Want to say "hello" from Disneyland? Send a post card!
   Beautiful scenes of paradise (乐园), wild animals, silly pictures — you can find them all in one place. Where? On a post card! Have people always sent post cards? No. Before post cards, people liked sealed letters.
   The idea for the first decorated (装饰) post card came to John P. Charlton in 1861. He thought a simple card with decorations would be a great way to send a note. Then in the late 1800s, post cards with pictures appeared. By law, people had to write their note on the front ——on the picture! The back was only for the address. Several years later, England allowed a divided-back post card. Then people could write their note on the back left side and put the address on the right. During the early 1900s, the golden age of post cards, picture post cards became a craze of the world. In 1908, Americans alone mailed over 677 million post cards. Today, post cards are the third most popular collection in the world after stamps and coins.

    I like visiting museums on weekends. In them I can see lots of interesting things. In London there are lots of museums. Across from my house is the British Museum. Going to the museum is free but I don't like going there. In the museum I can't speak with people. I can't touch(摸) the things and I can't take photos.

    The Science Museum is not near my home and I can't take photos in it. But I like going there, because I can run, touch the things and speak with people in it. In the museum, I can also do some interesting things by myself. It's a good way to learn about science. The Science Museum is open from 10 am to 6 pm every day. If you have time, please visit it. It's my favorite place in the world.

    Today many people call Amsterdam "the City of Bicycles" because it is a city which is flat and convenient for bicycles.

    In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans had an idea. They believed that it would be better for everybody if only bicycles were allowed in the city centre. They hoped that this would help to save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport. The group painted hundreds of bicycles white and placed them in public places around Amsterdam for people to use. Anyone was allowed to use them for short journeys, whether he was a local or a foreigner. Wherever someone finished a journey, they would leave the bike there for someone else to use. The problem was that it didn't work—thieves took all the bicycles within weeks.

    However, more than thirty years later, the "white bike" is back in town—this time with a computer chip (芯片) to record its every move! To take a bicycle, you have to put a special card inside. The new "white bike" is not white any more but is an unusual design with bright colours. The bikes are parked at special parking places and people who want to use them have to take them to another place that has enough room.

    There is less traffic in central Amsterdam because both locals mad tourists have been using the white bikes. Thanks to the good ideas of lots of people, like the cycling fans in the 1960s, many people around the world have been enjoying city centre streets without cars for many years.

    Although I'm not in my childhood, I still prefer reading fairy tales(童话).They often make me think of some special experiences and feelings. This summer I've reviewed The Little Prince. It was first published in 1943.It's a world­famous fairy tale written by the French author Antoine.

    "I", the narrator(讲述者) of the story, is a pilot. His plane has something wrong and lands in the Sahara. The little prince lives on a small planet, and he grows a flower called ROSE there. One day they have a quarrel(争吵), so the little prince runs away. On his all­ alone journey, he meets different kinds of people. From these people he gets a conclusion(结论) that grown­ups are strange. And with the help of the man he meets, he descends in the Sahara. This book moves me a lot. It is not only a fairy tale for children and teenagers, but also for grown­ups.

Hot pot(火锅) and Hotpot

    I'm learning English in the UK where I meet a lot of new friends and eat something delicious. Hot pot is many Chinese people's favorite food, including(包括) me. After having three days of hamburgers, sandwiches and potatoes in the UK, how excited I was to know that there was going to be a free meal of hotpot to welcome the new students. On the way to the canteen, I seemed to smell the hot pot in the air.

    To my surprise, when I stepped into the room, in front of me were still potatoes and bread. Where was the hot pot?

    With many questions in my head, I sat down to have the free meal. After talking with a French girl, I got to know that hot pot is completely different from hotpot. Chinese hot pot is written in two words and hotpot, one word, is a traditional English dish.

    Hotpot is made from mutton and onion. On the top there are sliced potatoes. People put it in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. You can often see it at parties in the UK because it's easy to prepare for a large number of people and is not expensive.

    Hotpot doesn't taste bad. However, I still miss hot pot, two words!