As is known to all of us, Beijing Opera is one of the most important opera styles in China. It is an art on the stage which has about 200 years' history. It is not only a treasure of the Chinese nation but also a cultural symbol of China. Similar to western operas, Beijing Opera is a combination of singing, dancing, martial arts, music and literature, so it is also called the "Oriental (东方的) Opera" by western people.

    Beijing Opera uses special imagery in creating the characters. All roles are divided according to sex, personality, age and profession and social status. Hangdang is the general term for role in Beijing Opera. There are four types of roles in Beijing Opera today. They are sheng, dan, jing and chou. The sheng is the male protagonist (主角), the dan the female protagonist, the jing (painted face) a male supporting role with a different characteristics, and chou (clown) a comic or negative figure. Each kind of role has their own face-painting and dressing to indicate their identities.

    The Opera's performance requires not only the gentle voice but also the proficiency (熟练) of martial actions. A successful opera actor must suffer from the tough practicing period. In the old time, the children of poor families were sent to the opera group in order to earn a living. While now, the real opera artists are well respected by opera lovers.

    Mei Lanfang, one of the most remarkable performing artists in Beijing Opera, was born in Beijing into a poor family. His life was bitter and he had no opportunity to go to school, so he went to the troupe (戏班子) when he was 8 years old to learn Beijing Opera. Mr. Mei was on the stage when he was 11 years old to perform the plays of Beijing Opera. He has been an opera actor for more than 50 years, performing hundreds of traditional plays and over 30 modern plays. He portrayed many bright and lifelike female figures on the stage and became the model in Chinese Beijing Opera and even within the entire artistic circle.

Have you ever wondered what an American high school is really like? This article will describe a typical (典型的) high school and its students.

A typical American high school has several large buildings and enough space for about 1,500 students. Every student is given a locker. When students first arrive at school, they go straight to their lockers to put away or get their textbooks and to hang up their outdoor clothes. As American textbooks are expensive, students would rather loan (租借) than buy them. Students must pay back if they lost any of them.

American students have different types of school transport. They usually take a yellow school bus or walk to school if they live close enough. Sometimes their parents drive them to school.

When they turn 16 years of age, most take a free driving class at school for one term. If students' exam passing grades in the class and also pass their state driver's exam, they can begin driving themselves to school.

Each day, students take six or seven classes. They must take science, math, English and social studies. They can choose art, homemaking, fashion design and other classes. In some schools students are required to take one or more of the following special classes: health education, physical education or foreign language studies. Students move to different classrooms for each subject. This is because cache teacher has their own classroom. There is a five-minute break between classes, to give the students the time to hurry to their next class.

The regular school day usually ends early in the afternoon. After school more than half of the students take part in after-school activities. These activities include sports, specially football, basketball, baseball and soccer or clubs, such as yearbook, speech, school newspaper, photograph or student government.

Title: {#blank#}1{#/blank#} in an American High School

How do you feel when a teacher says it's time for a test? Do you get worried about it? Look at the next test skills （技巧）!

☆Go to class on time and do your homework carefully.

In this way, you will learn the lessons, such as Chinese, English, maths, and so on. You won't have so many worries.

☆Relax and go to bed on time.

After you finish your lessons in the afternoon, you need to relax in the evening and sleep well at night.

☆Get ready well.

You may take paper, a pen, pencils, an eraser, a watch, and books or a dictionary with you.

☆Read the questions carefully.

You must read the questions carefully before you answer them, or you will make mistakes.

☆Breathe （呼吸） deeply.

When you feel worried, put your pencil down on the table, close your eyes, breathe deeply and count numbers to 10. In this way, you will feel relaxed and you can do well in the test.

What would you do if you see someone hurt badly? The following will help you to learn some important skills to give casualty (伤员) first aid.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

The first and most important thing you must do is to make sure the place is not dangerous. Can you see anything that might not be helpful to you? Can you hear anything that could be dangerous?

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

When you see someone has been hurt, you may feel scared. If you feel yourself starting to be nervous, try to calm yourself down. For example, talk to people you trust about what happened, and you'll be relaxed.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

When someone needs first aid, talking to him will help him to stay calm and feel safe. Even if he does not answer you, you should still tell him what you are doing. It will let him know that you are helping him.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Sometimes, the casualty will need more help than you are able to give. The best thing you can do is to phone some people for help. They can give you some useful advice or offer you some help.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

There are also many other things to do. Try your best to help the casualty. Asking people around you for help is really better than waiting for doctors. Besides, you can also try to keep in touch with his families and friends.

What did people do to communicate in ancient times? Here are some very interesting answers to this question.

Alphorns（阿尔卑斯长号角） were once used to communicate in the mountains in Switzerland. They are very long and they are very heavy, too. So, alphorns are hard work to blow. Then why use them? Well, they make a loud sound which travels much further than the human voice. Herdsmen（牧民） used them to call cows in the distance for milking. At sunset, alphorns were also used to send a message down to villagers that all was well. These days, they're mostly used as musical instruments.

The people of La Gomera, an island in Europe, have their own special way of sending messages from mountain to mountain. They use a whistled（口哨） language called el silbo, which comes from their language Spanish. Whistling can be heard within five kilorneters, which means it can be used across much greater distances than shouting. El silbo can be used for all kinds of messages, including greetings and announcements. El silbo is used a lot less than it used to be, but primary school students in La Gomera have to leave it.

Did you know it 's also possible to send messages without making a noise? This is called visual communication, and it includes the use of flags and even smoke. Long ago, soldiers along the Great Wall of China used smoke as a warning. If they noticed the enemy from their signal（信号） tower, they lit a smoky fire. When soldiers in other towers saw the smoke signal, they lit fires, too. In this way, messages about the enemy's arrival could travel as far as 800 km in just a few hours.

Around the world，many wild（野生的）animals are in dangerof extinction（灭绝）because they have no place. to live in. Endangered （濒危的） wild animals live all over the world and you may find some in your hometown. Here are some steps for protecting endangered animals. 

Step 1:Find out what, animals are in danger. Spend some, time. learning about animals and what their favorite places are. 

Step2： Do something for nature reserves（自然保护区）. Nature reserves are good places to help protect endangered animals. You can give some money to nature reserves or spend your time helping the nature reserves to protect endangered animals. 

Step 3: Never buy anything that are made from endangered animals. Don't do harm to endangered animals or their living places. Instead, we should try our bestto protect them. 

Step 4： Join an endangered animal protection organization（组织）. You can save animals through these organizations by planting more trees and calling for more people to protect animals. 

If everyone works hard to protect endangered animals, we'll get a more beautiful world. Let's take actions from now on!