Tens of thousands of Africans are studying in China. The country provides students with financial (金融的) help for education to develop skills that Africa needs most. And the system makes friends in Africa for the Chinese.

Violet Bwalya of Zambia is among the increasing number of Africans who are receiving financial help to study in China. She is now studying at Tongji University in Shanghai. Ms Bwalya said that before she arrived, she didn’t know she would see so many people like herself. She said the number of Africans in China greatly surprised her. The young woman said she is also excited by the level of development in China. She said Zambia does not have many tall buildings.

Violet Bwalya is studying Mandarin (普通话) during this year in China. Then, she will go to another school to study medicine. Those classes will be taught in Mandarin.

Some Africans complain some problems affect the quality of Chinese education. Stewart, a young man from Uganda criticized his studies in Wuhan, central China. He said his classes are in English. But his professors cannot answer his questions because they don’t speak English while he himself does not know much Chinese. “Generally, I think the biggest challenge for an international student who comes to China to study an English course, is availability (可用性) of lecturers who can actually speak English.”

But most African students express satisfaction with their Chinese education. JumaSalum is from Zanzibar. He says he has learned much in China. MrSalum want to return to help his country after graduation. He said he believes it is his duty to do so. And he said he wants to be a link between the Chinese and the people of Tanzania and all Africa.

In 2012, China’s Department of Foreign Assistance at the Ministry of Commerce said it had more than 27,000 students from Africa. By the end of 2013, more than 35,000 Africans had been studying in China.

Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions（探险）but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.

Larry first began diving when he was his daughter’s age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children at his age were not even allowed to dive.

After the first expedition, Larry’s later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, he was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.

Larry’s first expedition without his father was in theCayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them. Fortunate for him, a man offered to take him around the different spots for free. Larry didn’t even know what the time was, how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide range of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.

Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than he had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.

"Do you like my dress?" she asked a stranger. "My mum made it just for me," she said with tears in her eyes.

"Well, I think it's very pretty, so tell me, little girl, why are you crying?" The little girl answered in a low voice, "After mum made me this dress, she went away. My dad says that she's up in heaven now with Grandfather."

Finally the woman realized why she was crying. She felt very sorry for the little girl and gently held the child in her arms.

Then suddenly the little girl did something a bit strange. She stopped crying, walked back from the woman and began to sing. She sang softly. It was the sweetest sound the woman had ever heard, almost like the song of a very small bird.

After the child stopped singing, she said to the lady, "My mum often sang that song to me before she went away, and she asked me to sing it whenever I started crying and it would make me stop."

"See," she said loudly, "it did, and now my eyes are dry!"

Just before the lady wanted to go, the girl showed her a spot (印迹) on her dress, and said, "Right here is where my mum kissed my dress, and here," pointing to another spot, "and here is another kiss, and here, and here. Mum said that she put all those kisses on my dress so that I would forget my sadness."

Then the lady realized that she wasn't just looking at a dress, no, she was looking at a mother. The mother knew that she was going away and would not be there to kiss away her daughter's hurts any longer.

So the mother gave all her love to her beautiful daughter and put it into this dress. Now her child was wearing it so proudly.

The lady no longer saw a little girl wearing a simple dress. She saw a child wrapped (包) in her mother's love.

When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity. To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing one person. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.

Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene An and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didnˈt have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Dannyˈs mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.

Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants inSan Franciscoand Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."

Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ansˈ corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.

When you finish high school or university, is learning done? The answer is “no”. In many countries, people continue learning all their lives. Why is lifelong learning important? How can it help you? Let’s look at one example of lifelong learning in Japan.

Why is lifelong learning important?

You go to school and learn. You take tests. But learning doesn’t only happen in school. And learning doesn’t stop when you graduate from high school or college. You are learning all the time. For example, learning can happen when you go to a museum. It can alsohappen when you get a job. You learn when you play a sport or when you take a trip. Learning is life! We never stop learning. Every day, you can improve yourself by learning something new.

Lifelong learning in Japan

In Japan, life learning is very important. People in Japan like to try new learning activities. Music calligraphy, flower arranging, and foreign languages are some of their favorite classes. The Japanese take classes to improve their skills and learn new things.

Conclusion

When we graduate from school, we can continue to learn. Make lifelong learning one of your goals!

She’d been a stray(走失的) cat in the warehouse where I worked and was different from other cats we owned. Minx was happy as long as we were around—she would even go sailing with us. If she accidentally scratched us when playing, she would lick(舔) us as if to apologize.

