My family came to America from China many years ago. I was born in Oakland in 1989. Many young Chinese Americans don't learn much1because our parents2us to learn English very well.

    Chinese is a difficult language. If we don't speak it3, it's easy to forget. Writing is hard, too. We have to remember lots of words and thousands of characters (汉字). In English, there are only 26 4.

    At home, I5English with my family. But now, we speak some Cantonese (广东话) because we watch films 6 that language.

    My mom has come to love F4, a Chinese boy band (组合). They are in the film Meteor Garden (《流星花园》). We all7the TV series, and we learn Cantonese8 saying some funny words from the TV series to each other.

    It's fun to speak Cantonese with my Chinese friends. It 9funny because we can't say the words just right.

    Young Chinese Americans know that our culture (文化) is getting lost, so we try to10something.

    For years I went to school by bus. The first time on the bus. I saw different faces. I greeted them and cold faces 1 smiling faces. As the days went on, we talked like old friends.

    But it was a pity(遗憾) that I was 2 to set up the same friendship with a quiet girl in the front of the bus. 3 old clothes showed that she didn't have much money. She always took a cup of water for the driver. I guessed she was a 4 girl. But why didn't she talk with us? Why did she never reply to our friendly greetings?

    Then, one evening, I got the 5. I walked to the park near my home and found the girl sitting alone under a tree. I greeted her 6 the same warm smile that I had shown to her all these months. To my surprise, this time she 7 back. As soon as she began her first word, I 8 why she hadn't spoken to us before. Talking was hard for her.

    She told me. "I 9 speak very well. Most of the time. I have trouble expressing myself. I have no friends. But you always smile at me, so I 10 want to smile." That evening, we talked a lot.

    A man died and was on his way to another world, either the Heaven (天堂) or the Heli (地狱). He saw a very beautiful palace halfway and the owner of the palace invited him to stay.

    The man said, "I have been working hard during my life and now I just want to eat and sleep without any 1 " The owner of the palace said, "If so, there is nowhere else 2 than here for you. There is enough delicious food in my palace and you can eat whatever you want. No one will 3 you. You don't need to do anything. "

    4, the man stayed in the palace. In the5, the man felt very happy, eating and sleeping without thinking about other things. But soon he felt a bit lonely and 6. So he went to the owner and said, "It is very boring to live 7 just eating and sleeping every day. Now I have no8 in this kind of life. Could you help me find a job?"

    The owner 9 , "Sorry, there is no job here at all."

    After another several months, the man could not stand(忍受) this kind of life and went to the owner again, "I really could not stand this kind of life any more. If you do not offer me a job, I would like to go to the Hell instead of 10 here. "

    The owner of the palace laughed loudly, "Do you think it is the Heaven here? It is actually the Hell!"

On a hot summer day, Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they lay down in a tent for the night and went to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes woke up and pushed his friend. "Watson, look! What can you see in the sky?" Watson answered, "I see millions and millions of stars." "What does that tell you?" asked Holmes. Watson thought for a while. "First, it tells me that we will have a beautiful clear day tomorrow. Second, it tells me that the time is about twelve o'clock. And..." "What else?" Holmes asked. "Well, it also reminds me that the world is so big and we are so small. What does that tell you?" Holmes said with a grin (咧着嘴笑) on his face, "You silly guy! It only tells me that someone has stolen our tent!"