“No man is an island” is a well-known line from John Donne's Devotion， written more than three hundred years ago. Even now people still agree with him. No one can live a completely isolated life. Without other people， life became empty and sad. We all need friends.

    For some of us， though making friends is not difficult， feeling shy， we may not want to make the first move. It is also difficult at times to keep the friends we already have.

    There are many books about friendship， but Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence (影响) People， written in 1936， is the most famous. This “how to” book about getting along with other people became a best-seller. It was later put into 28 languages.

    Dale Carnegie's advice (劝告) seems to be simple， but can his advice help you? Do you need to change the way you act? Here is the list of advice from his book.

1)Be friendly and polite.

    Always greet with a smile. Begin with “excuse me” or “would you please”， when you want to ask somebody. Remember to say “thank you” and try to be as helpful as you can.

2)Go out of your way to be nice.

Find some time to do special things for other people. Making some soup for a sick neighbour may seem like a little thing to you， but it will make your neighbour feel a lot better.

3)Remember names.

    They say that the sweetest music to a person's ears is the sound of his or her own name.

4)Be open-minded.

    Try to understand other people's ways and ideas and learn something from them.

5)Listen patiently.

    When someone is talking to you， look at him or her， listen carefully and say something when necessary.

    Every year there is a Spring Festival in China. Usually it is in January or February. It is the most important festival in China. So before it comes, everyone has to prepare things. They buy pork, beef, chicken, fruits and many other things. And they often make a special kind of food—“dumplings”. It means “come together”. On the day before the festival, parents buy new clothes for their children. Children also buy presents for their parents. On the Spring Festival Eve（除夕）, all the family members come back to their hometown. This is a happy moment. Some sing and dance，some play cards and others get the dinner ready. When they are having dinner, they give each other the best wishes for the coming year. They all have a good time.

    The World Memory Championships is an organized competition of memory sports in which competitors memorize as much information as possible within a given period of time. Tony Buzan, the founder of the competition, believes that everyone can improve their memories. The first World Memory Championship was held in London in 1991 and London kept holding the following ten competitions. It takes place every year, with the exception of 1992. The winner of the first competition was Dominic O'Brien, so was the second competition.

    The 19th and 20th World Memory Championships were held in Guangzhou, China. 130 competitors from all over the world gathered there in the 20th World Memory Championships. Over the following three days, the competitors had mental boundaries (限度) tested by memorizing numbers, images, dates, names and faces, as well as packs of cards, all against the clock. The prize was to become the next Grand Memory Master. More than a quarter of the competitors were female and the oldest was 74 years old. Many of the competitors believed the memorizing techniques they practiced could help them achieve other goals in life. But for that moment, their focus was all in their heads.

    Wang Feng, the winner of the 20th World Memory Championships, made the record by memorizing 2660 numbers within an hour. He said, "I won the Championship last year. To keep the achievement, I had to practice 5 to 6 hours every day over the last three months."

    Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants.

    Sometimes, the word "green" means young, fresh and growing. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience. In the 15th century, a greenhorn was a young cow or an ox whose horns(角) had not yet developed. A century later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had no experience in war. By the 18th century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.

    Someone who is good at growing plants is said to have a green thumb(大拇指). The expression comes from the early 20th century. A person with a green thumb can make plants grow quickly and well. The Green Revolution (绿色革命) is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. It was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

    Green is also the color used to describe the powerful feeling—jealousy(嫉妒). The green eyed monster is not a dangerous animal from outer space. It is an expression used about 400 years ago by the British writer William Shakespeare in his play Othello. It describes the unpleasant feeling when someone has something he wants.

    In most places in the world, a green light is a signal(信号) to move ahead. In everyday speech, a green light means approval(赞成) to continue with a project.

    More than forty years ago, a group of artists gathered to develop a television program. They planned to make a television show that would teach young children about subjects like reading and math in a fun way.

    Sesame Street was first shown on TV on November 10th, 1969. It was produced by a group called The Children's Television Workshop, and today it was called The Sesame Workshop. The show used cartoon characters and human actors to create funny and creative lessons for children. Some of the most famous characters on the show are Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and Bert and Ernie. Puppet maker Jim Henson created these lovely characters.

    Research is an important part of what made Sesame Street special. The show's creators studied children very carefully to understand how to best keep them having fun and learning. When the show was first introduced to children, some of its creators were not sure whether it would last one season. But forty years later, Sesame Street is the longest running children's television program in the United States.

    As part of its fortieth anniversary (周年), Sesame Street had a special guest on its show. First Lady Michelle Obama showed a group of children and Big Bird how to plant. She explained that the seeds would grow into vegetables, which are healthy and good to eat. She also had a message to the parents who watch the show with their children. She said parents can help their children do things to have healthy lives, like getting enough exercise.

    It is Sunday afternoon. Mary goes shopping with her mother. Her mother wants to buy some food for supper. Mary wants to buy a T-shirt and some school things. They come to a shop.

     "What does your shop sell?" Mary asks. "A lot of things," the girl in the shop says. "You can buy food, drinks, clothes and school things in our shop."

    Mary and her mother go into the shop. There are many people in the shop. Mary finds a nice white T-shirt.

    "How much is the T-shirt?" Mary asks the girl in the shop.

    "It's eighty yuan."

    "That's too dear. Do you have a cheap one?"

    "What about the green one? It looks nice. And it's only thirty yuan."

    "OK, thanks a lot." "You are welcome."

    After that, Mary buys some school things too. Her mother buys a lot of food, like bread, cakes, meat and fish. They get home very late.