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at all. It is a bat. But this bat looks like a fox. A flying fox is very big. It likes to eat fruit. Sometimes the flying fox is called fruit bat. The flying fox flies into fruit trees. The eats all the fruit. So fruit farmers do not like the flying fox. Passage 27.Flying Birds Birds don’t fly high up in the sky. The air is too thin. It is hard for birds to breathe in thin air. Thin air doesn’t hold them up. Birds fly he ground so that they see where they are. The birds look for pces they know. Then they do not get lost. Some birds fly so low over the o that the waves often hide them. Many birds fly a long distan the spring and autumn. Passage 28.Air Air is all around us. It is around us as we walk and py. From the time we were born air is around us on every side. Whe down, it is around us. When we go to bed, air is also around us. We live in air. We live without food or water for a few days, but we ot live for more than a few minutes without air. We take in air. When we are w or running we need more air. When we are asleep, we need less air. We live in air, but we ot see it. We only feel it when it is moving. Moving air is called wind. How we make air move? Here is one way. Hold an open book in front of your face, close it quickly. What you feel? What you feel is air. Passage 29.Clocks There are many clocks in the Brown’s house. They are in different rooms.A big clock stands in a er of the sitting room. It is a very, very old clock, but it still keeps good time. Mr. Brown winds it once a week. Passage 30. Swimming Swimming is a good sport. It’s popur. People like swimming because the water makes people feel cool. But if they swim in a wrong pce, it is very dangerous. These years, some people died when they were enjoying themselves in water and most of them were students. Summer holiday will be there again. I want to give you some advice. First, don’t get into the water when you are alone. Sed, don’t get into the water if there is a No swimming sign. Third, you should be careful ier. If you remember these, swimming will be safe and it’s good for your health. Modern Teologies We’re all enjoying the veniences and happiness brought by modern teologies. We use telephones and mobile phoo call, emails to write and vehicles to drive; we go to ary by air pnes; we see what is happening in the world by TV programs and I, and we even watch spames on live. Nowadays, without these teologies, I ’t imagine what my life could be. I used to read an article describing the modern lives of human beings. It says we will have many phone numbers if we want to search for one person; we send emails and cell phone messages to our friends in stead of visiting them. More and more people would rather sit in front of a puter than a TV. And we seldom go to libraries to ation now, because the I would do all the jobs. We use digital cameras, sers, photocopiers, blue teeth teology and digital signals for our cell phones… It seems as if we were living in a real digital world. Actually I guess we are, though. Since we are so developed and advanced, why we are less civilized? We are easily mad with our broken puters; we fed up with things we don’t like; we call our lovers to say “farewell and good-bye” and we are afraid to face the facts which are cruel and real. We’re led to a trend that there will no more face-to-faunications. I would rather chat with my friends with OId emails these years, instead of seeing them iy. I hide myself inside my car so that I flee away from dirt, air pollutions, robberies, thieves, winds, rains and snows. However, I could not taste the spring rain and the winter sher. The nature is fleeing away from me too! Should I thank modern teologies or bme them? I wonder if you have got the right answer. My Journals 7 June 22, 2005.. I bought a 525 ml bottle of Vaseline(a brand of lotiora Strength lotion. It was on sale, just 3 bucks, like RMB 20 kuai. That was a really good deal. I use it for 365 days. Saving is my premier job, not rid also couldn’t buy luxury products. One of my friends who is in Australia only love Louis Vuitton( a luxury brand of leather products from France) Last time, she sent me some pictures about her Louis Vuitton colle. It was huge! Everything of hers is Louis Vuitton, even her underwears.( Does Louis Vuitton produDERWEAR?) She probably bought a Nissan(a car brand from Japan.) 