Chinese students work hard to learn English. Do you know American kids are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} to learn Chinese? About 50,000 American students now study Chinese .“Because of china's fast growth, Chinese is more useful than{#blank#}2{#/blank#}languages,” said Scott McGinnis, a Washington language expert.

    For example, in 1999,only three Chicago schools had Chinese classes. This year more than 20 do. In many US cities , students take Chinese lessons during holidays{#blank#}3{#/blank#}on the weekends. But Chicago schools teach Chinese during the regular day. Last year China gave them 3,000 textbooks because they had done a good job.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Chinese classes are becoming popular, it is one of the most difficult languages. It totally takes an English speaker about 1,320 hours to become good at Chinese , but it only takes 480 hours to learn French, Spanish or Italian.

    Dear Matt,

    You asked me to tell you about TV programs here in Spain. Well, there are lots of reality shows (真人秀) and talk shows about {#blank#}1{#/blank#}people here. Soap operas are also popular, either Spanish soaps or the ones {#blank#}2{#/blank#} South America.

    My favorite program is a sports program. Its {#blank#}3{#/blank#}is Football Crazy in English. It's on Sunday. Spanish teams usually {#blank#}4{#/blank#}on that day. The program {#blank#}5{#/blank#}at 7:00 p.m. and finishes at 10:00 p.m. In fact, it is replayed (重播) at 11:00 p.m.,{#blank#}6{#/blank#}I don't watch it then. It's too late, and I have school the next morning.

    Like {#blank#}7{#/blank#} ，lots of people think Football Crazy is more interesting than other football programs. This program is really cool because it tells people what happened in all the {#blank#}8{#/blank#}that weekend. The best thing about the program is that it {#blank#}9{#/blank#}all the goals (进球得分) from every game in Spain.  Also, the hosts always have funny comments (评论) and they often find {#blank#}10{#/blank#} things to show.

    Why don't you tell me something about TV programs, in your country? What's your favorite program?

                                                           Yours,

                                                           Marina

    I work in a cleaning company. Usually people call us, and we {#blank#}1{#/blank#} house cleaning service.

    One day, I got a call from a man named David." I want to help an old man. He just had surgery (手术) and is still {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.Can I pay for it without letting him know?" he asked. David was a very kind man. He called us because he was worried about his {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith just came back from the hospital. His house was in a {#blank#}4{#/blank#}, but he couldn't do any housework. Even {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the floor was difficult for him. He didn't tell his children because he didn't want them to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} their time taking care of him. David wanted to help Mr. Smith without bringing him any {#blank#}7{#/blank#}.And then we asked David what would happen if Mr. Smith would refuse to let us come into his house." I have to at least try, and {#blank#}8{#/blank#}，I really want to help him，" he said.

    Luckily, Mr. Smith let us in and our workers did a good job.{#blank#}9{#/blank#} we promised David not to tell his name, we didn't tell too much to Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was touched by the gift from someone he didn't know. Sometimes we don't expect{#blank#}10{#/blank#}on others, because we are afraid of letting them get into trouble. However, there is always someone who cares for you and tries his best to help you.