Teaching materials for learning Chinese are provided here. There are sites where you may find interesting instructions suitable for you. Here are some sites to begin your surfing.

    You may start with these pages from this website — just to get a little taste of it without working too hard.

    A Is For Love

    Flash cards for learning a few Chinese words

    Listening to the sound of Chinese

    Play a few words of Chinese on your computer.

    A few Chinese words

    Each word is enlarged for easy study.

    If you are studying Chinese, these tools can help.

    Zhongwen site

    More than a dictionary!

    Clavis Sinica

    Excellent program by Professor David Porter. It displays a whole document in Chinese [GB] or [BIG5], and gives individual word's definition, pronunciation as well as much more information when you click on that word. If you are studying Chinese, this is a very useful tool.

    Chinese Character Visual Dictionary

    If you like to know more, go to the following sites on the Internet.

    The Chinese Outpost

    Pronunciation, Character and Grammar By Mark Andrew Baker. The best. A must-visit site.

    Learn Cantonese / Mandarin Online

    Internet Based Chinese Teaching and Learning

    Rainland Kids discover Chinese — Site is in Germany

    If you want to have a better understanding of China, go to this one.

    Wanfang Data

    As an affiliate (分支) of Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology, Wanfang Data has been the leading information provider in China since 1950s. With a wide range of database resources and value-added services, Wanfang Data has become a gateway to understanding Chinese culture, medicine, business, science, etc.

    I wasn't surprised when I read that actress Helen Hunt recently stated that she would never allow her young daughter to become a child star. Ms. Hunt is the daughter of a Hollywood technical director, and grew up in Hollywood. Now in her late 40s, she started acting and modeling when she was eight and has probably seen a lot over those years in show business.

    She has had a successful career. She earned four Golden Globes and four Emmys. She also attained the top honor of her profession when she won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in the 1992 movie, As Good As It Gets. Given those accolades, Ms. Hunt is successful. There is no doubt that her early experiences as a child star prepared her for what has been an outstanding adult career. Given those achievements, why would this star declare she'll never allow her daughter, now at the age of six, to follow in her footsteps?

    Everyone familiar with the entertainment scene is aware of the reasons for her attitude. Recent tabloid (小报) news headlines featuring the troubles of former child stars, among them Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and the late Gary Coleman, may answer the question. Although Ms. Hunt managed to become a successful grown-up star, she apparently believes she's an exception.

    What Ms. Hunt may be suggesting is that many very young stars go through unnatural childhoods on movie and TV sets. While they're earning big incomes, they're so pampered (纵容) by directors and praised by fans; they may get false impressions that their lives will always be that way. Then, within a few years, when faced with reality, they're hurt and confused. After all the overwhelming affection, they find they can't deal with the problems. That's often when drugs and alcohol take over their lives.

    Helen Hunt has some other reasons why she doesn't want her daughter to be in the entertainment business. Many child stars can never make a successful transition to meaningful adulthood. However, as with many Hollywood movies, I believe there are both good and bad scenes about how it can be played out in real life.

    Parents may think they're smart about where they store medicines, but their kids are smarter. Nearly 60,000 young children are rushed to the hospital every year after getting into medicines not meant for them, according to a new report from Safe Kids Worldwide.

    The report finds little connection between what parents know about storing medicines safely and what they actually do. Nine out of 10 parents know that medicines should be stored up and away out of reach and sight, but 7 out of 10 of them admit not doing that. They leave medicines out on kitchen counters, sinks and sofas, believing babies and toddlers(学步者)aren't tall enough or strong enough to reach them. Unfortunately, they probably can. Children as young as a month have ended up in an emergency department because they'd been poisoned by getting into a medicine that was left within reach.

Most poisonings related to medicines—particularly among babies and toddlers—occur within their home. Kids develop rapidly and they want to explore their environment. At certain ages they have a lot of hand-to-mouth activity, and so it's very common for them to explore their environment and then try to taste what they find.

    The new Safe Kids worldwide report includes a survey of 2,000 parents with children under age 6. While the number of children visiting an emergency department for accidental poisonings had declined since the 2010 maximum, the decline has slowed in recent years.

