Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her sit by her window each afternoon, sewing(针线活) or reading.
     After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, "I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible.”
     One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window inside. Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was seen clearly. Her window was clean! Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing(批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through(通过) my own dirty window.
     That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own mistakes?
     Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, "Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?”
Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.

    Many expressions(表达方式) we use in American English come from movies and books. Today we will learn some expressions from Lewis Carol's famous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This book is better known as Alice in Wonderland.

    The story is about a young girl falling for a long time down a rabbit hole. When she finally lands, she finds herself in a strange world. In this strange world are some of the most popular characters in children's books. Many of the expressions from the book have found their way into American English.

    The first character Alice meets is the White Rabbit. The White Rabbit is not a usual rabbit. Alice chases (追赶) after him, and that is where her adventures begin.

    In English, "chasing a white rabbit" means to chase an impossible dream. "Following the white rabbit" means you are in the middle of an unusual situation. This situation often challenges your thinking and changes your life. Like "chasing a white rabbit", "falling down the rabbit hole" means we get interested in something else and lose ideas about time.

    Later in the story, Alice is the guest at a tea party— a crazy tea party! There she meets the March Hare. The hare seems to be truly crazy. To be "mad as a March hare" means that someone is completely mad or crazy.

Using expressions from popular books can add special flavor(味道). And when used properly, they also show you have a deeper understanding of the English language.

    Bob and Sue are in the same school, 1 they are in different 2. They go to school on weekdays. 3 school, Bob and Sue often play games with 4 friends.

  Class begins 5 eight in the morning. Now Bob and Sue are in their own(自己的) classrooms. They are listening to their 6. Bob's studying English. His teacher is talking 7 English. Sue's 8 a Chinese class. Her teacher is talking 9 writing. They study hard. They love their teachers and they like their 10.

    Mr. Chen was puzzled（闲惑的）and a little suspicious（怀疑的）. He sat in the office and studied a letter apparently（看似）from Mrs. Wang, the mother of one of the pupils in his class. There was something about it which worried him.

    "I don't understand," he said to himself. He shook his head as he circled four mistakes in the letter. "Mrs. Wang is an educated woman. She wouldn't make mistakes like these even if she did write the letter in a hurry. "Mr. Chen took out his class register(名册)and said to himself, "Yesterday was Thursday. Let me see. Ah, yes. I thought so. David was absent on Thursday last week and the week before. Hm. Why is he so often absent on Thursdays? Was he really ill yesterday? Could it be a coincidence(巧合)?”

    Mr. Chen stared at the register as if the answers to his questions were hidden in it somewhere. Then he took out a copy of the timetable(课程表)for his class.

    "I wonder." he told to himself. "I wonder if his absence has anything to do with one of these lessons."

    Mr. Chen looked at the subjects for Thursday: Mathematics, English, P. E. He thought about P. E. He knew that the pupils had P. E. twice a week: once on Monday, when they usually played games on the school field, and once on Thursday, when they did exercises in the gym.

    Mr. Chen glanced round the office to find Mr. Long, the rather strict P. E. teacher, but he was not there.

    "I'd better have a chat with Long and David, "Mr. Chen thought.

The bell rang. "I can't do anything right now," Mr. Chen thought. "It's time to go to Class 2. I'll do it later on."

    Mr. Chen picked up his books and walked off to teach Class 2.

Later, on Friday, Mr. Chen spoke to Mr. Long, the P. E. teacher. Mr. Long agreed that it seemed strange for David to be absent so often on gym days. They thought about it for a while.

    "David is a good athlete(运动员)," Mr. Long finally said, "but he's afraid of heights. I was hard on him once because he wouldn't climb more than a couple of meters up the rope. Do you think that's why he's been absent recently?"

    "Yes, I think so," Mr. Chen said. "I'm going to talk to him this afternoon before he goes home."

    "Well, I've got a suggestion to make," said Mr. Long. "If he's scared of heights, he'd better come and see me after school. Quite a few people suffer from (遭受) vertigo. I'll be glad to help him."

    “That's very kind of you," said Mr. Chen. "I'll get him to come and see you on Monday or Tuesday."

    I know my brother better than anyone else in the world. Since the moment of his birth, I've been part of his life. I had spent seven happy years in the world with the attention of those around me. But when Rohan was born, life changed. All of a sudden, I had to share my toys and there were no more bedtime stories or my own choice of food.

    Finally, I hated this small boy. The poor baby had no idea what had made me so unhappy. Maybe he found me strange, the only person in this house who did not like him. Whatever the reason was, he loved following me around. However, I seldom talked to him and always asked him to leave me alone.

    Then all that changed. I hardly remember everything of that day six years ago, but I do remember that I was feeling very angry. Then I found myself in my brother's room. I couldn't help reaching my hand through the bars of his bed. At once, he reached his small hand and softly touched mine. And that was all I needed. Through all the unhappiness of the day, that one moment changed everything. How could I hate someone who made me feel so important? For the first time, I saw my brother through the eyes of a sister. Suddenly I realized love from my family was always with me.

    To this day, I can't imagine life without my brother. It is unbelievable how much I have learned about life from a seven-year-old boy. Above all, Rohan has taught me that one should not care only for himself.