We Both Like Music

    My name is Frank White. I'm fourteen years old. I was born on May 13th, 1999. Mike is my good friend. His birthday is May 15th. He is only twelve years old now. Every year on May 14th, we have a birthday party together(一起) at our school. Many friends come to our party. We all have a good time at the party. We both like music. We often have a pop concert. I play the guitar. He plays the drums. Mike often sends me some CDs and I often send him tickets for concerts.

    Tom is a 14-year-old middle school student in the USA.  He has a lot of good habits. For example. He exercises every day, He likes running and playing basketball. He eats healthy food. He eats vegetables and fruits every day. He thinks they are good for his health. He sleeps nine hours a night. He never stays up late. He also likes reading book. He reads for at least half an hour a day. Because it is good for his mind. But he never drinks milk, because he doesn't like milk. As for junk food. He hardly ever eats it. He likes watching TV, but not often. Maybe two or three times a week. He uses the Internet every day. He only use it for school work .So he thinks he has a healthy lifestyle.

    Perhaps you've already watched or heard about Readers 《朗读者》，a TV show that has recently become popular. It invites different people to read aloud on the stage, as well as tell the touching stories behind them. They can read everything, like poems, books and letters.

    Many people are fans of the show and begin to enjoy reading aloud at home. Now the show gives people a special place to read across China. Reading pavilions(朗读亭)are now in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xi'an.

    The pavilion is quite small. Only one person can come into it each time. There is a microphone in it and it records people's voices. Everyone can read anything they like for three minutes in the pavilion. The show will later pick some of the readers and invite them to read on TV.

    People of all ages have come and read in the pavilion, according to People's Daily. "Reading should be just like singing and talking," said Dong Qing, the host of the show. "We can actually express our deep feelings through reading aloud."

    Both the TV show and the pavilion are promoting(推进)reading among the public. In fact, our country is also trying to do that now.

Ma Yun is in his words

    There are always many young people who want to learn something from me. In fact, I'm not as lucky as most of you. I tried 3 times for colleges but all failed. For the fourth time, I tried for the teachers' college and they accepted me. I applied(申请) for jobs for 30 times. You can guess the results. It was so difficult at that time. I was down but I didn't give up and fought on. So you can see a new Ma Yun now.

    You are lucky enough. You are at the best time of this century. The best wealth you have is that you are young.

    Among all the challenges, I think the biggest one is education. Something we teach our kids is too old. So we have to research what is the best way and what are the best things to teach our kids.

    The future you face is not a competition for knowledge but a competition for creativity and imagination.

    When people have problems, the chance will come. If you can solve them, then the chance will belong to you.

    Have you ever seen Korean writing before? In many people's eyes it looks lovely but difficult. Do you know the history of this special alphabet?

    Long ago, Korean people didn't have its own alphabet. At that time, Koreans used Chinese characters. Because Chinese is hard to learn, only rich people had the money and time to find teachers to teach them.

    One of their kings was called Sejong. He decided to invent a Korean alphabet.

    He thought hard. One day, on October 9,1446, he looked at a window frame and shouted: "I know what our alphabet should be!" He got the idea from the frame and invented characters of all the same size, like they were put in a frame.

    Hunmin Chongum, the earliest Korean alphabet was born.

    King Sejong said," Chinese characters can't express Korean meanings. These letters are very easy to learn. It is my hope that they can help all people learn to read."