"The grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. "That's an old saying in English. It means other places often look better, more interesting than the place where you live. Some people worry that young Chinese are beginning to feel that way. They see young Chinese ignoring Chinese culture and, instead, buying Japanese cartoon books, watching Korean soap operas and even celebrating Western holidays.

 Foreign books and soap operas are good, but Chinese writers and actors are just as good. As for holidays, Christmas is nice, but it can never have the meaning for Chinese that Spring Festival has, and the West has nothing to compare with Mid-Autumn Festival. And let's not forget the part of Chinese culture I like best: its friendliness. Not all countries are as warm as China.

 It's good to enjoy other cultures and to learn from them, but they cannot replace your own culture. It's good to look on the other side of the fence, but make sure you take a good long look. You will find that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

 Judge the following sentences true (T) or false (F) according to the passage.

    I love to write! Ever since I was a five-year-old girl, I wrote stories in my notebooks and on small pieces of paper. I told stories to my friends. As a grown-up, I have written over 100 books! That's a lot! As a teacher, it's my goal to encourage all of my students to love to write.

    Writing is easy if you're careful enough, I told them. Everyone I meet is a possible character.

    Everything I see or do is a possible scene in a book. Start looking around you. You'll be amazed at what you discover.

    Anyone can be a writer. You just put your pencil on your paper and write what you like to read, step by step:

    ● Create great characters. If you know your characters well, they'll write the story for you.

    ● Interest the reader right at the beginning. You can start your stories with dialogue or action. If you can make the reader ask questions, then he has to keep reading to find out the answers.

    ● Follow the steps. The steps for every story are almost the same: Introduce the characters and the conflict(争端);things get worse; all seems lost; the hero saves the day!

    ● Balance is the key.

    Remember, when writing, it doesn't hurt to add some humor(幽默).

    A famous scientist made some great inventions. A newspaper reporter asked him why he thought he was able to be so much more creative than other persons. What made him so successful and different from others?

He said it all came from an experience with his mother when he was about two years old.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} when he lost his control on the bottle and it fell, pouring the milk all over the kitchen floor — a sea of milk!

    His mother didn't shout at him，instead, she said, "Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made!{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Well, something bad had happened. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?"

    Indeed, he did. After a few minutes, his mother said, "You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, you have to clean it up{#blank#}3{#/blank#}? We could use a sponge(海绵）or a towel. Which I do you prefer?" He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled(溅出的) milk.

His mother then said, "You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to carry a big milk bottle with two small hands.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} and see if you can find a way to carry it without dropping it." In the end, the little boy learned how to carry the bottle without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!

    There is a very beautiful bird and she lives in a tall tree in the mountain. Every morning she gets up very early and sings.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}So when she sings, many animals come to listen to her. When she sings happily, you can get pearls(珍珠) from her.

    A man knows that and he has an idea.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}After a few days, he finds her and gels her, then he takes her home.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}The man thinks a lot of ways to let her sing. But it doesn't work

    At last, he takes the bird to the king(国王).{#blank#}4{#/blank#}The princess(公主) is a beautiful girl.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}The bird is very happy and sings for the princess. And the princess gets lots of nice pearls.

    From that day, the bird comes to meet the princess every day and sings for her.

A. She sings very well

B. She is very kind and lets the bird fly away.

C. Because she is good at singing.

D. But the bird is very sad, and she doesn't sing at all.

E. One day, he goes into the mountain and looks for her.

F. The king is very happy and gives the bird to his daughter for her birthday.

G. The bird is happy and sings for the man.

    What do you do when you begin to read an English newspaper?

You'd better know what sections there are. Usually, there is international news, business, science and technology, entertainment or lifestyle, sports and cartoons. You can choose your favourite section to read carefully.

    That you come to the article itself. If you don't have time to read the

whole article, the headline(标题) and photo give you a general idea of the story.

    Different kinds of articles

    A news article includes body text and a photo with a short piece of text under it. It usually puts the most important information at the very beginning. If you don't have much time to read the story, just have a look at the first paragraph.

    A feature article is an in-depth(深人的) report on an event or a person. It usually has an interesting opening. You get to know the idea of the article as you read.

    Another kind of article is an opinion article. Usually, some famous people give their own opinions about an important issue in a fun way. Opinion article is different from news stories that are all facts.

Be a critical(批判性的) reader

    There are advertisements in newspapers. They can provide useful information about products, places, food or jobs. Remember that people make advertisements to sell you things. You don't have to do everything advertisements tell you to do. You should be critical enough to judge which advertisements are useful and which are not.

    My wife and I spent two weeks in London last year. We went there in autumn. We think it is the best season to visit England. The weather is usually good and there aren't too many travellers in October.

    We stayed in a small hotel in the West End. It was convenient as we did most of our sightseeing on foot. Taxis were too expensive, we couldn't understand the bus routes, and my wife didn't like travelling on the underground. She said it made her feel sick.

    We went to look at the places which all visitors visit. We saw Buckingham Palace. We went shopping in Oxford Street and spent too much money. What we liked most, of course, was going to the theatre. We didn't have the chance to see such wonderful plays at home. A lot of people say English food is very bad. We didn't think so. It's true that most of the restaurants are French or Italian or Chinese, but we had some very good meals.

    In fact, we enjoyed our holiday so much that we have already booked(预订) again for this year. We're going to take an umbrella. I'm sure we'll need it sometimes.