There are three children in my family. My mother often makes us do housework. However, my grandmother doesn’t agree with her. She thinks my mother is too harsh (严厉的). In her opinion, parents shouldn’t be too strict with children. It is parents’ job to do housework.

My mother thinks our family is made up of five family members. No one in the family is more important than others, so each member should help with chores. But my mother doesn’t ask us to do the same chores, because our ages are different.

At the end of the day, after we finish playing with our toys, my mother asks us to put the toys away. If we don’t, we will have to say goodbye to our toys. She expects us to set the table at night and help fold (折叠) our own clothes. She doesn’t think she is asking too much.

My mother knows we are tired after a long day’s study at school, but that’s life—harsh but real. She doesn’t pay us for doing some chores. She thinks we live in the house, so we should help out with some things in the house. No one is going to pay us for cleaning up our rooms later in life and she is not about to start doing it now.

Some parents protect their children too much from anything unpleasant and make their children’s lives too comfortable and safe, but my mother is not interested in that way. She hopes we are able to look after ourselves and can be independent (独立的) early.

Betty and Linda are students of Green School. They are good friends. The new term starts now and there are many clubs this year. There is an English Club, a Music Club, a Dance Club and so on.

Betty wants to join the Music Club. She likes listening to music and she can sing well. But she can’t play the piano. She wants to learn it.

Linda can dance and she can swim well. But her English is very bad. So she would like to join the English Club to learn more English.

On weekends, Betty and Linda often paint together. They hope there will be a painting club some day. Which club would you like to join?

Hello, I am Julie. Four people are in my family. They are Bill, Mary, Judy and me. Bill and Mary are my parents. Judy is my twin (双胞胎) sister. We look the same but we are different.

We like different colours. My favourite colour is purple. I have a purple pen and a purple pencil. And my desk and chair are purple. I like yellow, too. And I have a yellow cat. What is Judy’s favourite colour? She likes white best. She has a white dog and a white bag. And her telephone is white, too.

We like different sports. I like ball games. And I can play basketball and football. But my favourite is table tennis. I’m good at it and I often play it with my classmates after class. What about Judy? She doesn’t like ball games and she can’t play them. She likes swimming very much. She often goes swimming with her friends in summer.