Welcome to the New Moon River Theater
The play：Midnight Sun
To celebrate the opening of the new Moon River Theater，the award﹣winning（获奖的） play will be performed by the actors of the Super Star，our local theater company.
Time：May 8﹣10【Friday，Saturday，and Sunday evenings &Sunday matinees（日场）】
Ticket prices：
| Upper seat | Lower seat |
Matinee 3：00 p. m. | ＄30 | ＄40 |
Evening 7：30 p. m. | ＄40 | ＄50 |
For groups of 10 people，and less than 20 people，we are pleased to give a 10% off. Groups of 20 or more will get a 20% off.
With our theater tickets，you can get a 10% off on your shopping at Sunrise Department Store.
Location：The new Moon River Theater is across from the Sunrise Department Store， which our old Moon River Theater used to be next to.
To：Stanley Smith From：Joan Johnson Date：May 5 Subject：Tickets |
Stanley， I am interested in getting lower seat tickets for the opening night of the new Moon River Theater. My daughter plays a leading role in Midnight Sum，so I would like to invite all the people in our company to the show. Please check with everyone first to find out if anyone will not be able to go on that night，and then call the Moon River Theater to order the tickets. But I'd like to avoid the weekend so that everyone can have a good rest. Thanks very much. Joan |
The story began in the summer when I was five, and my sister Lynn was nine. We were playing near our house. A dog ran out of a corn field near our house and then ran away. Lynn loved animals and ran after the dog. I was a little afraid as Lynn disappeared into the standing corn. "Lynn!"I shouted and burst into tears. Soon Lynn came back, so I stopped crying. We lay on our backs and stared at the blue sky.
Suddenly the dog appeared, growling（怒吠）. We screamed（尖叫） and jumped up. I felt that the dog's cold teeth touched my skin. Lynn pulled at the dog's tail and shouted at me, "Run! Katie!" I ran fast to the house, turned around and saw the dog chewing at Lynn's dress. I ran inside and got a milk bottle out of the fridge. I ran towards Lynn and threw the bottle at the dog. The bottle missed the dog and broke on the ground. The dog rushed to drink the milk.
Lynn and I ran towards our house, but then Lynn stopped at the door, looking worried. "He's going to cut his mouth on the glass!" She got the water hose（软管） and drove the dog away with the water, so the glass wouldn't hurt his mouth.
Lynn said in her diary that day, "The corn field was so pretty… Then I heard Katie crying. Later when the dog tried to hurt me, Katie was a real hero and saved my life. " But I didn't really see things that way. If she hadn't saved my life first, I wouldn't have been able to save hers.
In our everyday lives, we take many things for granted. Being able to see is one of them. However, not everyone in the world has vision（视力）.
The World Health Organization（WHO） had just given out its first World Report on Vision. It said that 65 million people could get their vision back with a cataract operation（白内 障手术）, but cannot get one because they have little or no healthcare. Over 800 million people have trouble doing everyday activities because they don't have money to buy a pair of glasses.
For example , there are thousands of nearsighted African drivers who have difficulty seeing people walking across the road. And there are coffee farmers in Bolivia who find it hard to see their ripe（成熟的） beans because of cataracts.
This is mainly a problem in less developed countries, such as western and eastern sub﹣ Saharan Africa, according to the report. A lack（缺少） of eye care services is one of the main reasons for this.
In southern Asia and elsewhere, there are still some cultural barriers（障碍） when trying to get glasses. In some places, people believe wearing glasses will make one's eyes worse. In other places, when kids start wearing glasses, their grandparents will say they are for rich people and not for village boys or girls, Public Radio International reported.
On July 1, Shanghai started a garbage-sorting program. Under the new regulations （规定）, families and companies must classify their waste into four types and throw them in certain places at certain times. People who don't follow the regulations will be fined.
The strict regulations became the talk of the city's more than 24 million people. Many of them complained that they are so confused about waste categorization（分类）. Luckily, China's tech companies are here to help.
For example, China's biggest Internet companies come up with new search features that help people figure out which waste is wet（compostable）, "dry", "toxic", or "recyclable". By opening a mini app on WeChat, Baidu or Alipay and entering the keyword, people can easily tell which bin the newspaper should go to and which type the one you used to pick up dog poop belongs to Eleme（饿了么）, Alibaba's food delivery arm, even offered the waste pickup services on top of"apologize to the girlfriend" and dog walking.
