Each and every year, during Chongyang Festival, citizens of China celebrate the elders in their families and communities. It's a special tradition which is rooted in the deep value that Chinese culture places on honouring their elders.

Sadly, many of our aging population are seniors without sons, daughters or grandchildren to visit. While they may have great friends, they no doubt miss the tender and loving relationships unique to families. To fill this void（空虚）, many volunteers turned up on October 28 at nursing homes around the country in order to spend time with the residents. In some cases, they performed humble（谦逊的） gestures of kindness, such as combing their hair or washing their feet.

    While the kind acts were appreciated, one embarrassing story out of Anhui province raised a valuable question. Reportedly, one old gentleman had his feet washed seven times during the day by different volunteers. Is this genuinely（真诚地） caring for the elderly? Many of the residents at the home said that those gestures do not make them feel cared for at all. Their family members or community volunteers may drop by for a few hours of token time, but soon they disappear back into their busy lives.

    There is nothing we can give that is more valuable or appreciated than our time. While you may feel like there is barely enough time to care for your many responsibilities, might it be possible to spare just a moment as you walk home from school to sit with a senior who lives in your community? Just five minutes is not going to prevent you from getting your homework done, but it may totally change a day of loneliness into a day of joy for one old man or woman. Do you live far from your grandparents? Why not pick up the phone and let them know you're thinking of them? Or maybe you could remind them of the “good old days” and mail them a short letter. Imagine their surprise and joy!

We live in a complicated（复杂的） and busy world, but kindness and caring is still a very simple thing.

    Do you know that a student can produce up to 240 pounds of school waste and lots of waste gas (气体) during a term? This includes transportation, food, paper, pens, pencils and so on.

    Transportation    Some parents drive their kids to school every day. We all know waste gas from cars is a main cause air pollution. If parents who live in a neighborhood can take turns to drive their kids to school each day, that'll be better. Another way of going green is to walk to school if students live near their schools.

    Food    It's surprising that only one elementary school can produce up to 19,000 pounds of lunch waste each year. That's only one school. One way to help take care of the environment is to stop using plastic bags. There are all kinds of environmental boxes for students to put their food in.

    Paper, pens and pencils Lots of paper is thrown away by American students. They throw away about 1.6 billion pens every year. They waste many pens and chemicals (化学药品) in them are bad for the environment. Many more pencils are thrown away than pens. Pencils are made from trees, so if more pencils are thrown away, more trees will be cut down. So students should reuse (再使用) paper, pens and pencils instead of throwing them away.

    Backpacks As fashion comes and goes, almost every kid needs a new backpack every year. They can save lots of money and materials if they reuse the same schoolbags each year.

    Every year, the town of Verona, where the well-known love story Romeo and Juliet took place, receives thousands of letters to Juliet. These letters are written in different languages and sent from all over the world.

    The tradition of sending letters to Juliet dates back to centuries ago. At first, people left notes on a local landmark said to be Juliet's tomb（坟墓）. Later, they started to send letters to the town.

    To deal with these letters, the Juliet Club was set up in 1972.

    The staff of the Juliet Club are volunteers who call themselves “Juliet's secretary.” They can be students, couples and even grandmothers. They can read letters in many languages.

    These people take their work seriously. They use their own experiences to reply. When there is a letter difficult to reply to, they will discuss it with each other to give the best answer. Thanks to them, every letter is read, translated and answered by hand in the name of Juliet.

    The Juliet Club has been dealing with Juliet's letters for more than 40 years. You can read some of the letters on the club's official website. You can also write your own letters. Here is the address:

    Club Di Giulietta,

    Corso Santa Anastasia 29,

    37121 Verona, Italy

下面是一些同学对课外活动的看法，请仔细阅读下列短文，按信息卡内容要求填入相关信息。

Information Card

    Travel Tips for Holidays Abroad Everyone loves holidays abroad. They give us the chance to see some sights, have some fun and relax. However, holidays aren't always a great experience. Follow these tips to make sure you enjoy your holiday.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Please get everything ready. Every year, thousands of people miss flights because they are not ready, they arrive at the airport too late, or even go to the wrong airport!

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    How much do you know about the place you are going to visit? Learning a little about the culture of a country will help you a lot. Learning a few words of another language can also help you make new friends.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Try to keep the place that you visit clean. Don't throw rubbish here and there. You'd better use buses or trains instead of taxis when you arrive.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    You can help a local community a lot by staying in local hotels and eating in local restaurants. This means that your money will go to local people.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    You don't want to forget your holiday. Write a book about your holiday. You can show it to friends, or just use it to remember all the good times you had! And don't forget the new friends you made during your holiday. Then next time you go on holiday, you can visit them again.

    My wife and I spent two weeks in London last year. We went there in autumn. We think it is the best season to visit England. The weather is usually good and there aren't too many travellers in October.

    We stayed in a small hotel in the West End. It was convenient as we did most of our sightseeing on foot. Taxis were too expensive, we couldn't understand the bus routes, and my wife didn't like travelling on the underground. She said it made her feel sick.

    We went to look at the places which all visitors visit. We saw Buckingham Palace. We went shopping in Oxford Street and spent too much money. What we liked most, of course, was going to the theatre. We didn't have the chance to see such wonderful plays at home. A lot of people say English food is very bad. We didn't think so. It's true that most of the restaurants are French or Italian or Chinese, but we had some very good meals.

    In fact, we enjoyed our holiday so much that we have already booked(预订) again for this year. We're going to take an umbrella. I'm sure we'll need it sometimes.