Waitress: Good afternoon. May I take your order? Sally: Yes. Are there any vegetables in the beef soup? Waitress: Yes. There are some tomatoes. Sally: OK. We’d like one bowl of beef soup. Waitress: Sure. What size would you like? Sally: Large, please.

Tom: We’d also like gongbao chicken and some mapo tofu with rice. Waitress: OK. One large bowl of beef soup, one gongbao chicken, and one mapo tofu with rice. Tom: Yes, that’s right. Birthday food around the world

What would people like to eat on their birthday? The answer would be different in different countries.

In many countries, people have birthday cakes with candles. The number of candles is the person’s age. The birthday person must make a wish and blow out the candles. If he or she blows out all the candles in one go, the wish will come true. In the UK, people sometimes put a candy in a birthday cake. The child with the candy is lucky.

In China, it is getting popular to have cake on your birthday. But many people still eat very long noodles are symbol of long life. In some places, Chinese people also eat eggs on their birthday. They are a symbol of life and good luck.

All of these birthday foods may be different, but the ideas are the same. They bring good luck to the birthday person.

Unit 11 How was your school trip?

Peter: Hi, Eric. How was your trip last week?

Eric: It was excellent. I visited my grandparents in the countryside. Peter: Oh, nice. What did you do?

Eric: I went fishing every day. And I fed the chickens with my grandpa. It was so much fun.

Peter: Sounds good. How was the weather there?

Eric: It was great, and the air was so clean. I watched the stars at night. They were so beautiful. Peter: Lucky you.

June 15th

Today I went on a school trip. We visited the science museum and it was really interesting. We got there so fast by train. We saw some

farms and villages along the way. At the museum, I learned a lot about robots. I didn’t know they could play chess with us. It was so cool! Then the guide taught us how to make a model robot. I took a lot of great photos, too. After that, I went to the gift shop and bought some lovely gifts for my parents. They weren’t expensive. All in all, it was an exciting day.

June 15th

I think today’s school trip was terrible. We took the train to the museum. It was so hot on the slow train. The museum was big and boring. Everything was about robots and I’m not interested in that. The rooms were really dark and it was difficult to take photos, so I didn’t take any. There were also too many people and I couldn’t really see or hear the guide. The things in the gift shop were so expensive. I didn’t like the trip at all.

Unit 12 What did you do last weekend?

Paul: Hi, Lisa. How was your weekend? Lisa: Great, thanks. Paul: What did you do?

Lisa: I worked as a guide at the Natural History Museum. Paul: Really? How interesting!

Lisa: Yeah, it was fun. They have a butterfly house with over 200 kinds of butterflies! I told the visitors about them and their living habits. Did you have a good weekend?

Paul: Yeah, it was good, but I’m kind of tired now. I stayed up late to watch the soccer game. A weekend to remember

My sister finished high school two weeks ago. As a special gift, our parents took us to India. Last weekend was interesting but scary. We went camping in a small village in India. First, we took a long bus ride to a lake in the countryside. There we put up our tents and made a fire to keep us warm and cook food on. On the first night, we just sat under the moon and told each other stories. But I was so tired that I went to sleep early.

The next morning, my sister and I got terrible surprise. When we looked out of our tent, we saw a big snake sleeping near the fire. I was so scared that I couldn’t move. We shouted to our parents to let them know about the danger. My dad started to jump up and down in their tent. This woke the snake up and it moved into the forest near the lake. My dad told me later that snakes don’t have ears but can feel things moving. He also told me it was important not to go near a snake. This was a very useful lesson for me.