In early spring, the changing temperature usually makes a number of Chinese people uncomfortable. Cold air, bringing rain or even snow, easily tears up the warmth of the spring within a night(一夜之间).

However, with the coming of Guyu—the Grain(谷物) Rain, the blue sky and gentle winds would finally stay. Falling usually on or around April 20 every year, Guyu is the sixth of the 24 solar terms(节气). It means the beginning of a lively summer and people get busy from now on.

Sow(播种) grains

This is an important period of the growth of grains. The ancient Chinese already knew that as Guyu comes, the weather will become warm enough for sowing. The farmers usually catch the chance to plant rice, corn and beans.

Hope for safety and harvest

For those living near the sea, they will hold some ceremonies(仪式) on Guyu, hoping for safety as well as harvest during the coming fishing season.

Watch the peony(牡丹)

It’s also a great time to enjoy the peony, which is known as “the Queen of All Flowers” in Chinese culture. As a result, watching peonies becomes one of the most enjoyable activities for many. The flower is said to be the favourite of Empress(女皇) Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, who was the only woman ruler in Chinese history. 

Pick tea leaves

Tea leaves picked before Guyu are among the best tea leaves. People believe that the tea leaves picked on the day of Guyu can make eyes clear and drive away bad luck. So the habit of drinking tea at this time of year has become a tradition in some places of China.

2 . There are four great inventions from ancient China.

The compass is a great gift to the world. Before it was invented, sailors had to depend on the stars to find directions. After it was invented, the oceans were open to travel.

Paper­making is one of the greatest inventions. During the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C. ~ 9 A.D. ), paper was made in some places in China. It was developed in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D. ~ 220 A.D. ) by Cai Lun. He made paper with bark(树皮), old cloth and so on.

It is said that in the third century a Chinese man wrote about how to make gunpowder(火药). At first, it was used for making fireworks(烟花). At the end of the Tang Dynasty, people began to use it in wars. The way of making it was brought to the Arab world and Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Printing was developed in 1041~1048 in the Song Dynasty. A man named Bi Sheng carved characters(字符) on pieces of clay and wood. Then he put ink on them. After the characters were printed on paper, the pieces of clay or wood could be used again. This technology then spread to Korea, Japan and Europe.

4 . Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night, I look at the posters with photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. Can we imagine life without paper or printing?

Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and since the 19th century, from wood. People learned to write words on paper to make a book. But in those days, books could only be produced one at a time by hand. As a result, they were expensive and rare. And because there weren’t many books, few people learned to read.

Then printing was invented in China. When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply. After that, knowledge and ideas spread quickly.

Today information can be received online, downloaded from the Internet rather than only found in books. And information can be kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as iPads.

Computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines can already be read online. So will books be replaced by computers one day? No, I don’t think the Yao Ming poster on my bedroom wall will be replaced by a two-metre-high computer!

6 . Computers, smartphones, and other machines are the perfect servants. They always do what they are “told”. We usually “tell” them to do things by using a mouse or keyboard. But what if we could just talk to them normally and tell them what to do?

This type of technology, known as voice control or voice recognition (识别), has been shown in films and TV shows since the 1960s. The TV show Star Trek showed some spaceships which could reply to human voice commands (命令). The film 2001: A Space Odyssey showed a computer that human astronauts could talk to. It was mainly used to play chess and repair the astronauts’ spaceship.

On the other hand, real-world voice recognition is used for more everyday tasks. For example, Apple and Amazon made two pieces of voice recognition software (软件). They can be asked to do many things, such as setting alarms and playing music and so on.

One of the nice things about voice recognition is that it can be used when we’re on the go. When you’re driving a car or walking down the street, it’s not convenient or even dangerous to pick up your smartphone and type away on the keyboard. Voice recognition allows you to focus on whatever you’re doing at the moment while still doing other tasks.

Speech recognition software is also helpful to deaf people. It can be used to “listen” to spoken words and turn them into text that deaf people can read. Some speech recognition software can even hear words spoken in one language and then translate them into another language.

8 . Not getting enough sleep is bad for health. Depending on the research from the scientists, people who don’t get enough sleep are less willing to socialize(社交) with others. They are simply too tired to go out.

The researchers did a small study. They tested 18 young people who had good sleep after a sleepless night. The participants watched videos of people with neutral(中性的) expressions walking towards them. When the person on the video got too “close” to them, they pushed a button to stop the video.

The participants kept the person at a distance of 60% further if they hadn’t got enough sleep. They felt that their personal space was being invaded(侵占). But when the participants got a good night’s sleep, they allowed the person to get much closer to them.

The result shows that the less sleep you get, the less you want to socialize with others. In turn, other people may think you strange and stay away from you. So if you want to be a more sociable(喜欢与人交往的) and popular person, sleeping well might help.

Do you like reading? It is very important for us to learn or study through reading. But now many students say they don’t have enough time to read. So we need some skills to help read more in less time while we are doing some reading in class. Here are two skills that I think are very good.

Preview(预读)—if your article is long as well as difficult, such as long magazine articles or science reports, previewing is very useful for you to get a general idea.

●Read the first two paragraphs and the last two paragraphs carefully.

●Then read only the first sentence of the other paragraphs.

Of course you can’t get all the details by previewing. It tells you not to spend time on things you don’t really want or need to read.

Skim(浏览)—if your article is short and simple, like popular magazines or the sports of your daily paper, skimming is a good way to get a main idea. Here’s how to skim.

●Get your eyes to move fast. Sweep across each line.

●Pick up only a few key words in each line

Everybody skims differently.   You and I may not pick up the same words when we skim the same passage, but perhaps we’ll get the idea of what it’s all about.

I wish all of us could read more books and enjoy reading every day!