2 . Everyone wants to be healthy. We know food is very important to us. There is an old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” There is lots of healthy food in our life. Fruit and vegetables are healthy food, but hamburgers and candies are not healthy food. So you can have more bananas, apples, oranges, tomatoes and onions. They are good for us. But you can’t have too many hamburgers or candies. They are bad for us.

For drinks, juice and milk are healthy but Coke isn’t healthy. Ice cream isn’t good, either. Healthy food can make us strong and happy.

So let’s eat more healthy food to be healthy.

3 . Is there a connection between music and language? According to recent studies, the answer is yes: Music helps develop certain language abilities in the brain.

A study from Northwestern University shows that playing a musical instrument can improve a person’s hearing ability. As a part of the study, two groups of people listened to a person talking in a noisy room. The people in the first group were musicians, while those in the second group had no musical training. The musicians were found to be able to hear better, because they learn to pay attention to certain sounds.

For example, when the violinists play in a band, they must listen closely to what they are playing and ignore the other sounds. In this way, musicians can hear certain sounds better, even in a room with lots of noise.

Gotfried Schlaug, a doctor at Harvard Medical School, works with stroke (中风) patients. Because of their illness, these people cannot say their names, addresses, or other information normally. However, they can still sing. Dr. Schlaug was surprised to use singing words to help his patients finally speak. Why does this work? Schlaug isn’t sure. Music seems to be able to make different parts of the brain active, including the bad parts. In some way, this helps patients use those parts of the brain again.

So music is not only enjoyable, but also good for us in many other ways. “Playing an instrument or singing,” says Nina Kraus, “can help us do better in school and keep our brain sharp as we get older.”

4 . School life is often happy and exciting. How can we keep those good memories (回忆)? Most high schools in the United States have a yearbook. The yearbook comes out once a year. It is a “book of memories” for students.

Inside a yearbook there is each student’s photo. The fourth-year students are finishing school soon, and their photos appear first. Next are the third-year students. Next come the second-year students. The last photos are the first year students. The yearbook is not only about students, but the teachers’ photos are also in it.

The yearbook also has photos and descriptions (描述) of sports teams, school subjects, and extracurricular activities. These are activities students do after school such as the chess club and Chinese club. There is even the yearbook club. Students in this club write and take photos all year for the yearbook. At the end of the year, the book comes out.

In the yearbook, some students get special titles (头衔). For example, the students choose the “class clown”—a funny student, the “most likely to succeed”—a student everyone thinks will be successful, and the “best dressed”—a student with a good fashion sense (时尚感).

Students write in each other’s yearbooks. This is very important to the fourth-year students because they are saying goodbye to each other. Students write something like “We had a lot of fun.” and “I’ll never forget you.” They also write about all the fun they shared in school together.

5 . The library is a great place to visit. Many students like reading and doing their homework in a library. And most libraries have lots of bright reading areas, so you don’t hurt your eyes.

But the library isn’t just about reading and learning. You can have fun in the library, too. Some libraries have fun things for children. They can tell stories, make things and hunt (寻找) books.

In the library, there is always someone to help you. That is a librarian. If (如果) you can’t find the books, the librarian will help you find them. If you can’t find an answer to a question, ask the librarian to help you.

Don’t forget to visit your library and be sure to thank the librarian for his or her help.

7 . What are the basic ingredients (要素) of good manners? A strong sense of fairness is one of them.

A friend once told me an experience that he had. When he was driving along a one-lane (单行小路), unpaved (未铺路的) mountain road, the car ahead of his produced clouds of choking dust (呛人的尘土), and it was a long way to the nearest paved main road. Suddenly, the car ahead stopped at a wider place on the road. My friend thought there must be something wrong with the car ahead. He stopped and asked if anything was wrong. “No,” said the other driver. “But you’ve endured my dust so far. I’ll endure yours the rest of the way.”

Another ingredient is empathy (同情心). It makes a person see into the mind or heart of someone else. Recently I happened to read such a story in a book.   

A man was having dinner alone, and he was trying to open a bottle. But he failed. Then he asked a waiter for help. The waiter took the bottle, turned his back and opened it without difficulty. Then the waiter closed it again and turned back. He pretended (假装) to make a great effort to open the bottle without success. Finally, he took it into the kitchen and returned very soon. He told the man that he managed to open it, but only with a tool. Yet another ingredient is the ability to treat people alike (一视同仁). No matter who he is and what he does, everyone is worth respecting.

Because of the COVID-19, the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games has been put off and will be held from September 23 to October 8, 2023. It will be a good chance for Chinese to watch some games during the National Day holidays.If you’d like to watch games in Hangzhou, here are some rules for you.

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9 . My name is Lucy and this is my grandfather. His name is Tim and he is my best friend. My grandfather is 64 years old and he is retired now, so he has much time to be and play with me. I love him very much and I know he loves me too. He lives with me, my father, my mother and my brother Kevin. We live in a big house. My grandfather is a very tall and strong (强壮的) man! He often carries me on his shoulders(肩膀). He is really strong! My grandfather always knows what I want to do or to eat or what I feel inside! When I am sad (伤心的), he makes me laugh with his funny faces. Every night before I go to bed, my grandfather tells me stories, and he even sings for me!

10 . As teenagers, you have many dreams. These dreams can be very big, such as winning the Nobel Prize. Or they can be small, you may just want to become one of the ten best students in your class. Once you find a dream, what do you do with it? Have you ever tried to make your dream come true?

Follow Your Heart by Australian writer Andrew Matthews tells us that making our dream come true is life’s biggest challenge.

“You may think you’re not very good at some school subjects, or that it is impossible for you to become a writer. These kinds of thoughts stop you from realizing your dream,” the book says.

In fact, everyone can make his dream come true. The first thing you must do is to remember what your dream is.

There will be difficulties on the way to your dreams. But the biggest difficulty comes from yourself. You need to decide what is the most important. Studying instead of (代替) watching TV will lead to better exam results, the chance to learn more skills and find new interests.