— Oh, I        take a taxi, but it is raining heavily.

    In Junior High School in America, kids study English, writing, math, science, biology, music and art.

    At 12 o'clock, the students eat lunch at school. They have meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and a drink, but they like hot dogs and hamburgers best. American kids like sugar, and after the meal they can have a small piece of cake.

    Students sleep for a short time after lunch. They begin classes at 1:30 in the afternoon. They go to school on weekdays and have classes for six hours every day and then return home.

    Parents let their kids play or watch TV until dinner at 6:00 p.m. After dinner, they do their homework. Sometimes kids and their parents have a family activity after dinner.

— Yes,        , but I'm too busy.

— I use it to write a letter.

    These days many people are interested in losing weight. It is very popular among people, especially young people.  Some people even take medicine. Do you know how to control weight? Well... diet and exercise are the right answers. Please read and remember the following tips.

    Tip 1   You should eat only when you are hungry  

    Tip 2   You should eat only food that is good for your health. Don't eat junk food such as hamburgers and French fries.

    Tip 3   When you eat out, you may eat too much. That can make you become fatter.

    Tip 4    Don't forget to think about changing your lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle is good for losing weight. Don't stay up to play your mobile phones.

    Give yourself some free time to find the best way to control your weight.

    Everyone has his own birthday. People in different countries celebrate their birthdays in different ways. Now here are four people from different countries. They will tell us how they celebrate their birthdays in their countries.

    Sandy comes from Madrid. She says happily. "My 21st birthday is on Saturday, and I'm going to go out with some friends. To wish me a happy birthday, they are going to pull on my ear 21 times, once for each year. It's an old custom. Some people pull on the ear just once, but my friends are very traditional."

    Mr. and Mrs. Sato are from Tokyo. Mr. Sato is going to be 60 tomorrow. In Japan, the sixtieth birthday is called Kanreki(花甲)—the beginning of a new life. The color red is for a new life, so we always give something red for a sixtieth birthday.

    Liu Mei from Beijing feels very excited and tells us, "Tomorrow is my 16th birthday. I's a special birthday, so we're going to have a family party. Maybe I will get some lucky money from my relatives(亲戚). My mother is going to cook noodles for a long life."

    Phillip, from Paris, smiles to us. "I'm going to be thirty next week, so I'm going to invite three very good friends out for dinner. In France, when you have a birthday, you often invite people out."

    How do you usually celebrate your birthday?