—Yes, the roads here are tidier and more beautiful.

—Great! I am satisfied with your (服务).

—I'm going to____________ cooking because I like eating delicious food.

—Wow! I really need ____________ You read my mind.

—________ is OK for me. It's up to you.

—Yes, it is. We can protect ourselves if we do so.

    It was at an exhibition of the artists' works organized by the Red Cross. I was invited as a special g to attend the exhibition. During this period, two cute girls of 16 or 17 years old came to me and asked me for my signature(签名).

     "I haven't brought my pen. Is the p okay?" Actually, I knew they wouldn't r . I just wanted to show a well-known writer's good manners to the creaders.

     "Certainly," the young girls readily a  I could see they were very excited. Of course, their excitement also made me feel more pleased and satisfied. One of the girls h her fine notebook to me. I turned over the cover of the notebook, wrote a few words of encouragement n and signed my name. The girl read my signature, frowned(皱眉), looked at me carefully and asked, "Aren't you Robert Charboss?"

     "No," I told her proudly, "I'm the author of Alice Adams, the w of two Pulitzer Prizes."

    The young girl turned to the o , shrugged(耸肩) and said, "Mary, lend your rubber to me." At that moment, all my pride turned into a bubble(泡泡) immediately. Since then, I always w myself: no matter how outstanding you are, don't think highly of yourself.

Yangzhou paper-cutting

    Yangzhou paper-cutting is known for its clear and fluent lines, fine and elegant patterns, novel and creative techniques. It represents the paper-cutting styles of southern China. Yangzhou paper-cutting, with a history of more than 1,500 years, made Yangzhou one of the places where paper-cutting first became popular.

    Yangzhou paper-cutting can be dated back to the Sui dynasty. In the Sui dynasty, the people of Yangzhou had the custom of cutting colourful paper or silk to celebrate festivals. In the Tang dynasty, the paper-making industry highly developed and it helped speed up the development of the paper-cutting art. In the Qing dynasty, the people of Yangzhou became interested in wearing embroidered clothing. The embroidered patterns were based on paper-cuts. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the government realized paper-cutting played an important role both in our culture and in daily life. In 2002, China Paper-cutting Museum was open to the public in the back garden of the Wangs' Residence, Yangzhou.

    There are many different kinds of subjects of Yangzhou paper-cutting, such as birds, animals, insects and mountains.

    Zhang Yongshou was the most outstanding representative among many artists of Yangzhou paper-cutting. He was the fifth generation descendant(后裔) of Yangzhou's Magic Scissors Zhang. Born in 1907 from a paper-cutting family, Zhang learned this craftsmanship from his father from the age of ten. Throughout his lifetime, he produced thousands of paper-cuts, of which the most famous are All the Flowers Blossoming, One Hundred Chrysanthemums, and One Hundred Butterflies with Gorgeous Flowers. Since Zhang Yongshou passed away in 1989, his daughter Zhang Muli has continued his paper- cutting tradition, and has won the title Master of Arts and Crafts in Jiangsu.