would practice for years to learn to write perfectly, but with style. Each of over 40,000 characters needed to be written correctly. And each stroke(笔画) in a character had to be written in a certain order.

Poetry was also an important form of art. Great poets were famous all over the country. And all educated people were expected to write poetry. During the Tang Dynasty, poetry was so important that writing poetry was part of the examinations to become a civil servant(文官) and work for the government.

Chinese painting was often connected with calligraphy. It is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as “national” or “native” painting, which is quite different from Western painting. People can draw mountains, homes, birds, trees and water on it.

9 . The Internet, mobile phones and Ipads are part of our lives now. Technology is greatly affecting all ways of our lives, from the ways we work to the ways we play. And it even causes a number of social problems such as cloning humans.

We have had lots of technology and it has changed our lives a lot. There is no doubt that humans will continue to use more and more technology. Here are some examples of modern technology that will change our ideas and will affect our lives greatly.

Global Positioning System (GPS) (全球定位系统)

It’s a system that uses radio signals from satellites to show exact (精确地) information. It tells you where the user is on the earth in all weather conditions. It’s made up of three parts: satellites, control equipment (设备) on land and receivers.

Space Technology

Russian and American scientists have worked together for the International Space Station (ISS) for a long time. They hope the ISS will provide a long-lasting lab. Such a lab will bring humans limitless (无限的) advantages. It’s even hoped that one day space technology will take humans to their new houses in space.

Underwater Robot

Hercules is a kind of Underwater Robot with some high technology equipment. It will be used to search for ancient ships which were destroyed into the deep sea during their journey long ago.

The world is changing so quickly that it’s hard for us to catch up with all the new inventions because they seem to come out every month. It’s important for us to learn about new technology and the role that it plays in our lives. So we should be willing to accept modern technology, or we will fall behind the time.

10 . A 12-year-old Hero

“Child of Courage”award was given to a boy, Andrew, because of saving people from the water of a canal（运河）. He was a 12-year-old hero to all the people.

Andrew was on the road with his mother, when a car drove into a metal barrier（金属屏障）. The family’s car fell down a hill into the canal, and landed with its wheels up. Andrew 12, then jumped into the water and swam towards the car. He saw the whole family was still in the car in the water. He took a deep breath and swam through a broken window to save first the boy Mike.

Andrew freed Mike and then tried to get Rosie who was under the cold, cloudy water, in the car. Andrew had to feel for her seatbelt because he could not see anything. He took the seatbelt off her, and then went up for air. Finally he went back to pull her out of the car, and Rosie was saved successfully. The parents were badly hurt in the accident and were saved by the police.

Andrew’s mother said: “After I got help on the phone and looked back, I found Andrew had gone. Then suddenly I saw him come up out of the water like a dolphin, and I could see he had the girl, I was so proud of my son.”

Andrew said: “I didn’t think about it and only knew I had to get them out. I was frightened, but it was all happening so fast. And I really had no time to think about the danger.”

To Andrew’s mother, he was only a 12-year-old son, out to other people, he is the symbol of courage.