Nowadays, lots of foreigners are learning Chinese. Like many of them, I 1 knew two words of Chinese ("Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie") when I first came to Beijing, China in 2009. As you can guess, my life was 2 for a while after I arrived. Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful.

    I knew I had to learn more Chinese, so I 3 a Chinese class. My teacher was 4, although I didn't learn enough to have a real conversation. Later I studied on my own as well, but my progress was still slow. And I decided to 5.

    Around this time, I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing. He taught me a lot of 6 about music, such as "melody". He learned a lot of English from me in return, so it was a good way to 7 language and culture.

    I have learned enough Chinese to 8 many problems like booking train tickets. These days, there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese. I can 9 why it's an amazing language. Finally, I found that the best way to learn a 10 is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them.

    It is difficult for the parents of every family to teach their children to be responsible (有责任的) for housework.

    The Shatian School in Shanghai is making its students do housework for their parents. The third graders(三年级学生) must learn how to cook and clean, sixth graders do the laundry(洗衣服) and seventh and eighth graders cook balanced meals with 15 yuan.

    Many parents think it's a good way for children to try housework but they don't know how to do it at home. With the following ideas, you really can get your children to help at home.

    If you want to make your children think that they can do everything quite right, please don't always scold(批评) if them but give them lots of praise at home. Talk more about what they did right, not about what they didn't do. If your child finishes some difficult work, give him or her a Sunday trip or a ball game with Dad as a reward.

    In America, the school day usually starts at 9 a.m. and finishes at about 4 p.m. The school subjects are different from1. In China, we always2Chinese, math, English, P.E. and so on. But in America, students have more3, such as cooking and driving lessons. Their school life isn't just4study. They also have more things to do than（比）Chinese students. There are many clubs（俱乐部） in American schools, 5. If the students are interested in sports, they6join different sports clubs. American students also have art clubs, language clubs and some7clubs. From 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., they do8things in these clubs.

    Maybe you think English is very popular in the world, so American students don't need to 9any other language.10that's not true. American children from the age of seven have to learn a foreign language. For example, they learn French or Chinese.

    My name is Bill. I 1 in Sun Junior High School. There are many 2 in my school. In the front of my school is the 3 building. It's a building for teachers. Behind it is the library building. It's my favorite place, 4 I like reading. After school, I always read books or do my homework there. 5 is the classroom building? It's next 6 the library. Behind the library is a dinning hall. There are different 7 of food like hamburgers, bread and vegetables. If students want to have lunch there, they 8 pay(付款) 50 yuan a week. There is a gym in my school, too. It's behind the classroom building. My friends and I like playing games there. I 9 like the teachers in my school. They are very kind. They often take us out to 10 pictures or watch movies. We always have a good time.

Do you have trouble trying to create the next big idea?

Sometimes the answer isn't to just force an idea out of your mind.

Instead, you might want to try sitting back, relaxing and letting your mind wander（走神）. Yes, you heard that correctly. If you are in need of a new idea, try daydreaming.

Daydreams allow your mind to run freely and even increase productivity in some cases. Daydreaming develops creativity which is why you have an ah-ha moment and sudden insight（领悟） about a situation. Daydreaming allows you to uncover thoughts and ideas you did not realize you even had and get the thoughts hidden under the surface.

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found a connection between daydreaming and creative problem-solving. Their study includes making participants first do an "unusual-use task". They had to try to come up with as many different ways to use an object as they could.

Then, the participants choose to do one of the following four things before doing the "unusual-use task" again; complete a difficult task, complete an easy task, take a 12-minute break, or skip a 12-minute break and move right on to the task exercise again.

Surprisingly, the group that performed best was the one that completed the easy task. Many participants reported that they were daydreaming while performing the easy task. So the researchers believed that this daydreaming might have helped unlock their creativity.

But how could daydreaming help the brain come up with creative ways? The answer is something known as "unconscious thought". Even when you are not actively working to solve a problem, it is still in the back of your mind. Your brain is still thinking about the problem, but in a way that you are unaware of.

When you daydream, your mind is allowed to think in ways it normally would not. Because it is free of control, it can create completely new and out-of-the-box ideas.

Great ideas never come easily, but that does not mean you always have to work hard to get them. Feel free to do what you want and let your mind wander.