Many years ago, there was a family named Franklin. They lived in Boston. There were five girls and six boys in the family. On a January day in 1706 another baby was born. The boy's mother and her husband gave the boy a —Benjamin. Benjamin was the of all the children. He could read when he was five and he could write when he was seven. The next year his parents sent him to . At school Benjamin was good at reading and writing, but not good at math. He read all of his father's . And when he had money, he went to buy books. He liked books. They told him to do something. The boy liked to use his head and tried to ways to help people enjoy life more. For example, he tried to know if there was some way to farther, maybe with something on his hands or feet. Slowly a picture of swimming shoes, or paddles, grew in his . The paddles must be neither too nor too small. And they must be neither too heavy nor too light. At last he invented the paddle for swimming.

    Maybe my school years in the UK were not the best days, but there were certainly a lot of advantages at school. Here are some of them:

    ⒈Friends. I can't think of anything m comfortable than spending every day with my friends.

    ⒉Free knowledge. My school costs me and my parents nothing for English, math, geography, history, art, and lots of other's. Learning can be really expensive when you leave school.

    ⒊Uniform. In England, school kids w uniforms to school. Mine was blue. It wasn't fashionable, but it saved a lot of time in the mornings. Now it t me too much time to decide what to wear.

    ⒋Short days. My school days sometimes felt very l, but in fact, they were very short. The school day started at 9:00 and finished at 15:30.

    ⒌Exercise. I'm not very g at sport, and I don't really like it. But now I realize that this was a good thing!

    ⒍Holidays. Christmas, Easter, half-term holidays, and, of course, the summer holidays. There was always a holiday to look forward t at school.

    ⒎Teachers. Believe it or not, I m my teachers. Although they give homework, they also share their knowledge with you and help you find out the right a. When you n longer have teachers, you have to find the answers all by yourself!

Not only could the cultures, histories or customs in different countries be different, but the s habits are different. Let's see the shopping in America here. If you arrive in America only for a short time, I believe you need to buy some clothes soon. There is a rule of dressing in the States: Change your clothes every day. F example, in an American college, neither teachers n students are often seen in the same clothes for two days on end. So you may find i necessary to buy more clothes than you have here- in China. W you are shopping in America, you will find that prices change a lot from store to store, and that they change a lot from time to time. After you stay in America for some time, you will also find t Americans are not so well off. They often go shopping at "sales". They also buy some used, second-hand things, such as clothing, the bed, the sofa, or the TV一in order to s money. But in America it is quite different: most of the second-hand things are rather good. In fact, the price in the United States is always very l. Advertisements for the "white sale" are often seen in January, as well as in May and June or July. Once or t every season there will be "garage sales" in the community. There, you can get almost a, from a boat to a pair of shoes, at lower prices.

    How long does it take to build a new house? It usually takes about six months or more. B each year, thousands of people work together to build new homes in just four months. Who does this w work? Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is a group that builds homes for families in n. It has branches (分部) in different states around the country. This group works all over the world, too. Volunteers help build the homes. They are unpaid workers who do all the work for f Volunteers can be builders and painters. They can be teachers or bankers, and some are students. Habitat for Humanity has built more than 300，000 houses. More than 1. 5 million people l in these houses. Building a home is hard work. Volunteers learn h to put up walls. They use many m and tools. These selfless (无私的) volunteers work with the family that will live in the house Everyone works together to make the family's d come true. Suruchi Srikanth has worked with Habitat for Humanity for four years. She b volunteering in high school. She has built many homes with other volunteers. She takes her responsibilities(责任) seriously. Volunteers know i they don't help, homes may not get built. They are good citizens who care about other people.

    Reading is important in our daily life. But have you ever thought what we read f, information or skills? How do we feel when we read, excited or upset? We read word by word aloud and think about them. Is that enough? I think reading is more than p (pronounce) or thinking about words.

    R The Reader, a very popular TV program, is staged (上演) in the form of reading. It's a n (nation) reading program. Dong Qing works a both a hostess and a producer. The Reader hopes to tell us w the world is like and it takes us to see the beautiful world by reading. The show has invited some influential (有影响力的) guests who have rich experiences and touching stories, like Ni Ping, Wang Yuan from TFBOYS and Yao Chen.

    "Reading touches people's hearts" is the slogan(口号) of The Reader. What it wants to s isn't reading skills but real feelings. They are what touches the audience (观众)most. "I have long thought about working on a program related to (与...有关) the human spirit, so far The Reader has b a turning point in my career in hosting and the program has brought me quite a huge challenge," said Dong.

