Hi, I’m Daniel, a writer from the US. Here, I team up with a reader of your age to help solve your problems.

Whenever I get better grades than my friend, he treats me coldly and even quarrels with me. Now we are more and more distant(疏远的)from each other. What should I do?

—Steven

I understand your feelings. You just did your best at school, but now you are suffering(受苦)because of it. Maybe your friend is envious(嫉妒的). Or maybe his parents compare him to you, which makes him feel upset.

Or maybe it’s you. Perhaps, when you talk about your grades, you sound snobbish(恃才傲物的).

Now I am in my thirties. Here’s my rule: If a friend makes less money than I do, I don’t talk about it. If someone makes more money than I do, I don’t talk about it. Money is everybody’s private information.

Guess what else is private information? Your school grades. So keep them to yourself. If someone asks you about it, just say, “I need to keep working.”

Keep your friends close and your exam scores closer.

—Daniel

I have a friend just like yours. She always treated me coldly after she knew I got a higher score than her. What I did was just comforting her. Everyone wants to be the best, and it’s normal to be upset when she doesn’t achieve her goals.

I think you can study together with your friend so that you can make progress together. It’s not only good for your study, but for your friendship as well.

Another reason for my friend treating me coldly is that her parents often scold(批评)her when she doesn’t do well. If you praise your friend more in front of his parents, maybe he will be more friendly to you.

Above all, remember that competitions don’t necessarily hurt our friendship. The way we treat competition is more important.

—Lu Siyi, 14, Beijing

Lend a caring ear

What would people in ancient times do when they missed someone very much? What do you think of the invention of cellphones?

My mom told me that when she and my dad were newly married, before people had cellphones, she’d get phone calls from an elderly lady. The lady wanted to speak to someone named Donna. She was very friendly. My mom told her that she was not Donna, but the lady would still say my mom was Donna.

At least once a week this old lady would call for Donna—sometimes more! Every call started with, “Hello, Donna! How are you?” She never cared if it was the wrong number.

My mom never learned who that lady was. The lady only ever said her first name. She talked about her daily life, her cat, her garden, and the newspaper. Sometimes she’d talk about memories of Donna. She could only talk for 10 or 15 minutes before getting tired and saying goodbye.

She normally called on Tuesdays or Thursdays around 8:00 pm. My mom made sure to be home at that time.

The whole thing lasted for about a year. Then the calls just stopped. My mom thinks the old woman was lonely. From her stories, my mom guessed that Donna was a childhood friend of the lady.

Why did she call? Why did she stop? My mom felt sad when the calls stopped. She still thinks of that lady sometimes and wonders about her. Maybe that woman knew there was no Donna. Maybe she just had nobody else to talk to. My mom’s small act of kindness might have been a big help to someone in need.

April 20th, Chinese Language Day

April 20th is Chinese Language Day, a day all about learning its history and help others to use Chinese with friends, at work or at home.

Today, many members of the United Nations work with Chinese. ①It is spoken by the most people in the world.

The Chinese language is known as one of the most difficult languages to learn, and it has a long history. So, who created the Chinese language? It is said that it was Cangjie!

April 24th, National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day

In the United States, April 24th is National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day. Pigs-in-a-Blanket is often hot dogs or sausages wrapped（包裹）in biscuit. Pigs-in-a-Blanket are generally served as an appetizer（开胃品）or as breakfast. However, it can be served at any mealtime!

April 25th, World Penguin Day

World Penguin Day recognizes one of the special birds on the earth. There are 17 kinds of penguins, and all of them live in the Southern part of the earth.

The Emperor Penguin is the biggest penguin and largest of all birds. There are about 595,000（2017）adult Emperors today, and from birth, they spend their whole life around the Antarctic ice. They give birth to their babies like other birds, only they can do so in about -50℃!

May 18th, International Museum Day

Few places in our world are more educational than museums. But there are millions of people have never even visited one.

There are many possible reasons for this—perhaps they think just looking at old things would be boring, or perhaps they haven’t realized just how different the world was in the past and see no reason to take an interest.

Though ②it may not be as popular as some days, International Museum Day is something that should be held in high importance.

Nowadays, what you need to realize is that the answer you get online is quite possibly wrong. A study said that over 48% of all available historical facts available online are inaccurate（不准确的）or downright（完全）wrong.

Days like International Museum Day should be something to get yourself and your young ones excited for; after all, while there will be children filling their heads with nonsense（谬论）, you have the ability to fill your children with truth.

The further we move forward, the more we leave behind.

A                                     B                                   C                                   D

61. 马上就要结束自己的初中生活了。初中三年，学校环境和你个人有什么改变？想对自己的母校说些什么？

I will graduate soon. I have learned a lot here during these three years. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________