I went hiking to a mountain with my friends last summer． It was a good trip at the beginning but something unexpected happened on the half way．

    One of my friends, Mike, suddenly felt a terrible pain in his stomach and he couldn't move any further． Nobody knew what to do． One girl tried to call her mum with her mobile phone but there was no signal in the mountain area． Luckily I brought medicine with me． After Mike took some, he felt much better． We walked on, and then we all enjoyed ourselves on the top of the mountain.

    Liu Wei is very famous in China because he can play the piano with his toes(脚趾).

    One day when Liu Wei was only 10 years old, he played a game with some friends. He lost both his arms because of electricity (电). Liu Wei was very sad when both his arms were cut off after the accident. But soon he had to make a choice. “For people like me, there were only two choices. One was to give up all the dreams which would cause a quick death. The other was to work hard without arms to live an excellent life.” says Liu Wei.

    Liu's dream was to be a pianist. His excellent life included a show on China's Got Talent(中国达人秀) and a wonderful performance playing the beautiful Marriage D'amour with his two feet on the piano. Liu Wei learned to play the piano with his feet. And teaching himself to play the piano with his feet was very hard. Many times he wanted to give it up, but his parents went on encouraging him and he wanted to make his parents proud.

    Maybe you can not believe that Liu Wei is able to play well only with his toes. The audience(观众) were deeply moved and very excited when they watched his performance.

Northern fur seals

    Northern fur seals spend winter in the warm waters near California. There is lots of food for the seals, but there are also lots of predators. When spring comes, the Northern fur seals go on a long trip to islands near Alaska. These islands are a safe place to breed, as there are not many predators. The male seals arrive at islands first. They fight for the best females to arrive. The females arrive about four weeks later. They each give birth to one seal pup. In the next few days, the seals mate again. When they return to the islands, one year later, the females will give birth to next year's seal pups. After three months, the females and the young seals set off back to the warm waters off the coast of California. Soon after, the males also leave the islands. The fur seals travel about 10,000 kilometers on their trip from California to Alaska and back again.（改编于《七年级新理念第三册》）

    Many Chinese students are good at English grammar, but their spoken English is so poor that they are afraid to speak in class or have a talk with others. There may be some reasons for their problems with spoken English.

    First, they fail to express themselves clearly because of a limited(有限的)vocabulary. The useful way is to enlarge their vocabulary. However, you can still communicate with others with a limited vocabulary, if you are active. Others will understand you with the help of your body language.

    Second, they are worried about making mistakes. Because they are shy and nervous, sometimes they may make mistakes easily. Yet we should know what we aim at is FLUENCE(流利) not ACCURACY(精确) when speaking. So we should speak as quickly and well as we can, even though sometimes we may use a wrong word or tense(时态), but it doesn't matter because others will still understand you.

    The third reason is that they don't pay enough attention to listening to what others are saying. So while you are speaking, you can't find the suitable topic or words to say. You have one mouth but two ears! What you hear is necessary for you to start speaking.

    Fourth, most Chinese students are passive(被动的) language learners. They just sit there waiting for speaking chances, and don't actively look for chances to improve their spoken English. All they can get is to accept the fact that their English remains poor.

    “Practice makes perfect ".So please be active from now on, try to catch every chance to speak wherever you go.

USE IT or LOST IT? It is up to you.

The Art of Paper

    Chen Zijiang is a paper cutting expert whom I interviewed for my article on Chinese Art. Paper-cutting is something that he learned to do from an early age.

    "It is a Chinese folk art with a long history," Mr. Chen told me, "Paper cuts of animals have been found in tombs. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}" He added that by the Southern Song Dynasty, paper-cutting had become an important part of everyday life.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}They are paper cuts for decoration, for religious purposes (宗教目的) and for design patterns.

    Paper cuts for decoration are often seen, on windows and gates. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}They are also used on presents. A present for parents whose child has recently been born might show a paper cut of children, for example. Paper cuts which show the Chinese character for double happiness are often used to celebrate weddings.

    Paper cuts for religious purposes are often found in temples{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    The third kind of paper cuts are these used to make patterns on clothing. They are also sometimes used to decorate jewelry (珠宝) boxes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.