Hello! My name is Zhao Na. I'm nine years old. I am in Rizhao, Shandong. My first name is Na and my last name is Zhao. My English name is Julia. I like green. My telephone number is 1238-6517. I have a good friend. She is English, but now she is in China. Her name is Helen Smith. Helen is her first name and Smith is her last name. Her Chinese name is Wang Min. She is nine too. Her favorite color is red. Her telephone number is 2816-3018. Helen and I are in the same school. We study in the same class.

    Why is music so important to children? Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

    Music has a positive（积极的） effect on young children's development!

    New research shows that music has a good influence on young children's cognitive（认知的） skills, such as spatial reasoning（空间推理） and memory. Research also shows that offering children an interesting environment can support children's healthy growth and development.

    Young children enjoy making music with others!

    Making music with others gives children a wonderful feeling of belonging to the group. Children might have difficulty joining in activities with others because they are shy, have limited language ability or special needs, but they can freely take part in a music activity.

    Music makes young children happy!

    Children seem to experience much pleasure and joy when listening to music, making music and dancing to music. Whether they are singing along to a CD, playing an instrument or dancing to music around the classroom, most children seem to thoroughly（彻底地） enjoy participating in a music activity. How wonderful it is to offer children the chance to do some activities about music!

It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. It had not rained in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. If it did not rain soon, we would lose everything. On this day, I witnessed(目睹) a wonder.

    I was making lunch when I saw my 6-year-old son, Billy, walking very slowly toward the woods. Minutes later he came running out again, toward the house. Soon after, I saw him walking toward the woods again. This went on for an hour. Finally I walked out of the house quietly and followed him.

    Billy cupped both hands in front of him as he walked, careful not to drop the water he carried. Leaves slapped his face but he kept walking into the woods. Then I saw an amazing sight. Several large deer stood in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I saw a tiny baby deer lying on the ground. It was dying of thirst, and it lifted its head with great effort to drink the water in my boy's hands.

    When the water was gone, Billy ran back to the house. I followed him to the tap. Billy opened it and a small trickle(细流) came out. He knelt down, letting the drops slowly fill up his "cup".

Now I understood what was going on. The week before, he tried giving water to our horses but I told him not to waste water. Now when he stood up and turned, I was there in front of him. His eyes filled with tears, "I'm not wasting," he said. I joined him with a small pot of water from the kitchen. I let him walk to the baby deer alone while I stood at the edge of the woods. As tears rolled down my face, they were suddenly joined by other drops... and more drops... as if the sky itself was crying.

    Earthquakes happen without warnings(预兆). They can happen at any time of a day, and at any point during the year. But don't worry because most are so weak that they cannot be felt. Only a few big ones hurt people. However, it's important to know what to do when an earthquake is happening.

    Do not go outside. You could get injured from falling glass or parts of buildings. If you are outside, stay away from buildings and power lines.

    Stay under a desk, a table, or other strong furniture. Hold on to it. Or stay in a corner of the building.

    Cover your face and head with your arms and cover your mouth with a towel or clothing. Stay inside until shaking stops and it is safe to go outside.

    Keep away from windows, pictures or advertisements on the wall or the building, and anything else that could fall and hurt you. Most people get injured by falling things during an earthquake, not by the shaking itself.

    Also keep away from a fire. You could fall down and burn yourself on the fire.

    If you are driving when an earthquake happens, stop the car if it's safe. Stay inside your car until the earthquake stops, and don't drive near bridges. Try not to stop by power lines or trees. These could fall and hurt you.

    A long time ago, the monkey and the turtle were good friends. One day, they saw a fallen banana tree and decided to plant it. They divided the tree into two parts. The monkey took the part with leaves, thinking that it would grow faster, and then they went home and planted it. Many days passed. The monkey's plant died but the turtle's grew well and produced fruit. When the fruit was ripe(成熟的)，the turtle asked the monkey to share it with him. The monkey climbed up the tree and ate all the fruit. So the turtle got angry. He found some sharp sticks and put them around the tree. When the monkey came down, he hurt himself. The turtle laughed and hid himself under a big shell(贝壳). The monkey got very angry and caught the turtle.

    “I'll cut you into pieces," said the monkey.

    “Good, so there will be many turtles. ”

    “No, I'll put you into the fire.

    “That's better. My skin will be red.”

    “No, I'll throw you into the river. ”

    “No,” said the turtle, “I'll die.”

    The monkey threw the turtle into the river, and the turtle swam happily.

    Have you ever seen a robin(知更鸟)? Robins have dark heads and red chests.