   There was an old stray cat in our neighborhood and Minx always left some of her dinner for him. Her best friend was a cocker spaniel, and she would wait for the dog each day outside our front gate. When the owner walked the dog, he would wait while they rolled around, played a bit and cleaned each other. At night, she was always happy to wait for her dinner as long as we gave her a touch and a hug.

   As Minx’s delivery due date drew closer she began looking for places to give birth. I cleaned out the bottom of my cupboard, put some rags down and showed her the little bed for her. After a short inspection, Minx purred, rubbed my leg and continued on her way. I thought there would be little chance of its being suitable but I always left the door slightly open like in case.

   One night soon afterwards, my husband and I had been out late and were chatting in the kitchen when she came in, meowed and ran out again. We thought it strange, but kept talking. Once more she came in, meowed and left. After a third time, we realized she wanted us to follow her. She led us to my cupboard where, with a lot of loud purring, she presented two tiny new kittens. She brought the pair out of the wardrobe and placed them at our feet. She was a very good mother.

Cacao, a 16-year-old dog, from Milan, Italy, has become a local celebrity (名人) after he appeared in local papers for his regular habit of taking the bus to his favorite place in the city.

Almost every day for the last few years, Cacao leaves his home and heads for the bus stop on Arrgone Bouleverd. There he sits alongside the other human passengers, waiting for bus 54.

But Cacao will only board the bus if it’s driven by the driver he’s known since he first started his secret trips. After he makes sure he’s got the right driver, Cacao gets on the bus and waits quietly until he reaches his favorite destination — a public park close to Lambrate Station, in north-eastern Milan.

While he is there, he likes to wander around the gardens, walking up and down in the public space for a few hours, enjoying the afternoon sunshine. When he’s tired, he walks back to the station and takes the same bus home.

Cacao’s owner, Nicoletta, a local bar owner adopted Cacao after she saw him wandering the streets. He was a quick learner, however, and in just six months of living with her, Nicoletta had taught him to cross the street on a green light and know to walk only on the pavement. She had so much confidence in his skills that she allowed him to walk around the neighborhood while she was at work.

When Nicoletta first heard about her dog’s unusual habit, she couldn’t believe it. One of her regular customers in the bar said that she had seen Cacao take the bus. Nicoletta then decided to follow her dog, seeing him get on the bus at the station close to her home. She believes he must have memorized the route that they take every Saturday on the way to the markets.

Thankfully, she did not stop Cacao from enjoying his routine, and the driver carried on turning a blind eye to the rules. The happy dog continues to be a regular on the number 54 bus.

On Christmas Eve——the night before Christmas Day——children all over Britain put a stocking at the end of their beds before they go to sleep. Their parents usually tell them that Father Christmas will come during the night.

Father Christmas is very kind and hearted. He gets to the top of each house and climbs down the chimney into the fireplace. He fills each of the stockings with Christmas presents.

Of course, Father Christmas isnˈt real. In Jim and Kateˈs house, "Father Christmas" is really Mr. Green. Mr. Green doesnˈt climb down the chimney. He waits until the children are asleep. Then he quietly goes into their bedrooms and fills their stockings with small presents. When they were very young, Mr. Green sometimes wore a red coat. But he doesnˈt do that now. The children are no longer young, and they know who "Father Christmas" really is. But they still put their stockings at the end of their beds.

Last week I visited my friend Pete in the new home where he lives with his wife and daughter. Pete used to spend his holidays travelling the world, visiting the pyramids in Egypt or scuba diving(潜水) in the Caribbean. Nowadays he prefers to spend his holidays and weekends making his house look more beautiful. Like hundreds of thousands of other British people, he has discovered the joy of DIY (Do It Yourself), which means if there are any things that need fixing around the house, he will try to do the job himself.

  As he showed me the new kitchen he put together by himself and the newly painted walls, I asked Pete where he got his inspiration (灵感) from. He told me that his favorite source of ideas was a DIY program on TV.

  This got me thinking about the great popularity of DIY programs in the UK. Each major channel has at least one home or garden improving show and there’s even a satellite channel completely about the subject.

  I guess it is not really surprising that DIY programs are so popular. Two common sayings in Britain－‘an Englishman’s home is his castle’ and ‘there’s no place like home’－show how important our houses are to us. With the present economic downturn, many people can’t afford to buy a bigger house so they are looking at how they can make their house better without spending a lot of money. DIY is the perfect choice.

  But be careful! I read a report that said over 230,000 people were injured while doing home improvements in the UK in just one year, including 41,000 who fell off ladders(梯子) and 5,800 who were seriously hurt by hammers. So I won’t be going down to the hardware store.