350z. Wow! I love that car very much, but I ’t afford it. When we were in the same senih school, she told her friends she liked me, but she never said it to me. When I k, she is already living in Australia. We chat sometimes on MSN(a message software which is extensively used all over the world), but we are just on friends. Speak it like it is, I was never in love with her, coz I didn’t have that feeling. Maybe she was seeing me, but I was not. Yesterday, I mentioned about a Korean girl. She was rich as well. She has a BMW X5 and…… I think that car is enough to prove everything. How e those girls who liked me are much richer than me? Im poor and still suffer the poverty. When these 2 girls are eating delicious food, I m eating instant noodle soup. When they are driving on the road etedly, Im walking to uy. I really wanna find a pirl to be my galfriend, coz I could also find the bance. My ex-girlfriend is living in Japan. She is ok, not that rich. Sometimes, we talk online, and she still calls me SWEETIE and regards me as her husband. I see through she wants to get back our retionship. Ha, that is okay. But it doesn’t make any sense. She woo ada for me. She has a good job and family there. That was why I did not wao tag along with me and stick with me. We are hopeless although our love sted almost 4 years. I just wa! Now Im a 100% single man. I live by myself. Everyday I keep being busy. I do believe that sometimes girl is nothing but troubles. Today, I bought a ee, the words printed on the shirt are “adian Girls Drinking Team”, I just felt it was iing and bought it. Maybe some of my friends see it, they probably scream “are you gonna ge your sex and join that team, man? You look weird and freak! ” Ha, who cares! I just tried to use very very basid easy words here in order to make each sentence more uandable and out any vocabury blocks. I just hope you enjoy it and keep reading it day by day. Today, my test was fabulous! Tomorrow there is another one. Im gonna prepare it. Cya.( See ya) My Girlfriend is Cat---- By smellycatty We knew each other on the forum of New Oriental School. That time, we both had been hurt, drifting in a lonely city for a long time, yearning to fly, and craving for true and forever love. I studied GMAT by myself in a rented small ft, she was w hard to go abroad as a post-doctor. Studying for the test, writing her emails, and having long talks over the pho night became a habit as well as the happiest moments of my otherwise b and lonely life. Before long, I found myself attached to the sweet void the gentleness of the girl I had never met. One night, before I hung up the phone, a sadness and romance surged up in me. And I said to her: “I want to sing a song to you.” I used to be a big musi in college. I listeo music as a way of dealing with the bnd school life. And I also liked to yell some tunes in the corridor or on my way bay dorm at night. Some people beled my style “street singer” who’s from the suburb of Hong Kong. The song I sang that night is the inal Japanese version of an old song by the name of “Half Full Moon(月半弯)”. As I already said, I sang it thousands of times oreet, in corridor and Karaoke Bars. But my performance has never been that good this time. I didn’t know or wasn’t sure what kind of person she would be in my life. Maybe a friend oer, maybe just an ordinary friend, or even my future girlfriend, I had absolutely no idea. She was some girl I hadn’t met, so I just treated her as a listeo my heart. What happeer was an abrupt twist. One dark and windy night, our friendship became a love caught on fire because of my not bad singing. On an impulse, I whispered to her, “Tell you the truth, all my life, I am looking for someone, with her, we could bee happy for the rest of our life.” Oher end of the phone, she choked up and started sobbing. All of a sudden, I realized that both she and I wished t the other happiness. From my past experiend instinct, I thought that I should do something immediately. So a few days ter, driven by curiosity and passion, I decided to visit her. My surprise visit indeed shocked her. It seemed to me that she still wao keep on our retionship by telephone and I. Later she told me that this gave her lots of romand fun for imagination. Urged by my pleading and threatening, she showed up, a small girl with embarrassme all over her face. I was more than oall than her. Walking beside her, I turned my head and couldn’t see her. Her hairs were blown up by wind, brushing against my fad making me very itchy. I was trying very hard to figure out some topics, suddenly my hand was in her hand. This could be the greatest embarrassment of my whole life. Never before had my hand been hold by a girl first. In a sed, I felt like that I became a girl walking oreet with hand hold. We walked and walked. A long time passed, we tried to loose each other up by talking about some funny things. She was much easy-going than I thought she would be. But I was much shyer than I used to believe. A red dragon in the global ey Many ese believe that for a to be strong its trade at must not be in the red. It must have a trade surplus to grow prosperous. So if we look back at 5000 years of ese history, it would be surprising that the time a’s trade was in the