Fiona Famous was a very popular girl at her school. She was very clever and fun, and got on well with everyone. It was no accident that Fiona was so popular. From an early age she had made an effort to be kind and friendly to everyone. She invited the whole class to her birthday party, and from time to time she would give presents to everybody. She felt very lucky, as no other girl had so many friends at school.

But everything changed on National Friendship Day. On that day, in class everyone had to make three presents to give to their three best friends. However, when all the presents had been made and shared out among classmates, Fiona was the only one who had not received a present! She spent hours crying. How could it be possible? Everyone came and tried to console (安慰) her for a while. But each one only stayed for a short time before they left.

When she got home that night, Fiona asked her mother where she could find true friends.

“Fiona, my dear,” answered her mother, “you are a lovely girl, but you can’t be a close friend to everybody. You can’t buy friends with a smile or a few good words.”

Hearing this, Fiona thought about her mother. Her mother was always willing to help her; she put up with all of Fiona’s dislikes and problems; she always forgave her; she loved her a great deal and so on. That was what makes friends! Fiona smiled from ear to ear, realizing that she already had the best friend that anyone could ever want.

Lu Yu had an unusual life. He lived in the Tang Dynasty. As a homeless child, he lived in Longgai Temple (寺庙) and studied there including boiling tea. Jingling Prefect (太守) Li Qiwu liked the smart boy when Lu Yu was thirteen. He not only gave Lu Yu books as gifts but also introduced him to a famous teacher. Lu Yu learned from his teacher until he was nineteen. He also made good friends with famous people. They often travelled, tasted tea and talked about poems together.

At the age of twenty-one, Lu Yu started to study on different kinds of tea. He left Jingling and travelled around the country to search for famous tea. To study on tea picking and tea making skills well, Lu Yu lived a long life of reclusion (隐居) in Tiaoxi. After that, he lived in Miaoxi Temple, collecting, checking, studying and reading documents (资料) about tea. Over years, he finally wrote the first book on the study of tea. That was the book Tea Classic (《茶经》), which was also the first book in the world on tea studies. This book has over seven thousand Chinese words, including the production place, the morphology (形态) and the growing environment of tea trees as well as tea picking, tea drinking and tea production tools and methods.

Tea Classic has a great influence on Chinese tea culture. Lu Yu is still called Tea God today.

I’m Linda. I have three penfriends. They are Mary, Henry and Sam. Mary is an English girl. She is in Tianjin with her parents now. She likes Chinese food very much. She likes dumplings and noodles best. They are very delicious. She also likes drinking orange juice. Henry is from England. He is in Cambridge with his grandparents now. Hamburgers and French fries are his favourite food. He also likes cola. But he doesn’t like chocolate or ice cream. Sam is from America. He is in Shenzhen with his parents. He can speak Chinese well. He likes Chinese food very much. Guangdong Soup is his favourite food. He thinks it is very delicious. He likes milk too.