I have spent almost a third of my life in China, living and working in this beautiful country. In a sense, China has been and is still my second home But in those past years I ha d never been to Quzhou.

Some days ago, for the first time in my Chinese life, I stepped into the beautiful city of Quzhou. My impressions of Quzhou city were as I always thought: green countryside, rainy sky, wet air. That was what I imagined for years the south of China would be. When we finally arrived, I was impressed by the elegant (优雅的) city.

Next day we were taken to visit some places not far away from the city. I was not aware of the direction of our short trip, but when we arrived at Lanke Mountain and got out of the car, I thought that we had been taken to a fairyland (仙境) : the light rain over the green and thick plants, the silvery sky like a heavy blanket and the mystery (神秘) of this mountain made me feel like being part of a picture.

Jiulong Lake was our next step. The mystic atmosphere (气氛) of this place was so strong that I decided to watch the view standing at the top when I stepped into the small boat to sail upstream. Sometimes we were so close to the mountain that we could clearly see the red soil under the plants. I was thinking of the joy to be in a place like Jiulong Lake and how it would be to live among those hills for a while.

    The final leg of the day's journey was a primary school. We were welcomed by the smiles on the faces of many young pioneers. The energy of the hundreds of kids made me feel younger for a while, so educated, so polite and so warm that I had no doubt about the future generations of Quzhou people. The people seem to me the best of Quzhou and they will remain in my memories forever.

    One day, a woman walked into a pet store to buy a bird for her Thanksgiving Day party. The guy said, “We only have one parrot. But I think you do not want it because it can talk…”

    The woman said happily, “That's great. I've always wanted a talking bird.”

    So the guy said, “Since you are a nice lady, I'll give it to you as a gift.”

    And the lady went home and put the bird on her bed and walked out of the room. But as soon as she walked into the kitchen, the bird started to speak dirty words as loud as it could. The woman walked back into the room thinking, “I can't have this at my party!” So she took the bird and put it in the fridge.

    A few hours later, while the woman was eating, she remembered that her bird was still in the fridge. Quickly, she opened the door and found it was shivering. Then she took out the bird at once. She said to the bird, “I'll keep you out of there if you don't use that language again. Do you agree with me?”

    The bird nodded and asked, “Can I just ask a quick question?” The lady nodded and said, “Yes, you may.”

    The bird pointed at the turkey behind him and asked, “What did he do?”

    A poor farmer had a friend who was famous for the wonderful apple trees he grew.

    One day, his friend gave the farmer a young apple tree and told him to plant it.  The farmer was pleased with the gift, but he did not know where to plant it.

    He was afraid that if he planted the tree near the road, strangers would steal the fruit.  If he planted the tree in one of his fields, his neighbors would come at night and steal some of the apples.  If he planted the tree near his house, his children would take the fruit.  Finally he planted the tree in his wood.  But without sunlight and good soil(土壤), the tree soon died.

    Later the friend asked the farmer why he had planted the tree in such a poor place.  “What's the difference?” the farmer said angrily and then told what he had thought.

     “Yes,” said the friend, “but at least someone could have enjoyed the fruit.  Now you not only have robbed everyone of the fruit, but also you have destroyed (毁掉) a good apple tree! ”

    Neel Sethi starred in Disney's cartoon The Jungle Book. The cartoon started being shown in theaters on April 15th. In this cartoon, Neel Sethi plays Mowgli, a boy growing up in the jungle with some wild wolves. When a big tiger named Shere Khan tries to kill him, Mowgli has to leave his wolf family. Along the way, Mowgli meets many animals. Some of them put him in danger, and others help him out of danger. Bill Murray, Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson give their voices for the animals in the cartoon.

    In fact, Neel finished most of his parts in front of a blue screen. Later on, people put his parts with the animals and jungle pictures together. In the movie, Mowgli enjoys living with the bear, Baloo, very much. Mowgli stays on the top of Baloo as they play in a river and sing The Bare Necessities.

    "To do well in the movie, I ran and jumped around in my own time," Neel said. "So it really wasn't that hard to be Mowgli."

    There is a 41-year-old woman from California known as Anna, and she remembers almost every day of her life since(自从)she was eleven. There is an 85-year-old man known as Eddy, and he only knows a little.

Eddy is warm and friendly. He laughs a lot. He looks just like any other grandfather in the world. But 15 years ago  he was sick. Then he only knows the people in the room with him. Every morning, he gets up, has breakfast, and then goes back to bed to listen to the radio. Often he forgets that he has done these things. Sometimes he has breakfast three times in the morning.

    For Anna, the past is always there. She remembers the person giving her a call at 12:34 pm on Sunday, August 3, 1986. She remembers that on March 28, 1992, she had lunch with her father at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She remembers the food and every word of the talk. She remembers the weather.

    Anna said, "I remember the good things and that is nice. But I also remember the bad things. Ten years later, I still get angry with myself for doing something wrong. I would love for just five minutes to be a normal (正常的)person and not have all these things in my head."

    An English traveller found himself in Norway with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home. As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and got on the ship. The man closed his ears to the sound of the lunch bell. When dinner time came, he didn't go to the dining room, saying that he was not feeling very well.

    The next morning, he still didn't have breakfast and at lunch time he again stayed in his room. But at dinner time he was so hungry that he went to the dining room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for the quarrel(争吵).

     “Bring me the bill,” he said. “The bill, sir?” said the waiter in surprise. “There isn't any bill. On our ship meals are included(包括)in the money for the ticket,'' said the waiter.