Besides helping families, companies are also building software to make property（物业） managers' lives easier. Some residential complexes（住宅小区） in Shanghai began using QR codes（二维码） to find out the origin of waste. Each family is asked to attach a unique QR code to their waste bags, and then the bags will be scanned to find where they come from and which bin they should go to.
This way, regulators in the region know exactly which family has produced the waste. Those who correctly categorized will receive a small reward.
We all know some great people in our lives. They may be scientists，educators，doctors， musicians or inventors. But what makes them so great？Here are some other important things that make great people great.
Dr Kimbro，the writer of the book What Makes the Great Great，believes that being great depends on a promise of making dreams come true. We all have a million excuses for why something fails，but only some keep on achieving their goals in life.
We learn things like walking，dancing，or even brushing our teeth by practising. We do these things again and again until we become good at them. Great people usually make full use of the time to practise.
Every great person has his or her critics （批评者），who think about the worse about them and doubt their talent. "Criticism may not be pleasant，but it is necessary，it has the same function （功能） as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things，" Winston Churchill once said. It's exactly true.
That was their purpose all along：to help others overcome difficulties. As Martin Luther King said，"Not everybody can be famous，but everybody can be great，because greatness depends on service. "
That is what separates the weak from the strong. Great people are not just about talking. They actually jump in when the need appears.
A. Practice and you shall get there. B. When the time comes，be ready to lead. C. All high achievers make choices，not excuses. D. Someone has got to the top without hard work. E. Your critics help you a lot and make you do better. F. Great people have been selfless （无私的） in their service to others. |
Who designed the first helicopter？Who1 the most famous pictures in the world？Who knew more about the human body than most2 ？There is an answer3 all these questions —Leonardo de Vinci（达·芬奇）.
Leonardo may have been the greatest genius（天才）people have4 known. He lived in Italy around the year 1500，but many of his inventions seem modern to us today. For example，one of his notebooks has drawings of a helicopter. Of course，be couldn't 5 a helicopter with the things he had. But scientists say his idea would have worked.
But Leonardo6 an inventor. He was one of the greatest artists of his day. By the time he was twenty years old，he was called a master painter，and as he got older he became7 more famous. Sometimes he drew a hand in ten different ways 8 he was ready to paint.
Many of Leonardo's wonderful paintings are still with us today. You may know one of his most famous works，the smiling woman known as Mona Lisa. He began painting Mona Lisa in 1503.
Leonardo loved science and9 . He used darkness and light in a clever way in the painting. And a person can10 see that there is a lot of geometry（几何形状） in Mona Lisa. The face of the woman is 11 many circles and round shapes like balls. Even her 12 can be seen as a small part of a large circle.
The woman in the painting is 13 on a balcony（阳台），and mountains can be seen behind her. Leonardo loved to study rocks and mountains，14 we can see these in his other paintings.
The woman is sitting with her knees to the side. Her hands are held together 15 her. This way of sitting is now used by many artists when they are painting a picture of a man or woman.
As we know，the waste of food on the dining table in China is very serious，especially in some wedding celebrations and official reception（政府接待）. Sometimes some dishes are even（ complete） thrown away. ，to our happiness ， more and more people begin to realize the importance of （ save ）. For example，in the last few years，nearly 750 restaurants in Beijing（ join） in the "clear your plate" campaign（运动）. It （ call） "Guangpan" in Chinese. The popular action makes the public order （ little） food and eat up the food on their plates. Many restaurants also start to provide smaller dishes the guests in order to reduce waste. Besides ， they even encourage the （ customer）to take leftovers（剩菜） home. Actions speak louder than words. everybody can take part in this campaign，there will be fewer people in hunger. So let's stop wasting now on.
Hi Li Ping，
Good news! My father's company has sent him to work in Hangzhou，so we'll move to the city in December. I'm really interested in Chinese tea but I know little about it. Could you please tell me how it is produced？
By the way，I've learnt Chinese at a Confucius school in America，but I'm not good at it . How can I improve it quickly？I need your help.
Best wishes，
Mario
Dear Mario，
……
Yours， Li Ping
