A road is just like a bridge between two places. The Silk Road has been a bridge between East and West. But the Silk Road is not a single route! It is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes. From the time Zhang Qian opened up the world-famous Silk Road during the Han Dynasty, until the Yuan Dynasty, it enjoyed a history of about 1,600 years.

 This ancient road begins at Chang'an (now Xi'an), and it reaches Dunhuang, where it divides into three, the Southern Route, Central Route and Northern Route. And then it ends in Eastern Europe, near the Mediterranean Sea(地中海). The Silk Road is about 6,500 kilometers long. It goes across one-fourth of the planet. (3)In fact, there is another trade road which is called the “Silk Road on the Sea” in the southwest of China.

 The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world. Besides trade, knowledge about science, arts and technologies were shared across the Silk Road. The Four Great Inventions of China was introduced to the West and Chinese also knew about the religions of the West. (4)In this way, languages and cultures developed and influenced each other. Today, places along the Silk Road are great places of interest, such as the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu.

Information Card

    In the town of Lampang in northern Thailand, there is an unusual group of musicians. They play many different kinds of music—everything from traditional Thai songs to music by Beethoven. Both children and adults love this group. What makes them so popular? Is it their music? Their looks7 Yes, it's both of the things, but it's also something else: they're elephants.

    These musical elephants started at the TECC in Lampang. The TECC protects elephants. It teaches people to understand and love them. And, like many zoos around the world, the TECC encourages elephants to paint.

    Richard Lair works for the TECC. He loves his job there and knows a lot about elephants. He says some of the animals' paintings are very good. But, in fact, elephants hear better than they see. And so he had an idea: if elephants are smart and they have good hearing, maybe they can play music. To test his idea, Lair and a friend started the Thai Elephant Orchestra. During a performance, the elephants play a number of instruments, including the drums and the xylophone (木琴).

    But can elephants really make music properly? Yes, says Lair. They are very creative. Human encourage the animals to play, but the elephants make their own songs; they don't just copy their trainers or other people. There are now CDs of the group's music which make money for the TECC. And the music these artists create is pretty amazing

    Libraries give kids a quiet and safe place to read and learn. For over 100 years, libraries have played an important role in Americans' education. But how are these book—filled buildings changing with the times? You may be surprised to find out.

    Benjamin Franklin famously founded(创建)America's first lending library in 1731. But the public library system got its biggest development in the American history in the late 1800's. Businessman Andrew Carnegie donated millions of dollars to help build free public libraries across the country. Between 1886 and 1919, Carnegie's donations helped build 1,679 new libraries.

    Carnegie believed that libraries could offer the chances to Americans, young and old. He knew that the more libraries there were, the more people would have opportunities to read and use books, speeches and news.

    If you can easily find a public library in your community(社区), you'll get more chances. After all, the United States has 9,225 public libraries. Today, libraries keep growing. Seven tenths of the libraries have free Internet. It provides much more information and opportunities to ask for jobs online.

    Libraries are also teaching kids about the fun of reading. The new program Read! Build! Play! adds reading into playtime. As kids listen to a book that is being read aloud, they use Legos(乐高积木)to build images(图像)from the story happily. Today's libraries are always looking for creative programs to bring people into the library.

    Benjamin Franklin once said, "The doors of wisdom(智慧)are never shut." As long as the doors of public libraries are open, what he said is most certainly correct!

    Nowadays, reading is becoming more and more important, so teachers always encourage(鼓励)their students to read more famous work like The Little Prince, Charlotte's Web and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and so on .

    Among them, the students like Charlotte's Web best. It's written by American author E.B. White .The novel tells a story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a spider named Charlotte on a farm. When Wilbur is in danger of being killed for his meat by the farmer, Charlotte writes a message to praise（表扬） Wilbur in her web and saves him. Wilbur becomes famous in the village and he is safe in the end. When it came out in 1952, the book was welcomed by adults and children. And it's still very popular today.