When Mr. David retired(退休), he bought a small house in a village near the sea. He liked it and hoped to live a quiet life in it. But to his surprise, many visitors came to see his house in summer holidays, for it was the most interesting building in the village. From morning to night, there were visitors outside the house. They kept looking into the rooms through the windows and many of them even went into the house. He decided to drive the visitors away. So he put a notice on the window. The notice said，“If you want to satisfy your curiosity(好奇心), come in and look around. Price: twenty dollars.”Mr. David was sure that the visitors would stop coming, but he was wrong. More and more visitors came and Mr. David had to spend every day showing them around his house. “I came here to retire, not to work as a guide(导游)”, he said angrily. In the end, he sold the house and moved away.

    Mr. Turner liked fishing. It was his favorite sport. He often fished for hours without catching anything. But this did not worry him. Some fishermen couldn't catch fish. Sometimes they caught old boots or rubbish. Mr. Turner was even worse than the fishermen. He never caught anything - not even old boots. After he spent whole morning on the river, he always went home with an empty bag. "You must give up fishing!" his friends said, "It's a waste of time."  "But they don't realize one important thing. I'm not really interested in fishing. I am only interested in sitting in a boat and doing nothing at all. It can make me forget the noise of the city and live quietly for some time." he always said to himself.

    Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, a cartoon film based on a popular Chinese cartoon TV series, has won the hearts of children in China. The Chinese cartoon began to be shown in public on 16th January, 2009, the first day of the winter holiday for Chinese primary school students. The children seemed to go straight from the school to the cinema.

    Two weeks after its release(首次上映), the cartoon film got a box office income(票房收入)of 68 million yuan, bigger than that of an American film, Madagascar 2, which was released in China on 1st January, 2009.

    “I think it is more interesting than Madagascar 2, ” said 8­year­old Wang Lu, who had seen both the Chinese and American cartoon films.

    However, some parents don't have the same enthusiasm for Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. “It's so childish that I almost fell asleep in the cinema, ”Wang Lu's father said.

    But because primary school children's great interest, the Pleasant Goat and Big Big wolf made a great success at the box office results. Parents join their children in the cinema—buying two or three tickets to keep them accompanied(陪同).

    Some young people find the film funny enough to watch. “The Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are so cute, ” Dong Lei, a 22­-year-­old college student said.

    “However, compared with the animation(动画制作)technology of Hollywood cartoon films such as Kung Fu Panda, the film still has room for improvement, ” said cartoonist Yang Lin.

When someone does an eyebrow flash (挑眉), you'll see their eyebrows raise lightly for less than 1/5 of a second. 

What it Means: The eyebrow raise is a great sign of interest. People usually use the eyebrow flash in three main ways: 

* The eyebrow flash can skillfully show interest, such as when agreeing to something or thanking someone. It often means "yes" during a conversation. 

* The eyebrow flash can also express interest in a loving way. 

* Or the eyebrow flash can show social interest, such as when two people meet each other. It shows the other person that you are happy to see them. 

Whenever we use the eyebrow flash, we attract people's attention to our face. Teachers and speakers often use it to say, "Listen to this!" or "Look at me!"

The Science: According to a study, the eyebrow flash is thought to be a form of greeting and can be found all over the world. It is said that this gesture is common across all cultures. 

How to Use it: There are many ways to use the eyebrow flash. Here are a few examples: 

* To Express Liking: When you see someone you like or who you want to like you, give them a quick eyebrow flash followed by a warm smile. 

* To Encourage Participation: If you want someone to listen to something you are going to say, raise your eyebrows right before speaking. 

* To Show Interest: Are you curious (好奇)? Your eyebrows are the best way to express it!

Otters (水獭) are cute water animals. These days, keeping otters as pets is getting popular. In Japan, some "otter cafés (咖啡馆)" are open for business. People can pay to play with the otters there and to take photos with them. In Indonesia, people go swimming with their pet otters and take funny videos. These photos and videos posted online have interested more people to buy otters as pets. 

However, these enjoyable photos and videos hide the damage (损害) that the online trade is doing to otters. In fact, wild otters are facing many threats—they have long been hunted for their coats; in some places, fishermen have been killing otters in order to stop them from eating fish; and now, the online pet trade has become another big problem for otters. 

In the wild, baby otters usually stay with their mothers during their first year of life. According to a report, 70% of the otters sold online are under one year old. These baby otters have been stolen from their mothers. When they are kept as pets by humans, they do not live full and natural lives. 

Otters are very social. They live in family groups of up to 15 in the wild. Keeping an otter as a pet can make it very sad and lonely. These animals also need enough space to swim. Their owners' bathtubs (浴缸) or pools are nowhere near as large as the bodies of water in the wild. 

On the other hand, otters simply don't make good pets. They have a very special fishy smell. If they are kept indoors, they will leave a lot of waste around the house. This would make the smell even more unpleasant. Besides, when otters are unhappy, they will make loud noises and even attack (攻击) people. If a person is hurt by an otter, he or she needs to go to hospital at once. 

So, we should stop the otter pet trade and never share photos and videos about them online. 

A little girl in Hangzhou who loves baking(烘焙) has become popular. She watched videos on the Internet to learn how to bake and set up a stall(货摊) for sale during the summer holiday in2024. She can get several hundred yuan a day from her sales. 

Feng does well in making cakes. From an early age, Feng often watched her parents cook in the kitchen. She truly started baking in her second grade. She watched baking videos on the Internet first. After that, she tried to improve her baking skills. Sometimes she could spend all day baking in the kitchen. 

In the summer holiday of 2024, Feng came up with the idea of setting up a stall outside to sell cakes. She could earn(赚) up to 500 yuan a day at most. Her mother mainly wanted to develop her daughter's skills. She didn't expect her daughter to have such strong hands-on and social skills. To her surprise, Feng Rui did everything from baking the cakes to selling them. Sometimes when the cakes were not sold out, Feng Rui gave them to cleaners and friends. Now, she begins to teach some children to bake. 

Feng Rui will keep studying baking. Her mother was proud of her and said, "Stick to what you love is a beautiful thing. I hope she has a colourful life. "