Do you often help the people who are in need?

One day, two boys were walking along the road to school when they saw an old woman carrying a large basket of pears. The old woman looked very tired. They went up and said, “Are you going to town? If you are, we'll help you carry your basket.”

“Thank you,” said the woman. “That's very kind of you.” Then she told them that she was going to the market to sell the pears. So the boys decided to lift the basket together. They walked slowly with the heavy basket, but they were happy.

 The other day, I saw a little girl pick up a piece of banana peel(水果皮). She threw it into the dustbin(垃圾箱). “I  hope nobody would throw that on the street,”she said. “Someone may slip (滑倒) and fall.”

Perhaps some people may say that these are not great things. That's right. But almost all great things are made up of such small things. We shouldn't wait for the time to do great things. We should begin with these things that are full of love.

Stories and Art of Chinese Fans

    You may think you cannot live through summer without air conditioners. But in ancient China, hand fans were almost the only ones to help people keep cool.

    Chinese people started to use hand fans over 2,000 years ago. The fans came in different shapes, such as round and square. They were also made from a11 kinds of materials. Palm leaf fans were cheap and easy to make. Feather fans(羽毛扇) showed the owner's high status. Sandalwood(檀香)fans could send out a sweet smell.

    Later, hand fans became far more than just something that could cool you down. They developed into art works, in which tuanshan (round fans)and zheshan(folded fans)were the most common.

    In the shape of a full moon, tuanshan was usually made of silk. They had beautiful birds and flowers on them. Women especially those in the imperial palace(皇宫),liked to use them. Meanwhile, men, especially the literati(文人), used zheshan. The literati liked them because zheshan were usually made of paper and they could paint and write poems on them. It was a way for them to show off their ability in literature, painting and handwriting. Almost anything can be painted on zheshan.

    Today, Chinese people still use these fans, only not many people write or paint on them any more. Next time when you are waving a fan, you may think of the stories behind it.

    All over the world, and for many different reasons, there are millions of people who never eat meat. These people are called vegetarians(素食主义者). To people who eat meat, being a vegetarian may seem like a very strange thing. But they won't eat meat for several different reasons.

    First, vegetarians have a big health advantage. One of the major health problems in modern world is too much food, especially in the form of animal fats. Medical study suggests that animal fats, including butter, quicken the development of cholesterol (胆固醇) in the human body. Too much cholesterol seems to be part of the cause of heart disease. Most vegetarians have low level of cholesterol. Too much animal fats also seem to lead to certain kinds of cancer, and vegetarians have less these cancers than people who eat a lot of meat. Overall, studies comparing the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters show that the meat-eaters are twice as likely to die of heart disease as vegetarians are.

    Better health is one reason that people choose to become vegetarians. Another reason is religion (宗教). Eating of meat is never allowed in some religions. The largest of these is the Hindu religion, which has about.600 million believers in the world. Although not all Hindus are vegetarian, many are, and there are many believers of other religions, such as Buddhism and even some Christian religions that also do not eat meat. Many vegetarians do not eat meat simply because they do not like the taste of it. They have no religious or other reasons; they just do not like meat. Another important reason that vegetarians give for not eating meat is the health advantages that were given above. Lastly, there are many people who do not eat meat because they just do not like the idea of killing animals for food. They believe that life, all life, is valuable and that we do not have to destroy life to feed ourselves when there are other good sources of food.

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