Mrs. Wilson is not tall with curly hair. She comes from Australia. She is our math teacher. But I don't like maths. It's too difficult and boring. Mrs. Wilson is 25 years old. She is very shy and kind of serious. She never plays games with us. She often sees the films on weekends. And she enjoy reading very much. She has lots of books in her bedroom.

Street Markets Around the World

    There are many ways of shopping. You can shop by telephone, by post or through your home computer, but for many people, the most exciting way to shop is also the most traditional—at a street market. You can find markets anywhere in the world. Here are four of them:

    There are many "floating markets" in Asia; perhaps the most unusual(非同寻常) is in Thailand(泰国), at a place called Damned Saduak. It's open from six in the morning to the noon every day. People sell fresh fruit from their boats.

    Many Belgians(比利时人) say that the Grand Place is the most beautiful square in the world. It's the home of a colorful flower market. It's open every day except(除了) Monday. On Monday, instead of(替代) flowers, there's a wonderful bird market.

    One of the world's famous markets is in Mexico City(墨西哥城)—the Sonora Market. You can buy toys, birds, herbs(草本) and medicine. There're all kinds of things. It's open every day from early in the morning till late at night.

    In England, on Saturday and Sunday thousands of young people from all over London travel to the Camden Market—it's the place to go for street fashion, CDs and tapes. Many people also go there for fun.

    In the town of Lampang in northern Thailand, there is an unusual group of musicians. They play many different kinds of music—everything from traditional Thai songs to music by Beethoven. Both children and adults love this group. What makes them so popular? Is it their music? Their looks7 Yes, it's both of the things, but it's also something else: they're elephants.

    These musical elephants started at the TECC in Lampang. The TECC protects elephants. It teaches people to understand and love them. And, like many zoos around the world, the TECC encourages elephants to paint.

    Richard Lair works for the TECC. He loves his job there and knows a lot about elephants. He says some of the animals' paintings are very good. But, in fact, elephants hear better than they see. And so he had an idea: if elephants are smart and they have good hearing, maybe they can play music. To test his idea, Lair and a friend started the Thai Elephant Orchestra. During a performance, the elephants play a number of instruments, including the drums and the xylophone (木琴).

    But can elephants really make music properly? Yes, says Lair. They are very creative. Human encourage the animals to play, but the elephants make their own songs; they don't just copy their trainers or other people. There are now CDs of the group's music which make money for the TECC. And the music these artists create is pretty amazing

    Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That's because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?

    The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service provider (提供者) you are using For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册). And the last four digits are random (随机的).

    The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That's enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.

    And mobile phone numbers can be recycled. Usually, the service provider will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven't contacted (联系) for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.

    Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada's mobile phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.

    For me, living in Canada for 25 years, China is a new world that I have longed to explore. This spring, I chose Yangzhou to be my first stop on a 16-month trip around China. It was like love at first sight. At 15, I bought a book of collection of poems about Tang Dynasty. Through it, I heard of Yangzhou for the first time. I was deeply attracted(吸引) by a poem written by Li Bai-“Sailing to Yangzhou in March”(烟花三月下扬州).

    Yangzhou,sitting 2,500 years at the crossing of the Yangtze River and the 2,400-year-old Grand Canal(大运河), is one of the first 24 historic and cultural cities in China. In the old town,there are many streets and houses. It's best to visit the city in spring. Spring paints the city in brigtht colors.

    Yangzhou has always been famous for its gardens. Among them ,the Slender West Lake, one of the biggest attractions in the city,was my first stop. The park with its fantastic landscape and lots of history has enough to keep a tourist busy for the whole day. What a shame I simply could afford half a day!

    My next stop was He Garden,one of the best prottected gardens in Yangzhou. It was once owned by the family of He Zhidao in Qing Dynasty. He Zhidao successfully brought Chinese and Western architectural(建筑的) features together.

    Yangzhou is also the starting point of the Grand Canal tour. Taking a boat along the part of the canal in Yangzhou, I was amazed at the liveliness of this ancient waterway and the city's history and culture.

    Luckily, my two-day trip to Yangzhou was filled with pleasure and wonder. It made me hungry for more China.

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