Luo Wei, born in Guangzhou, is a pianist in Shanghai. He likes expressing(表达) his love through his music. He writes his piano pieces from the everyday scenes (场景)in Shanghai. He wrote more than 100 "love letters" for his city. They are all piano pieces.
Luo's musical journey started when he was a little child. His parents were strict with him. "They did not believe in shortcuts (捷径). When I wasn't having classes in school, I would spend most of my free time practicing the piano," he said.
He wrote his first piano piece on a rainy day when he was feeling sad. "I just love riding on the streets to look for something interesting, such as the singing birds in the trees in summer, and the fallen leaves on the floor in autumn. All these are good for my piano pieces. People will find that Shanghai is a good place to live through my music," he says.
Many people love listening to his music. Some people even say they want to go to Shanghai after listening to his music. "His music is so beautiful and warm," they say.
Luo Wei says he wants to write more good music for people and bring Shanghai to the world.
I love eating out with friends on weekends, My favorite restaurant is Pizza-Lover. I love Pizza very much. I usually have a piece of pizza and a glass of banana yogurt(酸奶). There is a TV in the restaurant. And I enjoy watching football games there.
—— Mary, America
My favorite restaurant is McDonald's. I love hamburgers, chicken and hot chocolate. They are very delicious. There is one McDonald's near my house. I often go there with my parents. I usually eat some food and play with other kids.
—— Grace, England
I am a vegetarian(素食者) so I often go to a restaurant called Vegetarian World. This restaurant has many kinds of vegetables. I order a special every time, and then I have a fruit salad. A young man always plays the piano at the restaurant. It is wonderful!
—— James, Canada
Every year, there's a talent show in our school. And the theme(主题) of this year's talent show is dreams. I took part in two competitions this year: dancing and cosplay (角色扮演).
There are six boys in my team and we're good at street dance. When the music played, we all felt excited. We danced so well that all of the students and teachers cheered (喝彩) for us. Our team did a good job and won first prize. We felt happy and we learned how to work as a team. This is the most important thing we learned from the competition.
The cosplay competition was the most popular part of the talent show. Students could get dressed up as any characters they liked. Although it was our first time to take part in such a competition, we decided to try our best. When we walked on the stage(舞台), we were very nervous. Later, we made a mistake during the competition so we didn't win. But we will work harder for the next competition.
Everyone should have a dream. So if you want to do something you like, just go for it!
DIY is popular in China now. Do you know what it is?
Yang Chen works for a computer company(公司)in Beijing. Though she enjoys her work, it is hard for her to relax after work.
"For a long time, I had no choice except(除了) going to a bar for a drink to relax myself," she said.
One day when she saw many toy dogs in a toy shop, she had an idea." Why not do some kinds of things and relax myself?" Then she began to make model planes, model ships and something else. The things she has made by herself don't look as professionally(专业的)made as those in the shops, but she likes doing it. "It's not as -much fun to play with things which are bought expensively from the shops," she said.
Now her bookshelves are full of many kinds of things she has made. They are very beautiful and her families and friends like them very much.
More and more young people are like Yang, making things on their own. They like to do it themselves. They think DIY is a good way of life now.
Though making things with our own hands may take much time, some people, now known as DIYers —do-it-yourselves, enjoy doing it very much. They can make all kinds of things they like.
DIY is becoming more and more popular in China. It may be new to the young, yet many people remember when it was once a way of life.
During 1960s and 1970s, because there were not enough living things for people to live on, they had to use their own hands to do many things. Making clothes was a part of life because there was no other choice. If you wanted something done, you had to do it yourself, and if you needed something, you made it yourself. But times have change and DIY also has different meaning now.
Dear Li Nan,
My weekend was great. On Saturday I went to see my aunt Susan in South Wales(威尔士). Oh, Aunt Susan has two daughters. One is an artist in Washington, and the other works as a teacher in New York. Her son Jack works in Beijing as a guide. And that day my uncle Peter went to the countryside to see his parents. so I only saw Aunt Susan and Lucy there.
Aunt Susan and Lucy were very happy to see me. Er, I forgot to tell you about Lucy. She is an old cat. She is fifteen years old, but she is very healthy. She can catch mice in the garden. Sometimes she goes to the fruit shop near Aunt Susan's house to play with a white dog. Well, in the evening Aunt Susan took me to see an interesting movie. On Sunday morning my uncle came back home from the countryside. In the afternoon, be took me to visit his farm. Of course I had fun there.
In many English homes, people eat four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. People have breakfast at any time from seven to nine in the morning. They eat porridge (粥), eggs or bread. English people drink tea or coffee (咖啡) at breakfast.
Lunch comes at 13:00. Afternoon tea is from four to five in the afternoon and dinner is at about 7:30. First they have soup, and then they have meat or fish with vegetables. After that they eat some other things, like bananas, apples or oranges. But not all English people eat like that. Some of them have their dinner in the middle of the day.
Many people do not like to stay at home on holidays. They want to go out to see something different or do something exciting. So people from the country come to the city and people from the city go to the country for holidays. During the holidays, trains, buses and planes are all very busy. It is very hard to buy train tickets or air tickets(机票). Many people take cars or buses for traveling.
Last May Day my family went to the country by car for our holiday. There was too much traffic on the road, so we had to move very slowly. It took us about an hour to get out of the town. After some time, we came to a hill(山). It was green and beautiful. We thought this was a good place for a picnic, so we stopped and took the food, fruit and drinks out of the car. We sat down and began to eat. Suddenly a strong wind blew and soon it started to rain. We had to run back to our car and have our picnic in the car. Then we drove back home. What a bad trip!
Dear Jan,
I went to Beijing with my parents last New Year's Day, and we went there by air. The weather was snowy. I like snow. We went to the Great Wall. It is so great. The next day we went to a big supermarket. We bought lots of things there. At noon we had some noodles and fruits for lunch. In the afternoon we went to the zoo. There were lots of animals. I like pandas because they are very cute. I had a great time in Beijing. How about your holiday?
Please write to me soon.
Yours,
Sam
It's December. It's snowing and the weather is really cold in the north of China. You can see many children playing with snow. Some of them are making snowmen. Some are skating on the river, because it's so cold that the water in the river freezes（结冰）. It's a white world. How beautiful! But in Australia now, the weather is hot. Many people go swimming in the sea. They are having a good time. Jim and his friends are playing soccer near the sea. The sunny weather is really cool to them. They want to swim after playing soccer.
Why are they swimming in December? That is winter, isn't it? Yes, it is in China. But it isn't in Australia. That's because we, Chinese and Australians, have different seasons in a year.
It's December. It's snowing and the weather is really cold in the north of China. You can see many children playing with snow. Some of them are making snowmen. Some are skating on the river, because it's so cold that the water in the river freezes（结冰）. It's a white world. How beautiful! But in Australia now, the weather is hot. Many people go swimming in the sea. They are having a good time. Jim and his friends are playing soccer near the sea. The sunny weather is really cool to them. They want to swim after playing soccer.
Why are they swimming in December? That is winter, isn't it? Yes, it is in China. But it isn't in Australia. Because China and Australia have opposite(相反的、相对的) seasons in a year.
