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.

    I have a little dog. Its name is Jim. Every morning Jim goes to the shop in the village. The girl in the shop gives him two things: a sweet（糖） and a newspaper. Jim eats the sweet and takes the newspaper in his mouth. Then he runs home.

    I like reading my newspaper in bed before I get up. Jim knows that and he brings the newspaper to my bedroom. When I am eating my breakfast he brings all the letters to me. After that he goes outside to wait for the bus. When he sees the bus coming down the road, he makes a noise（噪音）. I run out, and the bus stops for me. Jim never lets me miss the bus.

    “Well, we're in our new house. Let's get a new pet to get along with it,” Mrs. Brown said to her husband.

    “That sounds like a pretty good idea. Do you want to see the ads in the newspaper?”said Mr. Brown.

    “Let's go to the animal shelter. Many pets there need homes. Since tomorrow is Saturday, we can both go,” she said.

    The next morning, the Browns met Mr. Snow at the animal shelter. “We want to be sure that the pets here can go to good homes,” Mr. Snow said, “So I need to ask you some questions.”

After they talked for a while, the Browns decided to get a small dog. It wouldn't need a big house or a big yard. A small dog would bark and warn them if someone tried to break into their house. After Mr. Snow gave the Browns a book on pet care, they chose one and wanted to take her home right away. But the animal doctor hadn't checked her yet. So Mr. Snow told them to return on Sunday.

    On Sunday afternoon the Browns went to the animal shelter. The animal doctor said, “Shadow has had all of her shots（预防针）. She will be healthy.” Then, the Browns thanked the doctor and took Shadow home.

I spent an hour writing out all the invitations to my daughter's classmates. She told me who said they were coming. We spent so much time and money making gifts. "Tina would love the sunglasses, and Mike would love this pencil…" Jenny said. She helped me to make cupcakes, 60 of them with different colors and tastes. 

Everything was ready. At four, it started to rain. However, it didn't seem to stop soon. "Will they come at five?" Jenny asked me. She looked worried. I was not sure, either. We sat on the sofa and waited. At 4: 50, Lisa, Jenny's best friend, arrived. We were both happy and welcomed her. Until 5: 20, seven of thirty classmates came. 

I thought Jenny would be sad. "I'm happy today, Mom," Jenny told me after the party was over. "It was rainy, but some of my classmates still came. I know who are my real friends."

"Yes, it's the most important thing," I said.

A story is told of Marie Curie. Her sisters once built a pyramid(金字塔) of chairs around her. Mari e was busy reading. She didn't even notice until she stood up and knocked them all over!

 It would not be surprising if this story were true. As a child, Marie loved books and experiments(实验). Nothing could take her attention away from her studies. She did not lose this love of learning as she got older. In the 1880s, very few women went to college, and even fewer women became scientists. Marie did both.

 After she met and married another scientist, Pierre Curie, the two of them began working together. Their studies focused on the element radium(镭元素). They had discovered it during their research.

Radium is found in some rocks. It is a white metallic element with a blue glow(微弱而稳定的光片) The glow lasts for a thousand years.

 The radium glows because it produces energy. That is on c reason why the Curies were so interested in it. But studying radium is not like opening a book. Radium must be isolated(分离) from the rock around it. That is like trying to take just the chocolate out of chocolate milk.

 The couple spent their life savings on eight tons of rock. ∧n old shack(棚屋) became their workplacc. They heated the rock to remove the bits of radium from it. Days of work turned into months. Finally, they spent four years in that shack studying the mysterious clement with the blue glow.

 During their research, the Curics found that radium could help treat discase. That is when Marie and her husband became big news. They were written about often. This got the public interested. in radium. Soon. the Curies' work earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics. This award is one of the highest honors in the world. Maric had come a long way from the days of chair pyramids,