    A good place to see robins is in your own backyard. Robins don't mind being around people. You may also see robins on lawns(草坪) or in parks. They are looking for worms and bugs to eat.

    Early in spring, _______________. They build them in trees. Robins hide the nests in trees so that they will be safe.

    The nests are made of grass, sticks, and mud. The mud makes everything together. The mother robin lays(产蛋) one egg a day for three or four days. She sits on eggs to keep them warm. The eggs are blue. After the babies come out, both the mother and the father feed the babies. The young birds have spots on their chests.

    Do any robins live near you? Look around. You may be surprised!

    Huang Yuxiang is a young musician from Taiwan, China. Yuxiang is blind(瞎的)，but he tried his best to become an excellent pianist. He became well- known after he starred(担任主演) in a film called Touch of the Light. The film tells the story of his life.

    Yuxiang found music when he was only two years old. He heard his cousin playing a children's song on the piano. Yuxiang sat at the piano and copied the melody. He started to have music lessons a year after that. Today he plays in piano concerts, and he is a member of the group Baba Band.

    Yuxiang doesn't just perform. He also writes music for Chinese films and for fun. For Yuxiang, music isn't only about making money. It is one of the most important parts of his life.

The word “day” has two meanings. When we talk about the number of days in a year, we are using “day” to mean 24 hours. But when we talk about day and night, we are using “day” to mean the time between sunrise and sunset. Since the earth looks like a ball, the sun can shine on only half of it at a time. Always one half of the earth is having day and the other half night. A place is moved from day into night and from night into day over and over by the spinning（旋转）of the earth. At the equator（赤道）day and night are sometimes the same length（长度）. They are each twelve hours long. The sun rises at 6 o'clock in the morning and sets at 6 o'clock in the evening. For six months the North Pole（北极）is tilted（倾斜）toward the sun. In those months the Northern Hemisphere（半球）gets more hours of sunlight than the Southern Hemisphere（半球）. Days are longer than nights. South of the equator nights are longer than days. For the other six months the North Pole is tilted away from the sun. Then the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight. Days are longer than nights. North of the equator nights are longer than days. Winter is the season of long nights. Summer is the season of long days.

    When it comes to long-distance space travel, the biggest problem is that spaceships can only get as far as the fuel onboard allows. In 1964, a British writer Clarke came up with the idea of "solar sailing "in his science fiction. He wrote of large, mirror-like sails that collect power from the sun and free spaceships from the limitation of fuel.

    This sci-fi idea was first successfully brought to reality (现实)in 2010 by Japan's IKAROS satellite. Ever since then, the technology has improved mission by mission, with the latest being NASA's Advanced Composite Solar Sail 3 (ACS3).NASA has recently announced that it's going to team up with Lithuania's satellite-building company NanoAvionics to test its new sail in low-Earth orbit.

    To many, a solar sail (太阳帆) may look like a giant solar panel (太阳能电池板), but it actual works very differently. While solar panels take in energy from the sun and change it into power solar sails use photons(光子) given off by the sun to create direct power. Besides, solar panels are big and heavy to carry, while solar sails are just the opposite.

    According to Abbott, the CEO of NanoAvionics, the upcoming low-Earth orbit trial with NASA, if successful, will be followed with deep-space missions that involve larger solar sails. These are ideal for low-cost and long-distance space travel because fuel will no longer be a problem.

    "It started as a sci-fi dream, "Popular Mechanics reporter Jennifer Leman wrote. "Now it could be the future of space flight."

    Can a one-armed person still play basketball? You might not think so when you The single-armed 13-year-old from Guangdong has recently become an internet sensation (引起轰动的人). Featuring his dribbling (运球) skills and powerful underarm shot, his basketball videos have been viewed by more than 50 million people. Zhang even drew the attention.

    "You are an inspiration, you don 't take 'no' for an answer, you find the way to go through difficult times and get out there on the basketball court (球场) "Curry said in a video posted on Sina Weibo.

    However, it wasn't easy for Zhang to step onto the court. At the age of five, Zhang lost his right arm in an accident at an oil mill. Although it was difficult at first, Zhang gradually got used to eating and getting dressed on his own. He also keeps up with his studies in school and helps his family with chores.

    In the summer of 2018, Zhang first discovered his love for the sport when he attended a basketball course in his school. Soon, he was rarely seen without a ball in his hand, even dribble at home in the living room. He also practiced basketball in PE class. When the class was learning how to skip rope, which takes two hands, he asked his teacher to permit him to do basketball instead.

    He's gotten a lot of attention since then. Zhang said, "With the encouragement of all these people, I feel like I have to try harder to live up to people's expectations.     I will do better and become better."