While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, nor a world record broken, but a show of someone's strong determination to win.

The event was a swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them made mistake when they started, so they were kicked out. That would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is what's important.

I watch the man jump into the water and knew right away that something was wrong. Now I'm not an expert swimmer but I do know a good jump from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he was swimming, the crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.

      I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man that was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. He tried his best, but clearly he was exhausted.

       But when they saw the man keeping on trying , they stopped laughing and beginning to cheer. Some even to stand and say: “Come , you can do it!” and “ Go for it！”

       A few minutes later ,this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.

       Just a short year ago, he had never swam, let alone raced. His country had been asked to Sydney as manners.

       In a competition where players remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch this game.

       A man that gave his all-knowing that he had no chance, but competed because of the spirit of the games.

    A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said, "I am blind, please help."

    There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

    Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy heard his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

    What he had written was, "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

    Of course, both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply told people to help by putting some money in the hat. The second sign told people that they were able to enjoy the beauty of the day, but the boy could not enjoy it because he was blind.

    The first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.

Dear Sir or Madam.

    One of the teachers at my school in New York tells me that your school has summer course. I am planning to go to Beijing next summer and would like to take a short one-month course.

    I am 18 years old and have been studying Chinese for six years. I was born in the USA and have never been to China before. I am going to study Chinese at the university. I think the course will help me improve my Chinese.

    Could you send me a catalogue(目录) and application form (申请表)? I would also like information about Beijing and other places nearby. I hope to do some travelling when the course is over.

    Thank you! I am looking forward to your reply

Very truly yours,

Jim Green

    Mr Smith is a teacher of English. He comes from America. He teaches English in China. He speaks Chinese quite well.

    He reads a lot of books and his wife often writes books for the students at home. Mr Smith gets up at five in the morning. He leaves home at ten to six. He begins the first lesson at 8:00. He teaches English every day except Saturday and Sunday. At ten to twelve he finishes his lessons. Ten minutes later he has lunch. In the afternoon, he often plays games with his students. Sometimes he teaches his students in his office. Supper time is at about six. After that, he reads newspapers and watches TV. At about ten to eleven he goes to bed.