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    To me, music is food and water. I know this isn't right for everyone. Usually lots of people go to concerts or listen to music records. Maybe some of you don't do these, but music is everywhere in our life. For example, when you watch movies or TV plays, we will find them boring if there's no music. And when you're waiting for the train or the plane, some music can make the time short.

    Some people like to listen to the sound of the sea. Some enjoy listen to the singing of birds. Those sounds are some kind of music. So music has meaning for everyone. Of course, it has special meaning for people like me. We spend our lives playing or writing music.

    Someone said, “Through music a child goes into a world of beauty(美丽), learns to take care of others and makes his mind and body healthy.”

A story about the Mid-autumn Festival

    A great festival for the Chinese takes place on the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} In 2019, the Mid-autumn Festival falls on September13th. As a time for families to be together, the Mid-autumn Festival has its typical food -the mooncake which is round and delicious. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Long ago there was a king in China who was very cruel（残暴的）to the people and the country didn't go well. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} So they wrote notes telling about the meeting place and time and put them into cakes. On the 15th of August every person was told to buy the cakes. When they ate them, they discovered the notes. So they got together to make a sudden attack(进攻）on the king. From then on, the Chinese people celebrated on August 15^th. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    When the Mid-autumn Festival is near, shop owners decorate (装饰)their shop windows beautifully with pictures of ancient Chinese ladies. People go to buy many kinds of mooncakes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} On the evening of the day, people and their family have a big meal. After it, they eat mooncakes and watch the fullest and brightest moon.

    What homework did you do in the holiday? Now homework is not simply about exercises. It can be survey, practice and even work experiences. Here's three students' homework.

    Sam bought 10 kinds of snacks. Then he checked their instructions and wrote down the amount of sugar and fat in the snacks. He was doing his biology(生物学)homework. "We are told it is not good to eat too many snacks. They have high calories(卡路里). But we don't care about it, "he said. Sam spent three days studying the instructions. He realized it was true.

    With some plasticine(橡皮泥), glass balls, a ping-pong ball and a piece of paper,  could you make a tumbler(不倒翁)?This is the physics homework of Mary. "Next term, we will learn about the center of gravity(重心). This homework made me more interested in physics, "she said.

    Lisa worked as a guide in the local museum. She got a guide book from the museum, but she still did a survey and added more information to her introduction. She worked three hours a day and had no time to take a break. But she felt it was a meaningful experience. "My communication skills have improved, "she said.

Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That's because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?

    The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service company it is. For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册). And the last four digits are random (随机的).

    The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That's enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.

    And mobile phone numbers can be recycled. Usually, the service company will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven't contacted for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.

    Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada's mobile phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.

Canadian: In my country, the mobile phone numbers use seven digits. Why does this mobile phone have 11 digits—13958583739?

Salesman: We have the largest population. Besides China, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} also use 11-digit numbers.

Canadian: What do the numbers mean?

Salesman: The number {#blank#}2{#/blank#} tells you which mobile phone service company it is.

    The {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to the seventh numbers tell you the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} of its registration. The number 3739 is random.

Canadian: Can you {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the phone numbers?

Salesman: Yes, after three to six months.

Give water, save lives

A bottle of water may not seem like much to you, but thousands of bottles will be of great help for people who live in drought-hit(遭受旱灾) areas in China.

Since last autumn, there has been very little rain in Southwest China. Some places, especially in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, have experienced a serious drought. Crops (庄稼) died, the land cracked(裂开), and wells (井) and rivers dried up. More than 20 million people are having difficulty in finding safe drinking water.

After learning about the drought, many people around the country helped by giving water, money and other things.

Last week, every member of the Communist Youth League (共青团员) and Young Pioneers(少先队员) were encouraged to give one bottle of water to the drought-hit areas. Students in primary schools and middle schools quickly joined the activity. In Yuhua Primary School in Xi' an, 900 students bought over 1,000 bottles of water with their pocket money. They also wrote their wishes on the bottles.

The serious drought has also made students realize the importance of saving water. Students from Nanshan Middle School in Huizhou, Guangdong went on the street to tell people to take part in water-saving activities.

"I've heard that some children in drought-hit areas don't have enough drinking water. They have to drink muddy ( 含有泥土的 ) water. I feel really sad about that," said one student. "I decide to take a shower twice a week instead of every day to save water," he said.