Today I went to Sam's school in the UK. It was really different from my school in China.

    Girls wore grey skirts and white shirts, boys wore grey trousers, and everyone wore the school tie.

    Some of Sam's lessons were a bit strange for me. We were reading Shakespeare in the English lesson, and there were quite some old words like "thou" and "thee" to mean "you". In history we studied 20th Century China. It was strange hearing a foreign side of history — and hearing English people trying to say all our Chinese names!

    Classes were also a lot more relaxing than in China. Teachers were called "sir" or "miss", everyone shouted answers and raised their hands in classes. It was more like a debate than a class. A bell rang at the end of each lesson and everyone jumped up to go to the next class.

    At break we bought potato chips and cookies in the dining room. Lunch was later than in China at 1 o'clock. We had big plates of pie with carrots. For dessert there was hot sweet rice called rice pudding.

    It was good that I'd had an excellent lunch, because at Sam's school Monday afternoons are taken up with sports.

    I played my first game of netball — a bit like basketball, but with some differences. Luckily I'd had a quick look in the rule book before I tried to join in the game.

    Long long ago, there was a spider. She found a beautiful farm. She liked the farm and decided to live there forever.
    One day, the spider caught a little bug. When the spider ate it, the bug said, “If you let me go, I will tell you an important thing. The thing will save your life.” The spider stopped and listened.
    The little bug said, “You'd better get out of the farm. The harvest is coming! If you stay here, you will be killed by the farmer's machine.”
    But the spider didn't listen to the bug and ate it for lunch. The next day when she was sleeping, the farmer came to have a harvest. The spider was killed by the machine.

    Being able to go to a perfect university is what every high school student dreams of. However, for Jin Chengkuang, a high school senior at Shenzhen Experimental Chenghan School, his long-standing dream has been to be a film director. He has received offers from four top art schools in the United States, which means he is already on the way of making his filming dream come true.

    Although Jin is only 18 years old, he has had some experience of filming. During his three years in high school, Jin produced four more short films besides Choose and Out of Control, which were more successful.

    According to Jin, he shot Choose with an Argentinian student when he was at a summer school programme in New York. It was a short film about freedom. The film was produced in a classroom with only a fish tank as the main prop (道具). To express the opposite of freedom, the tank was empty in the beginning, but suddenly, a fish appeared and swam freely in the tank. In the end, the fish disappeared, leaving us an open ending. It took Jin and his partner one month to finish the six-minute short film.

    As a beginner, Jin has been quite lucky so far. Last winter, he got a chance to join the well-known film director Chen Kaige when they travelled to Northern China to film I Legend of the Demon Cat.

    Jin said, "A great firm takes everyone's efforts. Although the conditions were pretty poor, it was all worth it because I learned a lot."

    Chopsticks were invented in China. There are many stories about who may have invented them. One of them is about Dayu.

    Dayu was an ancient Chinese leader who helped his people fight floods. He was always busy and often ate in the wild. He used a pot to boil (煮沸)water and cook animal meat. Most of the time, he was in a hurry and didn't want to wait to eat. But the meat was too hot to pick up with his hands. In those days, people ate only with their hands.

    So Dayu picked up some twigs (树枝)to help him hold the meat. The twigs later became the chopsticks we know today.

    But of course, this is just one story. The earliest chopsticks we have found so far are more than 3,000 years old, dating back to the Shang Dynasty (朝代).The six bronze chopsticks were found in the Ruins of Yin (殷墟)in Anyang, Henan.

    At first, chopsticks were just used as cooking tools. It was only after some time that people started to use chopsticks to eat.

    There is a girl called Molly Whipple. She lives with her parents and two elder sisters, Polly and Dolly. Molly looks young for her age. Polly and Dolly sometimes laugh at(嘲笑) her, because she is so little. One day, the three sisters get lost in the woods(森林).

    "We're lost! We're lost!" Polly cries. "We'll never find our way home!"Dolly cries. But Molly says, "Of course we will. Look, there's a house. __▲__ "

    The house is very big. Who lives there? Molly knocks on the door. An old woman comes out. "Can I help you?" she asks. "I hope so, " says Molly. "We are lost. Would you please help us find our way home?" "Of course," says the old woman. "Come in and sit down. When my husband gets back, he will take you home. He loves children."

    The old woman closes the door. Molly finds a huge (巨大的) plate on the table and a huge pot(壶) on the stove(火炉). "Polly, Dolly…" Molly takes their hands. "I think we have to make our own way home."