I have always had a love for traveling abroad. Last year, I took a trip to London alone. Those nights，I stayed in a youth hostel（青年旅社）. For me，hostels are places where I can meet and talk to different people. It is great fun for me. During the stay in the hostel, I met two girls, one from Brazil and the other from Slovakia. We three had very happy talks together. We shared our personal travel stories and the interesting people we met with one another. The girl from Brazil was actually a lawyer（律师）. 她帮助人们解决他们的家庭问题。 She was taking a trip to Europe all by herself. The girl from Slovakia had much interest in photography（摄影）. Because I was also a photography fan, we ended up talking all night and sharing experience in using a camera.

    The best part is that they both became close friends of mine. Even now, sometimes we still talk with each other online. Last month, I got some photos from the Brazilian girl. To my surprise, she had a baby daughter and they were laughing happily in the photos. I was so happy for her. And it's such a great thing to know that there are people remembering you from far away. Though you may just meet each other for a few hours, you have someone caring about you in the other side of the world. And I think that is the most amazing part of traveling. So if you have free time, maybe you can try to travel abroad to relax yourself as I do.

Mr. Hamel picked up a grammar book and read us our lesson. I was surprised at how well I understood it－everything he said seemed so easy! Mr. Hamel had never explained things so patiently. It was as if the poor man wanted to give us all his knowledge in one go.

After grammar, we moved on to writing. For this last day, Mr. Hamel had prepared new examples written in a beautiful style: France, Alsace. Everyone worked hard in dead silence. The only sound was the scratching of pens on paper.

Pigeons (鸽子) cooed softly on the roof. I wondered if they would be forced to sing in

German, too. Mr. Hamel looked at the things around him as if he wanted to remember everything in the small classroom. He had been in this same place for forty years. The desks and chairs were worn with use. The walnut trees in the garden had grown up. The flowers he had planted were now climbing up to the roof.

It must have been sad for the poor man to leave all these things behind. His sister was packing their bags upstairs. They were leaving the country tomorrow.

Mr. Hamel bravely kept on teaching the lesson to the end. After writing, we had history. And at the end of the day, the little children read "BA, BE, BI, BO, BU" together. The old man put on his glasses and read with them. He held his textbook tightly in both hands. His voice was shaking.

Suddenly, the church bell rang. Mr. Hamel got up from his chair. His face was pale, but he had never looked so tall before.

"My friends, I…" But something stopped him. He could only turn around and pick up a piece of chalk. As large as he could, he wrote "…"

"Today's lesson is over. You can go now," he said.

Two Canadian teenagers, Faiz and Leo, have been taking on a series of wonderful challenges. Their most recent achievement was following the Lake Ontario coastline for 73 kilometers, walking from Toronto to Hamilton, Canada, in about 18 hours.

"We enjoy trying new things that are good for our bodies and minds. We like to overcome challenges like these. And we feel going on a long walk seems to be the purest form of challenge that you can have," Leo said.

With very little preparation, the two 16-year-olds began their journey at 6 am, starting in darkness and finishing before midnight. They took several breaks, stopping at benches with nice views along the way.

On their walk, one of the interesting things they came across was a cargo ship (货船) which was no longer used. "You' d be surprised by the things that you don't see when you' re driving and that you will see when you' re taking your time walking," said Leo.

However, the journey was not only a trial (考验) for bodies but also an important test of minds. There were moments of loneliness for the pair, requiring them to support each other along the way.

Around 70 km into the walk, they ran into a person on a bridge who appeared to be experiencing something painful.

"I wasn't sure what was going to happen me and Leo, we tried to talk him out of it and ended up calling the police, and the situation was eased and everyone was OK," Faiz said.

The walk is now long over but Faiz and Leo are not done challenging themselves, with plans to start a two-day 100 km walk in the near future.

During the Warring States Period, there was{#blank#}1{#/blank#} man called Ban from the State of Lu. People usually called him Lu Ban. He{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(know) as the most excellent carpenter(木匠) then. It is said that he once made a bird of wood. It was so lifelike that it flew{#blank#}3{#/blank#} the sky for three days.

One day, a young carpenter came to a house {#blank#}4{#/blank#}had a big red door. He held up his ax and said, "I am a great carpenter. No matter what kind of wood it is, I can make it into anything." Hearing this, people around him all laughed. "This young carpenter is talking big now," they thought. One of them pointed to the big red door behind him and said, "Young man, can you make a{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (good) door than this one?" The young carpenter raised his head high {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (show) his confidence. Then he said, "No problem! I was the {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(one) student of Lu Ban." The crowd laughed again. Someone said, "This is Lu Ban's home. He made this door{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (he) ." The young carpenter's face turned red and he ran away{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(quick).

Thus comes the proverb "Ban Men Nong Fu". It means showing off slight{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (skill) in front of an expert.