More and more people think it necessary to study in an English-speaking country and it didn't take long at all for me to decide to come and study in UK.

      I have been used to school life since I came here two months ago, and I am starting to enjoy most of my time in here. School starts at 9 o'clock every morning, and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we have long days, in which we have 9 lessons and school finishes at 4 o'clock. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we have short days, in which we have only 6 lessons and finish at 1 o'clock. After lessons, we have  hours of activity time, when you can choose from a number of activities, including many sports, such as rugby(英式橄榄球) , football, basketball and tennis.

As a boarder(寄宿者), the quality of food is something I consider very important, and Merchiston has not let me down. The school kitchens are run by a professional company, and the quality of food is excellent, and they are always trying to make the diet healthy. One of the obvious advantages of being a boarder is that we can have breakfast in the school, which means we don't have to pull ourselves out of bed as early as the day pupils!

    A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. We talked about all the good old times that we had. Then he started talking about his father. His father was badly ill in hospital and couldn't sleep at night, he often talked to himself and made a lot of noise. My friend was angry about this and shouted at his father to stop talking, but after his father stopped talking, he died a few days later.

    My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father, he was so sad that he cried like a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father forgive him.

    Sometimes, we complain our parents, but do we realize that our parents take care of us and always stay around us from the day we were born to our adulthood (成年), imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear an unlucky word of "no" come out from our mouths.

    There are so many unlucky children who have neither fathers nor mothers. My dear friends, we can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no bad words that come out from our mouths to our parents, take good care of our parents, even if it takes only a second to stay with them, they will be very happy.

    Fiona likes to listen to music. She likes to listen to classical music. Now she is listening to Beethoven's Symphony (交响曲) No. 5. The music is about fate knocking on the door. Fate is the unseen power of life. Fate changes our lives. Fate designs our lives. Fiona likes this music. She feels the power of music.

    Suddenly, somebody knocks on her door. She goes to the door and opens it. There is a man at the door. The man is old. He has grey hair and a grey beard (胡须). She doesn't know who the person is. The man says he is her father. She closes the door in front of the man. She stays at the door and thinks. She has a father. But he is dead. She doesn't know the man at the door. She doesn't understand why he says he is her father. She wants to call the police. Just then she can see a photo under the door. The man is giving her a photo. She looks at the photo. She can see herself with a man she doesn't know. It is her because she took many photos when she was a young girl. Is the man who is standing in front of her door her father? She must find the answer.

    She opens the door. She asks the man whether he is lying or not. The man tells her he is telling the truth. She invites him for a cup of coffee. They sit down and drink coffee. They start talking about life. He tells her everything that he knows. She listens. Sometimes she is surprised. Sometimes she cries. Sometimes she laughs. They are listening to Beethoven. This time it is not fate, but her father who is knocking on the door.

At Haiga Primary School in Liupanshui, Guizhou Province, Gu Ya, a 27-year-old rock singer, works1 a volunteer teacher who helps children in mountainous areas learn to read music and play the guitar, opening up their eyes to the outside world.

When he got there, he found the school was in2 condition and there were only 12students.3 of the kids were too shy to look at him. As time went by, Gu4 realized that they were lonely because their parents mostly worked in big cities. The headmaster of the school told him that they had to5 not only children's studies and lives, but also their mental state(精神状态), helping them learn to dream and be more confident.

One day, while Gu was playing the guitar during lunch break in his room, he noticed that the children who6 behind the door were staring at his guitar. At that moment, Gu felt like he was making a connection with the children through music, so the idea to teach7 guitar and music came to him. "I know the8 of music. Although I don 't know children very well, music can build a mutual (互相的) understanding and trust between us,"Gu said.

The school's headmaster and teachers tried hard to borrow guitars9 the children could learn music. "To my surprise, the children learn very quickly. They have changed a lot so far. It is the old10 that brings new life to Haiga Primary school," Gu said.

Here is the story of a special plant. Because of this plant, the population at that time increased a lot. 

Long ago, there was a man named Chen Zhenlong and he was born in Fujian. Then he went to Luzon island for work. There were many waterways to Luzon, So he took a boat to get there. In Luzon, Chen found that the local people ate sweet potatoes, and they could easily plant them. He wanted to bring the sweet potatoes back to his hometown, because they might change the situation of the food shortage(短缺). But it was not an easy thing. Chen was learning how to grow sweet potatoes while he was thinking about how to bring them back. One day he put a potatoes vine(藤) into the absorbent rope(吸水绳) and then brought it back to his hometown. After getting home , Chen began to plant sweet potatoes and finally he was successful. 

The weather was bad in Fujian and many people didn' t have enough food. Chen told the government that the sweet potatoes could help people. So the government let people plant sweet potatoes. After that, the sweet potatoes became a common plant in China. At that time, 85% of the people depended on sweet potatoes for food. People then had enough food and the population increased quickly.