red was also just when the ‘middle kingdom’ was at its peak during that dynasty. For example, during Han Dynasty, a ran a trade deficit for turies with neighb tries, and it was also the time a became the ter of the Asia. Another obvious example is the Tang and Song Dynasty (from 7th tury to 11th tury), when a was again in a trade deficit with nearly all its neighbors. a was then experieng shes of gold, silver or even bronze, but none of this had blocked the red dragon from being the stro nation at that time. But at the end of Song Dynasty, just decades before the ese were invaded aed by Mongolians, a became the main exporter in Asia and it was one of the several periods when a was weak. Historians ot simply clude this as ce. Ret history tells the same story. The end of 19th tury was a nightmare for the a nation. Many bmed the trade deficit that resulted from opium trade as the pgue which caused the weakness of a’s ey ie Qing Dynasty. However, if we put opium trade aside, a was still a rge exporter in the world while it imported little from the outside world. At some point, a’s trade partners had to use opium as a way to pay for their trade deficit with a. Earlier, in the middle of the 18th tury, a could produough opium for domestic market and also bee an exporter in normal definition, but it didn’t help a to be a stronger nation at all. When a us first industrialization campaign, it’s trade soon turned into red again, but this happened during the st struggle of Qing Dynasty in its dying years. After its opening-up in 1978, a was in the red again for eleven years, with the exception of 1983. The gover is implementing of a strategy of stimuting exports initially from a’s opening-up. It is a reasonable policy for a post-unism ey which is ck of a fiancé system and a minimum-required fn currency reserve. Since 1990, a has been chalking up trade surplus with the exception of 1993. In 2004, the trade surplus of a amounts to $70 billion, of which $58.6 billion from Sino-US trade. With its expanding of trade surplus, its eic rapid growth tinues for decades. At the same time, ese factories are famous for dumping cheap goods from advantages of its low-cost bors and poor enviro standard. After all, a is developing, much faster than EU, US, Japan or any other major power of the world. There is no doubt that a is regaining its strength and will be a major eic power in the 21st tury. What will a bring to the globalization of ey? Even for a try of 1.2 billion popution and 960 square kilometers, there is no unlimited supply of cheap bor or unlimited tolerance of enviro pollution. However, the demand of the 1.2 billion popution market in a fast-growing ey could be the powerful engine of the global ey in human history. Some of ese key officials and schors has turo pro-deficit attitude on this debate and more and more people realize that a has no responsibility to supply the world with cheap goods while the living standard of ese people are below average level. While those booming ese panies have shown their appetites for raw materials on the global market, the extravagance of ese wealthy family in cities has given hopes to global manufacturers. Most of the pressure to grow imports es from a’s trade partners, especially US and Japan. A strong wind calling for the revaluation of RMB has been blowing sihe beginning of 2003, and some even criticize a as an exporter of deftion. At the same time, huge amounts of hot money flow into a despite capital trols that strictly limit money flows into this try. ese officials have openly refused to revaluate RMB under pressure and some even say that its a spiracy to sacrifice a’s ey without bringio the global ey. But those strong words against the revaluation of RMB were more or less for internal politics. The goverhen began to boost the imports to ease the pressure on the currency. Domestically, there are more and more criticisms against the stimuting-export policies, especially the tax reimbursement policy. The tax reimbursement to exporters has aggravated the fiscal deficit of the tral gover. The gover has paid 125 billion RMB and 115 billion RMB for tax reimbursement. This appropriation was far from the amount incurred every year and up to the end of 2003, the tax reimbursement in arrears reached to 340 billion RMB ($41.06 billion). The profit margin rates of many exporters are below the reimbursement rate. As the default of payment accumuted year-by-year, some exporters have fallen into liquidity problem while waiting for the payment of tax reimbursement in arrears. So a should not be afraid to bee red in trade, like it has during many periods of greatness. If the dragon bees be red for years or even decades, the most foreseeable sequence is that RMB will be an iional currency. To support an iional currency, a should build ‘a stable