Two years ago, a small town in Changhua started to grow healthy rice. The healthy rice was not grown by farmers but by the students from a small primary school of only about fifty people.

    The idea of growing rice came from the school teachers. When making teaching plans, the teachers decided to teach students how to grow healthy rice on school land. They wanted the students to get closer to the land when doing the rice farming outside the classroom.

What's better, the school made money from selling the rice and giving farming classes to the public. With the money, the school could help the students who wished to go to foreign countries some day. Today the dream is becoming real — the students are flying to Japan to share their special farming experiences, and have fun over there, of course! “We all feel very proud that even students from a small town can make themselves seen in the world,” said one of the teachers.

    This week, our topic is pollution. What are the answers to all of our pollution problems? We asked two experts to give their views.

    ◇Forest Smith is a member of Green First, an environmental group.

    Our future on the Earth looks very bad. We are dumping waste on our land. We can't breathe the fresh air. The sea is polluted too.

    I visited some relatives recently in a small village. They grow their own food and cycle everywhere. They are not wealthy, but they are happy and healthy.

    We must close the factories producing useless products. That will reduce rubbish and air pollution. We must recycle more, give up all cars, and improve public transport.

    A big problem is overpopulation in big cities. We must give up big cities and factories, and go back to a simple way of life.

    ◇John Green is a scientist at a university.

    Things are not as bad as Forest says. We'll have a bright future. We don't need to give up cars but we need to invent better, cleaner engines.

    This won't stop the problem of traffic jams. So we need better public transport. We should also recycle more.

    But some things are getting better. My sister returned last month after living abroad for five years. She said, “Our old neighbourhood doesn't look the same as before－it is cleaner and greener now.”

    In a word, science has brought many improvements to our life.

Rules for Teen Mr. Cloverport ◆Teen Mr. Clovcrport is open for ALL boys aged 13-16. ◆There will be a meeting and practice with the competition director after the day you fill out the form. ◆Clothes must be HOMEMADE. shop-bought clothes are not allowed. ◆NO SMOKING, NO DRINKING & NO RUDE LANGUAGE during the competition. ◆Winners should behave in a good manner while speaking for the Sacajawea Festival. ◆For more information, please call 903-5706.

    Hello, everybody! I'm so glad to experience the Sacajawea {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in the town of Cloverport. It's a community festival to bring people together. Teen Mr. Cloverport is a competition for {#blank#}2{#/blank#} from thirteen to sixteen years old. My new friend Tristan paid {#blank#}3{#/blank#} dollars to enter it. He was really excited about it. They have to wear homemade clothes instead of those bought from a {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. I think the spirit of DIY really matters. To follow the rules, they are not {#blank#}5{#/blank#} to smoke, drink wine, or speak rudely. They should be well-behaved. Thank you!

    Many Chinese students are good at English grammar, but their spoken English is so poor that they are afraid to speak in class or have a talk with others. There may be some reasons for their problems with spoken English.

    First, they fail to express themselves clearly because of a limited(有限的)vocabulary. The useful way is to enlarge their vocabulary. However, you can still communicate with others with a limited vocabulary, if you are active. Others will understand you with the help of your body language.

    Second, they are worried about making mistakes. Because they are shy and nervous, sometimes they may make mistakes easily. Yet we should know what we aim at is FLUENCE(流利) not ACCURACY(精确) when speaking. So we should speak as quickly and well as we can, even though sometimes we may use a wrong word or tense(时态), but it doesn't matter because others will still understand you.

    The third reason is that they don't pay enough attention to listening to what others are saying. So while you are speaking, you can't find the suitable topic or words to say. You have one mouth but two ears! What you hear is necessary for you to start speaking.

    Fourth, most Chinese students are passive(被动的) language learners. They just sit there waiting for speaking chances, and don't actively look for chances to improve their spoken English. All they can get is to accept the fact that their English remains poor.

    “Practice makes perfect ".So please be active from now on, try to catch every chance to speak wherever you go.

USE IT or LOST IT? It is up to you.

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