City Life Compared with Rural Life

It ix really hard to say which is better than the other, city life or rural life. Both have its merit and shortcoming. Living in the city has a great many advantages. First, you can enjoy various kinds of foods, both foreign and domestic. Second, there are more cultural activities in the city--you can go to the concert, the theatre, the movies or the disco club after a day's hard work. But city lite has many problems, too. The overcrowded population, traffic jam, industrial pollution, and the lack of understanding between people may result in disease and unhappiness. Living in the country, however, you can watch the magnificent sunrise and sunset and listen to the bird singing in the tree. If you want, you can certainly have a hrge garden when a small green space seems a luxury in the city! In the city, you may feel at a loss as to which you are working for. You probably doubt you cannot be working for yourself since you are so unhappy and nervous. But in the countryside you will have no such worries. You plant seeds in the earth, and you watch them grow into flowers and finally into fruits or food. Once again, you enjoy the pleasure of work. But rural life may not be that perfect. Things are going so slowly that sometimes you may feel that you are absolutely left behind in some remote corners of the world. You may again miss the parties, friends and movies in the city. People are like this. They can never feel perfectly satisfied. The best solution may be that you enjoy pleasures of both lives and get rid of their inconveniences

Why Are Motorcycles So Popular in China

There have been more and more motorcycles on the road in recent years. They dash on wide highways or move slowly through lanes. Whether you are in a city or in a rural area, you can see motorcycle riders here and them. Them has been a trend towards the replacement of bicycles by motorcycles. Why are motorcycles so popular in China? First of all, many people have become richer. They can afford motorcycles. Motorcycles run faster than bicycles. They provide people with the easiest and cheapest form of motorcycle transportation. With motorcycles people can go to any place they like. The second reason motorcycles are becoming more popular is the fact that China is a developing country, and most people can't afford a car, although they are wealthier than before. Nowadays there is a bus system in almost every city. But often the buses are very full, especially in the morning right before work and in the evening right after work. They are too crowded to be used frequently. The third reason is the most important one. The large population is what really make motorcycles popular. In overcrowded cities, there simply isn't enough space to park many cars, and neither is there enough space for every household to build garages to hold cars. The motorcycle saves space because of its smaller size. This advantage contribute enormously to the popularization of motorcycles.

Nuclear Energy

Nowadays, energy can be obtained through various sources such as oil, coal, natural gas, solar heat, wind, etc. But the conventional energy like oil, coals are being used up rapidly, and solar heat can't become widely used immediately for technological reason. In my opinion, unclear energy will take the place of conventional energy, because people now can control this energy freely, and unclear energy is non-polluting, inexhaustible, and it's much safer than coal and oil. Coal and oil are burned, they also produce many harmful gases, and the air has been seriously polluted by such gases, which will threaten people's living environment. And many accident happened because of the wrong use of such energies. However, such things can't happen when we use nuclear energy, Though when the nuclear leaks out, it will do great harm to people' s health and the environment. We can do enough work to avoid such things, and limited such things at a low percentage. I believe if we use the nuclear energy in the right way, it will provide us enough energy without doing any harm to us.

Coal

Coal is so commonly used in life that we seldom notice it. We burn coal everyday to heat food and water. The first locomotive was driven by burning cml. In winter we feel a special need for coal. The coal gives us fire, light, heat and warmth. Industry cannot operate without coal; therefore,coal is called the food for industw. Coal is not so treasured as gold. Gold is made into shining ornaments for the necks of heroes and heroines. Coal is shining in its own way. It burns silently for the benefit of all. In a sense it is black gold. Coal underwent great change before it became the bright, brittle, black substance that we now use. During ancient times, when the earth enjoyed a very warm and moist climate, the land changed and began to sink. These enormous quantities of trees and vegetable matter were covered by a deposit of sand and clay. This layer of sand and clay pressed upon the layer beneath and prevented the contact with air. These trees and plants succumbed to the pressure and changed their appearance. Generation after generation, as the ground kept gradually sinking, another layer of sand and clay was deposited above the layers already formed. A great pressure was thus exerted and the peat was changed into the black and brittle substance, which is known as coal. From the formation of coal, I see that the coal has the same character as the pine trees in winter. The pines remain green when they are covered with snow. The coal remains of service to mankind after being buried underground for years and years.

