1．My Dream
　　I had a dream yesterday. My (1)       and I were enjoying ourselves in the playground. Some of us were playing basketball and running, and others were just talking. We were (2)       without any pressure (压力) of schoolwork.
　　(3)      , my alarm (闹钟) woke me up, and it was time to get up. A new day started. For a boy in the middle school, (4)       takes up most of my time.
　　My real dream is a simple one. I wish I could have some time for myself every day. I want to have a short break and dream about what I'd like to be when I (5)       up. It's just like seeing an (6)       after a long tiring journey (旅行) at sea. I don't want to become a foolish boy, studying all the time without any time to play.
　　Luckily (幸运地), our teachers and parents start to (7)       us now. After working hard for a long time, our teachers will let us go outside and breathe the fresh air. My parents will sometimes take me out for a meal or to enjoy the beautiful nature. It's so wonderful. I'm like a (8)       flying to the nest.
　　Then I start to find my own study pace, and I am becoming one of the top students in my class. I want to say, enjoying your free time will make you study better.

2．Two Good Friends
　　I'm Mu Lan. I'm 13 years old. My classmate Li Hong is the same age as me. We are also good friends. I'm taller than her. But she is thinner than me. We are also in the same class, Class 2, Grade 7. Li Hong's mother is a nurse. She is busy. On weekends she has to do some housework.
　　Li Hong likes helping her mother with some housework. She has no time to go shopping. So she loves online shopping very much. Shopping online can save time for her. She often buys some clothes for Li Hong, her father and brother. Li Hong's mother likes purple and blue. She often buys some purple or blue dresses for herself.
　　Today Li Hong is in a red skirt. She looks very nice in it. It's her favorite color. The skirt is only ninety-six yuan. Her white T﹣shirt is nice too. It's sixty-eight yuan. Her mother bought them for her online last Sunday.
　　My mother is different from Li Hong's mother. She is an office worker. She likes buying clothes in the store because she can try them on.

3．A Panda Keeper
　　Giant pandas are China's national treasures (国宝). They are so lovely that every year many foreign tourists come to China to see them.
　　Some of the tourists choose to stay. Abe Nobuko, from Japan, is one of them. She came to Sichuan many years ago to work as a panda keeper.
　　When Abe was three years old, her grandmother bought her a panda doll. The little girl liked it very much. She would go everywhere with it. As Abe grew up, she learned a lot about pandas. One day, her mother said to her, "You like pandas so much. Why don't you find a job that has something to do with pandas?" Abe thought it was a great idea.
　　In order to work as a panda keeper, Abe learned Chinese in college (大学). After graduation, she came to China to study about animal protection (保护). Three years later, she started working at a panda base in Sichuan.
　　Abe does her best to make sure all the pandas at the base are healthy and happy. The job is tiring, but Abe never complains (抱怨). "I love pandas and I love this job," she says.
　　Do you like pandas? Do you want to work as a panda keeper? If you do, then try to learn about pandas as you can.

4．The Green School on Bali Island
　　What does your dream school look like? John Hardy, a man from Canada, designs and builds his own dream school. He calls it the Green School. What is his dream school like?Let's look at it together.
　　The Green School sits on Bali Island. The students are aged from 3 to 19 years old. It doesn't look like a school, but it is green. Everything in the school is made of bamboo (竹子). The classrooms have no walls or doors. The teachers write on the bamboo blackboard. The desks are not square. Everything is so beautiful.
　　At school, there is a library, a computer room, a few teachers' offices and some classrooms. Children learn usual subjects, such as reading, writing and Maths. They also learn how to grow vegetables in the school's vegetable garden. There is a swimming pool for the kids to play in. There is also a small farm where children learn to keep goats, chickens and pigs. It is so much fun to go to the Green School.
　　More and more people are living around the Green School. It becomes a community.

