1 . Do you know how to invite people to parties? Inviting people to a party is an art. You must think about what kind of party you’re going to have first. If it is a small party, you can just give a call to your friends and ask them to the party. You can even e-mail them or just leave a message for them.

Now, calling someone is an art, too. First, give a call to your friend, and then begin the talk asking him about his life and family. Ask him about his schedule（日程表） on the day of the party. If he says he is free, you can ask him to the party directly（直接地）. If the friend is not free, then ask him to try to find time for your party.

If you’re going to have a big party, and need to ask lots of people to your party. You must decide how many people you want at your party. Then you can write a list of them and send them beautiful invitation cards. Because you may not have so much time to give them a call each. You must send the cards a few days before the party so that they can have enough time to prepare for it.

2 . There are forty-five students in our class. I have made a survey (调查). Thirty-six students say they like to exercise. Most boys play basketball together twice a week. But girls think basketball is difficult for them. They’d like to play volleyball together twice a week. My friend, Tony, is good at running. He runs fastest in our class. He runs for thirty minutes every evening before he goes to bed. Is it interesting? Gray is good at swimming. He goes to the swimming club three times a month in winter and three times a week in summer. So he is pretty healthy. Some of my classmates have good eating habits. They eat both meat and vegetables. Seventy percent of them drink milk every day. Fifteen percent students say they drink milk three or four times a week. But some students like to eat junk food, especially (尤其) Ben. What’s more, he doesn’t like to exercise, so he is very fat. He always says, “I’m going to lose weight (减肥) tomorrow.”

4 . Many companies today hold meetings to discuss their new plans. As people are paying more attention to the environmental problems, more companies are looking for ways to reduce their bad influence on the environment. Many of them achieve this by using the Web meeting.

The Web meeting is a technology that allows people to communicate better over the Internet. It’s an easy way of hosting and attending a meeting. Participants (参与者) don’t have to leave the office. Each of them will receive an invitation with the meeting time and date on it. When the meeting is ready to begin, they must sit before their computers.

With the Web meeting, all participants can attend the meeting at their own desks. They don’t need to drive a car to travel to and from the meeting. As a result, no fuel (燃料) is used and less time is taken up in attending a Web meeting.

Materials (材料) for the meeting are simply e-mailed to all the participants before it begins. Then participants can just read them on the screen. For the company, this not only saves the use of paper but also greatly reduces the mailing cost.

In a word, a Web meeting is a cheaper, greener, and friendlier way of hosting and attending a meeting. Companies that hold Web meetings are willing to work hard for a better environment. So they can find their working partners who have the same green ideas in a short time. In return, they develop good relationships with other companies and improve their business.

5 . The well-known “new great inventions” of modern China have made our daily lives more convenient.

High-speed trains

China created its first high-speed railway line in 2008. Since then, the number of passenger trips has grown by over 30 percent every year. By 2016, more than 5 billion trips had been taken on the trains. By 2020, one-fifth of the country’s 150, 000-km railway network will be used by the trains. This network will link more than 80 percent of the major cities across China.

Mobile payment

Mobile payment is turning China into a “cashless society”. Instead of paying by cash, customers now pay for their goods and some kinds of bills simply by typing a short password into the Alipay or Wechat app on their mobile phones.

Shared bikes

China has surprised the world with how quickly shared bikes are widely used. Nowadays, bike users can simply pick up or park the bikes on the street through GPS and smartphone apps. China’s two leading bike-sharing companies, Mobike and Ofo, have been opening their overseas markets in Singapore, the UK and the USA.

Online shopping

With around 751 million Internet users, China has been the world’s largest and fastest-growing online shopping market. Because of lower costs and fewer licensing requirements, it’s easier for sellers to open an online shop in China. In 2016, more than 20 million jobs in rural areas were created, with over 8.1 million running their own online shops.

6 . Yuan Longping, a great scientist, is the first person to develop a kind of hybrid rice(杂交水稻) which helps fight hunger in China.

Food was a big problem in China in the past. This was because China had 22 percent of the world’s population, but only 7 percent of its farmland. In the 1960s, China suffered(遭受) serious hunger. Millions of people died because they had no food. As an agronomy(农学) teacher, Yuan was very sad to see this. “How can I help them have enough food?” he thought. He decided to work on a kind of hybrid rice. It has a high output(产量).

