The other day, Ryan invited Heather to his birthday party. Ryan said it was a costume party. He asked Heather to dress as her favorite cartoon character. Heather’s favorite character is a witch who rides a broom* and delivers mail. She wears a blue dress and a red ribbon in her hair. Heather did not have a blue dress, but her mom had some blue cloth. She told Heather ( 26 ) instead. Heather helped her mother, and soon, she had a dress exactly like the one the witch wears.
On the day of Ryan’s party, Heather remembered that she also needed a broom. She asked her mother, but her mother said that she did not have one. Then, Heather remembered seeing her neighbor, Mr. Jones, using one to sweep his yard. Heather ran to Mr. Jones’s house to ask if she could ( 27 ). Luckily, Mr. Jones said yes. Heather was very happy because her costume was complete.
*broom: ほうき
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in the Netherlands in 1898. After leaving high school, he went to college to study how to design buildings. However, he soon realized that he was not ( 28 ). In fact, he liked designing things that could not be built. He decided to study graphic art instead. A graphic artist is an artist who uses imagination, math, and tools like rulers to produce pictures.
After Escher graduated, he traveled for a long time in Italy. He really liked the countryside and the old buildings there. He often drew the places that he saw there in his pictures. He also visited Spain. There, he went to a castle where the walls were covered with interesting patterns. They gave him ideas for his own patterns, and he would sometimes use the shapes of animals in these designs. His experiences ( 29 ) had a very big effect on his art.
Escher’s pictures often show things that are impossible in real life. In the picture Ascending and Descending, people are climbing stairs that return to the place where they started. In Drawing Hands, two hands are holding pencils and drawing each other. Escher’s unusual art is ( 30 ). For example, about 200,000 visitors went to see an exhibition of his work in Tokyo in 2018. People in many countries like his pictures because they are beautiful and they make people think.
From: Ariana Smith <arianaariana@peacemail.com> To: Jane Jones <jane_j30101@thismail.com>
Date: January 22
Subject: Cooking club recipes
Dear Jane,
I really enjoy our weekly cooking club meetings at the community center. All the members are so friendly. It’s nice that the members take turns teaching each other recipes. I get nervous when it’s my turn to teach, but I’m always happy afterward. Also, I’ve learned how to make a really wide variety of dishes this way. It’s much better than having just one cooking teacher.
I was telling my friend David about our meetings. David works as a photographer and designer for a company that publishes books. He suggested that the cooking club members make a book of our favorite recipes. He said that he would help us to do it. We could make something to remember our meetings. A book of recipes would also be a great gift for friends and family members.
I really like his idea. What do you think? We could ask each of the members to prepare recipes for a snack, a salad, a soup, a main dish, and a dessert. We can then choose the ones that sound the best and make them during our meetings. David said that he would be happy to come and take pictures of our food. He’d like to try some of it, too!
Your friend,
Ariana
A sloth is a kind of animal that lives in the jungles of Central and South America. Sloths look like monkeys and spend most of their time up in the branches of trees. However, unlike monkeys, sloths live alone, move very slowly, and make almost no noise. They sleep for up to 20 hours each day and only wake up during the night.
Sloths’ lazy lifestyles help them to survive. By sleeping most of the time and moving slowly, sloths do not have to use much energy. They do not have to travel long distances or run fast to get something to eat. High up in the trees, a tasty leaf is always just a few centimeters away. Even though leaves do not contain many calories, sloths get all they need by eating all the time during the short time that they are awake.
Surprisingly, moving slowly also protects sloths from hungry meat eaters. Eagles and big cats live in the same jungles as sloths. However, these hunters search for movement, so they often do not notice sloths. Also, sloths do not clean their fur completely. As a result, tiny plants grow in it, and these make the fur look green. From the ground or the sky, a sloth in a tree’s branches looks like a plant rather than something that an eagle or a big cat wants to eat.
Sloths have long, hard claws on their toes. Usually, they use their claws to hang on to branches. However, if a sloth is attacked, it can use its claws to defend itself. Sloths’ claws are so long that sloths find it difficult to walk on the ground. Because of this, a sloth usually only comes down from the branches about once a week.
