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    People usually hate mice, but one mouse wins the hearts of the people all over the world—the famous Mickey Mouse.

    Fifty years ago, most films had no sounds. A man named Walt Disney made a cartoon mouse that could talk in these films. He named his mouse Mickey Mouse. Soon Mickey Mouse became a good friend of both young and old people. Children like to see their lovely friend, because he brought happiness to them.

    Mickey is a clean mouse right from the beginning. Perhaps this is why people love Mickey Mouse. In his early life Mickey made some mistakes. People were very angry. They wrote to Disney and said that they didn't want Mickey to do wrong things. As there were many things that Mickey could not do, Disney made a new animal named Donald Duck. He also made a dog, Pluto. This dog does foolish things and makes mistakes wherever he goes. Now our Mickey Mouse is not only clean, but more interesting. He came out as a star of beauty and wisdom (智慧). He has his friends in almost every country.

    Many people want to be happy, but few know how to find happiness. Money and success alone do not bring lasting happiness. Aristotle, a Greek thinker, said, "Happiness depends upon ourselves." In other words, we make our own happiness. Here are a few suggestions to help you be happier.

    The first secret of happiness is to enjoy the simple things in life. Too often, we spend too much time thinking about the future—for example, getting into college or getting a good job—that we fail to enjoy the present. You should enjoy life's simple pleasures, such as reading a good book, listening to your favorite music, or spending time with close friends. People who have several close friends often live happier and healthier lives. Another secret to living a happy life is to be active, and have hobbies where you forget your problems and time. When playing a sport, such as swimming, many people forget about their problems, and only think about the activity. Finally, many people find happiness in helping others. If you want to feel happier, do something useful for someone. You can help a friend with his or her studies, or go shopping to buy food for the old.

Information Card

    This is a photo of my family. There are six people in my family.

Those are my parents. My mother's name is Alice. My father is Jackie Brown.

    These are my grandparents. My grandmother's name is Maria and my grandfather's name is Frank.

    Look at that boy. He is my brother, Mike. What's the girl's name? Oh, her name is Linda. Ha! Ha! It's me.

    In a school, you may hear a student saying in Chinese,“我对汉语很感兴趣。“ but you're not in China. You're in a foreign country. Like the student, many foreigners are learning Chinese. But it's not easy. The Chinese use a different character(汉字) for each word. People have to memorize about 600 characters before they can do even basic reading and writing. For foreigners, it's hard to memorize them. And the following chart shows the top 3 difficulties for foreigners while learning Chinese.

    However, Chinese is more popular around the world today. The long history and colorful culture of China attract many foreigners to learn Chinese. With the rapid development, China is staying ahead in many fields and is playing its role in the world.

    Chinese is becoming a global (全球的) language and its popularity has risen around the world. Many countries set up Chinese courses in their schools.

    For example, in the UK, students used to choose between Spanish, Latin, French and other foreign languages. But now schools encourage their students to study Chinese. The increase in popularity of Chinese has been surprising. 1031 people took Chinese language exams in 2001, and the number was 2062 last year, while 2561 people chose Spanish. It's predicted that studying Chinese in the UK could overtake (超过) Spanish in less than five years.

    Just like the foreigners do, we also learn foreign languages. Different languages carry different cultures. So exchanges are necessary. By learning a foreign language, we not only have a useful tool of communicating, but experience a new culture, what's more important, learning a foreign language well will help us tell our own stories to the world.

    There are some easy things you can do to protect the environment and the earth.

    Choose ideas from the list or come up with a few of your own.

    Plant flowers, grass or trees.

    Whenever you visit a park or a beach, take away what you bring there-keep rubbish in a bag until you can put it in a dustbin.

    Turn off the lights, TV sets when you leave the room. This saves a lot of electricity.

    Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth. You can save some water by not letting it run. Also, use a glass cup instead of a paper cup because this saves paper.

    Keep the doors and windows closed in winter to keep warm air in.

    Give your old books and magazines to a library instead of throwing them away.

    Give your old clothes to poor children you know instead of throwing them away.

    Use both sides of paper.

    Stop pouring dirty water into the rivers or lakes nearby.

    Encourage all your friends to do the same things you do to help protect the earth. You don't have to wait until Earth Day to do these things, Make every day Earth Day. If everyone protects the environment, the world will become much more beautiful.