Little Mike's grandma died weeks ago. He missed her very much. One afternoon Mike went to the city park where his grandma used to go. There he saw an old lady. She looked very kind. She was sitting there, watching pigeons(鸽子). Little Mike went up and sat next to her. He took out his food and drinks and gave some to her. She smiled at him. Her smile was so sweet that Mike wanted to see it again. She seemed to understand him, so once again she smiled. Mike was very glad.

They sat there all the afternoon, eating and talking. As it grew dark, Mike got up to leave. Before he left, he hugged the old lady and she gave him her sweetest smile.

When Mike got home, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. “I met a granny in the park. Her smile was like the kind of smile I used to see on Grandma's face.”

The old lady also returned to her home happily. She told her son that she had food and drinks   with a little boy. “He was as lovely as Brittany，” she said. Her son was surprised, because he had never seen her so happy since Brittany, her grandson, died weeks ago.

If you were asked to recite lines of poetry that have the Chinese character “hua”—which means flower—how many could you recite?

He Liran, 13, had to tack on this challenge on a TV show aired by Shandong TV. He Liran, a student at the Harbin No 163 Middle School in Heilongjiang, competed with over 100 other students. The competitors took turns reciting lines of poetry that used the word “hua”, with He Liran replying to each one.

One competitor used the line “As if the vernal breeze had come back over night; adorning thousands of pear trees with blossoms white.” He Liran replied with “After one night of wind and showers; how many are the fallen flowers!”

At the end, He Liran won, reciting more than 60 out of the 127 lines that were recited in the competition.

Her lifelong love of reading helped her win. Her father started reading poems to her when she was just 4 years old. She has been a bookworm ever since.

Though busy with schoolwork, she spares time to study at least one poem each day. She thinks ancient poetry is still important, even in modern times.

“Once, I walked along a small path in a forest. The scenery was the same as what is described in the line ‘On the sandy path between pine-trees there is no mud’, which comes from one of Su Shi’s poems. At that moment, the line from his poem naturally came to my mind and I realized that poems can be part of our daily lives,” she said.

Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White’s second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out whether he has broken the record or not.

White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June, 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe first, and then the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and finally the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to get away with the little money he had. The worst thing that had happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometers he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and wants to write a book about his adventures.