Both of Omar's parents liked writing poetry. His father taught poetry in a college. Although his mother worked at a bank, she wrote poetry when she was free. His parents spent one evening each week on poetry readings. Most readings were at a small coffee shop.

    Omar loved going to the coffee shop with his parents. The nice smell of coffee and the beautiful voice of reading blew him away. One woman came to the coffee shop every week. People called her Mrs Abboud. She never read, but she always had a bright smile for everyone, and she would clap(鼓掌) loudly after each reading.

    Later, Omar began writing his own poetry. He did quite well. Mrs Francis, Omar's English teacher, advised him to go to a poetry competition. At first Omar was excited. However, when he read the competition rules, he became worried. The competition was an oral (口头的) reading. Omar was sure that he could write good poetry, but he was afraid of reading in front of others. "We'll be very happy to see you in the competition," his father said. And Omar knew that he had to go through with it somehow.

    On the day of the competition, he chose his favourite poem and put on his best clothes. When it was his turn, something wonderful happened! Mrs Abboud was sitting next to his parents. He saw her warm smile. He could almost smell the coffee at the small coffee shop. Now it was easy for him to read. When Omar finished, everyone clapped loudly. Omar felt great joy in his heart.

    I caught a very bad cold last weekend and had to stay at home for a whole week. The nurse in the hospital took my temperature, I had a fever. The doctor told me to take both some Chinese and some west medicine. He suggested that I should stay in bed and have a good rest.

    When he asked me what probably caused（引起）the cold, I told him the whole story.

    Last weekend, I was studying for an exam. Father said to me, "You look stressed out, son. You really need to relax. Let's go fishing in the countryside!"

    "Harrah!" I shouted.

    The next morning, we got up very early. Mother told us that it was going to rain and she suggested that we should take our raincoat with us but we were too excited to remember that. We took a train and arrived at a lake in the countryside. A few hours later, it began to rain! Soon, it began to rain cats and dogs. We had to go back home.

    When we arrived home, we were wet through. Mom asked, "Did you catch any fish?"

    "No, we didn't. But we caught cold!" Dad answered.

    During the time of Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Le Guang. One day, Le Guang asked one of his friends to have dinner at his home. After dinner, his friend was back.

    For a long time, his friend didn't come. Then Le Guang heard that his friend was ill, so he came to visit him. Le Guang asked him what was wrong with him. His friend answered, "Last time, at your home I found a little snake in the glass and I was ill after I drank the alcohol (酒)." Le Guang was very surprised because there wasn't a snake in the glass. Suddenly, he remembered there was a bow (弓) on the wall. There must be the shadow (影子) of the bow which looked like a little snake.

    So Le Guang asked his friend to join him for a drink again. When the glass was full of alcohol, he pointed to the shadow of the bow in the glass and asked his friend to have a look. His friend shouted, "That is what I saw last time!" Le Guang laughed and took away the bow.

    "Can you see the snake now?＂ he asked. His friend was surprised to find that the snake was gone. After his friend knew the truth, he was well.

    For many years, this story has been used to advise people not to be too suspicious (怀疑的) easily.

    When I was a university teacher in Ningbo, I told my students that it would be wise to keep their smartphones in their backpacks. They were young adults. I didn't want to take their phones， nor could I shout at them. You can guess what happened.

    Some students were polite, using their phones between activities. Others would rudely text their friends during lessons, sometimes even while I talked to them. One young woman, K, openly played a game at her desk with earphones!

    Why did such a situation appear? I began to think my class was boring (probably true!) and that my students hated me (I could understand). But what could I do? I couldn't fail every student. Maybe I was just a boring teacher.

    With all the recent talk about banning(禁止) smartphones at schools, you might think I'm in favor. I'm actually not so sure. This technology isn't going away. Teachers probably need to change as much as students.

    I designed activities to let them use pens and paper, and moving around the room to talk to classmates. It kind of worked! I also found ways to use their phones. Things like research, translation and creative projects. I found that my students worked hardest on these activities.

Phones might not be the biggest problem. Once, walking at school, I saw K standing alone in the dark. I could see her face, lit up by her mobile game. Maybe smart phone addiction (上瘾) at school is a sign of loneliness or a boring teacher.

    He was a poet (诗人) known for the nostalgia(思乡之情) he expressed in his poems. Now, it's time for us to express our nostalgia for this great writer. On December 14, famous Chinese poet Yu Guangzhong passed away in Taiwan, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

    Born in 1928 in Nanjing, Jiangsu, Yu and his family moved to Taiwan in the 1950s.He lived and worked there until his death.

    Nostalgia(《乡愁》) is Yu's famous poem in which he expressed his homesickness for the Chinese mainland when he was in Taiwan. Published in 1971, the poem was popular among Chinese all around the world. Even those who little about literature(文学) are familiar with lines from the poem. The poem is chosen in Chinese high school textbooks.

    Besides his achievement in poetry, Yu was also a successful essay writer, and translator. He once translated English poet Siegfried Sassoon's poem In Me, Past, Present, Future Meet into Chinese. It is regard as an accurate and powerful translation, in which the most famous line is "心有猛虎，细嗅蔷薇" for "In me the tiger sniffs the roses". Yu spent his whole life writing.