What do you think Salman Rushdie, Bill Clinton, Paulo Coelho and Fyodor Dostoyevsky all have in common? They are all writers, you might say. Yes, and all of them are also members of a new club: writers of books that British people cannot finish. In a recent survey of 4,000 adults (成年人) on books, there were some interesting findings.

32% of the people said they couldnˈt finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. Another book was James Joyceˈs 1922 novel Ulysses, which has more than 1,000 pages. Surprisingly, Louis de Bernièresˈ novel Captain Corelliˈs Mandolin was also included. The book has sold more than 2 million since 1994, but not many people seem to be able to finish it.

There were more interesting results in the survey. 55% of the people said they bought books for decoration and they had no plan to read them. A spokeswoman from a publishing (出版) house said,“It seems that people buy some books just to make their bookcases look good, rather than actually buying a book that they want to read,” she added. “People are buying books because they think they will be good for them, rather than because they think theyˈll enjoy them.”

The findings said many people found it hard to make time for reading. Main reasons for this included: feeling tired (48%), watching TV (46%), and playing computer games (26%).

But who really cares? The book industry is happy because people are buying books anyway. And readers are happy because they can decorate their bookcases and make a good impression (印象) on others.

News One: 29 October, 2015

The government of China plans to end its one-child per family policy(政策) and instead let families have two children. The plan was announced Thursday after high-level meetings in Beijing.

China，which has the largest population，made the one-child policy in 1980. The government allowed only a small number of couples to have two children for so many years. For example, some couples in the countryside could have two children.

News Two: 05 October, 2015

The first of the 2015 Nobel Prizes has been announced. Sweden’s Nobel Prize committee (委员会) says the Nobel Prize for medicine will go to scientists from Ireland, Japan and China.

William Campbell fromIrelandand Satoshi Omura from Japan share the prize for their discovery of the medicine avermectin. The Nobel committee praised their work on what it calls a “noveltherapy(新疗法).” The treatment fights disease caused byparasites（寄生虫）.

The prize for medicine is also going to Chinese researcher Tu Youyou. She discovered artemisinin. Artemisinin is a drug that has greatly made the number of people who die from malaria(疟疾) smaller.

News Three:09 December, 2015

Oil prices have fallen to their lowest levels since 2009.

Brent crude oil, one of several kinds of oil on the world market, dropped below $40 abarrel（桶）on Tuesday. However, the main group of oil producing countries has been unable to reduce the oil production.

We asked thirty young people between 14 and 18 several questions. All the children had computers at home. The average (平均) time spent on a computer in a week was about 12 hours, with the highest about 32 hours, and the lowest only 5 hours. Most children said they usually used computers to play games. Fourteen children told us they did some word-processing (文字处理) at times. Eight people told us they kept addresses and phone numbers on their computers or used them as diaries. Only three people said they were learning to write computer programs and nobodyused databases (数据库). Only two of them said computers helped with their lessons. The diagram (表格) gives all the results one by one.

The results show that computer use is quite common among 14 to 18-year-old children. They also show quite clearly that computers are seen by most young people as little more than game machines. It means to us that, though computers are common (普遍) in the home of young people, they have not yet become popular in everyday life.

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Recently, China Dream has been the subject of a public topic. Although it is quite common for Chinese people to dream of a developed China, most people also have their own dreams. I interviewed several young Chinese students with higher US educational backgrounds. They all had their own dreams for their native country.

Fred Wang, an MBA student in the US, said, “I dream of equal chance for the young in China. Equality means all young people can compete fairly, based on the rule-of-law on matter whether they are rich or poor.”

Yuppie Chaos, another MBA student in California, said, “ I dream of having the best education for my children so they will not lose at the starting line, and I dream of being able to take good care of my parents after they return home from work.”

Yiqiong Zhang, an MBA graduate from the US, shared her dreams. “ I have a dream which I have been holding for many years, that is after working hard for about 20 to 25 years, I can have enough money to build and manage a bookstore or a flower shop. Besides working hard, I am able to enjoy life, to play the piano, to hike and to enjoy a two-month-long vacation every year. This may be a common dream among young Chinese students. ”

There is no doubt that all of these young students have their own China Dream. They all love chasing their dreams. The beautiful China Dream requires everyone’s hard work. Everyone should work hard to make their dreams come true.

