Zheng He was an amazing man. He was born in 1371. Eleven years later, he was caught by the army of a rich young man called Zhu Di and made to work for him. Over time the rich man saw that Zheng He was very clever and strong and they became close friends. In 1403 Zhu Di became the emperor of China and he asked Zheng He to join his government.

    The emperor wanted to learn more about the world and show other countries his power. He ordered many new ships to be built and made Zheng He their leader. Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He led seven sea trips to different parts of the world. He certainly travelled to India, Africa and the Middle East. A few people think his ships have even reached South America and Australia.

    Each trip lasted between two and four years and it is believed that he sailed more than 50,000 kilometres during the years of his travels. Zheng He led a fleet with about 28,000 men and over 300 ships, such as boats for food, water and even soldiers' horses.

    On these trips he brought with him many Chinese goods like silk and medicine to give to foreign kings or to sell for local goods. He returned from each trip with boats which were filled with expensive things such as gold and treasure, foreign guests and strange animals like a giraffe.

    It is a pity that we may never learn everything about Zheng He's travels. The Columbus of the East, Zheng He, died in 1433. After that, the new emperor had these trips stopped and he burned almost all the books about Zheng He's travels, because he believed the trips were unlucky and too expensive. It is only in the last 50 years that historians have begun to carefully study the adventures of great Zheng He.

Le Guoqiang is a student from Central South University of Forestry and Technology. Le had a terrible stutter (口吃)when he was a child. It made him feel worried. His parents were worried, too. They took him to many hospitals, and the doctors said that was because he was too afraid to talk. 

To help their son, Le's parents asked him to go to the vegetable market and buy vegetables every day during the summer holiday. He tried to talk to people he didn't know. It was difficult for him, but he could talk to people slowly at that time. 

When Le went to univerity, he dreamed to become a judge (法官). He decided to overcome (克服)his problem. He had to work hard to make his dream come true. He sturred gwing speeches(演讲)on the bus every weekend and practicing talking in front of many people. "I am not here to sell. I want to talk about myself and share my dream. I hope to overcome my stutter, "Le said in a speech. 

At first, Le was very nervous when he was giving his speech. After many times of practice, Le now feels relaxed. Le is a great boy. He faces his problem and fights for his dream. What do you think of him?

Ben and Tim are good friends. They were very active before. They played games together outdoors a lot. But now Tim is not active any more. He has some bad habits. He watches too much TV and plays too many computer games. Ben worries about him.

Ben sends his friend a poem:

You can be a couch potato and watch TV all day.

But don't do that. There is another way!

Move your body, get out and have fun.

Fresh air, a bike ride, playing in the sun!

Tim gets home from school. There is a letter at his front door. It's Ben's poem! He reads the poem and he laughs. He writes a poem back to his friend:

Your poem is funny,

But I feel really lucky.

With a true friend on my side,

My world will be open wide.

Let's meet tomorrow at six o' clock,

And we can go for a good walk.

I have learnt Chinese for years. Some people who want to learn Chinese often ask me 1 to learn it well. There is no simple 2 to this question. However, I would like to share my journey of learning Chinese with you.

Learning a new language takes time and hard work. Compared with my own language French, Chinese is 3 different. The fact makes it harder for me to memorize Chinese words. It can be very discouraging (使人气馁的) 4 memorizing g word is the first step o learning a language well

To 5 the problem, I read lots of articles about how to learn a language more quickly. The most popular piece of 6 on the Internet was to make flashcards (识字卡). You can put whatever you are trying to 7 on the front side of the card. It can be a word, a sentence or a picture. On the back, there is something that should come into your 8 when you see the front side.

With the card, you can 9 what you want to remember with something you are familiar (熟悉的) with. These connections make it easier and less boring to remember words. What's more, for words 10 to remember, you can review them again and again.

Today is a big day for Chen Ming. His parents ask him to meet a new English teacher, Miss Green. 

"Miss Green is not in Beijing, " Mum says. "She is in London. You can have an English class with her on the computer. "

Chen thinks it is great. He sits in front of his computer and waits for Miss Green. It is time for class. He sees Miss Green—she has long brown hair and big blue eyes. Miss Green sings the Hello Song to Chen first. 

Then Miss Green says, "Hello, my name is Jenny Green. What's your name?"

"Hello, Miss Green! My name is Chen Ming, " Chen says. 

"Nice to meet you here. Let's learn how to learn English well today. . . "

The class is very interesting. Soon（很快）, ____. Chen likes Miss Green's class very much. He wants to see Miss Green again and wants to be her friend. He thinks English is his favourite subject now.