Water Purification

The provision of safe water necessitates one of the rnajor expenditures of manpower and revenue in our modern cities. The purification of water is basically a two-step or three-step process carried out under the strict supervision of public health scientists and engineers. As the first step, natural water from the least contaminated source is allowed to stand in large reservoirs, where most of the mud, clay, and silt settle out; this is called "sedimentation". Often in water with high mud content, lime and aluminum sulfate are added to the water in thesettling reservoirs. These chemicals react in the water to form aluminum hydroxide, which settles slowly and carries much of the suspended material, including most of carries much of the suspended material, including most of the bacteria, to the bottom of the reservoirs. As the second step, the water is filtered through beds of sand and grovel, which remove other impurities and chemicals in it. During or after filtration, chemicals are ordinarily added to the water to kill any remaining harmful bacteria. Chlorine is one of the most common chemicals used for this purpose. A third step taken by some rmnicipalities is adding to the water otherbeneficial chemicals such as fluoride to make tooth enamel hard, and soda ash to make the water itself soft. The water purification process, carried out with little variation from one large city to another, is perhaps the biggest factor in the prevention of major outbreaks of disease in this country.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was not only a great writer but also a famous humorist. He was born in a small Missouri village near the Mississippi River in 1835. His father, a poor lawyer, died when he was only twelve years old. So he had to leave school and make his own living. For ten years, he worked in printing shops in many cities. Then he became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. In 1861, Mark Twain became a miner in Nevada. During this period, he started to write short articles. It was as this time that he adopted the pen name "Mark Twain". Later Mark Twain worked in San Francisco for a while and then became a miner again. In his spare time, he wrote a short story called Tile Celebrated Jumping Frog ofCalaveras Coun.ty. The story made him known all over the country. In 1867, he went to New York and that year published his first book. His next book, hmocentsAbroad, was published in 1869. It gave him a national reputation.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China, a wonder of the world, is called "The Ten-Thousand Li Great Wall "in Chinese. It's over 6,000 kilometres long, 6 to 7metres high and 4 to 5 that snakes along the top. It is said that it's the only man-made structure that can be seen from space. The Great Wall has a history of more than two thousand years. It was during the Qin dynasty that the parts were joined up into one long wall. In ancient days it was difficult to build such a wall. Our forefathers carried, lifted and laid big bricks and stones with simple tools. Fach brick and stone fits well, even though they didn't have our modern machines! Nowadays the Great Wall has become a place of inter-est. Every year people from all over the world come to visit it. Many of them have got to know the famous Chinese saying: "He who docs not reach the Great Wall is not a true man."

Snow

Have you ever seen where the first snowflake fall? Is it on the country road, on the branch of an old oak tree, on the wheat fields in the plain, or between the peaks of the mountain range? See the snowflakes leaping, dancing like flowers in the whirling wind. The flowers have six angles.Sometimes they are like stars. Sometimes they are only white dots, and they keep on falling gently in silence. Without your knowing it, the fields, houses, trees and the whole earth are enveloped in a thin coat of snow. I love snow, because it is saintly pure. Winter differs from the other seasons in that it is not as warm as spring, neither as hot as summer, noras sad as autumn. The snowflake has her own grace and inspiration. It seems tender, yet it is amazingly attractive. The snowflakes are flying here and there. It seems as if they are little stars in the universe moving along their own orbit. Look! What a spotless silvery world, how great, how magnificent! Away from the crowds of people, I stroll alone in the snow. Standing in the snow, flakes of snow tqoat over my head, kissing rne on the cheeks and falling on my eyebrow. Some make their way into my collar and some fall into my mouth. They taste sweet. Looking at this silver-white world, thoughts well up in my mind. I feel as if I had become a part of them... Some people say snow may bring you joy and happiness. Others think snow can get rid of the dirt in the world. Still others believe snow will purify one's soul, and there are those who hold the view that snow can melt all the evils in its purity and sincerity... Oh, snow, you are as pure and white as the angel in heaven .You come silently and generously protect everything in the world. You melt quietly and nourish a green spring

My Roommates

My Roommates Our dormitory has four members. Besides me, there are Old Zhao, Young Zhao and Lily. As college students, our experiences are similar, and right now, we are all students of Law School. But in terms of character, we are totally different from each other. Old Zhao is our common sister. She is very kind and considerate. She takes full responsibility of our dormitory. If sorne of us catch a cold, she will take good care of her. Whenever we are in trouble, we turn to her. Young Zhao is a quiet girl. If there is a chat among us, she is always the one who says little but listens attentively. She has the admirable ability to do well in all kinds of examinations. We all agree that she is the example that we should learn from in studies. Lily is just the opposite of Young Zhao. She is very talkative. We enjoy her cornpany because she has the sense of humor, which rnakes her talk extremely interesting. Where there is Lily, there is laughter. Such are my three roommates. In spite of our different characters, we get on well with each other. Our dormitory has become our common home.

Our bedroom

Our bedroom Our bedroom, shared by 8 girls, is on the second floor of Dormitory Building No. 15. A stream runs below, which presents a beautiful view. It is a small room, about 20 square meters. Against both sides of the wall stand two desks, each with 4 drawers. One desk is put beside the window, another in vertical direction with it. They make a capitalized letter "T". Above in the middle a light hangs. The part of the wall above each bed is decorated delicately by its host. Someone hangs a small bookshelf, with tapes and cards and books piled on it, and someone puts pictures, drawings and paper-cut figures on it. Toys are girls' favorites. Our youngest sister's "dog "is more than three feet high and she hugs her to sleep every night. We eight sisters come from eight provinces. We are happy to be here, in one family.

My Mothers Hands

My Mother's Hands One evening, my mother called me into the kitchen when she was preparing supper. I saw blood dripping from her cut finger. I immediately bandaged her, and it was then that I noticed my mother's hands——the hands, which had brought up three children. Her hands like the dry bark of an old oak tree, wrinkled, rough and hard. I could not believe that they were the hands of a lady in the early thirties. They looked like the hands of a woodsman. I knelt beside her and usked her how her hands got like that. She told me that it was the fault of the war. When the Japanese invaded our city, she and father fled inland. They were wretched with no money, no job, no friends. Mother had to do all kinds of hard work: washing, knitting, and sewing. Yet deuth was ulways hovering over them. The surrender made mother and father end their long suffering. After mother finished her story, I had a mixed feeling that I could hardly control my tears from falling. I hated the Japanese invaders. I hated war. But on the other hand, I liked my mother all the more. I kissed her hands with u deep feeling.