The most valuable gift I have ever received was a photo album from my best friend Kevin.

      Kevin and I were classmates for all six years of primary school. We both had the same interests, so we always had a lot of things to talk about. It is wonderful to have such a good friend.

      However, last summer, Kevin had to move to another city because of his father's job. Then he gave me a photo album. “It has photos of the memorable events we have experienced together. I've also written some notes under each photo,” he said. I was deeply moved.

      I put the album beside my bed. I always look at it when I think of Kevin.

    I once believed that a friend is a friend all the way. Now I have changed my ideas about friendships.

    1). Friends of convenience(便利). They can be the people who live next door or the mothers of our children's closest friends. Friends of convenience are good indeed. They'll help us when we need it. They'll look after our cats when we go on holidays. But we don't ever get too close or tell too much. Between us, we'll talk about being overweight but not about being sad or disappointed(失望). However, people still find it necessary to make friends like this.

    2). Special-interest friends. These friendships aren't deeply personal or emotional(感情上的). They lie in some shared interests, so we may have an office friend, a tennis friend, or even a shopping friend.

    3). Historical friends. We all have a friend who knew us when…maybe we were back in the second grade of primary school, when our family lived in that two-room flat downtown. He or she was the first, the only friend we told our secrets to.

    The years have gone by, and we have gone different ways. But we're still a personal part of each other's past. We know how we looked before our teeth were straightened(矫正), and our getting together makes us think of an earlier part of ourselves, which is important and never lost.

    4). Cross-generational friends. These are friendships that from across generations(代). I have in my own life a precious(珍贵的) friend, a woman of 65, who is clever, who listens well, and who means not only an ideal mother to me but also the person I'd like to be when I grow up.

    Best friends, I believe, totally love and help each other.

A History of English…in Five Words

    In 1582, Richard Mulcaster, headmaster of a British school, wrote that the English would not go beyond their island. However, it didn't stay that way. Today, English is spoken all over the world.

    English is a colorful and diverse (多样的) language that long has picked up words from many other languages. Here are five words that show the English language's interesting history.

English

    English began in the language spoken by the early Germanic people in the fifth century AD. It is from them that the word “English” comes. First it is the Latin word Angli which means the people of Angul, where the Germanic people were from.

Beef

    Although roast beef is seen as a traditional English dish, the word “beef” was introduced from the French boeuf during the Middle Ages. It was one of a group of words, including pork and mutton, that were taken from the speech of the French who moved in Britain following the Norman Conquest (诺曼底登陆) of 1066. However, the farmers who kept these living things continued to call them by their old English names: cow, pig and sheep. This difference passes on till today.

Dictionary

    Dictionary is a borrowing from Latin dictornarius liber, “book of words”. It first appeared in English in the 6th century, along with a huge number of other words from Latin and Greek. The first English dictionary was written by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. Cawdrey focused only on the difficult words whose meanings would have caused problems for those not educated in Latin and Greek.

Tea

    Tea was brought into Britain early in the 17th century, becoming very popular by the 1650s. By the 18th century it had become a symbol（标志） of fashionable society and a best-selling of the coffee house culture.

    The word tea rises from the Chinese word cha. A love of tea is so ingrained (根深蒂固的) in British life that the expression “cup of tea” has come to stand for anything viewed positively. The saying “It's not my cup of tea.” means: I don't like it.

Emoji

    Emoji began developing in Japan in the 1990s for use by teenagers: the word “emoji” comes from the Japanese e “picture” + moji “letter”. Its successful acceptance in English has been helped by its similarity to words with the e-prefix (前缀) like e-mail. The Unicode Consortium's (统一码 联盟的) official lists emojis and their meanings, but users keep finding creative new ways to employ them. Emojis are just another example of the development and diversity of English.

    Mr. Reynolds, my teacher, handed us a list of thoughts, and asked us to write a paper on one of those thoughts. I chose the topic" I wonder why things are the way they are."

    I wrote down all the questions that puzzled(困扰)me about life. I realized that many of them were hard to answer，and perhaps others could not be answered at all. When I handed in my paper，I was afraid that I might fail because I did not answer the questions.

    The next day, Mr. Reynolds handed me the paper and asked me to read it for the class. The other students became quiet as I began to read my story：

    Mum, why are the roses red? Why is the grass green and the sky blue? Why do I have to graduate(毕业)？Why do I have to grow up? Why do I have to be called "Grandma" one day？

    Dad, why can't I stay out until 12: 00? Why do I miss my old friends? Why do I miss being at home? Why do you love me so much？

Mum, Dad, why did you have to leave me? I need you.

    At the end of my story, I looked at Mr. Reynolds, and I saw a tear slowly coming down his face. Then I realized that life is not built on the answers we receive, but on the questions we ask.