Children’s Games in Ancient (古代的) China

During ancient times, children didn’t have much to enjoy themselves. However, they came up with interesting games to play in their childhood.

Kicking stone balls During the Qing dynasty, kicking a stone ball around was a popular game in the northern part of China, and it was often played in winter to keep warm.

Playing hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek is a traditional game for children, popular around the nation. There are two ways to play: covering a child’s eyes while other kids run around to tease (戏弄) him or, more commonly, others hide and one child must try to find them.

Flying kites Kites have quite a long history. The earliest kites were made of wood instead of paper. The three most famous kites are the Beijing kite, Tianjin kite and Weifang kite. Each has its own feature. For example, the bird-shaped kite with long wings is a special kind of the Beijing kite.

Watching shadow plays (皮影戏) The closest thing to watching a film during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. The artists control puppets (木偶) behind the screen and tell stories to the music.

Every year thousands of people get hurt or die when they are crossing the road. Most of these people are old people and children. The old people often get hurt or die because they can’t see or hear very well. Children usually meet with accidents because of their carelessness. They forget to look and listen before they cross the road.

How can we lessen (减少) traffic accidents? All of us must follow the traffic rules. For the drivers, they shouldn’t drive too fast. If they drive too fast, it will be very difficult to stop the cars in a very short time. For the pedestrians (行人), it’s very important to be careful when they are walking on the road. Therefore, when we walk across the road, we must try to walk along the pavements (人行道). We must stop and look both sides before crossing the road. Look left first, next look right, then look left again. Only when we are sure that the road is clear, we can cross it. The right way to cross the road is to walk quickly. It’s not safe to run. If people run across the road, they may fall down. Students should try to help children, old people or blind people to cross the road, and never play in the street.

A new report shows what life might be like in 100 years now. It describes skyscrapers that are much taller than today's buildings, underwater "bubble" cities and holidays in space. The report is from a company. It asked experts(专家) on space and architecture as well as city planners to give their ideas on the life in 2116. They said the way we live and work and play will be totally different to how we do these things. The experts used the Internet as an example. They said that 25 years ago people could not imagine how the Internet and smart phones would change our lives. The Internet has completely changed the way we communicate and do daily things. The experts said the changes in the next century would be even more unbelievable.

Researchers questioned 3000 adults about the prediction (预言) they thought were most likely(很可能的) to happen in the future. They predicted that in the future few people will go to an office but will work from home and have work meetings online. People will have highly developed 3-D printers that will let you download (下载) a design for furniture or a food recipe and then "print" the sofa, table or pizza at home. There will also be less need for visits to the doctor. We will all have a home health instrument that will tell us what the problem is and give us treatment. We will also be going into space for holidays and to get resources that we have used on Earth. A prediction that is missing is whether people will still need to study English.

I'm a piano teacher. I can feel clearly how talent and hard work influence my students.

In fact, not everybody was good at playing the piano when they came to the world. For example, some of my students just spent 2 or 3 months learning to play the piano well.     21     Many of my talented students learn faster than I did before, but talent doesn't always bring a good result. When playing the piano seems easy to a student, he or she sometimes finds it boring and then gives up.     22    

Some of my students work very hard.     23     I teach them again and again and they practice for now. However, it just does not work for these students. In my eyes, it is not necessary to do everything very well.     24     Then you can choose what you are truly interested in or good at and put all your heart into it.

    25     If you want to do the best, you need to follow your talents and work as hard as you can. Don't give up half way.

It was a Saturday afternoon. The weather was very hot and nobody wanted     36     at home. Timmy decided     37     swimming in the river. His brother, Bob, wanted to go with you. “Take him with you, Timmy,” said their father, “and you should     38     after him well.”

When they got to the river, a lot of people     39     in it. Some people had great fun     40     in the water. Timmy told Bob to play on the bank, and then he     41     into the water. About an hour later, Timmy swam back to the bank with a fish in his hand. Bob was very happy. He     42     a bottle and put the fish into it. Then they went home.

Bob     43     anything else that evening. He just watched the fish in his own room. Suddenly Timmy heard Bob     44     in the room. He ran to him and asked, “What’s the matter with you, Bob?” “The fish is dead.” Bob said, “I thought it was tired, so I     45     it out of the bottle and put it on the chair. I only wanted it to have a good rest.”

Every 30 seconds there is an earthquake. But don’t worry because most are so weak that they cannot be felt. Only a few big ones hurt people.

Many earthquakes happened in China, such as the big one is Sichuan a few years ago. Thousands of people died in it.①So it’s important to know what to do when one hits. Here are some tips on how to stay safe in an earthquake.

●If you are indoors during an earthquake, hide under a desk. Stay away from windows and anything that could fall on you.

●If you are outdoors, move to a clear place. Try to be away from trees, signs, buildings and streetlights. These could fall on you.

●If you are in a shop and far from the door, don't try to run to outside and rush for exits (出口). Everyone will be doing that and you'll find it hard to go out. Don’t get into a lift during an earthquake. Just hide under some strong covers near you.

●When an earthquake has ended, be careful because after-shocks may still happen.②These are just as _______as the earth quake itself. So stay under the desk until you make sure it’s _______to get up.

●If you are at home and you smell gas, open the windows and get out of the building as quickly as you can. A gas line in your house may be broken. This could be very dangerous.