Folk music is a kind of popular music. It comes from the people of any country. Folk singers sing songs from centuries ago, and they also write songs. They want to express their feelings about new things in the world today.

The word “folk” means “people”. Folk songs tell stories about people. For example, the songs tell about their jobs and work, their friends and their life. They also express ideas such as love and war. The words in the songs are an important part of the music.

In the United States and Europe, folk music became very popular during the 1960s. Fans listened to folk singers performing at concerts. The singer told stories, sang and played the guitar.

Fans listened to the music and often sang along with the performer. Some of the folk singers during this time were the Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger.

Later, people began to play this kind of music themselves at schools, at parties (盒式录音带) recorded by new folk performers. They can listen to folk music on the radio.

Good manners mean politeness. Politeness can be seen in our daily lives, such as in one’s way of dressing, speaking and standing. Everyone should pay enough attention to his manners all the time. A man with good manners is welcomed everywhere and can make friends easily. On the other hand, a man with bad manners is thought to be rude and nobody wants to be friends with him. He would feel lonely and unhappy.

If you want to be a person with good manners, you will learn to use some useful expressions, such as “Please”, “Excuse me” and “Sorry” on different occasions. Also,where help is needed, you should be happy to lend a hand.

Like customs (风俗), good manners maybe different from country to country. Good manners in one country may not be good manners in another country. In order to behave like a person with good manners in different places, it is necessary for one to learn about cultures of other countries.

Whenever the sun dropped and the blue sky came up, my father and I used to climb the mountain near my house. Walking together, my father and I used to have a lot of conversations through which I learned lessons from his experiences. He always told me, “My son, you should have goals like climbing the mountain.” Without the mountain-climbing that we both enjoyed, we couldn’t have enough time to spend together because my father was very busy. I really got a lot from the mountain-climbing. It gave me time to talk with my father and to be in deep thought as well as develop my patience (耐力).

Once we climbed a very high mountain. It was so challenging for me because I was only ten years old. During the first few hours of climbing, I enjoyed the flowers and trees, and the birds’ singing. I got a pain in both of my legs. I wanted to quit climbing. In fact, I hated it at that mountain, but my father said to me, “You can always see a beautiful sky at the top of the mountain, but you can’t see it before you reach the top. Only there can you see all of the nice things, which is just like in life.”

At that time I was too young to understand his words. But later after that, I got hope and confidence. I finally saw the sky at the top of the mountain, which was as clear as crystal.

Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is spoken by many people around the world every day. English speakers are always making new words and we should be able to know where most words come from.

Sometimes, however, no one may really know where a word comes from. Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, some men went to America from Europe. They came from a big city in Germany called Hamburg. They did not speak good English, but they are good at making food.

Whether this story is true or not, it certainly is interesting. Knowing why some words have a certain meaning is interesting, too. The reason may be found in any large English dictionary.

The word “family” has special meanings to everyone.     41     However, because of different personalities, values, interests and hobbies, some unhappy things may happen among family members at times. So how can we achieve family happiness?

Learn to say thanks and sorry.

We are used to saying thanks and sorry to others, but often we don’t do that to our family members.     42     And saying sorry makes them feel understood.

Communicate with each other often.

Communication can happen in any place at any time. We can talk about our experiences and feelings with our family members in the car, at the dinner table or on the way back home.     43    

Share housework.

    44     Since we live in one house, we should do our part in keeping it clean and tidy. It’s easy to help do chores like making the bed or doing the dishes. In this way, we can understand the idea of fairness.

    45    

We are busy around all day, but nothing is more important than spending time with family members. Either eating meals or traveling together is a good choice. Not only will this allow us to enjoy the deep love but it can also bring us more sweet memories.

56. 你是否曾在遇到困难时，得到别人的帮助？你是否曾有过温暖内心的感人经历？请以“Warmth in My Heart”为题，用英语写一篇短文