My friend is Li Ming. He was born on September 20th, 2003, in Beijing. Now he is studying in London. He's in Class 1 with 8 students. They're from America, France and Japan. His teacher's name is Mike Brown. He's a very nice and very good teacher.

    Li Ming is living with an English family. Mr. and Mrs. Green have three children. Tom is fifteen, Kate is twelve, and Andrew is eight. They are all very friendly.

London is a very large and interesting city. The weather there is good—-sunny but cool, and the parks are beautiful! Li Ming loves living in London very much. He thinks English food is great, too. He likes traditional dishes like fish and chips.

    I love movies. Among all of them, I prefer movies that I can get inspiration (激励) from. The Pursuit of Happiness is such a movie. This movie is based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a salesman who managed to build a future for himself and his five-year-old son Christopher. Chris Gardner was having a hard life in San Francisco in 1981. His wife hated to have a poor life so she left home. Gardner and his son were abandoned by her.

    While trying to sell his products, Gardner met Jay Thistle, a successful stockbroker (股票经纪人). His new relationship with Jay helped him earn an internship (实习) in a stock company. Without any pay, Gardner was not able to afford the apartment. He and his son had to sleep on the streets, in homeless shelters and even behind the locked door of a bathroom in the subway station.

    Gardner never let other people in the company know about his bad condition He arrived at the office early and stayed late each day. As an intelligent man, Gardner developed a number of ways to make his work faster and better. And he finally got the job because of his excellent performance.

    With confidence and the love and trust of his son, Chris Gardner got back on his feet and opened, his own company. He reached his American dream at last. And his story has encouraged me to realize my dream.

When I was a kid, a tree grew in front of my home. At the age of 10, I was just tall enough to reach its lowest branch and lift myself into its embrace. I wasn't the only climber. Sometimes two or three of my friends would join me in the sycamore, or in the maple down the street. Climbing trees allowed us to enter another world. In fact, it was a world within a world: We took our imaginations with us into those heights, which by turns were a fortress, a pirate ship, a spaceship, or a mountain castle. 

In my small Maine town there are some lovely maples, lindens, and oaks. Their branches spread wide and they are strong enough for people to climb. But I have not yet seen a climber. Perhaps computer games have taken place of tree climbing, or maybe the activity went the way of monkey bars, which came to be viewed as too risky and have largely disappeared from playgrounds. 

It is a sad loss. I have always believed that, since low-hanging limbs provide no benefit to the tree, they must be meant for the child. Robert Frost understood this when he wrote: When I see birches bend to left and right, across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. My only disagreement with Frost is his inference that tree climbing is a gender-specific undertaking. Both boys and girls have what it takes to make a joyful ascent. 

The campus of the university where I teach is lovingly landscaped with all sorts of trees. During a recent walk, I grabbed a branch and a moment later I was sitting on it. Then the memories came flooding back: The old friends, the long view of my neighborhood, and finally, the reluctance to return to earth when the parental call to supper came. 

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear the student calling to me from below. He asked what I was doing. I didn't waste time on explanations. "Come on up, "I said. "The air's fine. "But he only laughed, and waved me off. He didn't know what he was missing. 

Here is a travel diary from Peter.

What's your cup of tea?

What is {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(popular) drink in the world after water? The answer is tea. It is not only good for our health, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} also a key part of many cultures. What does tea mean {#blank#}3{#/blank#} you?

In Chengdu, we have as many teahouses as {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(leaf) in a cup of tea! Grandpa used to {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(take) me to the teahouse. He and his friends drank tea and {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(share) their news. Now I study abroad. Most of my classmates {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(prefer) coffee, butI will always choose green tea. It's more than a drink for me. A cup of warm tea always {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(make) me feel like I'm back home. 

It's no secret {#blank#}9{#/blank#} Brits love afternoon tea. But actually, we drink tea all day. My husband can {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(drink) eight cups a day! When my kids {#blank#}11{#/blank#}(be) young, I always made tea for them after school. Now they're {#blank#}12{#/blank#}(adult), but they come back every weekend. We chat and relax in the yard {#blank#}13{#/blank#} black tea and biscuits. It's our way of {#blank#}14{#/blank#}(connect).