In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up with the Joneses" is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.The expressoion was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.It was like a race, but one could never finish his race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.

    Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses" because "Jones" is a very common name in the United States."Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand's series appeared in different newspapers throughout the country for over 28 years. People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are "Joneses" in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one  does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.

    I arrived in the UK last weekend to learn English. So far I have already made a few friends and had some traditional English food there. But after having three days of hamburgers, sandwiches and potatoes, I thought none could be more delicious than Chinese food , especially my favorite—huo guo. You can't imagine how excited I was when I got to know that there was going to be a free meal of hotpot to welcome the new students. On the way to the canteen, I seemed to smell huo guo in the air.

    To my surprise, when I went into the room I didn't see any of huo guo. Where was it? With many questions in my mind, I sat down to have the free meal. After talking with an English girl, I got to know that Chinese huo guo is completely different from hotpot. Chinese huo guo is written in two words—hot pot, and hotpot, one word, is a traditional English dish.

    Hotpot is made from mutton and onion. On the top are pieces of potatoes. People put it in the oven all day in a heavy pot on a low heat. It takes very little effort to prepare. You can often see it at parties in the UK because it's easy to prepare for a large number of people and is not expensive.

    Hotpot doesn't taste bad. However, I still miss huo guo—hot pot, two words!

    This is' a story of a man who worked in a big factory. I got to know him many years ago, but I never paid any attention to him. He always wore an old red hat and carried a rubbish bag. He usually spent his break time and lunchtime walking around in that old big factory to collect the unused tins.

    Today, I was fixing one machine in the factory when this "tin man" came with his bag. As usual, he picked up the tins. My manager was standing there to watch me. He asked the "tin man" what he was going to do with those tins. I never thought about this question, because I always thought that he'd sell those tins for money.

    The "tin man" answered, "I will give these tins to my neighbour. He is ill and he cannot work." I was so surprised to hear that, so I asked him, "You collect all those tins just to help your neighbour? I know this does not help much," he said. "But I will try my best to help him."

    At that time, I found myself standing in front of a great man. This "tin man" only wore a T shirt and an old red hat and carried a rubbish bag, but he was a great man.

    We shouldn't judge a man by his appearance(外表). We should look at his heart.

    Alan Smith is blind. He teaches blind children in his country. To show the world that the blind can also do something amazing, he walked across the world's largest salt desert, Salar de Uyuni, only with the help of a GPS.

    Walking across the desert is not easy for an able-bodied person, let alone (更不用说) a blind man. Before setting off, Alan spent three years training for the journey. He studied everything he could find about the place and asked for advice from other travelers. During his journey, he only took water, food and sleeping bags. He walked about 20 kilometers a day. He showed great perseverance (毅力) and finished the 140-kilometer journey in just seven days.

    The brave teacher thought his week-long journey was wonderful. He said, "The journey was quite good. There were snow storms and winds, but luckily I made it."

    Little Peter is a boy of nine. He began to go to school when he was six, and now he is in Grade Three. He lives not far from the school, but he is often late for class. He likes watching TV in the evening and goes to bed late, so he can't get up on time in the morning.

    This term, Mrs. Black, Peter's aunt, teaches music in Peter's school. She is strict (严格的) with Peter and often tells the boy to obey the school rules and come to school on time. Yesterday morning, Peter got up late. When he hurried to school, it was a quarter past eight. His aunt was waiting for him at the school gate.

    "You are ten minutes late for the first class, Peter," Mrs. Black said angrily. "Why are you often late for class?" "Every time, when I get to the street corner, I always see a guidepost (路标). It says 'SCHOOL—GO SLOWLY'!".

    In ancient China, people's names had three parts: their family name, given name and courtesy name (字).

    Take Li Bai, a famous Tang Dynasty poet as an example. His family name was Li, his given name was Bai, and his courtesy name was Taibai.

    People used their given name when they were among family members. But in social (社交的) life, they called each other by their courtesy names to show respect(尊重).

    Men would get their courtesy name when they turned 20. It was a symbol of adulthood (成年). Women would get their courtesy name after getting married (结婚).

    One's courtesy name often had something to do with one's given name. For example, Mencius' name was Meng Ke (孟轲). His courtesy name was Ziyu (子舆). Both Ke and Ziyu mean "carriage (马车)". Zhuge Liang's given name was Liang (亮), which means "bright". His courtesy name was Kongming (孔明), and it means "very bright".