Do you like to listen to music when you feel sad? Do you like to sing songs in the shower? Music is everywhere. But in many countries, music classes in schools are losing their place.

    These days, because of the bad economy (经济) in the US, some schools fired (解雇) arts teachers including (包括) music teachers. Some students don't have the chance to learn music. In China, there are no exams for music. So many students choose to make use of their time and study subjects like science, math and history.

    But do you know that learning music helps children grow?

    “Playing music is like doing different things all together”, said Gottfried Schlaug at Harvard Medical School. For example, when playing the piano, people see the music notes. And they decode (解码) them. At the same time, they use their fingers to make sounds. You do all these things at the same time.

    Scientists say that music helps with science too. Einstein played the violin. And German physicist (物理学家) Max Planck was talented in playing the piano.

    Music is also a very valuable thing. It makes you interested in things, and it makes you happy, according to US National Science Foundation.

    In the world, soccer of football is the most popular sport. This is because many countries have wonderful teams for the World Cup. The World Cup is held every four years.

    To remember 2002 FIFA World Cup ,children from different countries and more than 60 children from Japanese schools came together and spent three weekends drawing a big picture called “Dream(梦幻) World Cups ”in Japan .The children drew animals, flowers and people playing soccer under a bule bright sky. They wished each football team good luck by drawing the flags(旗帜)of all the countries that will take part in the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. The picture was put up in a park near a playground in Yokohama .Some football teams will have games there.

    Are you a football fan(迷)？The World Cup makeds more and more people interested in football Teenagers(青少年)like playing and watching football .Many of them love some football stars so much that they get the pictures of their favourite players on the walls of their rooms. That is the way to show their love for the World Cup as children in Japan.

    China and Western countries may have different cultural beliefs about certain animals, but when it comes to pigs, we have somehow reached an agreement—that pigs are ugly, lazy, stupid and shameless.

    Just look at the idioms and phrases in our languages. In Chinese, we have the likes of "Boiling a dead pig" and "A pig looking in the mirror is still a pig". And in English, there are expressions such as "eating like a pig" and "sweating like a pig". None of them are exactly praise.

    But truth is that pigs do have some fine qualities. And maybe there's no better time to clear their names than now, with the arrival of Year of the Pig on Chinese Spring Festival.

    For starters, science had proved that pigs aren't stupid at all. According to a paper published last year in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology, pigs are "mentally and socially similar to dogs and chimpanzees(黑猩猩)". By training, pigs can learn some skills, such as dancing and swimming. They like to play. They have good long-term memories. And they can tell between who treat them well and those who don't.

    There are popular pig characters in cartoons too. In the UK cartoon series Peppa Pig, the four members of the cartoon's pig family teach children from all over the world about love, friendship, and the value of family. And in China, the adventures of McDull, a piglet who works hard toward his dreams even though he keeps failing, have been recounted in films since 2001. "People care too much about the immediate results, but McDull is slow and patient, and not afraid of repeating failure," said McDull's creator Brain Tse. "He has a heart of gold."

    Perhaps these are the qualities of pigs to keep in heart when we celebrate the New Year—their wisdom, cuteness, patience and bravery.