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.

I thought my father as a cold-blooded man who did not care about me at all.

  What can you think of when we talk about elephants? Maybe most of us just know they are the largest animals on land. But-I think there are many other things you should know. For a long time, they are very helpful. They carry big trees, take people from place to place, and are even used in wars. Some people think it's not easy to hurt an elephant because its skin is thick and hard. In fact, that's wrong. Sometimes, a needle (针) can also be very dangerous for the elephant.

    People say elephants are afraid of mice. This is wrong, too. In fact, elephants have very poor eyesight, so they usually can't see a mouse even if one comes very close to them. If a person has a good memory, people will say that he has an elephant memory. However, up to now, no study shows that elephants have a better memory than any other animal.

    People also believe that when it is time for elephants to die, they will hide themselves in a so-called "elephant graveyard". Often, hunters try to find such places to get ivories, but few people really find places like that. In fact, when elephants are old or get sick, they will stay in deep and secret caves (洞穴) until they get better or die.

I hired a man to help me repair an old farmhouse. His first day on the job made him mad——a flat tire(轮胎) made him lose an hour of work，he cut his finger with a knife and his old truck refused to start. While I drove him home，he sat in silence.

On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he stopped at a small tree and touched the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door, his face was full of smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterwards, he walked with me to the car. We passed the tree. I was so curious that I asked what I had seen earlier. “ Oh, that’s my trouble tree.” he replied, “I know I can’t help having troubles on the job, but one thing is for sure. Those troubles don’t belong to my children and my wife. So I hang them up on the tree every night and ask God to take care of them. Then in the morning, I pick them up again.”

“ The funny thing is ,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as those hung up the night before.”

What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear the word “Dubai”? The first 7-star hotel in the world? Or the world’s tallest building, the 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa? As an international city, Dubai is world famous for its tall buildings. But people in Dubai don’t think that’s enough. They want to show the world a different side of the city. Not long ago, the Middle East’s first 3-D pavement(路面) art festival started in Dubai and caught many people’s eyes.

     The 3-D pavement art festival was an important part of the Dubai Canvas Festival. The Dubai Canvas Festival celebrates art and culture with different themes each year. During the festival, top international 3-D artists used chalk or paint to create their 3-D artworks on the pavement. Many of the artworks showed eye-watching pictures of Dubai. Take a chalking drawing by US artist Kurt Wenner for example. In his artwork, people could see a boy sitting on a traditional fishing boat with other children around, Dubai’s famous high-rise buildings were in the background. The 3-D drawing was so vivid that many visitors liked to sit on it and take photos.

    The organizers(组织者) of the art festival said they hoped to turn Dubai into an open-air art museum and make everyone enjoy the fun and beauty of art.

Do you want to be a volunteer? Maybe you need some ideas. Here is some advice.

Help kids learn and grow. Be a big brother or sister at an after-school care centre. You can help little kids to learn or play with them.

Give back during the holidays. Serve dinner to the homeless, volunteer at an old people's home, or give out toys to kids.

Help at an animal shelter (庇护所). Most shelters need volunteers to keep the cats and dogs happy and take them to exercise. And when you're walking dogs, you get some exercise, too.

Protect the environment. Take part in a park clean-up day. Plant a tree. Join a group to work together to protect a river.

Help sick people. Helping others can make you feel good. When you make sick people happy, you also feel happy. If you have several hobbies, find a way to do them all. For example, if you love kids and are good at painting and dancing, visit a children's hospital and teach them these interesting things.

Many years ago, I was a shy boy and lived a very peaceful life．I liked school but I felt bored．

And then I started the fourth grade．My teacher, Mrs．Chen, was a young woman who was good at writing, art and music．Her class was very interesting．With her help, I started Fun Club with some boys in my class．I also wrote a book called Through the Forest．And lots of my classmates liked it．

However, I was surprised when fifty years later I got a letter about a reunion (聚会)．A few days later, we had a reunion at Mrs．Chen's home．Reconnecting with Mrs．Chen was a journey back in time．Fifty years have passed, but my teacher still remembers every student．She even doesn't forget the class bully (欺负) — a boy used to hit me with snowballs on my way to school．Lots of teachers thought bullying was nothing serious at that time, but Mrs．Chen didn't agree．She put a stop to it at once when she found out about it．

Now, in my mid-fifties, I appreciate the gifts Mrs．Chen has given me even more．It's never too late to say thanks to this fantastic teacher．I hope you are lucky enough to have one teacher like Mrs．Chen．

Do you want to do well in exams? Sometimes your knowledge is not enough, you also need good strategies. Here are some for you:

Before you answer the questions, if you feel a little nervous, take a few deep breaths to help you relax.

Always read the question carefully and make sure that you understand it. Read it a few times if possible.

Find out how much each question is worth or how many points you need.

If it asks to give one answer, only write one.

If there is a difficult question, don’t worry. Go on to the next question and come back to it if you have time later.

Try not to leave questions unanswered when you finish the test. Sometimes a guess may get your points.

When you finish, go back and check your answers. You will need to check your writing or spelling mistakes.

       a little nervous.

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.

    Have you heard about paper-cutting? Paper-cutting is an important art form in China. Paper-cuts are used for many purposes, and everything can become the theme (主题) of paper-cuts. from people to the things that can be found in everyday life such as birds, flowers and animals.

    Each paper-cut brings out the personal ideas of the author (作者). People express traditional culture or their own feelings with different styles of paper-cuts. For example, when someone marries, we put up some red paper-cuts on the wall, dressing table or other furniture to express our best wishes.

    It is easy to learn paper-cutting but very difficult to make it perfect. We need a longtime practice to learn how to paint. In addition, we need to learn some cutting skills.

    In the past, paper-cutting skill was a must for women in many parts of China. Every woman must learn how to do it since she was young and it was also a symbol of clever mind.