    The Reader is of great i to the audience and Chinese culture. It also tells us if we understand what we are reading, we will know what reading really is and we'll become better r.

    There was once a King and he wanted to find out who could paint the best picture of peace. And he would offer a prize to the artist, May artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.

    One picture was of a calm(平静的) lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with soft white clouds. Everyone thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

    The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged(崎岖的)and bare(光秃秃的).Above was an angry sky. And it was raining and lightning. Down the side of the mountain, a waterfall fell quickly. This did not look peaceful at all.

    But when the King looked carefully, he saw behind the waterfall a bush (树丛) growing in a crack (裂縫)in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest(巢，窝). There she sat on her net... in perfect peace.

    Which picture do you think won the prize?

    The King chose the second picture. "Because." said the King, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means too be in the middle of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."

    What does a cake look like? Maybe you've got lots of different answers in mind, but Zhou Yi and his team's cakes will certainly make you feel amazed!

    Zhou is called China's" Sugar King". Last November in the UK, he and his team won three gold medals and two bronze medals(铜牌) at the International Cake Competition, the world's largest cake competition.

    Zhou and his team's cakes show not only their great cake- making skills, but also traditional Chinese culture and art. For example, one of the gold medal-winning cakes shows China's first and only female(女性的) emperor Wu Zetian as a young woman. ⑷Someone said that the cake showed the beauty of Chinese art to the world!

    But don't think creating such amazing works of art is very easy." Some parts were made eight times just because the result was not quite what I wanted," Zhou said." You need to build every single part over and over again until you find the perfect fit." ⑸他希望能通过他让人们更多地了解中国。

    When you want to go shopping, decide how much money you can spend on new clothes. Think about the kind of clothes you really need. Then look for those clothes on sale.

    There are labels (标签) inside all new clothes. The labels tell you how to take care of your clothes. The label for a shirt may tell you to wash it in warm water. A sweater label may tell you to wash it in cold water. The label on a coat may say" dry clean only", for washing may ruin (损坏) this coat. If you do as the directions on the label, you can keep your clothes looking their best for a long time.

    Many clothes today must be dry-cleaned. Dry-cleaning is expensive. When buying new clothes, check to see if they will need to be dry-cleaned. You will save money if you buy clothes that can be washed.

    You can save money if you buy clothes that are well made. Well-made clothes last longer. They look good even after they have been washed       .Clothes that cost more money are not always better made. They do not always fit better. Sometimes less expensive clothes look and fit better than more expensive clothes.

    For thousands of years, kites have been made and flown by people of all ages living in most parts of the world. ⑶Kites have been especially popular in Asian countries. In Korea, people fly kites on the first few days of the new year as a kind of celebration. In Japan, kite flying is an important part of the boy's festival that is held each May. In China, one day out of every year is celebrated as Kite Day. At these special" kite celebrations", thousands of kites are flown. ⑷They are made in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Some are shaped like fish, butterflies, or birds. All of them are very bright and colorful. Most kite fans fly their kites just for fun, but serious kite fliers take part in contests. Kites are used for practical(实用的) purposes, too. The U.S. Weather Bureau uses kites to collect information about winds and weather. Some of the kites used in this kind of work carry scientific instruments and fly higher than 20,000 feet. To fly a kite, it's usually necessary to run into the wind for a few feet. As the kite begins to rise, let out more line and pull it. Do not fly a kite near trees or electric lines, or in an area where there are low-flying planes.

    Fire was discovered many thousands of years ago. The first time humans saw fire was probably when a tree was destroyed by lightning(闪电).Humans soon learned how to make a fire. They probably made the first fire by rubbing (摩擦)two sticks together. Fire was very important to humans. They needed fire to keep warm at night. They used fire to cook food. ⑶They used fire to keep enemies and wild animals away. In some parts of the world fire was used to send messages. The Indians in America, for example, used fire to make smoke as a message. In some other countries people lit fires to warn their friends of danger. ⑷Fire was also used to give light. Before the invention of the oil lamp(灯), humans burned sticks to get light. One man even used fire to tell the time. He invented a candle clock. He made a candle that took exactly twelve hours to burn. Then he marked this candle in twelve equal(相等的) parts. He lit the candle and could tell the time by counting the number of parts left of the burning candle. But the candle clock did not always work well. If there was a wind blowing on the candle, it burned too quickly.