Once upon a time， there lived a teacher In a small town. He often taught his students in special ways. Once he Rent four of his students to go to a small farm to see apple trees in different seasons. The first student went in winter， the second in spring. The third in summer. And the last in autumn.

    After the four students came back .the teacher called them together. They pictured (描述) their feeling to the teacher. The first student said that there were no leaves on the trees. It made him very disappointed. The second student said his eyes were full of light green. It made him feel hopeful. The third one disagreed. ”What are you talking about? How pretty the trees were! The sweet smell of the beautiful flowers spread (传播） here and there.” The last one shook his head. He only saw a lot of apples on the beautiful trees.

    The teacher smiled and told his students none of them were wrong. They each just saw one season. He continued， “The trees are not the same in different seasons. You can't judge (判断)a tree by only one season. Don' t let the regret of one season destroy the beauty of the rest. '

    Everything has different sides in our life. Don't hurry to make a conclusion(结论)before seeing the whole of it.

    Do you have a vegetable garden? Have you ever watched a seed sprout(发芽) and grow fruit until it became the tomato on your plate? If you go to school in the USA, there is a good chance you have.

    At the moment, nearly 20 percent of schools in the USA have their own vegetable gardens that are planted and cared for by students. Next year, even more schools will have gardens and more USA kids will know the pleasure of growing their own food.

    Much of the growing interest in planting comes from the First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" project, which started in 2010. The First Lady wants to improve children's nutrition(营养) in the USA--and she began her project by planting a garden at the White House with the help of some local kids. The kids were more interested in eating the vegetables from their garden than in eating fast food. This gave the First Lady an idea.

    Because so many USA kids eat breakfast and lunch at school, the food should be healthy and good. Why not let kids grow the food for their own cafeterias (自助食堂)? Mrs Obama's project gives money to schools to start their own gardens, and more school gardens are sprouting up every day.

    Students also use the information from their gardens to study science and math, and they paint pictures of their gardens in art class. Many students choose to work in the garden instead of playing on the playground during their noon break. Sound like fun? Ask your teacher if there's room for a garden at your school, too.

Have you ever heard of the facechanging, or "bian lian" in Chinese? Facechanging started 300 years ago. Now it's popular in the southern part of China. It's an important part of Sichuan Opera. While the actors are performing, you can see different feelings and characters through their face masks(面具). It's said that ancient people painted their faces to drive away wild animals. Later, Sichuan Opera makes this ancient skill become its own part and turns it into an art.

In modern Sichuan Opera, many skills are used to change masks, and they have been passed down only within theatre families. In the beginning, opera actors changed the colors of their faces during shows by blowing into a bowl of red, black or gold powder(粉末). The powder would stick to their oiled skin quickly. In this way, actors could change their faces in just a few seconds.

In modern Sichuan Opera, actors wave their arms and turn their heads, and their painted masks are changed again and again. Full­face painted silk masks are often used by modern actors. They are so thin that actors can change about 10 masks in 20 seconds. Actors change their masks with a hand or by turning their heads.

No matter how many times the face­changing is shown in Sichuan Opera, you can find people lost in wonder every time. And don't be surprised when you see the facechanging of Sichuan Opera on the street of a foreign country. The traditional Chinese art is getting popular around the world.