In China, people born in and after the 1980s are called the post-80s generation(一代人). Most of them come from single-child families. However, this generation is playing a more and more important part in China, and their image(形象) in people's minds is changing. Han Han, a popular youth writer, is one of them.

    Han Han was born in 1982 in Shanghai. His talent for writing was clear at an early age. When he was 17, he attracted the public's attention with the article Viewing the People throughthe Glass. The article won first prize in the national New Concept Composition Competition. Later, Han Han again surprised the public by leaving high school. "I didn't do well in Grade One of high school and failed to move up to the next grade. I tried my best to improve my studies, but failed, so I gave up. However, I am always learning, since learning and going to school are two different things," Han Han said.

    Han Han's first novel Three Folded Gates sold very well in China. Later the book was translated(翻译) into several languages and sold abroad.

    In the following years, Han Han wrote a lot of books. All of them were welcomed by the market. In 2006, he started blogging (写博客) and had great success. Today, Han Han's blog has become one of the honest blogs on the Internet.

    Alice needs some money for a Mother's Day present. She tells her father about her problem.

    "I'll pay you to do some housework. You can clean up the yard(院子)," her father says.

    "You can also wash my car and Mum's. Both of them need to be washed because they're really dirty."

    Alice works on the yard and washes her father's car.

    "Too bad! You didn't have time to wash Mum's car," Dad says when he pays her.

    The next morning Alice wakes up early. First she washes her mother's car. Then she goes to the flower shop. She also buys her mother's favourite bread on her way home. After breakfast Alice asks her mother to go to the garage(车库). She opens the gate.

    "Wow!" Alice's mother says. "My car is gleaming."

    "Open the door," Alice says.

    Alice's mother opens the door. There on the seat she sees a bunch of flowers.

    "Happy Mother's Day!" Alice says.

    Every evening at six o'clock an old man goes to a restaurant near his house. He eats dinner. After dinner, he drinks coffee and talks to the people at the restaurant.

    The old man's name is Bill. Bill eats at the restaurant every evening because he is lonely. His wife died and he has no children.

    Every evening the same waitress(女服务员)brings Bill to his dinner. Her name is Cara. She is 17 years old. Cara is kind to Bill. She knows he is lonely, so she talks to him. If Bill is late for dinner, she calls him on the telephone. “Are you OK?” she asks him.

    One evening Bill doesn't come to the restaurant. Cara calls him, but he doesn't answer the phone. Cara calls the police. “Please go to Bill's house.” Cara tells the police. Later the police call Cara at the restaurant. “Bill died in his sleep,” the police tell her. Bill was 82 years old.

    A week later, a man comes to the restaurant. “I have something for Cara,” the man says. The man gives Cara a check(支票) for $500000. The money is from Bill.

“This money is for me? From Bill?” Cara asks the man.

    “Yes,” the man answers.

    “But…why?” Cara asks the man.

    “Bill liked you,” the man says. “You were kind to him”

    Charles Dickens was an English writer. He was born in 1812. He created some of the world's best-known characters and many readers think he is the most important writer of the Victorian era (1837-1901). Some of his famous novels are Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. Most people in his novels lived in London.

    In 1824, Dickens' father went to prison(监狱) because he couldn't pay money to someone. In those days, a man's wife and young children went to prison with him. Charles was 12, so he left school to work in the prison. Life was hard, and a lot of children worked in those days. Dickens' own experience helped him to write about poor children without a mother or father. Dickens' success began with the publication (出版) of The Pickwick Papers in 1836. And his book Oliver Twist is about a boy without father. Important people were more interested in the problems of poor people after reading Dickens' books.

    Dickens' novels are often very long and he wrote them in different parts for a newspaper each week. His novels have a lot of exciting and sad things in them. He wanted his readers to buy the newspaper every week. And the readers wanted to finish the story! Dickens' novels are popular because many of his stories are about social(社会的) problems and family life. Dickens was successful in writing and he has been praised by other writers for his style and characters.