At that time, other scientists didn’t think hybrid rice was worth studying. But Yuan and his team worked on it every day. They took very good care of their rice seeds. At last, in 1973, they grew a new kind of hybrid rice. This rice is strong. Farmers can grow it in many different kinds of farmland and also in bad weather. It can also fight disease. Its output was much greater than common kinds of rice. With the new kind, about 70, 000, 000 people could have food every year!

Yuan solved the food problem in China. But he is still working on rice. Before he retires, he hopes to grow rice in the sea!

7 . How do you make friends? Some students are sharing their ideas with us:

Tom: Although we are quite different, Adam and I have been close friends for 5 years. We have a lot to talk. We play basketball together after school. We go for a picnic at weekends. It’s always a pleasure to be with him.

Yumi: I spend my spare time mostly with people from other countries. When I’m with them, I really get to know what they’re like and how easy they are to get along with. They help me to improve my English.

Anna: I’ve made some good friends at the gym I go to. People there are very friendly. Talking to them. I think exercise is a good way for us to get to know each other.

Peter: I can make more friends on the Internet because it keeps me in touch with the whole world. I can get worldwide stories from my friends all over the world.

When doing his math homework, Lu Lifei, from Jiangsu Province, came across a problem. He couldn’t work it out. So he took out his cellphone, started a special app and searched for the problem. Answers soon appeared on the screen.

Nowadays, many students do homework with the help of the Internet like Lu. They search for information online, use apps or discuss through social tools like QQ and WeChat.

“It’s convenient. You don’t have to wait or get a tutor on the spot.” Lu said. “You also learn by seeing how others work problems out.”

“It also improves students’ abilities,” said Wang Shiying, from Shanghai. “And it’s especially true for new types of homework.”

Wang’s Chinese teacher often asks students to give lectures on great authors. When it comes to Wang’s turn, she usually searches online, picks out certain stories and makes PowerPoint presentations.

“I’ve become adept（熟练的）at searching for information online and using Microsoft Office,” Wang said. However, this trend also brings up problems. Some students just copy the answers online without thinking. They become lazy. Huang Pengxiang, a head teacher from Shanxi, said that knowing how to use the Internet was important. The key is to have good self-control.

“No matter how difficult the problem is, think about it independently first,” Huang said. “Be sure to understand the reasons behind the answers, or you won’t make progress. If you’re not confident about your self-control, ask your parents for help.”

9 . Do you know the two lovely mascots（吉祥物）? You may know the five “Fuwa” dolls from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. On September 17, 2019, the two lovely mascots first showed on TV. Now, let’s see who they are.

Look at the panda! It looks like an astronaut. It wears an ice shell and looks fat, so we call it “Bing Dwen Dwen”. White is the colour of ice and snow. “Bing Dwen Dwen” likes ice sports very much and is good at them. That’s why it is the mascot of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. The red heart shape in its left hand means welcoming the friends from other countries.

Do you think the red mascot looks like a lantern? The lantern’s name is “Shuey Rhon Rhon”. When the Chinese New Year comes, people always make or buy red lanterns. Red is the colour of hope and good luck, so people think their dreams will come true in the new year. “Shuey Rhon Rhon” can give players hope and help them do well in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games（残奥会）.

Many people in different countries like the two mascots very much, and they show their love for them on the Internet.

Many of us read news every day. Maybe it’s because we’d like to know what’s happening in the world. Today we can get news from TV or the Internet, but how did ancient people get news?

At the very beginning, information spread from mouth to mouth. People knew their communities from neighbors or travelers. Ancient Romans changed the way people got news. They posted daily happenings at public squares in the cities. Ancient Chinese did it in another way. The government had news sheet（传单）sent to officials（官员）in the whole country so that people could know what was going on in the capital.

In the 15th century, the development of printing technology led to one step in helping news spread. In the 16th century, the first real newspapers appeared. People started to form the habit of reading newspapers and share their opinions. The invention of telegraph（电报）machines led to another big step in news spreading. News stories were sent to the papers in minutes instead of weeks.

Now we get news in seconds from all over the world. We can become some kind of reporters by posting online what happens around us.