From the Other Side

Lara and Tara are twins. They look like each other, but they are very different in everything else. For example, hot food is Lara's favorite, and Tara has a sweet choice.

However, this isn't the problem with the twin girls. They always argues that the opposite one was wrong. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, while Tara thought mornings were fresh and it was difficult to stay up till midnight.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#} To put an end to their fights, their parents decided to create a small drama. They wanted the girls to understand that they were both correct from their own point of view. Their parents covered the girl's eyes with black ribbons (带、条), and brought them to the dining room. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Lara was asked to stand on one side of the board and Tara on the other. They couldn't see the other side of it. When the ribbons were taken away, they were surprised to see a huge board between them.

Now, their father asked Lara, "What's the color of the board?" She replied, "It's black!" {#blank#}4{#/blank#} She replied, "It's white!" The two girls began to argue again. While Lara was confident it was black, Tara was sure it was white. Then, they were asked to exchange (交换) their places. They couldn't believe their eyes. Tara, who insisted (坚持) it was a white board, saw a black one. Similarly, Lara, who argued the board was black, was surprised to see a white one. They understood that each of them was right in her own view. Most of us are like Lara and Tara. We are right most times, but insist that others are wrong!

We were tired from all the work. We took turns to sleep.1  of us had to be awake (醒着) all the time. There was so much work to do.

Finally, we reached the space station. There, we would do more work, 2 we would have less pressure (压力). We had so much to do every day in our spaceship. Now there would be more people to help us. We would be able to 3 the work.

When we moved 4 the space station, I felt great. There was so much more space. We would have real 5  to sleep on. We would have better food. They had a 6  in the space station. They grew vegetables.

The six astronauts in the space station were 7  to see us. They said, "We have been8  you."We were also glad to see them. We heard that one of them was sick(生病的). We went to visit her together."9  are you feeling now?"we asked her. She said she was 10 . We also felt less worried.

The first night in the space station was great. We had a good dinner. Then we were going to 11 . I had been working for hours. But one of the astronauts said, "We need to give you a 12  . Each person has to take turns to stay awake. Here is the schedule(日程安排)."I saw I was the 13  . I would have to stay awake tonight. 14  I was really tired. But I knew it was my job so I 15 .

I became an astronaut so that I could travel in space. Now I'm here. It is hard work, but it's exciting.

I'm Linda. In my home, there's a black and white thing. We call it Xiaodu. When you say " Xiaodu, Xiaodu", it says to you,"I'm here!" When you say" Good morning!" it says," Good morning!" to you.

 In the morning, it is my clock. When it's 7:00, it tells me the time.

 For my mom, Xiaodu is a library. It reads books to her every day.

 My brother is 3 years old. He often asks Xiaodu for help," What's a telephone?"" What's a tape player?"… For him, Xiaodu is a dictionary.

 Xiaodu is our good friend. We love it. Oh, where is it? It's on the TV set now.

 Brenda Zhao slowly walked to the center of the stage, in front of hundreds of guests. Dressing {#blank#}1{#/blank#}( she) in a kind of traditional Chinese. clothes called banfu. she completed her coming- of- age celebration. For her, the event on Saturday was the {#blank#}2{#/blank#}( special) in her school life, as she celebrated the big day with her family and friends in a traditional Chinese Han- style ceremony (仪式)."I really like being a part of the Chinese culture. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} this is my first time wearing hanfu, it has always been part of our event," the 18- year- old told China Daily {#blank#}4{#/blank#}( happy).

 In Brenda's opinion, it's {#blank#}5{#/blank#} nice idea to wear hanfu for big days like graduation and becoming an adult. " Hanfu is something that not everyone knows {#blank#}6{#/blank#}( good), so we set up the hanfu club to spread our culture. If more and more people join the club, they {#blank#}7{#/blank#}( fall) in love with it," she said.

As a Chinese American, Brenda has been working as a student volunteer {#blank#}8{#/blank#} three years, promoting(促进) Chinese art and culture in New York City. She is also one of the {#blank#}9{#/blank#}( student) who have won the President's Community Service Award this year.

"I really love working with the community and with my volunteers," she said." They also encoura ge me {#blank#}10{#/blank#}( keep) going."

Once, there were two hard- working children, Che Yin and Sun Kang. They love reading, but their families were poor and couldn't buy lamp oil(灯油) for the children to study at night. How did they get over the difficulty? Here are their stories.

 Che Yin's story began on a hot summer night. He saw fireflies (萤火虫) flying and an idea came into his mind. He caught some fireflies in a cloth bag and hung it up (悬挂) as a light. He spent all of his summer nights reading like this.

 The other story happened in winter. Sun Kang woke up on a cold night. He saw the moon shine so brightly on the snow and it made the night brighter."I can read with the light!" he thought . So he took his books outside and read, even though it was very cold.

 Later, Che Yin and Sun Kang became successful. Their stories were turned into the Chinese words nangying yingxue. Difficulties can't stop young minds from learning. If there is a will, there is always light on the road to knowledge.

Liu Wenwen started to learn suona at the age of three. Learning suona needed {#blank#}1{#/blank#} and hard work." In order not to influence (影响) neighbors, my parents took me to {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in a park around 4 am every day," said Liu. Her classmates always laughed at her. Because at that time, they {#blank#}3{#/blank#} suona as an art of the hillbilly(乡巴佬). Liu said she felt sad. But she didn't {#blank#}4{#/blank#} learning it. When she entered Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she{#blank#}5{#/blank#} with this instrument." The music played by Professor Liu, a top player, is amazing," she said.