With the Chinese language growing in popularity, the UK government plans to invest(投资) 10 million pounds to help more kids learn Mandarin(普通话). Do you think it is necessary for the UK pupils to learn Mandarin? Some people share their opinions online.

Ted(UK): The learning of any language can be valuable and rewarding, but it is not suitable for everyone. Chinese is a difficult language to learn and the UK has a poor reputation for teaching foreign languages. Why should they learn Chinese when most people in the world speak English?

Mark(US): I studied French for 2 years in high school and German for 4 years in college. I studied Mandarin informally for about 4 months before moving to China. Now I speak Mandarin every day as my wife doesn’t speak English. But it is far from being fluent. Learning additional languages is a great thing, which offers a different perspective on the world around us. Nowadays, it’s almost necessary to be able to speak more than just your native tongue.

George (UK): No, unless they’re taught from a very early stage of childhood. Mandarin is so difficult. If China really is going to dominate the world, it’ll have to do so by speaking the world’s dominant language---English.

Sam (UK): I don’t think Chinese will become as widely spoken throughout the world as English. It is too difficult to learn as a second language. To learn Chinese you completely have to devote yourself to learning how to write and read it. If you have to learn it besides other subjects you can’t be good at it. But Chinese will become more popular, and that is a good thing.

It’s been just over a year since 9-year-old Zion Harvey received a double-hand transplant(移植), and now, what he really wants to do is playing football. “I feel happy about my new hands, and I don’t feel different. I like that now I can throw a football further than when I didn’t have hands,” he said.

The nation’s youngest hand-transplant patient has been working hard to learn how to use his new hands. He lost his hands and his feet 7 years ago after suffering from a serious infection. In August, the boy showed off his new abilities by throwing out the first ball at a baseball game. Dr. Scott Levin, team leader of Zion’s operation, said Zion was faced with the operation much braver than many adults. “I’ve never seen Zion cry,” Levin said. “He’s just an amazing boy. He has such courage and determination and gives us all inspiration.”

Zion said his courage came from the two most amazing people: his mom and his grandma. His mother, Pattie Ray, said, “It’s been a long journey but now I feel like I am living in my dream. It’s his dream, and it’s mine, too. I’m just living through him, and I’m just here to support him in any way and help him do whatever he wants to do.”

However，Zion told reporters his mom wouldn’t let him try out for football. His mom said it’s too dangerous. She also pointed out that he might be playing against little kids, not professionals, and she told him they would discuss it later. Zion tried to counter her argument. “My next goal: convince Mom to let me play football,” he said.

What would you like to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? An astronaut? What do you need to do to achieve your dream job? Perhaps you think that studying well and then going on to work hard will get you successful career you want. We are constantly taught that our hard work will eventually pay off.

But a government survey has shown that hard work is not the only thing that will help you to move up the ladder. Two thirds of people believe that who you know matters more than what you know when it comes to social activity. So are the connections that you have more important than your education?

76% of the people in the survey believed that family background is important in influencing your chances of success. They believe that if you are privileged from birth, you are more likely to have a successful career, especially if your family is wealthy.

Even if you don’t have a privileged background, the people you know can still make a difference to your career. Networking is a skill which is encouraged by many career advisers. Some companies run networking workshops to try and encourage staff to meet other people, to communicate and build relationships. It’s a valuable skill.

But the survey also showed something quite interesting. Although most people believed that networks are more important than education, many people put their own career success down to talent, rather than background. 41% of the people said that their parents’ income had influenced their life, but at the same time, another 41% believed that they had achieved their own success.

So which is more important, what you know or who you know? It seems that by working hard and making lots of connections, the answer may be that both are very important.

Two weeks ago, a 7-year-old girl, Chloe Bridgewater wrote a letter to Google, expressing her interest in working for the tech company when she gets older. “Dear Google boss, my name is Chloe and when I am bigger I would like a job with Google,” she wrote. “I also want to work in a chocolate factory and do swimming in the Olympics.” The student said she liked computers and had a tablet she played games on. She even showed off a robot game that her dad gave her.

It wasn’t long before Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, replied wit his own letter on Google website. In a letter dated Feb. 3, Pichai wrote, “Dear Chloe, I’m glad that you like computers and robots, and hope that you will continue to learn about technology. I think if you keep working hard and follow your dreams, you can accomplish everything you set your mind to. I look forward to receiving your job application when you are finished with school!”

Her father, Andy Bridgewater told ABC News he was completely shocked that his daughter received a reply. But he wasn’t surprised that she decided to write the letter in the first place. “She’s got determination. She doesn’t see the barriers that we face every day,” he explained. “If she wants to do it, she will set out to do it and nothing will stop her.”

The father remarked that his daughter began jumping up and down after receiving the letter. Still, he’s not in a rush to send his eldest daughter off to work. “Now, my daughter is confident, although she hasn’t yet fully understood that it will take more efforts than finishing her study to make it with Google,” he said.

The Masai are a people who are constantly trying to preserve their own ways in an increasingly modem world. They live along the border of Kenya and Tanzania, moving their homes from time to time to follow their cattle, the source of their living.

The Masai have become known as a people of fighters, protecting their cattle against lions and other enemies. Only men are fighters. They wear long hair, which is colored red with clay. They can have more than one wife. Women build and take care of the home, fixing food and making clothing. Women and children keep their heads shaved. Women can also become elders, once they have given birth to four healthy children.

The Masai depend on their cattle for many parts of their life. They drink cow's milk and blood as a sacred drink. They use the cows' waste to cover and seal their homes. They don't kill their cattle for food, but if a cow is killed, then the horns (角) are used for containers; the hides are used to make shoes, clothing, ropes and bed coverings; and the bones are made into decorations.

The more cattle a man owns, the richer he is considered to be. A man who owns 50 or fewer cattle is considered poor. A "rich" man has a thousand or more. The cattle, though owned by the man, are considered to belong to the man's entire family. The family names the cattle and can recognize each animal's unique voice.

Masai houses are made from sticks and grass, but they are meant to be temporary, since the move of their cattle means that the Masai move as well.