    Prescription and over-the-counter medicines cause the most severe poisonings, but vitamins and supplements(补充品)can also cause problems. There are steps families can take to lower the risk for an accidental medicine poisoning.

    When I started working, I couldn't understand why there were some people who seemed to succeed in anything they tried, while there were others who just couldn't manage to achieve anything. After a while, I became amazed at the biggest difference lying in setting and reviewing goals regularly.

    Then I saw an academic study done by Dr. David Kohl on goals:

    80% of Americans claim that they don't have goals.

    16% of them have goals, but they don't write them down.

    Only 3% actually have written goals, but they don't review them regularly.

    Only 1% has written goals and they review them regularly, and these are among the highest achievers in the US.

    You need to set goals, independent of whether you want to achieve more or less. Goals are not only about achieving more or wanting to take on more in life-a goal starts with a simple desire.

    What do you do with your desires and wants in life? You could both ignore them and leave them to fade away in your mind, or listen to yourself and start taking action to get what you want in life.

    On the one hand, you can wish for a miracle, try to put the least amount of effort in, hoping to get the most out, and do nothing. On the other hand, you can get clear on the steps you need to take and take them, slowly, one by one until you reach success in that area and you will live with new amazing results in your life.

    Setting goals is the essential part to achieving success in any area. It begins with a desire, and then a written goal, followed by the right attitude and action, and that is your formula for success. Keep reviewing your goals and watch how your vision turns into your reality.

    Hacking isn't just for computers and smartphones, According to a study published last week in the journal Science, scientists have found a way to hack a plant's genes in order to make it use sunlight more quickly. Someday, the results could increase the amount of food produced around the world.

    Photosynthesis（光合作用）is the word used to describe how plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make their own food. Scientists who conducted the new study say this is a very slow process. Plants use less than 1 percent of the energy available to therm. But by hacking a plant's genes, the scientists were able to increase the amount of leaf growth on plants between 14 and 20 percent.

    "Specifically, scientists hacked the plant's protective system. Normally, this system is activated when a plant gets too much sunlight, "said scientist Krishna Niyogi, co-author of the study. When the plant senses the light, it gets rid of extra energy and creates more leaves. When the plant is in shade, the protective system is turned off, but the process is slow.

    Stephen Long is the lead author of the study. He compared a plant's protective system to light-adjusting glasses. When a person wears the glasses outside during the day, the lenses（镜片）darken and lighten depending on how sunny it is. Plants do the same thing, he said. But in plants the adjustment can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. This makes it hard for plants to get the right amount of sunlight needed to create food.

    The new study sped up the process. By changing the plant's genes, the protective system turned on and off more quickly than normal. As a result, leaf growth on the plants scientists used in the study increased. Leaf growth in two plants increased by 20 percent, while leaf growth on a third plant increased by 14 percent. Scientists conducted the study on tobacco plants. But they think the genetic changes will produce the same results in corn and rice.

    Deisha walked up and down as she waited backstage. This would be her most important piano performance yet. At ten years old, she was the youngest performer in the recital (音乐演奏会). She had practiced playing her song more than 30 times that week. When she closed her eyes at night the music played over and over again in her head.

    Now that the day had arrived. Deisha was not sure she was ready. She smoothed her hair and picked a piece of lint (绒毛) from the new dress that her mother had bought for her. She noticed that her hands were shaking. How could she play the notes of the song if her hands were shaking? She tried to concentrate on steadying (稳住) them, but they play only shook more.

    Deisha's piano teacher, Ms Neal, walked up to speak to her. "I have something for you." she said, putting a smooth black stone into Deisha's hand. "It's a special stone. There's no other one like it in the world. You've practiced so much: you don't need anything else."

    The stage lights reflected off the rock. "Thank you," Deisha said.

    When Deisha's name was called, she rubbed the stone, stepped onto the stage, and played better than ever.

    After her performance, she noticed that Ms Neal had a whole bag of black stones. "Why did you say this one was so special?" she asked. The teacher responded, "Because, like your talent, it belongs only to you."