My Year Abroad                                                           
This month in Travelers Corner there are three teenagers’ experiences in year-abroad programmes.
Mariko Okada – Tokyo
My year abroad in the United States was a fantastic experience. I’m not a shy person, and I was very comfortable speaking to everyone. So I got lots of speaking practice. I also learned lots of interesting things about American culture. When I got home, my friends all said that I had improved so much! I hope to go back again in the future.
Carla Fonseca – Rio de Janeiro
I spent last year studying English in London. I’m from a small town, and London is a very big city. Sometimes I felt it was too big. There were so many people to talk to, but I always felt bad about my English. I missed my family, and I really missed my two cats. My roommate was always using our telephone, so I hardly had the chance for a nice long talk with my parents. I think it was a good experience for me, but I’m glad to be home!
Alvin Chen – Hong Kong
Studying in New Zealand was a fun experience for me, but it was also lots of hard work! I had English classes six hours a day, five days a week——with lots of homework. I also kept a diary of my experience. I like to write, and I wrote two or three pages in my diary every day. On Saturdays, my homestay family took me to lots of interesting places and showed me so many wonderful things about the culture. I’m really glad I went!
【小题1】All the three teenagers went abroad           .

Hello, everyone! My name is Ken. I’m         years old. I was born(出生) in 2001. My birthday is        . That’s National Day(国庆节). I like music very much and I like sports,    __  _.
My birthday is coming. My mother          buy a beautiful shirt for me. On Sunday, she takes me to a big         store. There are some shirts and they are          blue, yellow and red. We buy a blue one. It looks cool.
My father gives me some CDs and a        . He knows what I like. He wants me to play sports more. I’m very        . And my sister, Monica, she is only two years old, so she can’t buy anything for me. But she sings a song for me. It’s         fun. And I like her so much.
My parents want to have a __     for me at home this year. My friends will come to it. We can play together. It’s very exciting to play with my friends in my house.

用所给单词的适当形式填空

1.These are ______________(strawberry).

2.I don’t like ice cream, I like ___________(health) food.

3.She has a sports________(collect).

4.________he like_________(read) books?

5.Thank for___________(help) me.

6.That_________(sound) interesting.

7._________(run) star Xing Huina is from Shandong.

8.Can you ___________(bring) the pen to me?\

9.He only watches__________(they) on TV.

10.He ____________(not eat) any ice cream.

Dear Estelle,                                                 Saturday, 5th June
I hope you’ re well and not working too hard! I’ ve been revising for my exams now for the last two weeks. That’ s why I haven’ t written for such a long time.
Since the beginning of this year we’ ve been doing a project called ’ World Class’. Have you heard of it.’? Not everyone in the class could take part, but luckily I could. The school chooses a ’twin school’ (姊妹学校) in a different area of the world. Our head teacher chose a school in Uganda. They gave us someone to write to from that school. For three months, I’ve written to a girl called Louisa, who is the same age as me.
It’ s been more interesting to hear about her life. She’ s told me all about her school and described her daily (日常的) life. I can’ t believe that her School doesn’ t. have any electricity. She goes to ’school from eight o’ clock in the morning until six. O’clock. in the evening. I can’ t believe how lucky we are here! She’ s also told me that she often can’ t go to school because she has to look after her baby brother and sister. She’s tried to teach me some of her language and it’ s really difficult.
I love it because it’ s the first time I’ ve thought about what life must be like somewhere else. I can’ t believe people miss classes here when everything is so easy for us. I think more people should help out with projects like this. At the weekend we’ re going to have a sports day to help raise money to send to the school. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to go to Uganda and meet Louisa myself--who knows?
Lots of 1ove,
Suzanne
【小题1】 Suzanne hasn’ t written to Estelle for long because she is