macroeiviro, a market meism and a healthy banking system’ as ese Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned as the preditions for a revaluation of RMB. It is easy to say what’s good but it is difficult to identify the problems and solve them. When the growth is still enough to sustain the system, who will be brave enough to cut the mess behind the rise? a should not be afraid to bee red again. Make your fate in trol Fate is determined by character, and character is determined by knowledge, desire and habit. If a person wants to ge his fate, he has to ge his character first; and if he wants to ge his character, he has to ge his knowledge or his desires and habits. pining to other people or the enviros makes no sense. Actually, everybody in this world will know about the meaning of life. It’s just the matter of time. A worker, who had just lost his job, met a uy professor one day. He admitted that he didn’t love to study when he was a student. He just hated to study no matter what and how his father asked him to. Whe a job and became a worker, he realized how important to have knowledge in this world. But, it was too te… There are no parents who don’t think studying is important for their children, and all the parents tell their children to study hard. We, however, still have so much differen different children, on the results, that we finally will know it’ is the matter of self-trol. When we are kids in a primary school, we see no difference from each other. We just know somebody is good at ese, Math or Sports. We just know that the teacher likes him or her. Nowadays, we differentiate our cssmates by their parents. We say: oh, god, his father is the vice mayor, his father is very rich; his mother is the dean of the biggest hospital…. This is definitely not a good sign for a and the ese people, because it makes ion for the youngsters, who are having a’s future in hand. The poor always hate the rich, because they see the rich driving all the luxury cars, living in iniums, vils and spending money like they are tless. And the poor see the rich always on vocations, always so rexed and enjoyable. So the poor are jealous and they wonder how the rich be so rid the poor are so poor. Well, the poor obviously fet ohing: When the rich are w hard and smart to collect mohe poor are lying somewhere and making pins. Make your fate and success in trol; you make a differeure, unless you want to a poor person, both mentally and physically. Love, love, love Please five me because I’m not talking about the popur song here. I really love that song, though! What I want t to you people here is something I’d like to discuss with. Love is indeed a big cept. Thus it makes some people fused or feel blur. As I have mentioned before in this forum, I don’t even differ “love” from “like” sometimes. you? I know nobody who doesn’t want his life filled with love. One is/has been/will be receiving love from his parents, retives, friends, colleagues, lovers and whatsoever living creatures, including animals. Fully enjoying love from around me is what I always long for. Hoy and joyful I would be if I could have love everywhere in this p! Love quers everything in human’s world. The more civilized and developed a try is, the more love you will see in there. I saw many charity anizations in Singapore and ada, and I believe there must be many in other developed tries. There is, however, so few in a. Even though there are some simir anizations in a, I’m afraid they are not doing their jobs. The most popur case we see in a is Leukemia. I have all along been donating moo those patients, since I was a student. I just feel that’s the only way I use to help them. The other case is raised by baggers, who are wandering ireets all the time. They are everywhere iies. They are annoying sometimes, because they would even pull your pants to hold you back if you refuse to give them cashes. I pay more respect to those who would rather go colleg rubbishes at nights than being criminals to steal or rob, or it whatever bad things against the local citizens. Once a 80 over years old woman was seen lying on the side of a road. I saw her too, for several times. She seldom bagged for money, she wanted foods and clothes more than cashes. Each time I passed by, I would give her 10 Yuan, not for pitying her, but do what I could to be of help. She died oer. I was sad when I heard the news because I couldn’t imagine what kind of children she had would abandon their parents! She must be very sad and desperate when she left her home; she must be tough and strong to survive in such a big cold city alone for years; she must be thinking about something before her death; she must be… If there is another life for this wretched poor woman after her death, I hope she would have a much better life by then. May her soul rest in peace.