An important question about eating out is who pays for the meal. If a friend of yours asks you to have lunch with him, you may say something like this,“I'm afraid it'll have to be someplace cheap, because I have little money.” The other person may say, “OK, I'll meet you at McDonald's.”

    This means that the two agree to go Dutch, that is, each person pays for himself. He may also say, “Oh，no，I want to take you to lunch at Smith's,”or“I want you to try the Chinese dumplings there. They are great.”This means the person wants to pay for both of you. If you feel friendly towards the person, you can go with him and you needn't pay for the meal. You may just say, “Thank you. That would he very nice.”

    American custom(习惯) about who pays for dates (约会) are much the same as in other parts of the world. In the old days, American women wanted men to pay for all the meals. But, today, a university girl or a woman in business world will usually pay their way during the day. If a man asks her for a dance outside the working hours, it means “Come, as my guest.”So as you can see, it is a polite thing to make the question clear at the very beginning.

    If someone asks me "Do you like music?" I'm sure I will answer him or her, "Of course, I do." Because I think music is an important part of our lives.

    Different people have different ideas about music. For me, I like rock music because it's so exciting. And my favourite rock band "the Foxy Ladies" is one of the most famous rock bands in the world. I also like pop music. My classmate Li Lan loves dance music, because she enjoys dancing. My best friend Jane likes jazz music. She thinks jazz is really cool.

    "I like dance music and rock music very much, "says my brother, "because they are amazing."

    But my mother thinks rock music is boring. "I like some relaxing music, "she says. That's why she likes country music, I think.

    The great fire of London started in the very early hours of September 2, 1666. In four days, it burnt most of the old city. Many houses were wooden and close together, so they were burnt down. One hundred thousand people lost their homes.

    The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker. But the baker, with his wife and family, got out through a window. A strong wind blew the fire from the baker's house into a small hotel next door. Then it was on fire everywhere. But that was only the beginning.

    By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire burnt many well-known buildings. Old St. Paul's and the (Guildhall were among them.

    Samuel Pepys, a famous writer, wrote about the fire: People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until they died. Birds died because of the hot air.

    The fire didn't stop until the King asked people to push down hundreds of building in the way of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became small and died out at last.

    Many lives and things were lost after the fire, but London became a better place many years later.

    Near the village, there is an old famous temple. Some people want to build a new house where the temple now stands, because they can find no other area to build them, while others disagree with them. They meet to decide how to solve the problem. Here are their opinions about it.

The expert wants to protect the temple and believes that there are some interesting things buried in the ground. If it is destroyed or moved, people may never learn about how people lived in the past.

The businessman thinks that the houses should be built. History is important, but we must think about the future. The village needs development and building new houses will offer jobs to hundreds of people.

Villager A says, "We should build the new houses because we need houses to live in."

Villager B says, "We should protect the temple because it can attract many tourists to come for a visit. If the temple is destroyed or moved, we will lose a lot of business."

The village leader thinks that he has a duty to make life better for the villagers. They need jobs and new houses. He also thinks the cultural site (遗迹) is important and they should be careful with it as well.

 Teens will finally grow up some day, leaving their parents and facing the challenges in life alone, so they should learn basic life skills and form good working habits.

 The government has been trying to pay attention to the importance of hardworking spirit education(劳动教育). But this has been overlooked in recent years. Many teens do not value(看重) the importance of working hard. There is a teenager girl named Nancy. She never helps out around the house. Once her mother was on vacation for a week, leaving her alone at home. When her mother came home from vacation, she could not find a clean di sh or a clean shirt.

 Schools play an important role in teaching students about the value of working hard. Primary and middle schools should provide students with hardworking spirit courses every week. To our joy(开心), some schools have provided each class with a piece of field to plant their favorite vegetables. For example, No.38 Middle School in Hefei, sets up a 500- square- meter farm on an open platform(露天平台) of their teaching building. Each class is asked to grow and pick vegetables there.

 Parents should also encourage children to learn how to do chores at home. Teens should master(掌握) one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms. The basic skills may help teens to solve the problems they will meet in the future.