In London, there has always been a main problem. In order to solve this problem, the government has decided to have a bike revolution(革命). It has decided to provide 6,000 bikes for the people to rent. The government encourages local people to ride bikes in order to solve the traffic problem.More than 12,000 people have agreed to the idea. Some of them ask for more than one key. Although there are not enough bikes, an official(官员) from the government said that they would find some ways to deal with such a shortage.

Local people can get these bikes at special docking stations(停靠站). There are about 315 docking stations across the city. About 12,450 keys have already been handed out to the local people, but only 6,000 keys can be used now.Let’s see the cost you need to pay. One key costs￡3, and the cost of using the bike is￡1 for an hour. The cost per hour increases as the hours increase, so it will cost￡50 if you rent the bike for 24 hours.The official from the government said they also needed to face a lot of problems, for example, some bikes may be lost. But they said they would try their best to solve all the problems to make sure the success of the program.

 Mary was an operator (接话员) of 911 in Florida. One Thursday morning, she was surprised to get a call from a little girl. She said, "Mom my ill, Mom my ill," again and again, Mary soon found the address of the call. She called the police. In a minute, the policemen and doctors arrived at the house. They broke the door open. They couldnˈt believe their eyes. The little child was so young that she could not walk! She was sitting beside her mother and holding her motherˈs hand. Tears (眼泪) were running down her face.

     The doctors gave the woman some medicine and soon she woke up. Later, she told people, "Everyone was surprised that my daughter could call 911. On Monday I tried to teach her how to call 911, but she couldnˈt do it ." Mary was surprised, too. "Itˈs the first time I have seen a two-year-old child call 911."

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Traveling by train is usually not easy in China. It can be hard to get a ticket. When you’re traveling to the railway station you look at your watch, afraid you will miss your train.

But there is good news for people traveling between Beijing and Shanghai. Construction (建设) on the express railway (高速铁路) between the two cities started just before the Spring Festival of 2008. When it is finished by 2013, taking a train will be as easy as taking a bus.

“There will be trains every several minutes. Buying a ticket, getting through the checkpoint (检查站) and taking your seat, will take just 10 minutes,” said an engineer.

There may be high-speed trains running at 350 kilometers an hour. The travel time between the two cities will decease from 10 to about 5 hours. The trains will carry twice the present number of passengers.

The new line will be 1,318 kilometers long and go across specially built bridges. It will run along side the present line. There will be 21 stations in Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu.

“The cost of traveling by the express railway may be around 800 yuan. That will be more expensive than an ordinary train, but cheaper than by air.” Said Zhang Xiaoling, a Jiangsu government official.

According to Zhang, the higher price is caused by the large cost of the railway project. At about 200 billion yuan, the project may be even more expensive than the Three Gorges Project (三峡工程).

Sports are all around us. We watch and read sports news. There are also sports clubs, and even sports-only channels (频道) on TV. In many countries, players make millions of dollars every year.

   But why are sports so important? They're only games, right?

   Our readers answer:

   Vlad (Ukraine乌克兰)

   Sports bring people together. In 2006, our team was able to play in the 2006 World Cup for the first time. Everyone was happy. Rich and poor, old and young, men and women—everyone was in the streets together!

   Mike(U.S.A)

   Sports bring people together, but they divide them too. Fans of different teams fight all the time—they shout and hit each other. And here's another example: My brother plays high school baseball. Last week, his team played an important game. At the game, two parents fought about a call. Come on ... baseball is only a game! Sports are so competitive (有竞争力的) these days. It's all about winning. Then the game isn't fun.

   Oba (South Africa)

   Right now, some of the world's best soccer players are from African countries, and the 2010 World Cup games will be held in South Africa. Yes, some players make a lot of money—maybe too much, but sporting events (like the World Cup) bring tourists to the countries where sporting events are held and money to the people in these countries. And that is good for Africa.

A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.

Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn’t built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

Even so, travel isn’t difficult. The waterways have always been the best ways to get around. There are117waterways and more than 400 bridges that can guide you where you want to go.People in Venice move from place to place by boat. They like to enjoy the scenery and cool summer nights while taking boat trips. They can talk to other people as they go along.

Venice grew out of small islands in saltwater lakes when some Italians escaped from a war more than 1,500 years ago, and built homes there.

Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem.

Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. Thetemperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean（北冰洋） melt（融化）.

Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.

Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower.

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