Few people I know seem to have much desire or time to cook. Making Chinese {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(dish) is seen as especially troublesome. Many westerners {#blank#}2{#/blank#} come to China cook much less than in their own countries once they realize how cheap {#blank#}3{#/blank#} can be to eat out. I still remember {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (visit) a friend who'd lived here for five years and I {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(shock) when I learned she hadn't cooked once in all that time.

    While regularly eating out seems to {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(become) common for many young people in recent years, it's not without a cost. The obvious one is money; eating out once or twice a week may be {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(afford) but doing this most days adds up. There could be an even {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (high) cost on your health. Researchers have found that there is a direct link between the increase in food eaten outside the home and the rise in{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(weigh) problems.

    If you are not going to suffer this problem, then I suggest that the next time you go to your mum's home {#blank#}10{#/blank#} dinner, get a few cooking tips from her. Cooking food can be fun. You might also begin to notice the effects not only on your health but in your pocket.

    The story goes {#blank#}1{#/blank#} two friends are walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they have {#blank#}2{#/blank#} argument, and one friend beats the other one in the face.

    The one is hurt, but {#blank#}3{#/blank#} saying anything, he writes in the sand: "Today my best friend beats me in the face."

    They keep on walking {#blank#}4{#/blank#} they find an oasis (绿洲) and they decide to take a bath. The one who{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (beat) gets stuck in the mire (泥潭) and starts to sink, but {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (fortune) the friend saves him.

    After he recovers from the near {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (drown), he writes on a stone: "Today my best friend saves my life."

    His friend asks him, "When I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, but now you write on a stone. Why?"

    He {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(reply): "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, the winds of {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (forgive) can rub it away. But when someone does something good to us, we must carve {#blank#}10{#/blank#} on a stone, therefore, no wind can ever erase it."

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to engrave your benefits on the stone.

    The Agricultural Feast {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(take) place after the Independence Day. It is not a worldwide celebration. Only Christians in Mexico look forward to its arrival for its {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(religion) origin.

    Long ago, man's ancestors were bad. They fooled and played tricks on each other and never kept {#blank#}3{#/blank#}word. So God turned up and drowned all their crops. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(human) starved day and night, weeping. In order to gain God's forgiveness, a woman poet set off to see God. She admired God and madeapologies, God {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(move). With God's permission, human beings finally had good harvests again. Thus to wipe sadness and remind themselves of the belief {#blank#}6{#/blank#} God, people began the festival. On the festival, people gather in {#blank#}7{#/blank#}open air, such as playgrounds and parking lots, and have fun with each other {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(energetic) all night long, as though they were never tired. When a beauty {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(dress) up in lovely clothing reads poems in memory of the poet, everyone holds their breath. Then, it is the custom{#blank#}10{#/blank#}the bone of a rooster head is given to her as an award. Obviously, the story may not be true, but the festival is interesting.

UK Schools Ban Students From Using Slang (俚语)

    Officials at Sheffield's Springs Academy has introduced a new policy to prevent students aged 11 to 18 {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (use) slangs and colloquial abbreviations (口语化的缩写) inside the school. Harris Academy Upper Norwood said it carried out the program to allow its students {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (express) themselves confidently and appropriately. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} we want to make sure of is that they are confident in using standard English. Slang doesn't really give the right impression of the person. Young people going to interviews for their first job need to make a good impression {#blank#}4{#/blank#}employers will have confidence in them.

    Donna Bowater at the Telegraph writes that short forms of words {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (become) popular with the rise of text messages and the social networking website Twitter in the past few years.

    "In addition to {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (give) students the teaching they need to succeed academically, we want them to develop the soft skills {#blank#}7{#/blank#} they will need to compete for jobs and university places," the school was quoted as saying in a statement by the BBC.

    {#blank#}8{#/blank#} the above-mentioned support, South Yorkshire MP Angela Smith said that the policy might cause a risk to dialects (方言) and accents. Some critics argued that slangs provided students with an environment {#blank#}9{#/blank#} they could feel both the history and development of languages.

    The widespread argument is making people wonder {#blank#}10{#/blank#} it is necessary to cut the use of slangs entirely or not. All in all, different opinions of the policy help us have a deeper understanding of the truth that language is always changing with the times.

The Longji Rice Terraces (龙脊梯田) were built by the local Zhuang and Yao people, to whom Guangxi is home. Starting in the Yuan Dynasty, work on the terraces took hundreds of years. The terraces are {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (clever) designed, with hundreds of waterways that connect with each other. During the rainy season, it is along these waterways that rainwater {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (move) down the mountains and into the terraces. These terraces also provide a perfect environment for birds and fish, some of which feed on insects {#blank#}3{#/blank#} can harm the rice crops. Today the Longji Rice Terraces attract thousands of visitors who come to admire this great wonder created by people and nature working together.