It’s good to know about your school in the UK. I think your school is nice and your school life (生活) is fun. In the e-mail, you ask me about my school. Now, let me tell you.

The name of my school is Jingwai Mingde Primary School. It’s in Yunnan Province, China. My school is not old. It has a history of about fifteen years. It is not very big. There are about 1,000 teachers and students in it. But I think my school is really cool! In my school, every class has a piece of land (土地) for students to grow (种植) vegetables and fruits. With the help of our teachers, we look after the vegetables and fruits twice (两次) a week. When the vegetables and fruits are ripe (成熟的), we can eat them. They are healthy and nice to eat. My class is a nice “family”, too. My teachers are good to us and their lessons are interesting.

I really love my school. What do you think of my school life?

Yours,

Anna Green

【推荐3】A long time ago, there was a king who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover (行走) as much land area as he liked, then the king would give him the area of land he would have covered.

Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, beating the horse to go as fast as possible. When he was hungry or exhausted, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much as possible. Finally, the horseman came to a point where he had covered a big area but was dying. He asked himself, “Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying, I am going to lose my life and I won’t be able to enjoy the things I want. All that I need is only a very small area to bury (埋葬) myself.”

The story above is similar to the journey of our life. We push very hard every day to make more money or to gain power. We don’t pay attention to our health, time with our family, the beauty of nature or the hobbies we love. When looking back, we will realize that we don’t really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.

Life is not only about making money, getting power. Life is certainly not only about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living to enjoy the beauty and pleasure of life. Life is a balance of work and play. You have to decide how you want to balance your life. List the most important things, and realize what you are able to give up.

【推荐1】Have you ever cut your finger or scratched (划破) your knee while playing outside? Then you have probably used Band-Aid Brand Adhesive Bandages (绷带), sticky strips with cotton pads that are placed over small cuts and burns. There were no Band-Aids until almost 100 years ago, when a man named Earl Dickson created them for his new bride, Josephine.

Mrs. Dickson loved to cook, but she often cut or burned herself while working in the kitchen. If she was at home alone, she did not have an easy way to cover her injuries by herself. This caused her husband to worry, so he came up with an idea.

Mr. Dickson worked for Johnson & Johnson, a company that made bandages, tape, and other materials for hospitals to use. Mr. Dickson placed a piece of hospital tape with the sticky side up on a table. Then he folded a cotton pad and put it in the center of the tape. Finally, he covered the entire bandage with a piece of fabric (织物) called crinoline so it would stay sticky. If his wife cut or burned herself, she could remove the crinoline and stick the bandage over the hurt area. Mrs. Dickson loved the sticky bandages.

Mr. Dickson showed the bandage to his bosses at Johnson & Johnson. They loved it too, and they quickly began selling the product.

At first, the sticky bandages did not have a name. Then in 1920, another Johnson & Johnson worker named W. Johnson Kenyon came up with a new word, “Band- Aids”. The word “band” was for the piece of hospital tape and “aid” for first aid or help for the person who was hurt.

Since then, Band-Aids have become famous all over the United States, and people of all ages have used them to cover small hurts.