-- It's eight thirty.

-- Yes. It _________ me about 20 minutes.

-- ________.

-- Once a month.

       Middle school can be hard for school children. They would like 1good grades. They also want to have their own hobbies, keep cool and make friends.  2 it's difficult for them to do all the things well at the same time because they have a lot to do both in school and after school.

       Jane is in Grade 9. She is good at her lessons and gets good grades in exams. But she 3 school clothes but likes fashionable girl clothes very much. She also likes to 4 pop music every day. However, she is too busy with her lessons at school. And she has too much homework to do at weekends. So she has5 time to keep her hobbies. And heavy schoolwork 6 her feel tired and unhappy. She is now worried about herself a lot.

        Bill is now in his Grade 11. He loves his school life. He did best in his class in Grade 10. But this year he  7 interested in 8 football. He plays football every day and he plays it 9. Although he tries his best, he didn't do better than last year in his lessons.

      10can go well if you use your head. But never only think about keeping cool.

      English people like talking about weather in different places. When two English people meet, they often talk about the weather after saying hello.

      In England, it often rains, so the weather is wet. When people go to work in the sunny morning, they may go home from work in the rain. They mind more about the weather in the streets, offices, on the buses, trains or at home.

      If you visit England, you can really feel the changeable weather there. People can have summer in winter or have winter in summer. Sometimes, people can have four seasons in one day. So people have to change their clothes with the weather. English people are interested in everyday weather. English people think you are friendly and polite if you talk about weather with them. Talking about the weather is a good way to talk with English people.

      Talking about the weather should be the first thing you should remember when you visit England.

      American school students usually go to school on foot, or on the school bus. Some students ride their bikes to school.

In the middle school, students usually take classes for six hours a day. They study English, math, history, science, PE, music and art.

      School begins at half past eight in the morning. At noon, students have lunch at school. After lunch, they go to their classes. School is over at about 4 o'clock. Most students often watch TV and do homework after supper.

      On weekends, American school students go to the church, do shopping, visit grandparents or go to the park with parents.

      American school children don't have too much homework. But they watch TV too much. Some even watch TV three to five hours a day. It's bad for health. So their parents worry about it. They play games, do sports or do reading with kids to take their kids away from TV.

    In every little girl's toy box,there might be a Barbie Doll. Barbie is 50 years old this year. It wasdesigned(设计) in 1959 by an Americanbusinesswoman named Ruth Handler. She and her husband Elliott started the toycompany Mattel. She named the new doll after their daughter Barbara. The firstBarbie Doll appeared at the toy fair（交易会）New York on March 9th, 1959. Thisdate is used as Barbie's birthday.

    Mattel soldthree hundred thousand Barbie Dolls in the first year at a price ofthree dollars. Today, a fifty-year-old Barbie in good condition might cost morethan twenty-seven thousand dollars. Mattel says 90% of the girls in the UnitedStates aged from three to ten own at least one Barbie Doll. And girls aged threeto six own an average（平均）of about twelve.

   When Mattel created Barbie Dolls half acentury ago, they never thought this doll would become a legend. NowBarbie Dolls are famous all over the world. They are sold in one hundred andfifty countries, and every second three Barbie Dolls are sold around the world.

①       A. run          B. know        C. beginning     D. thank

②       A. happy     B. phrase      C. captain          D. pencil

③       A. cake        B. back          C. cross             D. cinema

④       A. home      B. house       C. hour              D. whole

⑤       A. climb      B. club          C. lab                 D. bicycle

①English /      / 

②write /      /

③yesterday /      /

④tiger /      /

⑤which /      /

-- Miss Zhang does.