A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms, though my teacher emphasized the importance again and again. But soon, the importance of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.

    One day, I happened to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be astonished gently shaking his head, shrugging his shoulders, saying, “You don't say!” “You don't say!” I was puzzled. I thought, perhaps this is not an appropriate topic. “Well, I'd better change the topic.” So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall By the way, have you ever been there. “Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave China without seeing it. It is magnificent.” He was deep in thought when I began to talk like a tourist guide, “The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. We are very proud of it.” Soon I was interrupted again by his order, “You don't say!” I couldn't help asking. I said, “Didn't you say you don't say” Hearing this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to explain, “You don't say actually means really It is an expression of surprise. Perhaps you don't pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I realize I had made a fool of myself. Since then, I have been more careful with idiomatic expressions.

    One of the most important things in the world is friendship. In order to have friends, you have to be a friend. But how can you be a good friend at school?

    Listen — Listen when they are talking. Don't say anything unless they ask you a question. Sometimes it's not necessary for you to have anything to say; they just need someone to talk to about their feelings.

    Help them — If your friend is ever in need of something, be there to help them. You should try to put them first, but make sure you don't do everything they want you to do. Try to take an extra (额外的) pencil or pen with you to classes in case (以防) they forget one. Have a little extra money in your pocket in case they forget something they need.

    Be there for them — Try to make something for your friend to help make them feel better in hard times. Making cards and encouraging them are among the nicest things you can do for a friend. Marilyn Monroe, a famous U.S. actor, once said, “I often make mistakes. Sometimes I am out of control. But if you can't stay with me at my worst, you are sure not to deserve (值得) to be with me at my best.” Always remember this! If you don't want to stay with your friends when they're in hard times, then you don't deserve to be with them when they're having a good time!

    Try to make plans with your friends. Go shopping, go for ice cream, have a party, go to a movie and so on. Take time to know each other even better by doing something you both enjoy. By planning things together, you both can have a good time. And you'll remember these things when you're all old!

Yesterday and Today

    Life in the twenty-first century will be different from life today. Between then and now many changes will take place, but what will the changesbe?

    The population is growing fast. There will be many people in world and most of them will live longer than people live now.

    Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then.

    People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel. Traveling will be much cheaper and easier. And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.

    There will be changes in our food, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead they will eat more fruit and vegetable. Maybe people will be healthier.

    Work in the future will be different, too. Dangerous and hard work will be done by robots. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.

    America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

    Mr. Black was a wealthy businessman, but he was not 1 with life. He did not sleep well and his food did not 2with him. The situation lasted for some time. Final­ly, after a  3of sleepless nights, he 4to see his doctor. The doctor ad­vised a change of  5  "Go abroad," he said. "But I'm not good at foreign languages," said Mr. Black. "It doesn't matter," said the doctor. "It won't 6 you to talk a little less. 7 on a trip. Take plenty of exercise. Try to8 your weight. Avoid (避免) eating rich food. " Mr. Black went to Switzerland. He did not know French or Ger­man, and had to 9  himself through gestures. He attended a physical training course. The instructor（指导者） 10 him bend his knees, swing his arms, stretch his neck and shake his  11.He had to lie on the ground and  12  his right and left legs in 13.  After a time his muscles grew hard and firm. He almost14 aside his financial(金融的) worries and nearly forgot the importance of 15 more money. He even began to  16individual trees and individual birds.  He ate and slept well. 17 he returned home.  But unfortunately his18 did not19 long. Soon he was a normal businessman again, worried about his property, his profits, his savings, his success in a competitive society, and things in20.

    Is there anything more important than health? I don't think so. “      ” wise people say.

    If you have a headache, toothache, backache, or bad pain in the stomach, if you complain of a bad cough, or if you suffer from high or low blood pressure, I think you go to the doctor.

    The doctor will examine your throat, test your blood pressure, take your temperature, sound your heart and lungs, check your teeth or have your chest X-rayed.       The only thing you have to do is follow his advice.

           to see the doctor. The man was very ill. He told the doctor about his weakness, memory loss and serious problems with his heart and lungs. The doctor examined him and said there was no medicine for his disease. He told his patient to go to a quiet place for a month and have a good rest.       In other words, the doctor advised him to follow the rule:” Eat at pleasure, drink at pleasure and enjoy life as it is.” The doctor also said that if the man wanted to be well again, he shouldn't smoke more than one cigarette a day.

    A month later the gentleman came into the doctor's office.        He thanked the doctor and said that he had never felt a healthier man.

    “But you know, doctor” he said,” it's not easy to begin smoking at my age.”

A. He also advised him to eat a lot of meat, drink two glasses of red wine every day and take long walks.

B. You can't be good at your studies or work well when you are ill.

C. After that he will advise some treatment or some medicine.

D. Health is the greatest wealth.

E. He looked cheerful and happy.

F. He was more worried about his illness.

G. Speaking about doctor's advice, I can't help telling you a funny story

    A proverb says, “Time is money”. But in my opinion, time is even       precious than money. Why?        when money is spent, we can earn it back. However, when time is       (go), it will never return.

           is known to all that the time we can use is limited. Therefore we should make        use of our time to study hard so as to serve our country in        future.

    But it is a pity that there are a lot of people        do not realize the value of time. They spend their precious time       (play).

    In a word, we should form the good habit of       (save) time. Do not put off what can be done today        tomorrow.

1）开始时，觉得英语比初中英语难得多，老师的教法也不一样,几乎丧失信心。

2）每天多投入时间和精力,努力学习英语。向老师和同学请教更好的英语学习方法。

3）现在英语取得了很大进步，对英语越来越感兴趣。

注意： 1）不要逐句翻译, 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

       2）词数100左右；

Dear Mr. Li,

    ……

Yours,

Li Hua