No. 4 Middle School

Kunming, Yunnan

April 2nd, 2014

Dear Editor,

I live in a beautiful city. Many visitors come to my city. There are so many colorful peacocks (孔雀)here.

    The peacocks mostly (主要）live on the grassland of Dongfeng Square. Visitors can give them food freely. They usually throw food to them, and don't think about at all whether the food is right or not. Some of the peacocks became ill. Some even died after eating the bad food.

    I'm sure most of the visitors who throw food to the peacocks really like the birds, but they don't realize that they may be doing any harm.

    We should tell the visitors that what they have done is very harmful to the birds, and we also must stop this kind of thing from happening.

    Perhaps we can build some small shops beside Dongfeng Square to sell peacock food. For every one of us, it's our duty to give more love to these beautiful birds and to look after them carefully.

Yours,

Sun Yan

    Imagineyou are taking a walk on the beautiful beach. Just then, your feet step oversomething and you hear a crack (噼啪声) —an empty plastic bottle. Things like thisare happening more often because of sea rubbish.

    Studiesshow that 80%of all the waste is from the land. The waste is mainly plastics (塑料制品) which are really hard todegrade (降解). So the rubbish will remain there for along time. Some of the pollution is caused accidentally. For example, about10,000 product-filled boxes are lost at sea every year from business ships.Sometimes people just throw things into the water from boats or land. Manylarge rubbish areas are formed in the North Pacific Ocean.

   Thankfully, the situation isn't ignored (忽视). Groups like the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAssociation (NOAA) are taking action to help clean the sea. Since 2006, 76projects have cleared out 3,814 metric tons (公吨) ofrubbish from the sea. Methods of rubbish cleaning include using machines toremove (移除) the waste away from the surface of seawater. Besides, special nets are set by the mouths of rivers to stop therubbish before it reaches the sea. If everyone does his part, sea rubbish seemslike a problem that can be solved.

A few years ago,I visited theclassical gardens of Suzhou. During the visit, my attention {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(draw) away from the plants, bridges and stones, towards {#blank#}2{#/blank#} walls of the gardens. Mostly white, some parts of the walls are losing small {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(piece) of their coverings.

 This creates space in which light and plants can be seen. The walls are not only the boundaries of the gardens, but they also form protected roads {#blank#}4{#/blank#} guide you on a trip.

 The memory of the white walls stayed with me. I kept imagining how many shadows(影) could be collected {#blank#}5{#/blank#} them to dance with the light. This fantastic moment was so {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (live) that I came back to explore with my camera.

{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(walk) freely with these walls and their marks, I began to feel like collecting all the stories that {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(be) painted there. Weather and time have turned these amazing white walls into Chinese landscape paintings.

I {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(take) the photos during the month of June, just after the rain. The air was full of small   drops of water, showing the light and the color of the things around. As color was born out of a dance between light and a body, when photographing in color I found {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(I) enjoying a moment of this dance.

Every school day, we use schoolbags to carry all of our things to school. They are a big part of our lives. But have you ever thought about the history of the schoolbag?'. 

In the Han Dynasty（汉朝）, students in old - style private schools used bamboo boxes to carry books to school. People consider the bamboo boxes to be the earliest schoolbags. There were usually two or three layers（层）in the box. Kids put different things like books, brushes, ink stones（砚）and paper in the boxes. 

Hundreds of years later, people developed a new kind of schoolbag called the budai, or the " hip - pocket ". The budai was lighter than the bamboo box. With the founding (成立) of the People's Republic of China, military rucksacks（军用背包 )became popular. Many people carried them when they were in school. Ask your grandparents or parents about these bags. Maybe they can tell you about their experiences of carrying them when they were in school. 

A new style of schoolbags has appeared in recent years. Many of them have colorful and fashionable designs（时尚的设计） on them, such as pictures of cartoons or pop stars. And they are more comfortable to use. Some students pull wheeled bags filled with heavy textbooks and others carry backpacks. 

Schoolbags are still changing. Can you imagine what future schoolbags will be like?

In China, the 12th month of the lunar calendar (阴历) is called Layue. The month is full of interesting festivals and customs.

Laba Festival, which is on the 8th day of Layue, is the first festival in this month. From this day on, people begin to get ready for the Chinese New Year.

On Laba Festival, people eat hot Laba porridge (腊八粥). There are usually eight things in the porridge: rice, red beans, peas, dried lotus seeds, dates, and three different kinds of fruits and nuts. The porridge is not just good for your health, but a blessing for the coming of the Chinese New Year.

Laba porridge is not the only tasty food in Layue. Laba garlic (腊八蒜) is popular in the north. People begin to soak (浸泡) the garlic in vinegar from that day on, and eat it with dumplings during the Chinese New Year. While in the south, people like making sausages (腊肠).

Another major celebration before the Spring Festival is Xiaonian. It is usually on the 23rd or 24th day of the last lunar month. Traditionally, it is an important day when people offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God who looks after the family.

Don't forget to clean your home. This is also an important thing to do to prepare for the Chinese New Year. It means sweeping away the dust of the old year and welcoming a fresh start. Now, the last thing for you to do is to wait for the coming Spring Festival.