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Dear Mayecor (see How to Explain)

We were so happy to get your letter. Your village sounds like a nice place to live, and it sounds like you are very busy taking care of the cattle and playing football.

Here are some answers to the questions you asked in your letter:

The United States is very big, so we have a lot of different kinds of weather. Where I live, we have four seasons--it gets cold and snows in the winter, it rains in the spring, it's nice and warm in the summer, and in the fall, it starts to get chilly, and the leaves on the trees turn from green to bright orange and yellow and red. It's very pretty in the fall.

We have two cats named Tiger and Mike. There are farms near our house with dairy cows, but we live in town and don't have any other animals. There are a lot of wild dear near our house--I have seen as many as 12 all at once. My husband owns a publishing company and sells books. My job is to design the covers for the books.

We have two daughters. One is in college studying chemistry, and the other is in high school and wants to be a baker. They both play the trumpet and like to play tennis. They have both studied French in school. I play the French horn in an orchestra in my town and in a band that gives concerts at the park in the summer.

My favorite food is salmon and vegetables, and of course I also like cookies and coffee.

Also, in the United States, we have traffic lights that keep all the cars in order. We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We have free education for all our citizens and anyone else who happens to sneak in, and we have a functioning judicial system, with laws against beating wives and throwing trash all over the street. Of course, I'll delete this last part from your copy, but I understand these are things you may not know about the United States.

Sincerely, your sponsor

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