In a country home, a mother hen and her cute chicks were living happily. A little girl came to visit the country home, but was very ______. One night, the girl went into the chicken house. As soon as she went in, there was a mess.

Here and there ______ of the chickens could be heard. The father, who was inside, woke up.

“What’s going on? Why are you bothering（打扰）the chickens?” “______ I’m bored.” “You have to sleep now. Go inside.”

The girl went into the chicken house again the next day. There was a noise again, as the chickens were ______. The moon in the night sky was worried. This time, the little girl’s father would not be forgiving.

Finally, the sleeping father ______. “Why are the chickens crying? By chance?” The father was ______ and came out to the yard.

“What’s wrong with you? Is it Okay to bother animals that can’t talk? You need to be ______.” When the little girl saw her father’s angry face, she began to cry.

“It is true that I bothered the chickens, but I was bored yesterday. ______ today I went in to apologize to the chickens. I was going to hug the chickens.”

When the father heard what his daughter said, a smile quickly appeared on his face, “You are ______ my daughter.” The father praised his daughter. He ______ his daughter who knew how to apologize. The moon in the sky gave a big laugh, too.

   Now, more and more foreigners are living in China. They are studying or working here. They love China
26． are used to their everyday life. But sometimes they have problems. For example, some of them don’t know how to give gifts. Here are some
27． (suggest) for them.

It’s necessary
28． (bring) a gift.

In China, it’s a
29． (tradition) custom to bring a gift when you are invited to someone’s home. Usually fresh
30． (flower) and fruit are your best choices. The number “eight”
31． (consider) lucky, so eight apples or eight oranges are a good idea.

You’d better wrap（包）your gift.

When you buy a gift, the seller usually
32． (help) you wrap the gift. Don’t be surprised if your gift is wrapped. Wrapping paper will make your gift
33． (look) more beautiful. In China, people don’t open gifts at once. They usually do it in the evening or after you leave.

Give something that can be shared.

If you have some co-workers, don’t give gifts
34． only one person. You’d better treat
35． (they) equally. It’s better to give something that can be shared, like food.

A party for Jane!

Our friend Jane is flying back to the US next Monday.

We’ll have a party to say goodbye to her!

Who: Miss Martin’s class

When: Saturday, May 23rd at 9:00 a.m-11:00 a.m.

Where: Our classroom

Please don’t put our children’s presents to Jane in their schoolbags. The lunchbox bags may make them dirty. If it’s possible, please put them in small paper bags. Children will give them to Jane at the party. We have a big box for Jane to put all the presents in.

Please feel free to call me at 4032 6166 if you would like to give assistance! We need two parents to help. One will help set the tables, and the other will help cut the cake!

Duan Jiayang, a 12-year-old student of a primary school in Yinchuan, Ningxia, learns the skills required to take care of vegetable fields.

“I learned how to place the mulch film（地膜）,” he says, “It’s not easy.”

In China, many parents place a heavy focus on their children’s good results, but vocational（职业的）skills have little been cared.

“Some parents do everything for their children,” says Yan Mei, an official with the primary school, adding that many students are short of the basic skills needed in their daily lives. For example, Yan says, some parents would do the school’s general cleaning instead of their children.

Since March last year, the governments have launched a lot of policies, requiring that colleges, middle schools and primary schools pay more attention to teaching students practical skills.

Following these policies, the primary school launched an “agricultural（农业的）class base” on one of its schoolyards. Students plant fruit and vegetables on an area of land about 4,000㎡ in size.

In the days coming up to the May Day holiday, students of various grades at the school worked together in the fields, says school principal Yang Bo. They planted watermelon, carrot and corn. May Day, also known as Labor Day, is celebrated on May 1st in China.

The school hopes that students will understand the food is quite precious so that they will better realize the difficulties that their parents went through.

Governments and businesses worldwide are creating smartphone apps to help track the spread of COVID-19.

Tracking the spread of a disease is an important step in stopping its outbreak（爆发）. By tracking down people who have been in contact with COVID-19 patients, health researchers can warn them, and keep COVID-19 from spreading further. This is called “contact tracing”（接触者追踪）.

As governments remove COVID-19 limits, they’ll need to be able to quickly find and control new outbreaks. Contact tracing will be an important part of the process.

But because COVID-19 spreads so quickly to so many people, it’s almost impossible to trace all contacts with phone calls. That’s why many people hope that digital contact tracing with smartphones will help.

Most contact tracing apps collect information about where people have gone and the people they’ve had contact with. The apps can tell users when one of their recent contacts has been found to have COVID-19. Some systems also tell governments or health care workers.

Now many apps have been developed all over the world. But some people worry the apps are being made too quickly and may not protect people’s private information.

What do you think of this kind of app?

   I can’t wait to introduce my idol（偶像）to you.
51．

The positive energy she spreads has made her popular on the Internet.

52． Firstly, she is patient and always able to find the beauty in everyday life. For example, she once wanted to take a perfect picture of snow.
53． And she pressed the shutter（快门）of her camera hundreds of times until she got the picture she wanted. Secondly, although Li has been faced with all kinds of challenges（挑战）, she has never stopped working hard for a brighter future. What’s more, her filial piety has deeply touched me.
54． And upon hearing that her grandmother was ill, she hurried hack to her hometown in the countryside without any hesitation（犹豫）. While she was there, she took good care of her grandmother every day and step by step her grandmother became fit and well again.

55． After learning about Li’s life, I have learned to find the beauty in my daily life and to show filial piety to my parents and grandparents. I hope you can also learn a lot from Li and your own idol.

   为庆祝党的生日，某英文报刊环保专栏近期正在举办英语征文竞赛，其主题是赞美家乡。假设你是李明，请你根据下面的图片及要点提示，写一篇以My Beautiful Hometown为题的英语短文投稿。

My Beautiful Hometown