15.Hi, Jason,

You asked me about Yao Ming. Here is something I got when I searched the websites at home.Yao Ming, who is now 2.26 metres tall and 134kg in weight, was born in Shanghai on the 12th of September,1980. It is said he likes meat most and his favourite colour is blue. The man he respects most is late Premier Zhou Enlai and the one he believes in most is himself.He joined Shanghai basketball team in 1997 and became a member of China national team Shanghai won the champion of CBA and he was among the top players in the team. In the same year he went to the US and became Number One Overall in the NBA draft, which helped him join Houston Rockets. After many matches as well as struggles he now feels a little tired. Up to now he says he still hasn’t got any further definite plan.

14. Fire causes

Fire, one of the most terrible killers in out modern society, is mainly caused by smokers, as can be seen from the graph.In 2002, thousands of fires happened in China. About 50% of them were caused by smokers who left cigarette-ends everywhere. 30% were caused by defective insulation and 20% by children playing with matches. No matter what type of the fire was, there was one thing in common: carelessness.We should warn children of the dangers of playing with matches. Workers should know the importance of good insulation to people’s lives. Smoking should not be in public places.

13.　　　　 Pollution　　

A chemical factory lies near my home.

The manager was criticized by the government because the pollution had harmed people’s health, but he paid no attention. Then the factory was forced to stop production and the manager said angrily, “ Is there any fact that we have harmed people’s health? In fact, we haven’t.” Just then, a doctor came, with the result of the medical exam of the manager, saying the manager was suffering a lung cancer. It is very clear that the population has harmed not only to people’s health but also the manager himself. He was realized the importance of keeping air clean.

12. Dear Editor,

　 I’m writing to tell you about our discussion we had on the afternoon of last Wednesday about the good and bad sides of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival. 20 boy and 20 girl students attended the discussion. As a result, 40% of them believe that setting off firecrackers certainly adds pleasure and joy to the festival. Therefore, it is a wonderful tradition. But another 40% of the students think that setting off firecrackers causes air and noise pollution, and what’s more, it sometimes causes terrible accidents to us and to our property. The other 20 % have never thought about it or don’t care a bit. In my opinion, ……　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Yours truly,　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　Li Hua

11.　 Nowadays, it is usual for students to find part-time jobs. This winter vacation, I worked as a waiter at a McDonald’s. It was the first time that I had earned money by myself. With the money I could buy something I needed. I was quite excited about it.　　

Now, as a result of a part-time job, I needn’t ask my parents for money as before. I think it’s helpful for a student to know about the outside world and I also think that will help me to make preparations for the future job. I not only understand the value of money, but also know how to get along with others.

　In a word, I had a fruitful vacation.

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

9. April 13, Sunday　　　　 Fine　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Spring has come. Early in the morning, I went to Xiangshan Park 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.

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.

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!

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 Qinghua University 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.