【正文】 1 1 Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world. It is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. The exact date of the Spring Festival on the Western calendar changes from year to year. However, Chinese New Year takes place between January 1 and February 19. On the Chinese calendar every year has an animal39。s name. These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. A Chinese legend says that these twelve animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner. The other eleven years were named according to the order in which the animals arrived in the race. The clever rat jumped onto the ox39。s back, and then at the end jumped over the ox39。s head to arrive first! The Chinese believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal. lunar 月 (亮 )的 exact 確切的 calendar 日歷 rat 鼠 ox 公 牛 rabbit 兔子 ram 公羊 rooster 公雞 legend 傳說 name after 按 ....命名 particular 特殊的 characteristic 特征 春 節(jié) 對于全世界的華人來說，中國的新年是最重要的節(jié)日。人們也稱它為春節(jié)或農(nóng)歷新年。 公歷春節(jié)的確切日期每年都在變化。但是春節(jié)一般都在 1 月 1 日到 2 月 19 日 之間。在農(nóng)歷中，每年都有一個(gè)生肖。這些生肖是鼠、牛、虎、兔、龍、蛇、馬 、羊、猴、雞、狗和豬。據(jù)傳說，這十二個(gè)動物舉行了一次賽跑，第一年就以獲勝者鼠命名，其他十一年就根據(jù)動物們到達(dá)終點(diǎn)的順序命名。聰明的鼠跳在牛背上，在最后時(shí)刻跳過牛的頭頂?shù)谝粋€(gè)到達(dá)終點(diǎn)！ 中國人相信在某一年出生的人具有這一年生肖的一些特征 2 A Teenager39。s Joke: Guidelines for Doing Schoolwork My school had a policy about homework. Students should not spend more than niy minutes per night doing homework. This is how I use the time for my work. Fifteen minutes looking for assignment。 Eleven minutes calling a friend for the assignment。 Twenty three minutes explaining why the teacher is mean and does not like teenagers。 Eight minutes in the bathroom。 Ten minutes getting a snack。 Seven minutes checking the TV Guide。 Six minutes telling my parents that the teacher never explained the assignment。 Ten minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom or Dad to do the assignment. guideline 指導(dǎo)方針 policy 政策 per 每 assignment 作業(yè) mean 低劣的 snack 小吃 TV guide 電視指南 有關(guān)青少年的一則笑話 ——做作業(yè)的指導(dǎo)方針 2 我的學(xué)校有一項(xiàng)針對作業(yè)的政策。學(xué)生每天晚上做作業(yè)的時(shí)間不應(yīng)該超過九十分鐘。以下 就是我如何為完成作業(yè)而使用這九十分鐘的。 花十五分鐘找作業(yè)； 花十一分鐘打電話向同學(xué)問作業(yè)； 花二十三分 鐘抱怨 老師為什么總是那么討厭，為什么不喜歡我們這些十幾歲的孩子； 花八分鐘在洗手間里； 花十分鐘找小吃； 花七分鐘查看電視節(jié)目預(yù)告； 花六分鐘告訴父母，老師從沒解釋過所布置的作業(yè)； 3 The Toad and the Frog A toad saw a frog near the road. He was a fat old frog. He sat and moaned and groaned. The toad said, “Do not moan and groan, Mr. Frog. Hop like me. Hop down the road.” So the frog and the toad went down the road to a big oak tree. “I am home,” said the toad. “Come in and I will make tea.” But Mr. Frog said, in a deep croak, “I must not roam far from home. I will be off to my home near the pond.” toad 蟾蜍 ,癩蛤蟆 moan 呻吟 hop 跳躍 oak 橡樹 croak 一種低而嘶啞的聲音 癩蛤蟆和青蛙 一只癩蛤蟆在路邊看到一只青蛙。那是只又胖又老的青蛙。他坐在那里呻吟嘆息著。 癩蛤蟆說： “青蛙先生，不要呻吟嘆息了。像我一樣跳吧。沿著這條路跳。 ” 所以青蛙和癩蛤蟆一起沿著小路跳到一棵大橡樹下。 “我到家了， ”癩蛤蟆說， “進(jìn)來吧，我來泡茶。 ” 但青蛙用低沉的聲音說： “我不能在離家遠(yuǎn)的地方閑逛，我要回我在池塘邊上的家。 ” 5 Homestay in the US My name is Jenny and I did a homestay in America. When I first met my host mother, Mary, she gave me a big hug. I was really shocked because I had never been hugged before, and I wasn sure how to respond. By the time I left America, though, I came to enjoy hugging and being hugged. Shaking hands was also a challenge. My homestay father, Peter, looked at me straight in the eye and squeezed my hand firmly. Both Mary and Peter wanted me to call them by their first names because they, as Americans, like informality. By using first names only, we felt friendlier towards each other. homestay 家庭寄宿 host 東道主 hug 擁抱 shock 震驚 respond 回應(yīng) challenge 挑戰(zhàn) straight 直接地 squeeze 擠壓 firmly 緊緊地 informality 隨意 在美國家庭寄宿 我叫珍妮，我在美國家庭寄宿。當(dāng)我第一次見到我要寄宿那家的母親瑪麗時(shí)，她熱情地?fù)肀?3 了我。我確實(shí)感到非常震驚因?yàn)槲覐膩頉]有被擁抱過，我不知道該如何回應(yīng) 。然而到我要離開美國時(shí)，我已經(jīng)非常喜歡擁抱別人和被別人擁抱了。 握手也是個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)。我寄宿那家的父親彼特，直視著我的眼睛，緊緊地握我的手。 瑪麗和彼特都希望我對他們直呼其名，因?yàn)槊绹艘话惚容^隨意。通過直呼其名，我們互相之間感到更加親切友好 6 Brothers and Sisters My sister is a year older than me and we39。ve been sharing a room since I was 3 years old. We are very close, but we also fight all the time. Our fights are never serious. I can39。t remember the cause of our fights now, but they were always over small things. Sometimes it was just over a particular word I used or maybe just because my sister gave my teddy bear a hug and I was unhappy about it. We don39。t take our fights very seriously as if all the fights are a game. I think it39。s perfectly okay for kids to fight with their brothers or sisters. Now I39。m a teenager, and I even think that they39。re sweet memories! share 分享 serious 認(rèn)真的 cause 原因 fight 打架 particular 特別的，特殊的 teddy bear 玩具熊 teenage 青少年 perfectly 完全 兄 弟 姐 妹 我的姐姐比我大一歲，從我三歲起我們就一直合用一個(gè)房間。我們非常親密，但是我們也時(shí)常打架。我們打架從來不是認(rèn)真的。我現(xiàn)在都記不起我們打架的原因，但肯定是因?yàn)橐恍┬∈隆Ｓ袝r(shí)候，僅僅是因?yàn)槲矣玫哪硞€(gè)詞，或者是因?yàn)榻憬惚Я宋业耐婢咝埽覍Υ烁械缴鷼?。我們從來不把打架?dāng)真，就好像這只是場游戲。我 覺得小孩子和兄弟姐妹們打打鬧鬧沒有什么?，F(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)十幾歲了，但我覺得那都是我美好的回憶！ 7 Thirty Days Hath September （ Nursery Rhyme） Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November。 All the rest have thirtyone, Except for February alone, It has twentyeight days clear, And twentynine on each Leap Year. hath （古 英語 ） =has leap year 閏年 三十天的是九月（童謠一首） 三十天的是九月（童謠一首） 三十天的是九月， 四月，六月和十一月； 其余的月份都是三十一天， 除了二月， 二月只有二十八天， 4 每個(gè)閏年二月有二十九天 8 Two Dumplings A young man had a small business. He worked very hard, and he made a lot of money. One day, he had dinner with a businessman. He wanted the man to bee his business partner. When they finished the dinner, there were two dumplings left. The young man told the waitress: Please pack them in a doggy bag and I39。d like to take them the businessman decided to work together with the young man. He said, The