1 . There are so many expressions in American English that sound good but actually are not.

“Face the music” is a good example. When someone says they have to face the music, it does not mean they are going to a musical show or a concert. To “face the music” means accepting the bad results of behavior.

Imagine a friend asks you to take care of her beautiful red sports car. She gives you the keys and says, “Thanks so much for watching my car while I’m away. But please do not drive it. It is a very fast car and you are not on the insurance (保险).” But you do not listen. You want to show it to some friends and pretend (假装) the car is yours. So, you drive it around town one night. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. The damage is serious. When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and “face the music”. The “music” here is the result of your behavior. It could be losing her friendship or paying for repairs to her sports car or both. Whatever the “music” is, you must face it.

There are other American expressions that mean the same as “face the music”.

“Take your medicine” means accepting the results of something bad you have done. And if someone says, “You made your bed. Now lie in it.” He means you created a bad situation and now you will experience the results, or as we say in American spoken English, you must deal with it!

“Pay the piper” also means the same as “face the music”. But that expression has its own very interesting beginning. We will talk about that in the next Words and Their Stories.

2 .    

Welcome back to school! Have you signed up for an after-school activity yet? Here are some of the activities you can try.

Do you like sports? How about joining the football team? It has tryouts at 3:00 pm next Tuesday. Many of our best players have moved up to college. So now the team needs new players. For more information, meet our sports advisors, Ms. Matte or Mr. Stergis.

This year, your schoolmates in the school art club plan to paint a mural (壁画) on the wall by the office. So they need new members to help create it. Are you interested in drawing, painting or taking photographs? This club is for you. The first meeting of the school year is at 3:15 pm next Wednesday in room 221. Please see Ms. Greenway for more information.

There are some new activities you can have a go at. Try the new after-school science club. It has plans to enter the national senior robotics competition this year. So if you want to try building a robot, this club is for you. See Mr. Larson in room 105 for more details. The club meets at 3:30 pm every Thursday.

Do you like acting? Are you good at singing? The school play this year is a musical — The Sound of Music. Come and try out for it at 3:10 pm next Monday in room 125.

For a list of all the after-school activities this year, click here, or pick up a membership form from the advisor’s office — room 107.

5 . The traditional Chinese lunar calendar (农历) divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气), which reflect the Chinese people’s understanding of time. Here several special solar terms are listed.

Rain Water

Rain Water signals the increase in rainfall and rise in temperature. With its arrival, the river water defreezes (解冻), wild geese move from south to north, and trees and grass turn green again. Extra care is needed to cope with a returning cold spell in this period. The wet and damp weather during Rain Water period is considered harmful for people’s spleen (脾) and stomach according to Chinese medical practice. Therefore, a bowl of nutritious porridge is the best choice to nourish the body.

Awakening of Insects

As the third solar term in the lunar year, its name implies that animals sleeping in winter are awakened by spring thunder and that the earth begins to come back to life. It is the key time for spring agricultural activities. Modern meteorological (气象) science shows that around this period, the earth becomes wet, the hot humid air from the north is strong and creates frequent winds. For this reason, thunder often occurs.

Spring Equinox

Spring Equinox signals the equal length of the day and night time. On the day of the Spring Equinox, the sun is directly above the equator. After the equinox, the sun moves northwards, resulting in gradually longer day time in the Northern Hemisphere. Standing an egg upright is a popular game during this period. It is believed that if someone can make the egg stand, he will have good luck in the future.

Grain Rain

Grain Rain originates from the old saying, “Rain brings up the growth of hundreds of grains”, which shows that this period of rainfall is extremely important for the growth of crops and people are busy working on the land. Grain Rain falls between the end of spring and the beginning of summer, with infrequent cold air moving to the south and lingering cold air in the north. With dry soil, an unsteady atmosphere and heavy winds and sandstorms become more frequent.

6 . In America when people say “man’s best friend” they don’t mean another person. Instead they are talking about a lovely animal: A dog ! These words show the friendship between people and animals. Dogs and other pets can give happiness to people’s lives. Some people think of their pets as their children. A few even leave all their money to their pets when they die!

Animals can help people too. Dogs can be taught to become the “eyes” for a blind person or “ears” for a deaf people. Scientists have found that pets help people live longer! They make people happier too. Because of that animals are brought into hospitals for “visit”.

Americans hold “Be-Kind-to- Animals Week” in the fist week of May.

Pets shows are held during the week. Even if you don’t live in America you can do this too. How? First think about how animals make your life richer. If you have a pet take more time this week to play with it. Remember to give it delicious food. Also be sure to keep your pet from those unwanted babies.

If you don’t have a pet, be kind to animals around you. For example if you see a street dog don’t kick it or throw things at it. Instead just leave it alone or better yet make friends with it. If others around you do bad things to an animal try to stop them. As people we must protect animals who can’t speak for themselves.

7 . Many people still remember the magic of Father Christmas from when they were children. As parents, they try to keep that _______ alive for their children for as long as they can.

That is why Letters from Father Christmas could be the _______ book for those who _______ Christmas as a special time of year. The man who wrote these letters is one of the most famous names in English literature—J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. The letters were Tolkien’s _______ of keeping Father Christm’s alive for children, over a period of more than twenty years.

Every Christmas, a(n) _______ with a North Pole stamp arrived. It was _______ to Tolkien’s children. Who could it be from? The children must have been very _______ as they opened it. Inside, they would find a handwritten letter from Father Christmas. The letters were also _______ illustrated—each must have taken its true author, Tolkien, a long time to _______ .

The letters told wonderful stories about Father Christmas’s life and adventures at the North Pole. A regular ________ in the letters was Polar Bear, who once climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house. In another letter, Father Christmas ________ about how he could not stop his helpers playing games with the toys ________ wrapping them up. Interestingly, the letters did not ________ the usual warnings to children that they might not receive their presents if they were not good.

Letters from Father Christmas tells us that as well as enjoying the ________ of Father Christmas, Polar Bear and other characters at the North Pole, we can all share the true spirit of ________ at Christmas time. By expressing love for his children in such a special way, Tolkien may indeed have been the real father Christmas.

8 . We see a woman swimming at night in a dark sea. Suddenly, she is pulled underwater. She surfaces, cries in fear, then disappears forever. This is the opening scene from the 1975 film Jaws, showing a shark attack. It tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers.

People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks, especially of the great white shark. Many people who saw the film started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea, afraid of the horrible creature from the film. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. At that time, nobody cared if sharks were killed, or how many were killed. People just wanted them killed.

After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. The fins are used in shark fin soup. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.

Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks’ behavior. “Sharks don’t target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food, and they attack us by mistake.

Fortunately, not everyone who watched the film Jaws became afraid of sharks-some became interested in understanding them. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.