【推荐2】It was a freezing cold winter night. Coming near the town to look for food, a very hungry wolf met a house dog. The wolf saw that the dog was fat and comfortable so he asked, “Cousin dog, do

“Oh, there is always food in my house,” said the dog. “My master gives me plenty of meat.”

“Master?” said the wolf, “What’s that?”

“The man I work for,” said the dog, “My job is easy. I bark and keep thieves away from the

“Yes,” said the wolf. “Your life sounds much better than living in the cold woods. I’d like a roof over my head. I’ll come with you and work for your master.”

As they ran toward the town together, the wolf saw a mark on the dog’s neck.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“What’s what?”said the dog.

“That mark on your neck.”

Why are dogs our best friends? Maybe because they can understand our words much better than we thought, according to a study in Hungary. It found that dogs understand not only what we say,but also how we say it.

"The results were very exciting and very surprising," said the researcher Attila Andies,from Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.

For the study,the researchers first trained 13 dogs for months. The dogs had to sit quietly inside machines,so that the researchers could check their activity.

Then the researcher put headphones on dogs and played people's voices to them. There were four different voices. Some were positive words,such as "well down" , or neutral(不带感情色彩) words like "however". The words were also in different tones( 音调). Some were positive( 积极的) and some were neutral.

Brain scans( 扫描) showed that the dogs could recognize( 辨认) words,as well as the tone of words, much like people do. The positive words with a positive tone brought the stronger activity in their brain's reward centers(反应中枢).

"It shows that for dogs, a nice phrase can work very well as a prize, but it works best if both words and tones match, "said Andies.

They also found that dogs deal with meaningful words with the left side of the brain and tones with the right. Human brains work in the same way.

"It gave us a new understanding of language," said Andies. That is, not only do humans understand the meaning in words, other species(物种) do too.

【推荐1】You must have read or heard of the sad love story between Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. But can you imagine the two singing opera (歌剧) in English rather than speaking poetic Chinese?

Jia and Lin are two characters from the Chinese novel A Dream of Red Mansions (《红楼 梦》), written by Cao Xueqin (1715—1763). Now the book has been made into an English-language opera. After being performed in San Francisco, the US, the performance came to Beijing, Changsha and Wuhan in 2017.

Many of the opera’s creators have backgrounds in both Chinese and American cultures, including the director and playwrights (剧作家). Their understanding of both cultures helped them change a Chinese classic into a foreign-language opera.

The book, which covers the rise and fall of the Jia family, has 120 chapters and hundreds of characters. But opera writer David Henry Hwang cut down the number of characters to just seven. Hwang, a Chinese-American, focused on the love story between Jia and Lin and tried to write a tragedy (悲剧) that everyone would understand.

The art director Timmy Yip, from Hong Kong, tried to help foreign people understand the characters by using costumes (服装) and stage decorations. He compared Lin to water and gave her a light green costume. When Lin showed up on stage, there was usually water around her on the stage.

The creators considered the work of introducing a Chinese classic to Western audience was worth doing. Hwang told China Daily he was happy to “have made a contribution (贡献) to the land where my parents were born”.

【推荐1】Jim was a well—known radio host（节目主持人）. Actually he was not only known for his hosting skills, but also as a good dresser. Every morning he would spend the time getting ready in a suit and tie. He would always arrive at his office on time.

But many people thought that what he was doing was a waste of time. “No one ever sees you. Why do you dress like that? “He always just made it into a joke.

One day Jim was invited to appear on TV. There was a special show for the oldest radio hosts. For the first time, people who only knew his voice would see his face. But he arrived late. The director was not going to criticize（指责）such an excellent host, but he was very surprised. “Usually you arrive on time, but today you are 10 minutes late. Why?”

“When I got dressed,” said Jim, “I noticed that my socks were too old. I am about to be on TV for the first time. So, I ran to the store for some new socks.”

“Why do you need new socks? “asked the director. “You could have come without wearing your socks. We will only show you in close-up, above your waist（腰部）.”

“I need to feel spotless（干净整洁的）in everything on-air（在直播中）. I start with my shirt and finish with the pen in my pocket. If my socks have holes or my shoes are dirty, I’m not spotless anymore.”

The director smiled. He realized that only with the right attitude（态度）can you achieve your best.

【推荐2】Kelly could hardly believe that she had been so stupid! At lunchtime in a busy sandwich bar, she had hung her bag on the back of her chair. Seconds later, the bag had gone, and her mobile phone, her money, her bank cards and her keys had gone with it. Luckily, she was with her friend, Anna. Using Anna's phone, Kelly was able to call the bank and the phone company at once. The thief would not be able to use her cards or her phone, at least!

Back at the office, Kelly began to feel better. At least six people asked if they could lend her some money. At teatime, three colleagues competed to pay for her tea.

One more difficulty lay ahead. Kelly's bicycle was locked. Unless she could unlock it, she would not be able to get home that night. She asked Tom, the Building Manager, if he could help. Tom appeared with his assistant, Ben, and a big bag of tools. They tried every tool in the bag, but they couldn't cut or break the lock. There was only one solution.

Kelly rang the fire station and explained the situation. Four minutes later, an enormous red fire-engine pulled up outside the building, with some handsome young firemen on board. 'We always travel like this/ one of them joked, as the others unloaded the cutting equipment and freed Kelly's bicycle.

As she cycled home, Kelly thought, "For every one thief in London, there are thousands of ordinary, kind people! "

【推荐3】Some people like playing games by themselves，but some enjoy watching others play. They buy tickets（票）or turn on their TV to watch the games. They usually have "their team" or "their players". When "their team" lose the game，they feel very sad.

People play different games in different seasons. Most people's favorite sport in summer is swimming.Skating（滑雪）and skiing（滑冰）are usually winter sports.

【推荐2】

Mr. Green is in a clothes shop. The sweaters here are on sale, so he wants one for himself. But the salesman（售货员） isn’t there, so he is near the counter（柜台） and waits（等待） for him. A young woman also waits there. She looks at Mr. Green and says to him.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes?” Mr. Green asks.

“Can you help me? I want a sweater.” says the woman.

Mr. Green says, “Sorry, I can’t help you.”

“You must help me. This is your work（工作）” says the woman angrily（生气地）.

Mr. Green says kindly（友好地）, “It’s not my work. I want to buy a sweater, too.”

【推荐3】During a singing contest held by China Central Television, an ancient poem called Moss(苔)has become popular over the night. It was written by Yuan Mei, a famous poet, more than 300 years ago. However, this poem has not been well-known since it was created. During the Spring Festival, Liang Jun with his students from a small village school in Guizhou Province stood on the stage of Everlasting Classics (经典“咏”流传) and had an excellent performance. It made the audience surprised, shocked and also moved. Let’s enjoy this simple but touching poem.

Moss

Where there’s no shine

On its own green moss thrives (茁壮成长) fine

Though as tiny as a grain (谷粒)is its flower

It learns from peony (牡丹)to bloom with spirit.

Liang Jun said, “My students have limited resources to get enough information and knowledge to study or to learn about the world, but I believe they have the most pure hearts full of love.” Liang wanted to encourage his students by singing this poem and he was the composer (作曲人). “Even if we don’t have the most, we can still bloom like peonies, and we should never look down on ourselves”. Teacher Liang Jun gave the seeds of hope to the children, so the seed was planted in every child’s heart and opened flowers in their life.