Everyone needs friends. There is an old saying, “Friends are God’s way of taking care of us.” But how do you find real friendship and keep it?

The American writer Sally Seamans tells young students some smart ways to find friends. Sally says finding friendship is just like planting a tree. You plant the seed and take care of it to make it grow.

First, you should choose a friend. What makes a good friend? It is not because a person has money or good looks. A good friend should be kind and patient. For example, if you have a bad day, a good friend should listen to your complaints(抱怨) and do their best to help. To make a friend, you cannot be too shy. You should make each other happy and share your lives.

But things cannot always be happy. Even the best friends have fights. What should you do when you have a fight with your friend? You have to talk to them. When there is no one around, have an honest talk. If he or she doesn’t want to talk, you could write a letter.

Sally says there are three steps to being friends again: Tell him or her how you are feeling; say what your friend has done wrong, and explain why you did this or that. Remember that friendship is very important in your life.

Some children wish to be writers some day. They want to write stories or books for people to read. That's good! It’s good to write something for people to read! But they should know that they need to be good readers first before they are really good writers. They should read a lot of books instead(代替) of watching TV or spending a lot of time playing games when they are free.

If you are a good reader, it doesn't take you long to do the reading homework. Then you have time to read many other books for fun. Because you read so well, you have more fun in reading and you want to look for more books to read. Before you decide to be a good writer, you'd better say to yourself, "I must read more and more!"

When your English teacher asks you to read silently in class, you may think it’s a little strange .You may   (1)   why you should do so. Actually reading silently is an important technique which can help you improve your English .

  When you read   (2)   rather than in your head ,you read more slowly. This could be because you are   (3)  some time on the words ,making sure the pronunciation is correct. When you read silently, you can read faster and therefore cover more things .

  As said above , when you read aloud, you are concentrating on your pronunciation rather than reading the words in front of you .When you read silently, you get much more information and    (4)   better .

  When you read aloud , you have no choice but to read every single word you come across. When reading silently, you can skip some   (5)   parts and just read the most important parts of the text .

  If you are leaning English in a   (6)   rather than at home, it’s beneficial for all students to be able to read the same information. If everyone is reading aloud, it would be very   (7)   to hear and understand what is being said. However if the whole class reading silently, it   (8)   it much easier for everyone to work on the same piece of the text .

  Another reason why reading silently is more beneficial in class is that not   (9)   has good pronunciation . It is easy to listen to , and to   (10)   another student’s bad habits when pronouncing certain words . Reading silently and then speaking English in a small group is a much better way.

Life is full of happiness and bitters. Do you choose to live a happy life or a bitter one?

In my opinion, happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and lots of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big house may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads at their free time.

In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice them, you can see that happiness is always around you.

Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have bad luck. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving (旋转) door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.

Everyone must have such experiences of setting off fireworks and firecrackers(烟花爆竹) during winter holidays. But this year, stricter regulations(规则) on fireworks and fireworks and firecrackers have been made by many cities and provinces. The reason why they take this action is that air pollution is getting worse and worse all over China since last year. Different cities have taken different measures(措施) to prevent that. For example, Beijing has told citizens that if there is anyone who breaks the rule again, setting off fireworks and firecrackers will be completely banned(禁止). Shanghai even asks people to write down their real names and addresses when they buy fireworks.

The more fireworks, the more serious the sir pollution will be. Although many people are quite sure of it, tradition still prevails(盛行) in some rural areas(乡村地区). People there believe that fireworks and firecrackers are useful to drive away evil spirits(恶魔) and pray(祈求) for the safety in the future. People who live and work in cities follow the tradition when they go back to their rural homes for the Spring Festival, which is also a strong symbol of family reunion(团聚). In big cities, however, citizens are ready to give up the pleasure of setting off fireworks to have some fresh air during the Spring Festival.

All in all, people should think twice before they make a choice between practicing customs and enjoying a healthy life.

Basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith. He was a Canadian physical education teacher in the YMCA(基督教青年会) Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the USA.

He wanted his students to play a game to keep them healthy. The New England winters were very cold and quite long. So the game had to be an indoor sport. He began to search for different games for indoor play.

At last, he began to write down some rules and nailed(钉) two baskets onto an elevated track(高架轨道). There is a hole in the bottom of the basket to make the ball pushed out by a stick. However, this soon developed into the basket that we see today. Also, at that time the ball used for the game was a soccer ball. This game began to be called ‘Basket Ball’.