5．Teaching Yourself
　　Students learn their lessons in class. In class teachers teach them. Students sit in the classroom listening to the teacher. This is a way of learning. Is this the only way for students to learn something? Of course not. There is another way to learn. That is, students can teach themselves. For example, if you cannot remember something when you are doing your homework, you can look at your book to find the answer. This is a way to teach yourself. And it is not a difficult thing. We can do this at any place and at any time.
　　How do you teach yourself? The first thing you must do is reading. Read something you are interested in, or you have to read. The second is that you must ask yourself questions. The question is something you don't understand, or you want to know more about it. You can write down these questions. A clever student is usually good at asking questions. The third is to answer the question by thinking hard, by reading the text or other books, and sometimes by asking other people. This is the way of teaching yourself. And you must do this all by yourself. If you keep doing like this for a long time, you are sure to succeed in your study.

6．　　Sam is twelve. He is in No. 5 Middle School. He is in Class 4, Grade 7. He likes Chinese and he can write stories. He is good with his classmates. He often helps his classmates with Chinese. He is popular among the teachers and the classmates. He is very happy today because it is Children's Day, and it's his birthday, too. His mother and father have a birthday party for him. There are many drinks and food on the table. And the gifts from Sam's family are on the table, too.
　　Sam invites his good friends to his birthday party. They all come to Sam's house. They are Linda, Tom, John and Lucy. They bring gifts for Sam. Linda buys a nice pen for Sam. She knows Sam loves writing stories. She wants Sam to write many good stories. Tom buys a white baseball for Sam. Baseball is Sam's favorite sport, and he is really good at it. John and Lucy buy a big cake for Sam. They sing Happy Birthday to Sam. Then they eat the cake. The cake is delicious. They dance and play some games. They have a good time at the party.

7．　　It's easy to find the way over short distances (距离). You can ask a friend or read a map. But what about over long distances? How do people find their way?
　　The sun and the stars can be followed. By looking at their positions (位置), people know what direction they are going. This method (方法) works for clear skies, but when it's cloudy, the sky can't be seen. What can people do then?
　　At that time, a compass is used. A compass shows north, south, east, and west. It can be used in any weather. Unfortunately (不幸地), using a compass is not so easy. First, you need to know where north is on the map. Then, you can set the compass.
　　These days, a newer method is used — GPS. Now, maps for all over the Earth are on the computers. People can read these maps on computers in their cars, in their homes, and even on their phones. It is very useful for people who often travel. But what if the computer has a problem?Well, we can always go back to using the sun and the stars!

8．The Man Who Changed the Software Industry (软件产业)　　　　 　　Who is the man in this picture?Yes, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, the worldwide leader in software and the man who is taking the personal computer into everyone's home.
　　Bill Gates has been different from others since his early years. He discovered (发现) his interest in software when he was only 13. He and his friends often studied Fortune magazine for fun. In 1973, he entered Harvard University (哈佛大学), a university that many people dream of. But in his third year, he left this university to start his own company, Microsoft. While he is making a lot of money now, the funny thing is that he plans to retire at the age of 50.
　　In his daily life, he is a friendly, funny and generous (慷慨的) person. He is the richest man in the world, but he doesn't live the life of a rich man. He has given away a lot of his money to help the young and the poor.
　　Everyone agrees that he is hardworking, talented, and confident (自信的). He showed his business sense(商业意识) when he was quite young. At the age of 10, he made his older sister sign a paper that allowed (允许) him to use her baseball glove for ＄5. His talent has been important to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.
　　That is Bill Gates, the man who has changed the software industry in the short twenty﹣five years since he first learned BASIC.

1. Who is the man in this picture?
__________________________________________________
2. When did Bill Gates discover his interest in software?
__________________________________________________
3. What is Bill Gates like in his daily life?
__________________________________________________
4. What did Bill Gates make his older sister do at the age of 10?
__________________________________________________
5. What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?
__________________________________________________

9．迈克和他妈妈一样高. Mike, tall
__________________________________________________

10．延庆以八达岭长城出名. Badaling Great Wall
__________________________________________________

11．机场离这里很远. (airport)
__________________________________________________

12．布朗先生不再吸烟了．Mr Brown, smoke
__________________________________________________

13．玛丽目前遇到很大的困难, 需要我们的帮助．Mary, need, help
__________________________________________________

14．对我们来说, 帮助妈妈做些家务很重要．important, housework
__________________________________________________