One fresh sunny day, while I was swimming in the water, I felt something special going through my gills(鳃).It was a different kind of water. I also found many of my friends became sick. Some of them were dying. I was starting to worry because I didn't want to get sick or die. I was also thinking about what I should do to save my friends, so I decided to do some research for my underwater life.

    My research started. At first, I noticed there were many bottles, cans and other kinds of rubbish in the water. Then I went on… I got closer and then I tasted many different kinds of liquid(液体).(A)To my surprise, I noticed a man pouring some liquid into the water. Others also saw him doing so and they decided to follow him. I hated it! I wish I could have told them that it was killing us!

    I think it is so stupid for people to do this to the earth that they are living on! I can't understand (B)      they are doing this. Humans should stop throwing waste into the lakes or rivers. I want to have a normal life with my friends. People should stop being so selfish and care about the environment. If they do that, everyone will be fine and will have nothing to worry about. I suggest they follow my words. If so, I believe everyone will be able to live a happy life.

    Several Asian hospitals are doing experiments with tele-medicine. Tele-medicine is a technology that allows doctors to "see" patients without them being in the same place. This is made possible through high-speed communication networks(网络). At both ends of the line, the way of video-meeting lets them see and talk to each other. Blood pressure (血压) and body temperature are directly shown on computers.

    Tele-medicine is already in wide use in some places such as the United States and Germany. Among other uses, village doctors hold "consultations (会诊)"with far-away experts(专家). The experts can also help them during operations.

    Tele-medicine has been slow to reach Asia because of high costs besides other reasons. When things improve, this technology will develop very fast. Chinese University of Hong Kong's medical school has joined a big hospital in Beijing, and Thailand is building a tele-medicine station connecting 20 areas.

    Tele-medicine will do good to patients because doctors from different places can see them and give their medical advice. The help is quite important if the disease is an unusual one. It also helps spread medical knowledge among experts.

    As tele-medicine develops well, its costs will be lower and it will become very popular in the medical field.

Thumbs Down to Texting (屈指发短信)

    Do you have a mobile phone? Do you send text messages to your friends and family?

    Text messaging or “texting” is becoming very popular. But, scientists have discovered that texting can give us problems with our hands. Be careful! Too much texting can cause swelling in our thumbs. Our thumbs were not made for pushing small buttons, over and over. Scientists call this problem RSI. We spoke to a doctor called Harriet Wilson, who treats many sick people with RSI. She says we need to see how much time we are spending in typing text messages. If we are spending more than 10-15 minutes at once, we could have problems in the future.

    As mobile phones develop, they are getting smaller with buttons closer together. Texting with a smaller phone is worse than using a larger phone with bigger buttons. Using a computer keyboard and playing video games can cause the same problem. So more and more people could find themselves with RSI. Among them, most are university students and teenagers, as they do not know the risks of spending so much time using computer, video games and mobile phones. If we don't do something about this, too many young people could grow up in terrible pain.

    Soccer is much loved by people all over the world. Nowadays, our country is taking action to get soccer games to enter schools.

    For the activity "Soccer Enters School", different people have different opinions. Some people think this activity is good for students. It helps them become better and stronger. It not only can help students improve their psychological quality (心理素质) but also can develop the spirit of teamwork. Especially for some students, they may have a chance to become professional soccer players and play an important part in China's soccer field.

    Other people think this activity will take up plenty of time of students and get in the way of their study. Sometimes it's dangerous because they may get hurt while playing soccer. What's more, it's hard to become a professional soccer player.

    Each coin has two sides. What about your idea?

Customs on Eating

    Food in China and western countries is different. China has about 5000 years' old history. They may spend half of their time on food. Chinese people choose food very carefully. They only use. fresh materials (新鲜的材料) to make food. For example, they only eat fresh fish. Chinese have a lot of ideas for cooking. They can cook a chicken in over ten ways.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}Western countries, like England or America, don't have fresh food because they buy their food from supermarkets which only sell stored materials (储存的材料).{#blank#}2{#/blank#}They are healthy for man's body. Western people do not have many skills for cooking, and mostly they only boil, steam (蒸) and bake the food. By the way, western people are very good at making desserts and chocolate. They can make very good cakes and chocolate{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    In China, the person who invites other people for meal would pay for the meal, but it's not the same way in western countries.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} They can afford it. They won't be happy if you pay for them. In western countries like America or England, people will always give tips (小费) to the waiter after they finish the meal in a restaurant. If you don't, the waiter will not be happy. In China this only happens in some top restaurants and hotels in large cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

    Another difference in eating is that:{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Chinese people only have three meals during a day. But western people may have more. They usually have afternoon tea when they would have fruit, cakes or biscuits with cheese.

    Sally and Susan are sisters. They are the same in some ways, but different in other ways.

    Both Sally and Susan have long dark hair. They are both outgoing and popular, too. Sally is older and smarter than Susan. She's more serious. She reads more books and likes to talk about the things she reads. Sally isn't athletic.

    Susan is much more athletic than Sally. She plays basketball and volleyball, and she enjoys watching sports on TV. Sally likes to watch sports, too, but she doesn't play them. Both sisters like school and get good grades. But Sally is more serious about her homework. Both of them also like shopping and playing computer games on weekends.