It is an indoor game and so can be played at any time of the year. Also, for a player, the basketball equipment needed is not very much. This makes it a game which can be played by anyone.

The game also began to spread into Universities and Colleges. By the 1920s, several such basketball associations appeared, but none of them lasted long. During the first part of the 20th Century, the game spread to schools and several high school basketball teams began to be formed.

In the 13th century, the famous Italian traveler, Marco Polo, traveled a long way to China. During his stay in China, he saw many wonderful things. One of the things he discovered was that the Chinese used paper money. In western countries, people didn’t use paper money until the 15th century. However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7th.

A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented paper almost 2000 years ago. He put these pieces of paper together and made them in a book.　　

Now paper comes from trees. We use a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting so much paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. So how can we save paper? We can use both of every piece of paper, especially when we are making notes. We can choose drinks in bottles instead of those in paper packets(小包). We can also use handkerchiefs and not paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use fewer paper bags. If the shop assistant does give you a paper bag, we can save it and reuse it later.

Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help protect trees. We should do it now, before it is too late.

Have you ever seen rows of different cars parked on a big playground, with their boots(后备箱) open? The boots are packed with things like books, pictures and kids’ toys. This is a car boot sale. You see a lot of them in the UK.

If you have lots of things and have nowhere to put them, and don’t want to throw them away, why  not try a car boot sale? Go to a car boot sale and your may be surprised at what you find.

You can find almost anything at a car boot sale, from beds, tables to necklaces and rings. Most of the things are second-hand, so they are usually low-priced. I like to hunt for books. I was pretty low-priced. I like to hunt for books. I was pretty proud when I bought four books. I was pretty proud when I bought four books of the Harry Potter series and they cost me just over ￡2.

I can give you a little tip that not everybody knows: When it’s nearly the end of the sale, many sellers cut down the price because they want to get rid of their things. Quite often you’ll find “all for 10 pounds”, “buy x and get x free” and “take it away!” Obviously(明显地), they just want to get rid of that thing.

However, there may not be many good things left at the end—the things people really want are sold quickly. So, as they say, the early bird catches the worm!

If you meet a British person in the street, it is very likely that he or she will apologize whether it is his or her fault (过错) or not.

It seems that Britain is becoming a nation where everyone is saying sorry. Almost each person says sorry about eight times each day—and one in eight people apologize as many as 20 times a day.

As you may have seen, the British apologize more often than members of other cultures. A research shows that in many cases, people's love of saying sorry in Britain goes a little further than it does for Americans. For example, about 15 British people would say ”sorry” while only 10 from the US would do this if they sneezed, if they corrected someone's mistake or if someone knocked into them.

In the old days, “sorry” was used to express regret and sadness for having done something wrong. But now British people use the expression as a way of showing good manners. For example, they might say “sorry” instead of “excuse me”, “pardon”, “what” or “whatever”.

People in Britain also use sorry when they share the same feeling with others—so they might say “sorry about the rain”.

However, British people's use of “sorry” may make things very confusing (迷惑不清) and difficult for foreigners who are not familiar with their ways. But actually, people in Britain pay much attention to the feelings of others. This is the very reason why they apologize every day.

Many people in the world are willing to help others. They usually set up charities(慈善机构) to help people. “Make-A-Wish” is one of the world’s most well-known charities. It makes wishes come true for childrenwho have serious illnesses. It gives them hope andhappiness and helps them forget about their health problems and have fun.

It all started in Phoenix, Arizona. Christopher was a 7-year-old boy who was very sick. He always dreamed ofbecoming a police officer. Tommy Austin and Ron Cox, two police officers, made his wish come true. They gaveChristopher a tour ofthe city in a police helicopter(直升飞机)and made a real police uniform for him.

There are four kinds of wishes children usually have:

Iwish to go. Children usually want to travel or go to a concert, a game or a park.

Iwish to meet. Children sometimes want to meet their favorite actors, singers or players.

Iwish to be. Some children wish to becomeactors, singers or police officers.

Iwish to have. They often want to have a computer, a game, a bike or many other things.

Let’shope more wisheswill come true in the future. People who work in the charity always try for the best. Almost 30, 000 Volunteers help, work or give money. Will you be one of them?