2 . School gardens have appeared across the country. Teachers use the gardens to give lessons in science, math and more.

Studies show that kids who work in outdoor gardens get higher scores on science tests. Teachers hope that by learning where their food comes from, kids will make healthier food choices at meal times.

Students at No. 2 Middle School plant seeds in spring. They grow pumpkins, peppers (辣椒) and broccoli (西兰花). The kids look after the garden until summer. They get in the vegetables in fall.

Li Yan likes that job best. “It’s like a hunt,” she said. “You have to look at all the vegetables to find the ones that are ready to be picked.”

The school gives away the vegetables to a food bank. “Giving back to the community (社区) is an important lesson,” says the school leader. Li Yan likes the idea that her hard work helps others. “Everyone can make a difference,” she says.

3 . If man’s best friend is a dog, then who is a dog’s best friend? That would be Rover, Glow, Ivan or Raina. These four dogs donated (捐献) blood (血液) to other dogs. And they did it without having to travel far from home. They visited an animal bloodmobile (捐血车).

Similar to the Red Cross vehicles for men, the University of Pennsylvania's animal bloodmobile goes to where the donors are to make it easier to give. Kym Marryott is the manager of Penn’s Animal Blood Bank. “You don’t really think about it until you need it,” Marryott said. “Just like us, dogs need blood, too.”

However, not every dog can donate blood. Dogs must have the correct blood type, weigh at least 55 pounds and be younger than 8 years old. About 150 dogs take part in the program. Each donates three or four pints (品脱) a year, which can help animals in need. One pint can save at least three dogs. Just like people, the dogs can get a snack and a heart-shaped “U of P Blood Donor” sticker after giving. They also receive free dog food to take home.

Sandy Lucas brought her 7-year-old black dog, Raina, to the bloodmobile last week. “I was excited that she had the right blood which could help another dog out,” she said—“We’ll do it again.”

4 . We use the Internet for many things: business, shopping, writing letters, talking to people, finding information and so on. In recent years, a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There’s no real word for it yet, so we’ll call it e-talk.

People don’t like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases (短语) into a few letters called acronyms (首字母缩略词). Acronyms are often used in chat rooms. Some of them are:

People also use many abbreviations (缩写词). They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations are:

We usually don’t see people when we communicate on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keyboards to draw “feeling”, such as:

There are even whole new words, like “newbie”—someone who is new on a chat board or forum (论坛). When you write something bad about someone else, it’s called “flaming” the person.

It takes time to get used to e-talk. Also, different groups on the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbies sometimes have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.

5 . Xia Boyu, born in 1949, is the first Chinese disabled (残疾的) player to climb Mount Qomolangma. In 1974, he was chosen by the Chinese mountaineering team. His first try was in 1975 as a part of a group of 20 Chinese climbers. After two months of training, he started climbing Mount Qomolangma, but they met a snowstorm and had to go back. On the way, he gave his sleeping bag to his teammate. His feet were frozen and had to be cut off.

Fitting man-made limbs (假肢) on both legs couldn’t stop Xia Boyu from challenging Mount Qomolangma. From 2014 to 2016, Xia Boyu has tried his best to top Mount Qomolangma three times. Even though one time he was only 94 metres away from the top, snowstorms still stopped the old man again and again. He finally chose to give up.

In 2018, Xia Boyu, at an age when most people are taking life easy, challenged Mount Qomolangma for the fifth time. And finally he reached the top successfully. For Xia Boyu, the most important thing in the world is never to give up. His journey still continues. He is planning to climb other mountains in the world and explore (探索) the South and North Poles.

7 . In the middle of 1990s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies. First, there were traditional companies which sold things at stores. Then, there were the Internet companies which didn’t have stores. They sold things only over the Internet.

Traditional companies didn’t want to lose any business. Quickly, they created their own websites and began selling things over the Internet. These are the so-called “brick and click” (线下和线上) companies. Many stores are made of brick（砖）, and you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That’s where the name “brick and click” comes from. By the late 1990s, e-businesses were in trouble. Their profits（利润）were not very high, and there was a lot of competition. Many of these businesses lost a lot of money, and in 2000, many e-businesses were out of business.

Why are some brick and click companies very successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites are easy to remember. These companies also have a lot of experience. They know how to run a successful business.

In the world of e-commerce（电子商务）, companies around the world are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will brick and click companies win the war? Only time will tell.

9 . A rabbit was walking in the snow. There was nobody except a snowman standing quietly on the snow ground.

The rabbit came up to the snowman. He found his big nose was a big carrot. “Oh, I love the carrot.” He said to himself and the carrot made his mouth water. “Well, the nose is too long. It will look nice if I make it shorter.” He thought and came nearer to the snowman. He tried to bite (咬) a small piece of the carrot. He was excited and couldn’t help having another bite (一口). He enjoyed the carrot happily, but the long nose became a flat nose. Suddenly, he remembered his mother’s words, “Don’t eat others’ food casually (随便地).” What would he do? Then he said to himself, “I must wait for the master (主人) of the snowman to tell him about it.” He waited and waited, but nobody came.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. He made two long ears on the snowman’s head. After that, he made another two mouths for it. Now the snowman became a snow rabbit. “In this way, the master will know that the rabbit ate the carrot,” the rabbit thought. He felt relieved (安心的) and went home.

Next morning, when the rabbit opened his door, he was surprised to find a basket of carrots. On the carrots, there was a note. It wrote: To our honest lovely little rabbit.

10 . There was a terrible rainstorm last night. Now the Hills are talking about what they were doing at the time of the rainstorm.