It's the end of class. When the bell rings, students of Luohu Foreign Languages School in Shenzhen quickly take out their cell phones. They want to log on to their micro blogs to check the interesting things that have happened in the last hour.
　　Since last year, the trend of micro blogging has swept the country. Recent surveys shows that most students in middle schools have a micro blog and some even update their blogs over five times per day.
　　"We learn many fresh and interesting things on micro blogs and they have become popular topics in class," said Andy Liang, 14. "If you do not know about them, you are out of the loop."
　　It is also a great place for students to let out stress. "My parents always ask me to study all the time, and encourage me before exams, but it really adds pressure," said Simon Zhang, 15. "When I share these feelings on my micro blog, I get many replies from friends in the same situation, which makes me feel better."
　　But parents are worried that micro blogging could be a waste of time. Some misleading messages may even cause danger to kids, they said.
　　Mr. Shen, a professor at the China Education Association, suggests parents not worry too much as long as kids are not crazy about micro blogging. Maybe it can become a window for parents to understand their children. "If parents can read their children's micro blogs, they'll know their thoughts, thus leading to better communication and solutions to problems," he said. He also gives some tips for kids.
　　—Don't micro blog for more than one hour a day.
　　—Never micro blog in class.
　　—Try to talk face to face with people from time to time.
　　—Be critical. Don't trust all the messages on a micro blog.

    Do you have any foreign friends? Do you know their characteristics（特征）?

    The Germans are very quiet and they always keep calm. They don't like to speak more words. They look very serious. They like different kinds of amusements（娱乐）. The Germans are very hard－working. They like tidiness, especially the women, who always keep their home clean.

    In some ways, the Englishmen look the same as the Germans. They are very quiet and never talk too much with the strangers. They are really polite, so we often hear they say “Thank you.” Or “Sorry.” The gentlemen are also the Englishmen.

    The French's holidays are very long. They like traveling and usually spend their long time staying in other countries. The Frenchmen are more outgoing than the Germans. It is very easy to make friends with them.

    Compared to the Frenchmen, the Americans are more outgoing. And they are even opener than all of the Europeans（欧洲人）. They don't like to depend on others. So it is very common that the students do part-time jobs in their free time. And in Americans' eyes, success is an important part in their life.

    American school students usually go to school on foot, or on the school bus. Some students ride their bikes to school.

    In the middle school, students usually take classes for six hours a day. They study English, math, history, science, PE, music and art.

    School begins at half past eight in the morning. At noon, students have lunch at school. After lunch, they go to their classes. School is over at about 4 o'clock. Most students often watch TV and do homework after supper.

    On weekends, American school students go to the church, do shopping, visit grandparents or go to the park with parents.

    American school children don't have too much homework. But they watch TV too much. Some even watch TV three to five hours a day. It's bad for health. So their parents worry about it. They play games, do sports or do reading with kids to take their kids away from TV.