More and more students are interested in becoming good writers. Then how can they make their dreams come true? The following tips are helpful.

    Learn from good writers. Reading lots of books is helpful in your writing. This is because when you are reading, you are learning different skills of English. For example, you are learning new words and sentences to use in your own writing. And at the same time, you are learning how to spell correctly. You are also learning English grammar.

    Practice your writing. You can improve your writing, like any other skill, by practicing it. Of course, you have to do many different kinds of writing given by your teachers, but you can try to write other things at least once or twice a week. Here are some ideas：

    ●Write a diary or a story every day.

    ●Describe a beautiful place you visited, or an interesting person you met.

    ●Write about a scared or funny thing that happened to you.

    ●Join an Internet chat（聊天）room.

    Inside the great hall of the private school in Beijing, a lot of yellow T-shirts filled all the seats. They were young people from different parts of the world.

    In search of Chinese traditional excellence, more than 800 young Chinese from nearly 20 countries in Asia, America and Europe took part in a one-week Root-seeking Summer Camp from August 3 to 10.

    The Root-seeking Summer Camp began in 1999 and has become an important event to attract overseas Chinese children to visit China. "I hope my boy can learn some Chinese traditions and values（价值观）by joining this summer camp," said Wu Ziwei, who has been living in the United States for 12 years.

    "Some of the US-born Chinese can't understand the Chinese culture," Wu said. Now, his 20-year-old daughter is learning Wushu. "Unlike popular culture, traditional culture is very valuable. It is something that will never be replaced," he said.

    Most of the children are too young to know what "root-seeking" means, but a trip to China is very rewarding, because the young overseas Chinese can at least make friends and get some ideas of what China is like.

    Every student in America likes pop music. They carry small radios1earphones（耳机）and listen to music before class, after class and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they2on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the3about sports, weather, politics（政治）and activities of American people.

    Pop music singers4much money. They make CDs or tapes which radio stations use in every state. Once the pop singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, some young people want to5him or her. Now singers have become national stars.

    There are other kinds of music that are6to Americans.  One is called folk music.  It tells stories about the common life of Americans. 7is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys8would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about 9life or the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. Serious music for the concert halls is called classical music. Music for instruments is called orchestra music（管弦乐）, 10 the symphonies（交响曲）of Beethoven.

Notice

    May 23rd will be the 30th anniversary（周年纪念）of our school, and there will be no classes. All teachers, school workers and students are expected to celebrate the anniversary together. It will be held in the multifunctional hall（多功能厅）on Friday, May 23 at 9：00 a. m. after that, the whole school will have a weekend. Classes will go on as usual next Monday.

    The president's office No. 2 Middle School

    May 20, 2014

    Sarah was an American girl. She was studying abroad in England. One day, she heard a song full of feelings about  （返回）home on the radio. It made her think about her family and friends back in the US. Since then, she has been a fan of American  （乡村）music. Country is a  （传统的）kind of music from the  （南方的）states of America. Tennesses is the  （故乡）of country music. Country music brings us back to the "good old days". It  （使……想起）us that the best things in life are free. It's Sarah's  （梦）to go there one day because she likes Garth Brooks-one of the most  （成功的）musicians in American history, he has sold more than 120 million  （唱）. She hoped to see him sing  （现场表演）one day.

A. lisa is a young singer. She loves kids and she is planning to do something for them. She has a lot of free time during the week.

B. Sam loves animals. He takes good care of his two dogs at home and he has a two-day weekend every week.

C. Judy often volunteers with many of her friends. She likes talking with people and is always full of energy.

She is usually free after three in the afternoon.

D. Ann is 20 years old. She will graduate from a medical college this July. She's looking for a chance to be a volunteer.

E. Helen is an English teacher in a city school. She always pays attention to improving rural children's English. She is never afraid of any difficulty in life.