3 . When Salva Dut’s school is caught in the crossfire of the Second Sudanese (苏丹) Civil War, he must flee into wild lands to avoid being killed or forced to fight as a child soldier. Salva ends up living in various refugee (难民) camps, sometimes having to travel hundreds of miles in order to reach relatively safe locations.

At the same time in South Sudan, Nya travels many miles each day to get water for her family. This long walk and the lack of clean water causes Nya and her family many problems until one day, a man and his work staff arrive to dig a well in Nya’s village.

A Long Walk to Water connects the true stories of Salva Dut and Nya. The pictures of their country, Sudan, are shown in the eyes of children, which makes the book good to middle grade readers. Before you have students begin the book, it would be helpful to have a lesson on the Second Sudanese Civil War. Backgrounds of the geography of South Sudan and the two different tribes (部落) — Dinka and Nuer — will further help bring students into the situations in this work.

Students can study the way Salva’s and Nya’s stories are told, and try to tell the relations between the stories. They offer various ways of view on the human life that students can discuss. Class discussion can also include the cultural relations of the Dinka and Nuer tribes and why they often fight against each other.

After reading this book, you may want to consider doing something for the project Water for South Sudan. But your class’s ability to sponsor (出资，赞助) a well in Sudan will probably depend on the school leaders. So, before starting this unit, you may want to raise this idea to them and decide what your school can do about it.

4 . The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, completed in 1436, is the most important landmark in Florence, Italy, and the fourth largest church in the world.

The most famous part of the church is the dome (穹顶). It was created by the genius of the Renaissance (文艺复兴), Filippo Brunelleschi, who showed a great mastery of technical knowledge. Interestingly, Brunelleschi had been a trained goldsmith (金匠) and had never built anything in his life before building the masterpiece. This may sound crazy, but in many ways we look at the relation between Brunelleschi and the church, it seemed that he was “the chosen one” to complete the construction.

When he was born in 1377, the church had been under construction for 80 years with no solution to the dome-shaped roof. The building of the church had grown so larger and grander than the original plans that no one had any idea how it would or could be done. In 1418 a public competition was announced for the construction of the dome. Of course, there was the possibility of building the dome with a wooden structure to support it, but that would end up being costly requiring over 400 trees, lots of manpower and time. When Brunelleschi entered the competition, he was the only one with an idea that did not use wood, which caught the attention of the judges. Brunelleschi did many mathematical calculations and invented a lot of new tools and machines for the project, which was started two years after he won the competition. He finished the dome in only sixteen years, which was shockingly fast back in his time.

Always known as a secretive person, Brunelleschi didn’t leave a single building plan, drawing, or even a letter behind on how he managed to come up with such an amazing design. For years, the structure was a huge mystery about how the dome was built.

7 . Trying to motivate yourself to exercise can sometimes feel like a fruitless attempt. Here are some tips on setting your mind on getting active, and getting fit.

Make your fitness goals known. Tell your family, friends and co-workers about your fitness goals and encourage them to ask you how your goals come along.     1    

Make an appointment with your doctor. Ask the doctor about your health condition and how becoming more physically fit can help you become healthier.     2     A government study found just three hours of advice by doctors over two years helped improve couch potatoes’ physical fitness.

    3     If you’re new to exercise, it’ll be better to have a fitness professional set your goals rather than doing it alone. That means setting the weights on machines for you, determining how long you should walk or run, or giving you a time limit for the running machines.

Consider healthy living, not just workouts. Even if you spend three hours a week in the gym, what of the other 100-plus waking hours each week? Fit people keep energetic during their entire day.     4     You can simply stand up and walk around whenever you get on the phone and always take the stairs, not the lift.

Do it for charity.     5     If you fall into that category, then find a way to use your charitable nature to motivate yourself to exercise. For example, donate & 1 for every mile you walk. Or commit to several fund-raising events that involve walking, biking, dancing, or a sports match.

9 . “Charlieeeeeeee, do your homework now!” his mother was shouting.

Charlie thought, “Well she doesn’t have to do it.” and he spent hours with his books, hoping that time would pass and it would soon be time for supper. As usual, he was lying on his bed, busy staring at the ceiling, daydreaming. Suddenly some little elves (精灵), no more than a centimetre tall, appeared by the window.

One of the elves asked Charlie politely to give them his homework so they can play with it.

Charlie agreed and watched his guests, and was so surprised to see what they did. In less than a minute, they had formed teams and were busy playing with the pen, the eraser, the book, and the pad of paper. Very strange stuff they were getting up to. Like with the sums, instead of moving the pen across the paper, they would hold the pen still and move the paper instead. Or like how they had races to see who could do the sums fastest. They also used well-known songs to learn the words to them.When they had done that they put on a big concert to sing those songs.

Charlie really enjoyed watching those little students. He even joined in with the singing.

“Aww, this is so much fun...”

“Of course, it’s fun! Why don’t you try it for a few days yourself? We’ll all come back to see you again from time to time.”

“Deal!” agreed Charlie.

So, every evening, Charlie started playing with his homework, inventing new and crazier ways to make it more fun. He would sing loads of songs and do all manner of other things too. Now and again, his elf friends would turn up.

Neither Charlie’s parents, nor his teachers, nor anyone in the whole school could understand the great change in him. From that day on, not only did he spend a lot more time doing homework, he did it perfectly. He was very happy, and was always singing. His mother told him how proud she was at seeing him work so hard.

But Charlie said to himself, “Well, she doesn’t have to do it. It’s fun!”

10 . This journey began this morning almost an hour later than I had planned, although I had completed my packing before eight o’clock. I was quite clear about the fact that once I left, my house would stand empty for probably the first time since the day it was built. It was a strange feeling and perhaps explains why I was leaving so late, walking around the house many times over, checking one last time to see that all was in order.

It is hard to explain my feelings once I did finally set off. As I drove further and further from the house, I found the surroundings grow unrecognizable. I began to have a feeling of unease mixed with excitement. I took a turning and found myself on a road circling the edge of a hill. I could sense the steep (陡峭的) drop to my left. I felt a sense of alarm that I was perhaps not on the correct road at all, but speeding off in the wrong direction into a wilderness. It was only the feeling of a moment, but it caused me to slow down. And even when I was sure I was on the right road, I felt forced to stop the car a moment to think carefully.

I decided to step out and stretch (伸展) my legs a little. On the one side of the road, thickets and small trees rose sharply, while on the other I could now see the distant countryside and a town nearby.

I walked a little way along the roadside, when I heard a voice behind me. Until this point I had believed myself quite alone and I turned in some surprise. Sitting on the large stone was a thin, white­haired man. He called to me again and signaled me to join him. For a moment, I took him for a homeless man, but then I saw he was just some local man enjoying the fresh air and summer sunshine, and saw no reason not to do so.