“Croeso I Gymru!,” If you don't know what this means, read on to find out more.

    When you cross over the border from England into Wales, you don't have to show your passport but you do notice a difference immediately. All the road markings and signs are shown in two languages — English and Welsh (威尔士语）. Not all visitors to Britain know that other languages are spoken here. There's the Gaelic (盖尔语) language in Scotland and a few people speak Cornish (康沃尔语）in the southwest of England, but the most widely spoken language in the UK besides English is Welsh.

    Perhaps the first Welsh word you^'ll see on the road into Wales is ARAF. There's a helpful English translation next to it — SLOW. As you can see, Welsh looks quite different from English. It sounds very different, too. Welsh looks and sounds so different from English because it's a Celtic language. Celtic cultures still exist around the edges of the UK — in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and also in parts of France. For hundreds of years, almost everyone in Wales spoke Welsh, but nowadays there are about 600 thousand Welsh speakers — around 20% of the population.

    So is Welsh dying out? Not at all! Nowadays, all school children in Wales study Welsh and many choose to go to an all Welsh-speaking school. You can get public information in Welsh, speak Welsh in court or take a course at university in Welsh. People surf the Internet in Welsh, keep up with friends on Facebook and write blogs in Welsh.

    By the way, ^“Croeso I Gymru!" means “Welcome to Wales!” 一 I hope you'll be able to visit it one day.

    They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend．And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy — games, CDs and clothing — are easily sold on the Web.

    But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent's card. They want a service that allows them to spend money.

    That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate (刺激)online sales.

    In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK．Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school — 88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online — mainly CDs and books.

    In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.

    One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cyber cash is through prepaid cards such as Internet Cash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed (隐藏的) 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.

    Most people have flown a kite or have seen one ride and dip in strong spring wind. Not so many people know that kites were first made in China thousands of years ago. The ancient Chinese were making and flying kites even before they were writing.

    A long time ago, the Chinese made kites to use in wars. They would fly these war kites in the dark. The kites were fixed so that they made strange sounds. Men who were at war with them would hear these sounds and run away. They thought those strange sounds were made by gods in the sky.

    The ancient Chinese also flew kites to bring good luck and to make their crops grow rich and tall. Sometimes they tied long strings and hooks to their kites. Then they would fly the kites over water, letting the hooks hang down to catch fish.

    The Chinese use sticks, strings and paper for their kites. Some of these kites look like animals or trees. Others look like birds or houses.

    Compassion（同情）is a desire within us to help others. With effort, we can translate compassion into action. An experience last weekend showed me this is true. I work part-time in supermarket across from a building for the elderly. These old people are our main customers, and it's not hard to lose patience over their slowness. But last Sunday, one aged gentleman appeared to teach me a valuable lesson. This untidy man walked up to my register（收款机）with a box of biscuits. He said he was out of cash, had just moved into his room, and had nothing in his cupboards. He asked if we could let him have the food on trust. He promised to repay me the next day.

    I couldn't help staring at him. I wondered what kind of person he had been ten or twenty years before, and what he would be like if fortune had gone his way. I had a hurt in my heart for this kind of human soul, all alone in the world. I told him that I was sorry, but store rules didn't allow me to do so. I felt stupid and unkind saying this, but I valued my job.

    Just then, another man, standing behind the first, spoke up. If anything, he looked more pitiable, “Charge it to me,” was all he said.

    What I had been feeling was pity. Pity is soft and safe and easy. Compassion, on the other hand, is caring in action. I thanked the second man but told him that was not allowed either. Then I reached into my pocket and paid for the biscuits myself. I reached into my pocket because these two men had reached into my heart and taught me compassion.

    Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play, catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

    One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, extra learning trials (尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.

    In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.

    The multiplication tables (乘法口诀表) are an exception (例外) to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.

The law of overlearning explains why cramming (突击学习) for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.

    MacDonald's will soon remove cheeseburgers and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu to set a good example in offering a healthy diet for kids at its restaurants.

    Customers can still ask for cheeseburgers or chocolate milk with kids' meal, but MacDonald's said that not listing them would make them less likely to be ordered. Since it removed soda from the menu four years ago, orders for it with the Happy Meal have fallen by 14%.

    As MacDonald's is known for getting more business from families with children, it is especially important for it to offer a healthy diet instead of junk food. And the Happy Meal is a key part of that. The Happy Meal has long been a target(目标) of health advocates(拥护) and parents who link it to childhood obesity(肥胖症). To get rid of its bad image, MacDonald's has made many changes on the Happy Meal over the years, including cutting the size of its fries and adding fruit.

    Recently, the company replaced its former apple juice with a new kind of juice that has less sugar. MacDonald's wants all its Happy Meal choices to have 600 calories or fewer. It also wants less than 10% of the meal calories to come from fat and added sugar. The cheeseburger and chocolate milk didn't meet those new standards. However, MacDonald's is trying to cut sugar from chocolate milk and believes it'll be back on the menu eventually.

    There will be other changes. For example, bottled water will be added as a choice to the menu, but it will cost extra. Currently, the Happy Meal menu lists milk, chocolate milk, and apple juice.

    For international restaurants, MacDonald's said that a least half of the Happy Meal choices available must meet the new standards. Some MacDonald's restaurants are adding new menu items to obey. For example, In Italy, a grilled chicken sandwich was added to the Happy Meal menu.