1 . A person has two ears but only one mouth. That means we should listen, not just speak. The word “listen” has the same letters as the word “silent”. Listening silently is a good quality that we should have. Then why is it important to be a good listener?

Listening is really helpful. When someone is sad or angry, he wants to express his poor feelings. At this moment, we need to listen silently first until he gets calm. Then we may have a good talk with him. Maybe it is a good way to help him out.

Listening is a kind of love. We may think our parents are always talking too much. But in fact, they do so because they are anxious about our health, study and so on. If we listen patiently, our parents will feel we care about them. A loving silence is often more powerful than words.

Listening is polite behavior. Sometimes, we just want others to listen to us but forget to listen to others. In fact, that’s not polite. In order to show our respect for others, we had better listen to them first. Then we can express our ideas.

Listening sounds easy, but it’s not. Every head is a world. So we should learn to listen with our ears, eyes and hearts as much as we can, and try to make ourselves good listeners from now on.

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2 . Some animals can easily find their way home after a long journey. How do they make it? Scientific research shows that they are born with certain unusual abilities for direction.

A certain kind of ants, for example, can count their steps to avoid getting lost. They can go as far as 110 metres and bring food home. These ants live in the open desert (沙漠), so they have nothing to guide them along the way. It’s like someone walking six kilometres through a dark forest.

Some fish have an unbelievable sense of smell. They can smell even a single drop of their home water in a large sea area. Some sea birds have a similar ability. They are able to make a smell map of their flying area.

Some animals can sense the earth’s magnetic field (磁场), while humans can’t. This magnetic field guides a certain kind of fish when they swim a long way to a place and then back. How can this kind of fish do that? It is still a mystery. Scientists have no good answers yet.

In a word, animals with such unusual abilities still have difficulty dealing with environmental changes caused by human activities. For example, many birds depend on stars for direction, but they get lost easily at night when city lights are kept on all night. To solve this problem, we can simply turn off some lights at night. Clearly, one small act of humans may mean a lot to animals.

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3 . Scientists have always wanted to know more about the universe (宇宙). Years ago they knew many things about the moon. They knew how big it was and how far away from the earth. But they wanted to know more about it. They thought the best way was to send men to the moon. The moon is about 384,000 kilometers away from the earth. A plane cannot fly to the moon because the air reaches only 240 kilometers away from the earth. But something can fly even when there is no air. That is a rocket.

How does a rocket fly? There is gas (气体) in the rocket. When the gas is made very hot inside the rocket, it will rush out of the end of the rocket, so it can make the rocket fly up into the sky. Rockets can fly out into space. Rockets with men in them have been to the moon. Several rockets which have no men in them have flown to another planet much farther away than the moon. One day rockets may be able to go to any place in space.

4 . China is famous for its delicious food. Especially during festivals, there are different traditional foods. Among them is niangao.

Niangao, a kind of Chinese New Year’s Rice Cake, is made from glutinous rice (糯米). It is very popular during the Spring Festival.

The pronunciation of niangao sounds like year and high, which means higher income (收入), better jobs, higher marks, the growth of children, and generally the promise of a better year.

Niangao is usually made from glutinous rice flour (粉), wheat starch (麦粉), salt, water and sugar. The tastes can be divided into two main kinds: sweet niangao in northern China, while sweet or salty niangao in the south. Salty and sweet tastes are both fantastic. In the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, people can put different things inside niangao, such as flower sugar, oil, and sweet red beans.

________ The ways to make niangao include braise (炖), stir-fry (炒), deep-fry, piece-fry, soup cooks and so on. Stir-fried niangao with sugar is quite popular. Stir-fried niangao with Shepherd’s Purse (荠菜) is also very delicious.

Niangao is not only delicious but also meaningful. Do you want to learn to cook it or just want to eat it?

5 . During the cold winter, you may catch a cold, have a fever or a cough easily. There are some common and great ways that you can follow to keep yourself away from these problems.

Never leave your house without warm clothes. It might be sunny in the morning or daytime but it is getting colder as the sunsets. So make sure you have a sweater or a coat for the colder night. Don’t walk without shoes in your house. You may have a habit of staying bare feet at home. The cold passes from feet to head in no time and that is why we need to wear shoes to stay away from the cold.

Drinking ginger (生姜) tea helps your body get warm during the colder days. Drinking green tea keeps your body healthy and solves many health problems. It is even good for those who want to get thinner.

If you catch a cold, do not let the cold buildup in your body. It’s better to take quick action against the cold through proper exercise. Do some warm-up exercise in the morning or rub (摩擦) your hands quickly. Jogging (慢跑) or yoga also helps your body become warm to stay away from the cold and fever.

Follow these simple ways, and you’ll enjoy the winter greatly.

6 . Helping your children choose a hobby is very good for them. They can learn a lot when they are enjoying themselves. To help your children choose a hobby for fun, here are a few tips that may help:

Match your children’s interests. If he likes to cook, buy him a cookbook. If he enjoys collecting baseball cards, buy him a special scrapbook. Show your interests and support theirs.

Try different hobbies. Introduce a new hobby as a birthday or holiday gift. In trying something completely different, your children may become interested in it or at least get to know a new thing.

Share a hobby with your children. Take an art class as a family. Go for a mountain climbing together. Spending family time doing fun things can make a healthy and nice relationship.

Take it to the next level. If they prefer pop music, visit a singer star’s website. Take in a concert. Make it fun for everyone.

Don’t push your interests to your children. Let your children choose their own interests, though you can always introduce them to a new one. Don’t show your disappointment (失望) if they choose something different from what you think of.

Hobbies are a great way for children to learn new things. Help your children try different interests until they choose one they want to learn more about.

8 . The dragon is a great animal in Chinese culture. It brings the wind and rain. It is said that every year on the second day of the second lunar (阴历) month, the dragon wakes up from its winter sleep and raises its head. Because of this, the day is called “Dragon Heads-raising” Day (Longtaitou). This year, it falls on February 21st.

Old people believed that after Longtaitou, there would be more rain. And rain is very important to farming. So Longtaitou was the start of spring and farming.

People have many ways to celebrate the Festival. The most popular one is to have a haircut. Many people believe that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to your uncles—mainly your mother’s brothers. They hope getting a haircut on Longtaitou keeps them away from bad luck.

Among Chinese people’s festival traditions, there is always a place for food. During the Langtaitou Festival, people eat food named after dragons. Noodles are called dragon’s beard (longxu). Dumplings are dragon’s ears (long’er). And springrolls (春卷) are dragon’s skin (longlin).