Living in the foreign culture can be exciting, but it can also be confusing. A group of Americans who taught English in other countries recently discussed their experiences. They discussed that miscommunications were always possible, even over something as simple as “yes”and“no”.
     On her first day in Micronesia, an island in the Pacific, Lisa thought the waitress wasn't paying any attention to her. The day was hot she went into a store and asked, "Do you have any cold drinks?" The woman there didn't say anything. Lisa repeated the question again. Still the woman said nothing. She later learned that the woman had answered her: She has raised her eyebrows, which in Micronesia, it means, "yes".
     Jan remembered an experience she had in Bulgaria, a country in Europe. She went to a restaurant that was known for its cabbage. She asked the writer,“Do you have cabbage today?”He nodded his head. Jan waited, but the cabbage never came. In that country, a nod means "no".
     Tom had a similar problem when he arrived in India. After explaining something in class, he asked his students if they understood. They answered with different nods and shakes of heads. He thought some people hadn't understood, so he explained again. When he asked again, they did the same thing. He soon found out that his students did understand. In India, people nod and shake heads in different ways. It depends on where they come from.

    There was once a little grey planet mat was very sad. The people living there didn't look after it. They polluted me whole planet so much with rubbish that there were no plants or animals left.

    One day, a little boy was walking on the planet when he passed a cave (洞穴) and noticed a small red flower inside. The flower was very sick, almost dying, so the boy carefully dug up the flower with roots, soil and everything. Then he started looking for a place where he could look after it. He searched all over the planet, but everywhere was so polluted that there was no place the flower could possibly live in. Then he looked up at the sky and noticed the Moon. It seemed to the boy that maybe the plant could live there. So the little boy put on his astronaut suit, and climbed into a spaceship. He put the little red flower in the back, and they went to the Moon.

    Far away from all that pollution, and with the boy visiting it every day to take care of it, the flower started to grow. The flower was so well cared for that it soon germinated, giving birth to others, and these other flowers spread onto other flowers. Before long, the whole Moon was completely covered with flowers.

    That's why, whenever the little boy's flowers open up, for a few minutes the Moon turns red, like a warning light. Maybe it's telling us that if we don't look after our planet, the day will come when flowers will only be able to grow on the Moon.

    Robert was a greedy（贪婪的）man. One day, he lost 30 gold coins. He went to his friend Mike's house and told him how he lost his gold coins. Mike was kind and decided to help him find them.

    The next day, Mike went to Robert's house and told him he found his 30 gold coins.

    After counting the gold coins, Robert said, "I had 40 gold coins. The of them are missing. You must have taken them. And you should pay me back."

    "No, I didn't take them, "said Mike.

    Robert went to court（法庭）and told the judge（法官）what had taken place between him and his friend.

    "How many gold coins did you find?" the judge asked Mike.

    "Thirty, "answered Mike.

    "How many gold coins did you lose?" the judge asked Robert.

    "Forty, "answered Robert.

    "Then those coins are not yours, "said the judge, "for you lost 40, while your friend found 30."

    Then the judge told Mike to take the 30 gold coins home.

    "If anybody reports that they have found 40 gold coins, I will send them to you, "the judge told Robert.

    Then Robert said that he didn't tell the truth and that he lost 30 gold coins, but the judge did not listen to him.

    Always be honest; dishonesty never pays.

    My interest in cooking started when I was 11, partly thanks to my mother. She didn't really like cooking and when she did cook. I didn't like her food. Once I was watching something about cooking on TV and I thought I could do this, so I went to the bookstore and looked for the biggest cookbook I could find.

    During a year, I had made most of its recipes (食谱) and was ready for a bigger challenger (挑战). I wanted to create my own dishes and I started cooking for more people than just my family. To my happiness, my parents allowed me to build a test kitchen. I did much cooking test my dishes in it and my skill became better and better. Now as a teen chef (主厨). I have cooked in top-class restaurants around the country. I am not doing it for money, but because I love cooking.

    Now I know that when you stop caring whether you will be famous or do well, your happiness will come to you.

Computers make people's lives really easy. People can use their computers for working, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (shop), or playing games. Laptop (笔记本) computers make people's lives even {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (easy) as people can take laptops anywhere. They can work, shop, or play games any place {#blank#}3{#/blank#} any time. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} there is a problem with laptops. People can {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (burn) by them!

People who sit with laptops on {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (they) legs for hours and hours have noticed they get dark marks on their legs. The hot laptop is toasting the skin. {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (doctor) have noticed more people show up with "toasted skin syndrome (综合症)". The marks are not {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (danger), but they look strange because they are just in one spot on people's legs.

Companies that make computers tell people not {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (let) warm computers touch bare skin for a long time. Wearing pants and putting a laptop's case under the laptop is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (usual) enough to protect one's skin from the computer's heat.