People in many places celebrate Christmas on December 25.

    In the USA, Christmas is a long holiday. Shops are usually not open on Christmas Day. And family members have a party together. There are usually Christmas Trees in houses, and children can find presents from their parents in the trees. In many places, children put a stocking(长筒袜)on the bed, because they think Father Christmas will put nice presents in the stocking at night.

    Things are different in China. The Chinese don't have a holiday at Christmas. Shops are open and there are usually Christmas sales(促销) in many shops. There are no family parties, but there are parties for young people in nightclubs and hotels. There are no stories about Father Christmas or presents in stockings. But young lovers(恋人) give each other presents.

    Recently, the relationship between the two countries got worse because of the Diaoyu Islands.

    The Japanese government signed a contract(合同) on Sep 11 with the Kurihara family. It was to pay the so-called “private(私人的) owner” 2.05 billion yen (166 million yuan) to “buy” part of China's Diaoyu Islands.

    Anti-Japan(反日) feeling grew strongly among Chinese people. Many people walked into the streets and shouted out “Diaoyu Islands are China's.” Some have decided not to buy Japanese products any more. “I am boycotting(抵制) Japanese goods as a show of support. I'll work hard to make the country much stronger,” Liu Xiushan, 33, a lawyer in Beijing said to China Daily.

    However, some didn't show their anger in the right way. They broke cars and stores of Japanese brands. Some used rude words. These actions are bad for our position and image. Some actions were against law.

    Li Jingjun, a 17-year-old high school student in Guangzhou, was shocked by what he learned from TV and the Internet. He joined protects(抗议) in his city on September 15. But he acted differently. He called for rational (理智的) actions.

    “We have every right to say the Diaoyu Islands belong to us, but we should watch our behaviour. Bad manners can harm our dignity(尊严) and sense of justice(正义感)” ,said Li Jingjun.

    You may think that English dictionaries have been used for many, many centuries. The spelling of English has always been a problem, but it was more of a problem in the days before a dictionary. In those days people spelt words in different ways which you might find interesting. But it made reading English much more difficult. So dictionaries were invented to encourage everybody to spell the same. In fact, an English dictionary like the kind you use today wasn't made until the time of the Qing Dynasty.

    The largest dictionary in the world is the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED for short. The idea for this dictionary came from an important meeting in Britain in 1857. Twenty-two years later, Oxford University asked James Murray to be the editor of its new dictionary.

    Murray had not been to college. At the age of fourteen, he left his village school in Scotland and taught himself while working in a bank. Later he became a great teacher. After Oxford gave him the job, Murray had a place built in the garden behind his house to do his work. Part of it was one metre underground. In winter he had to wear a heavy coat and put his feet in a box to keep warm. Every morning, Murray got out of bed at five o'clock and worked several hours before breakfast. Often he would work by candle light into the evening.

    Murray hoped to finish the new dictionary in ten years. But after five years, he was still adding words for the letter A! Then others went to work with Murray, and his two daughters were among them. He worked on the dictionary until he was very old. Forty-four years later, in 1928, other editors finished it. It had more than 15,000 words in twelve books. And you thought your English dictionary was big!

    Junk food has lots of fat (脂肪), salt and sugar. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, Cola and ice-cream are all junk food!

    Junk food is popular in the world. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Second, it is fast and easy for people to eat. Third, most junk food has food additives (添加剂), so it looks better and it's delicious.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It makes people overweight (超重的) and brings many health problems. It's OK to have junk food now and then（偶尔）. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} If you are active and play sports very often, you can have some after you have much healthy food. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and then eat 5% of junk food.
A. They are all bad for people's health.
B. If you are too heavy, you'd better not eat it or try to eat less.
C. First, it is cheap to make.
D. You'd better eat healthy food about 95% of the time 
E. Junk food is bad for health.

Future and Today

    It is well known that everyone has his own dream as well as his own future. But do you know what future really is? I have to say that future is now. That is to say we must treasure(珍惜)every minute now. If we want to have a bright future, we should know how important time is and use it well.

    There is an old English saying: "Gain time, gain life." Then what's time？ Time is something that we can't see or touch, but we can feel it passing by. Time is always with us. When we are at table, time passes; when we play, time goes by unnoticeable. We always say "Time is money", but time is even more precious(珍贵的)than money, because when money is spent , we can earn it back. But if time is gone away, it will never return. So, some of us even say time is priceless(无价的).

    We should always remember: future is now. For us students, we should try our best to work hard in order to create a great future of our own. We should make the best use of every hour and be the master of today. We should do everything before us as well as possible. And never put off what can be done today till tomorrow.

    As we all know, "Time and tide wait for no man." If you waste today, you will regret(后悔)tomorrow. So from now on, work hard. Tomorrow will be better, and your future will be brighter. Remember:" No pains, no gains." Today's hard work is the cause of tomorrow's harvest(收获).

Title: Future and Today