All around the world, people drink tea. But tea does not mean the same thing to everyone. In different countries people have very different ideas about drinking tea.

    In China, for example, tea is always served when people get together. The Chinese drink it at any time of the day at homes or in tea houses. They prefer their tea plain, with nothing else in it.

    Tea is also important in Japan. The Japanese have a special way of serving tea called a tea ceremony(仪式).

    It is very old and full of meaning. Everything must be done in a special way in the ceremony. There is even a special room for it in Japanese homes.

    Another tea-drink country is England. In England, the late afternoon is ＂teatime＂. Almost everyone has a cup of tea then. The English usually make tea in a teapot and drink it with cream and sugar. They also eat cakes, cookies and little sandwiches at teatime.

    In the United States people drink tea mostly for breakfast or after meals. Americans usually use tea bags to make their tea. Tea bags are faster and easier than making tea in teapots. In summer, many Americans drink cold tea-＂iced tea＂. Sometimes they drink iced tea from cans, like soda.

    Everyone wants to be successful. But failure is a common (普通的) thing for us to meet with.

    1, sometimes we 2 the exams, sometimes in the sports meet, others 3 but we fail. So4 everybody meets with the failure in his life.

    However, different people have different 5 to deal 6 the failure. Some people lose hope when they fail. They seem to think that it is the 7 of the world. Others, 8, don't take failure 9. They seem to think that failure is the first step to success. They will keep up and try their best 10 the final success.

    Now let's imagine the ends of the two ways. If we are 11 of the failure and always feel12, and don't try our best to change ourselves, we may meet with more and more failures. But as long as we are hopeful and brave to face them, and never give up, we will 13 successful and our dreams will come true some day.

    So, please remember: Life doesn't give us the pleasure we want. But 14 we never give up and15 do little by little, it will make a big difference.

Few parents can hear the words "What can I do to help?" from their kids. Teenagers spend more time on video games, computers and mobile phones, so they help less with housework.

Students at a primary school in Fuzhou, East China's Fujian Province were required to clean the school toilets to help them develop good habits. But some parents are strongly against the idea. They can't see the advantages of students doing such chores. They think that the school should provide students with a proper education, not the chance to be school cleaners.

In fact, parents, schools and society play an equally (同等地) important role in developing the character of students. It is good for schools to give students such tasks, because few of the students will do them at home. Their parents want them to do homework only.

In recent years, some parents will make mountains out of molehills when students are asked to do some chores in schools. Some will complain the teachers if their kids get hurt in schools; some will even challenge the schools' teaching methods and management. As a result, many primary schools, especially those in big cities, do not let students join in outdoor activities during breaks, fearing that they might get hurt. This is bad for the development of students' best qualities.

What the primary school in Fuzhou doing is worth praising. Doing chores can put a sense of responsibility (责任感) into students' minds and teach them the spirit of rules as well as teamwork. Also, it can make students' in-school experiences more meaningful.

    The 21st century discoveries about the human brain and its functioning have showed the surprising fact that human abilities are not fixed at birth. In other words, what you are able to do with your life is not fixed when you are born. It is not all in the genes (基 因 ). It is not just nature: nurture (教育, 培育) plays an important part in the moulding (塑造) of what a person is, and what he/she can be.

    Brain plasticity (可塑性) or neuroplasticity (神经可塑性) refers to the amazing ability of the human brain to modify (修改) its structure and functions according to the changes within the body and/or in the outer environment.

    In his book „The Brain that Changes Itself‟ psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., offers an introduction to the great scientists strongly supporting neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've changed. The book describes real life stories of stroke( 中 风 ) patients learning to speak again, and the amazing story of a woman born with half a brain that restructured itself to work as a whole. It is a book that changes the way we think about our brain, its nature, and its potential (潜能).

    The genes we receive from our parents are finite (有限的), no doubt about that. However, our brain's ability to develop is infinite. New brain cells are being born all the time, and to keep them alive and growing, we have to stimulate (刺激) them.

    Here lies the promise of neuroplasticity in the moulding of children into adults who are capable of realizing their potential. For, genius is nothing but a human being who has realized his /her inborn potential! What Mozart, Einstein and da Vinci had was inborn potential plus (和，外加) the right environment.

    All geniuses started life in exactly the same way. They had parents who supported the development of their individual gifts and talents. They had the right environment and stimuli (刺激， 刺激物) that led to the best development of themselves.

    You can think about your child's gifts as the merging (融合的) colours of a rainbow. The possibilities are endless. All children are born with three natural abilities that provide them with the potential to think like a genius: the abilities to think, to learn and to develop their own individual way of thinking and learning.

    Can your child be a genius? Yes, he/she can be, if you give him/her the right environment, the right stimuli and the right guidance.

Why is music important to people? Because life{#blank#}1{#/blank#}music wouldn't be active. Different kinds of music express different life experiences. So, when we listen to different kinds of music, they can bring us different {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. For example, rock music can make us {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, classical music can make us relaxed; and country music can make us think of the beautiful country life. At different ages, people have different ideas about music. Young people today enjoy pop music {#blank#}4{#/blank#}their parents prefer listening to classical music. Perhaps this is. because young people are {#blank#}5{#/blank#}with energy and faster music can let their energy come out. Their parents have worked very hard during the day and they have got tired when they come back home. So, they would like to listen to classical music to make themselves relaxed. 

Doorbells are the bells (铃) for people to ring at a door. When someone hears it, he or she can open the door. Do you know that you can ring a doorbell for fish, too? 

Every spring, millions of fish migrate (洄游) along the river in the city to find better places to lay eggs. But in the river, there are many locks (水闸). They stop fish from swimming through. Weerd Lock is in Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands (荷兰). When fish get there, they have to wait a long time before the lock opens for boats to pass through. The lock keeper there is glad to open the lock for fish, but he cannot tell when fish want to get through. So in 2021, Mark van Heukelum, a scientist, came up with a good idea to help solve this problem—by using the fish doorbell. 

Under the water near the lock, there's a camera. People from around the world can visit a website (网站) to see fish through the camera. When you see a group of fish waiting, you can ring the doorbell on the screen. And when the lock keeper notices it, he will open the lock for the fish. 

In its first spring season in 2021, people around the world rang the fish doorbell more than 100,000 times. If you want to join them to help fish, visit the website and ring the fish doorbell next spring.