It’s great to receive your email. Now I’d like to tell you something that took place in my school yesterday. In the afternoon we held a growing-up ceremony for our coming 18-year-old birthday. At first we made an oath that as grown-ups we should have a sense of duty for our society form now on. Then we showed our thanks to our parents who had gone through hardships to bring us up and teachers who have been educating us patiently. And our teachers also gave us cards expressing their good wishes to us. Finally, we put on wonderful performances, singing and dancing. We learned a lot from the activity. I think it’s very important for us. I will remember the day in my life.

Yours, Li Hua 2. Monday May 18, 2002 Fine

　 This morning our teacher told us something about the Hope Project in class. She said, “Now in the countryside many children still can’t go to school because of poverty. Can you help them?”

　 After school, I went home. When I entered my room, I saw the little box in which I keep my pocket money. Though I wanted to buy a pocket recorder, I decided to send my money to the children who are eager to go to school. I began to write a letter to them at once. After finishing writing it, I went to the post office and posted all my pocket money with the letter together.

I felt very happy today because I’ve done a good deed.

3. Last Sunday my classmates, Lin Tao, and I went to the bookstore. At a counter we noticed a foreigner was asking a man for help, but the man didn’t know a word of English. So we went up to him and offered help. After knowing what he really wanted, we took him to the counter where tapes and disks of Chinese folk music are sold and gave him some advice on which to choose. With our help, the foreign guest got some music tapes. He gave his hearty thanks to us and left.

Though it took us some time to help him, we were happy anyway.
　　4. Yesterday I paid a visit to a model high school, together with my friend. It’s very big with a beautiful fountain in the center of the schoolyard.

　　We started our visit from the main building. First we went to the lab building where some students were doing experiments. Then we entered the lecture hall behind the lab building and saw many students listening to a lecture given by a professor. Opposite to the lecture hall was the art center. There we watched groups of students playing musical instruments. Finally we arrived at the playground at the far back of the school. Some boys were having a football game, which was so exciting that we couldn’t help cheering for them.

It was really an impressive visit.

5. An Announcement

Boys and girls,

　 May I have (take) your attention, please. There will be a lecture at half past three on Friday afternoon. It’s about “Information and English Study”. And it will be given by Mr Li Ping who is a famous teacher from the English Department. There’s sure to be something instructive and interesting. We can get more information from it, I think. And it will improve our English studies to a new stage. Anyone who wants to attend it can come to Room 206. Take notes and have a discussion after it. Please come here on time.

That’s all.
6. May I have your attention, please?

　　As you know, our class will have a talk show on environment protection with Class One on May 4th. Before it takes place, we will invite Dr. Lil from QinghuaUniversity to give us a talk on the environment problem and he will also tell us about the improvement in environment protection in recent years in Beijing.

　　The report will begin at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, April 30th in the auditorium on the third floor in the classroom building. I’m sure we can get enough information from his talk to make good preparations for the coming talk show. Everyone should be there on time, then listen to the report and make full notes at the same time.

By the way, we will have a discussion after the report.

That’s all. Thank you.
　　7. In my opinion, you are never too young to do things. For example, Tara Lipinski, the American ice skater, won an Olympic gold metal when she was fifteen. Pele, the great Brazilian soccer player, became a professional soccer star the same age as Tara Lipinski. And Mei Lanfang, a famous Chinese opera singer, first performed Beijing Opera when he was ten. Another example is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who started writing music at four. There are still more examples. Shirley Temple was a movie star at the age of three and Tiger Woods starts golfing when he was only ten months old!
　　8. Advertisements appear everywhere in the modern society. When we walk along the street. We can see large advertisement boards with pretty girls smiling at you. In newspapers, we often see half of the pages covered with advertisements. We turn on the TV set and we see advertisements again. Whether we like it or not, they are getting their way into our life.

　 Advertisements help us choose what we need and then we spend our money on it. They also guide us in finding suitable jobs. However, too many advertisements annoy us. And quite often, they give us false information.
9. April 13, Sunday Fine

　 Spring has come. Early in the morning, I went to XiangshanPark for sightseeing with my parents. While walking around the park, we couldn’t help admiring the beauty of nature. Of course we took a lot of pictures.

　 However, I was quite disappointed to find some bad behaviour. Some people littered anywhere as they liked. Some even climbed up the trees and picked flowers. Although there were some signs warning people not to touch the lawn, still some people enjoyed themselves there.

I hope that such bad behaviour will soon be got rid of and everybody will protect the environment.
10. Dear Mary,

　 I’m glad to receive your letter again. You want to know something about what is going on in our school. In short, great changes have taken place since our school began to carry out the research-based learning.

　 In the past, the teachers almost took up all the period, writing on the blackboard, explaining the points, and answering the questions raised by themselves. We students are the slaves of study. But now, we’ve taken up most of the period, discussing the questions raised by the teachers or ourselves, exchanging our ideas, or solving the problems. We are now the masters of study.

　 After class, we enjoy different kinds of activities instead of doing endless homework. We go to the library to read books, have sports on the playground and surf the Internet for various kinds of information.

How happy we are now. Welcome to our school.

Best wishes.

Yours truly,

Wang Ping