An old saying goes ”Laughter is the best medicine.”It's true that laughter is really good for our health. So, the next time you're feeling stressed, try to laugh a lot, ①develop a sense of humor and watch funny films.

The Comic Relief charity, an organization that helps people in need, uses laughter to raise money. Every two years in spring, many English people put on a red nose, make a fool of themselves and do "silly” things to make themselves and others laugh. Examples of silly things you can do are:

• Invite friends round to your house to watch funny films. They have to pay to watch the films—those with the most comfortable chairs pay more—and for food and drinks.

• Hold a talent show at school and ask your friends and teachers to sing, dance or tell jokes. Sell tickets for the show to the rest of the school.
• Have a red nose party at your house. All your friends come dressed in red—including red nose—and your serve red food and drinks. If they don't wear red, they have to pay a fine.
  
• Get the students in your school to make funny sculptures(雕塑)using all kinds of materials. Sell tickets to your Red Nose Day exhibition and part of the money goes to Comic Relief.

      The organization has helped people for more than 20 years. And how much have they collected since the first Red Nose Day? Over￡600 million!②             . In New Zealand, for example, people have made big red noses which they put on the front of cars and even buildings.

    You may think that inventions are far away from your everyday life. But in fact, almost everyone can invent. It's just that they do not realize that their idea could be the start of an invention. Once inventors see their ideas have some practical value, they don't let them run away.

    For example, the inventors of the dishwasher, American Josephine Cochrane, loved to give dinner parties. But she found it took too long to wash her dishes by hand. She decided that a machine could do the job faster. So, in 1886, she began to make one for herself.

    Here are the steps to create inventions. The first and most important step is to find the problem. Start by looking at what is wrong with things you see now and ask people around if they remember ever saying, “I wish someone would invent something for...” Then you might notice situations(情况) or things in need of improvement. The next step is to think about possible solutions. An invention is a new way of solving a problem. So think of many and unusual ways. You can often come up with a solution to a problem by looking at it from a different side.

    The hardest part of inventing is coming up with a problem and finding a solution. Once you have an idea, you can always get help building your invention. This problem-solving technique can also work in your everyday lives. So, why not try it in your studies, in your relationship with others, or even in the way you look at the world?

    Chinese are very generous when they begin to educate their children. No caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the USA or Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes that will give them a good start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend a large number of money on education. Even poor parents will buy a computer for their child.

    However, what most parents fail to see is that the best education they can give their children is usually very cheap. Parents can see that their children are skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize is that today's children lack (缺乏) self-respect and self-confidence.

The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.

    Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework. These activities are teaching a child not only to read, but also to think. And that is more important.

    Did you know that tea, the most popular drink in the world (after water), was invented by accident? Many people believe that tea was first drunk nearly 5,000 years ago. It is said that a Chinese ruler called Shen Nong first discovered tea as a drink. One day Shen Nong was boiling drinking water over an open fire. Some leaves from a tea plant fell into the water and remained there for some time. It produced a nice smell so he tasted the brown water anyway. It was quite delicious. In this way, one of the world's favorite drinks was invented.

    More than 4,000 years later, Lu Yu, "the saint of tea", mentioned Shen Nong in his book Cha Jing. The book describes how tea plants were grown and used to make tea. It also discusses where the finest tea leaves were produced and what kinds of water were used.

    It is believed that tea was brought to Korea and Japan during the 6th and 7th centuries. In England, tea didn't appear until around 1660, but less than 100 years later, it had become the national drink. The tea trade from China to Western countries took place in the 19th century. This helped to spread the popularity of tea and the tea plant to more places around the world. Even though many people now know about tea culture, the Chinese are without doubt the ones who best understand the nature of tea.

    In northern Scotland there is a long, deep lake called Loch Ness. More than 200 meters deep, it is the largest lake in the UK. People say a big monster(怪兽)lives in its dark, cold waters. 1t weighs more than 1,000 kilos and is at least ten meters long. Some people say it has a head like a horse. Others say it looks like a snake. Many people travel to loch Ness to look for this strange monster, but only a few people have seen it. At least, they say they have seen it.

    The Loch Ness Monster is a famous legend(传说). The first story about a monster in loch Ness was told over 500 years ago, but the legend of the monster spread widely only in the twenties century. In 1933, a husband and wife reported that they saw a big monster in Loch Ness. Several people had taken photos, but at least one of them was a hoax. During the 1960s, a team was formed to look for the monster. They took many, but they were never able to find a monster, photos and made movies.

    There is no real fact that a monster lives in Loch Ness, but there is also no fact that one doesn't live. One thing is true about loch Ness: there are a lot of tourists there.

根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

    It was Saturday again. Grace and Karen disliked, Saturdays. Unlike their classmates, they had to get up early at seven every Saturday to prepare for their lessons. Grace had to attend the drawing lesson and Karen had to attend her ballet lesson. "How I wish I could do something different today," said the twins with one voice. All at once, an idea came to Grace and Karen at the same time. "Do you want to be me for a day?" they asked each other. It seemed like a wonderful plan to them. After giving each other a description of their own friends, Grace put on Karen's ballet dress while Karen put Grace's brushes and paints into her bag. Then they left for their classes.

    When the drawing lesson started, Karen was lost. Unlike Grace, Karen was poor at drawing. When the drawing lesson finally ended, Karen didn't dare to hand in her work.

    Meanwhile, Grace was struggling in the ballet class as well. As she had no idea about the dance steps, she had to follow her classmates blindly. As a result, she kept knocking into them. Their ballet teacher became impatient with her, "Karen, you should remember the basic steps. You can't rely on copying what others are doing."

    When Karen and Grace got home, they were tired out. They decided that they would never try to be someone else they were not. It seemed that the grass was not always greener on the other side.