Margaret Porter is a violinist and music teacher. According to her, the best age to start learning the violin is between three and six. She says, “It's the time when you are learning about the world.” Margaret, who was born in London, likes to take pupils at three and four. However, she has made lots of exceptions (例外) for five-year-olds. She started teaching the violin in 1972 and she taught her children's five-year-old school friends at first.

    In Margaret's opinion, it's important for one to know why music sounds the way it does. Without knowing it, one can't become a great musician at all. So from the earliest lessons, pupils in her class learn to play by ear. They do not even try to read music until they have been playing for several years. Margaret says that her method is not to produce great violinists. She always suggests that pupils should leave and study the violin using more traditional methods.

Information Card

    Jason Weiner is a cook in New York For the past four years, he has offered a "Meatless Monday" menu at his restaurant. The idea is to encourage people to eat more vegetables. To do this, he relies heavily on a vegetable everyone is familiar with: cauliflower.

    Over the years, his cauliflower dishes have enjoyed huge popularity.

    Weiner, in fact, isn't the only cook experimenting with the vegetable. Cauliflower used to be boring. It was something to buy only when there was nothing else on the shelf. Now, however, it's "taking on a starring role," says food writer Elena North-Kelly. Across the United States, sales of cauliflower have grown rapidly for two years. On the Internet, DIY cauliflower recipes(烹饪法) have been viewed thousands of times each.

    Cauliflower can be cooked in many different ways. It can be roasted-like a steak. It can be sliced into a sandwich along with other vegetables. The hottest recipe is cauliflower "rice.” The dish is made by mixing the flower part of cauliflower and then lightly cooking the pieces in oil. The "rice" is rich in vitamins C, K and B6, and very low in calories(卡路里). No doubt it has become very popular.

    Unlike other healthy foods, cauliflower is almost always in season. That's because it can be grown everywhere, throughout the year. The vegetable also sells at a low price.

    Donna Reid had just finished her training as a children's doctor. A famous research hospital in New York had offered her a job with good pay. And her boyfriend, Tony, had a clinic in their hometown and hoped she could work with him. At the same time, a small hospital, Backwoods Hospital, in a very poor area had also offered Donna a position. Now it was time for her to decide where to work.

    Dad: Donna, that research hospital in New York has a good reputation for children's medicine. Some of the best children's doctors in the country work there and you can learn a lot from them.

Mom: Yes, I agree it's a good hospital and the pay is good, too. But, that's not the point.

    Dad: Then what's the point?

Mom: It's in New York, too far away!  Let me tell you what, dear Donna. Tony's clinic is just several blocks away. You don't need to travel far if you work there. Tony is a nice young man and I guess you'll get married soon.

    Dad: Ha! It's hard enough to live with a husband or wife. Working with them, too? That's a choice for trouble. Well, Donna, what do you think?

    Donna: I'm thinking about accepting the offer from Backwoods Hospital.

    Dad: But Donna, look at their offer! You'll be on call six days a week, 24 hours a day. That's really a hard job.

    Mom: Oh, Donna, the pay is another problem.

    Donna: It isn't a dead-end job, Mom and Dad. But anyway, I didn't __.

    Dad: No? Then why did you become a doctor?

    Donna: I want to help people. You know that. And Backwoods serves a very poor and needy population. Backwoods, here I come!

    Imagine this: your parents go away on business, but you have to stay at home alone. Would life be as easy as when your parents are around? Would it be a perfect holiday for you?

    "I can fill an empty stomach with tomato and egg soup, but that's all. I think many of my classmates are the same. We wouldn't know what to do, or how to look after ourselves," said Zheng Chenyu. "And I'd forget something important. I'd probably watch television and burn the soup."

    "As soon as I leave home, I'll learn to cook. But now parents do almost everything for us.

    We're very lazy," she said.

    Most teenagers have only time for their homework. They don't learn any life skills until theygo to college.

    However, Sima Yige doesn't think so.

    "I think I'd be all right. I wouldn't just eat sandwiches or fruit. I know how to cook, some simple dishes because my mum showed me," the 13-year-old boy said. In his opinion, many teenagers depend too much on their parents, and there is much more to learn than cooking, like tidying up your room or even dressing yourself properly.

    For most teenagers it wouldn't be a holiday at all.

    Do you often throw away things you don't need anymore? Have you ever thought about how these things can actually be put to good use? Nothing is a waste if you have a creative mind.

    You have probably never heard of Amy Hayes, but she is a most unusual woman. She lives in a house in the UK that she built herself out of rubbish. The windows and doors come from old buildings around her town that were pulled down. The top of the house is an old boat turned upside down. And the gate in front of her house is made of rocks and old glass bottles. Amy recently won a prize from the Help Save Our Planet Society. The president said, "Amy is an inspiration to us all."

    Amy isn't the only one who is good at recycling. Jessica Wong from Hong Kong uses old clothes that people don't wear anymore to make bags. She has been doing this for a few years now. She opened a small shop where she sells her bags, and she has also set up a website to sell them online. She especially likes to use old jeans to make handbags. Her bags are cute and useful. "I plan to write a book about new ways to use old clothes," she said. "I hope people can read my book and enjoy it!"

    Wang Tao set up a small business in Shanghai four years ago. He is known for using iron and other materials from old cars to make beautiful art pieces. Some are large pieces that look like animals or humans, and some are smaller pieces you can put at home. The more popular works can even been seen in art shops around the city. Wang Tao hopes to set up a "metal art" theme park to show people the importance of environmental protection. Not only can the art bring happiness to others, but it also shows that even cold, and iron can be brought back to life with a little creativity.