Adventure in the Water Buffalo Festival ---- (Mystery Adventure Series: Little Sea Turtle)

Author: Thompson et al. (Australia), selected and annotated by Jiang Jieming and Zhan Huaijing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: This series includes 8 exciting stories, each with a length of 2,500-3,000 words and a vocabulary of approximately 450 words. The young protagonists in each story are selected by the "Secret Global Adventure Team (SWAT)" to be sent to a country or city to complete a special mission, such as saving elephants in Africa or assisting in solving a computer game development puzzle in Japan, and so on. Readers can experience many unforgettable exotic landscapes and cultural customs as they follow the protagonists on their thrilling missions. The stories extensively showcase the everyday language of teenagers in English-speaking countries, with vivid and realistic plots. Each book in the series opens with a full-page illustration, providing a geographical map of the mysterious adventure destination in the story, along with information on population, currency, and tourist cultural attractions. To help some readers overcome difficulties and enhance interest, a Chinese "plot summary" is provided before each story; the "Think Before Reading" questions help spark reading interest; readers who enjoy computers can also choose online paths from "Explore Websites Related to the Story" to learn more interesting facts and broaden their horizons. The "Read a Story, Learn Spoken English" section at the end of the book extracts popular, vivid, and practical English sentences among teenagers; teachers or parents can guide students in reading activities around the "Reading Reflection Questions." Key vocabulary and language points in the story are listed as footnotes at the bottom of the page, and a detailed "Glossary" is also provided at the back of the book. This series is suitable for students in the sixth grade of primary school and the first grade of junior high school.
When it comes to dancing, Beck was certainly not a talented child. And so, Saturday's dance party really gave Beck a headache. To avoid embarrassing herself at the dance, Beck hid in her room and practiced tirelessly. Unbeknownst to her, her older brother Zack was annoyed by the dance tunes that had been playing for several hours. In a fit of anger, Zack burst into Beck's room, turned off the stereo, and took the CDs. Now, with no dance practice, Beck had no choice but to take her little dog, Branson, downstairs to check her email. Still not satisfied, Beck danced her way downstairs, but accidentally stumbled and fell hard. Annoyed, Beck limped to the computer and discovered a strange email written to her and Branson. It turned out that the Secret Global Adventure Team (SWAT) had sent her and her dog Branson to Barcelona, Spain, on a mysterious mission: to help a famous flamenco dancer named Barroma have an adventure during the Running of the Bulls festival. Excited at the thought of escaping the Saturday dance party, Beck was overjoyed and eagerly packed her little dog Branson, ready to head to Spain to find the flamenco dancer Barroma.