Once upon a time, a king offered a prize to the artist who could paint the best picture of peace. The king received thousands of paintings from many artists. He studied each one carefully and finally decided upon two that he really liked. He now had to choose between them.

The first was a painting of a beautiful calm lake with clear water. It was surrounded by green forests and high mountains. Overhead, the sky was blue with white clouds.

The other painting had mountains too, but these mountains were rugged (崎岖的). A huge waterfall fell down one side of the mountain. Above them was an angry sky, lit by lightning, from which heavy rain fell.   

Most people agreed that the first painting clearly showed a place of perfect peace. However, when the king looked at the second painting more closely, he found a tiny bush growing behind the waterfall. There, in the small bush, a mother bird had built her nest. In the middle of the rush of angry water, in the wind and the noise, the mother bird sat still on her nest – in perfect peace.

The king chose the second painting. When asked why, he said: “Peace does not mean being in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means being in the middle of all of these things and yet still being able to find calm and quiet in your heart, and to carry on with your life. This is the true meaning of peace.”

   You want to know about my staying in America, right? Well, to tell you the truth, it is really an eye-opening experience to study here.

In China, I had English classes five times a week since fifth grade. However, I didn’t know how different textbook English could be from everyday English until I came to Hotchkiss School, Connecticut.

When I first studied English, I was told to say, “ I am fine” when people say “How are you?” But in the US, I found that people say, “I am good” or “I’m tired”.

One day, someone greeted me with “What’s up?” It made me confused . I thought for a moment and then smiled because I didn’t know what to say.

Since then, I have discovered more and more differences between Chinese and US cultures.

To my surprise, US girls spend a lot of time in the burning sun to get a tan(晒黑). However, in China, girls try every possible way to get their skin paler, or “whiter”.

I was also surprised by how hardworking US students are.

 In China, schoolwork is almost everything, so we study hard and that’s it. But here, a “good” student gets good grades, does a lot of for the public and plays sports or music.

The kids here are so talented, I am starting to be sorry that I gave up playing the piano at an early age and that I have never thought about sports.

   Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive (欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

For example, someone might say, I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!

This guy's a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $ 200 worth of tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser!

He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth. Half truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

Some politicians often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents (对手) says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” That’s true. However, an honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

This kind of deception happens too often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

   Confidence is very important in daily life. It can help you form a healthy attitude. But how can we be more confident? Here are some suggestions:

Speak louder. When you are not confident, it’s hard to do what you want to do well. You speak in a voice so low that other people can hardly hear you.【小题1】. Your voice can help you become more confident.

Play sports. Physical exercise makes you tired but completely relaxed.【小题2】.

Encourage yourself. Write down a list of things that you did during the day to see how many things you did well. Did you finish your homework? Did you tell a joke that made everybody laugh? 【小题3】.

Get rid of(消除) fear. Fear goes along with failure.【小题4】. Try to start again and believe you can do better.

Pick up a hobby.【小题5】. In some ways, a hobby can make you outstanding. And it will make you happy and confident.

   A long time ago, there was a king in【小题1】. One day, a wise old man came to the palace and the king【小题2】 him to a game. The king 【小题3】 the old man, “You can have any 【小题4】 if you win the game.”

The old man said, “If I win the game, I’d like one【小题5】 of rice for the first square of the chessboard, two for the second, four for the third, and then 【小题6】 the【小题7】 for each of the rest of the squares.”

The king and the old man played the game for a long time. Finally, the old man won. So the king ordered his men to collect a bag of rice. The king quickly【小题8】 the problem—【小题9】 with all the rice in the country, he would still not have 【小题10】 rice to put on all the squares.

   I used to hunt and have killed quite a few deer. There was great __________ in waiting and shooting.

One cold morning in winter, I went alone to a hillside. I carried my gun and three thick sandwiches. I found a natural hiding place. It was pretty cold, but I had __________ clothing on. I sat there waiting for one hour. Nothing showed. The place was really ___________.

Suddenly, a beautiful buck(雄鹿) appeared. Surely I couldn’t _________ it. I must wait for him to realize I was there. I waited for him to __________ with a start (惊吓).

To my surprise, he came towards me! He was curious, I suppose. He must have known about men and their ________which would kill him. But he walked right up where I was sitting. Then he stopped and looked at me! I was getting a bit __________ now. A big buck can do a lot of damage.

What happened next was hard to believe. But it all seemed quite natural. I reached up and scratched(抚摸) his head. And he __________ it. That big, wild, beautiful buck bent his head.

I scratched his body and fed him my last sandwich. Then he went his way, down the hill. I just watched him go--a strong buck carrying a proud head.

I picked up my gun and started walking back. __________, I heard the shots—two of them. If you’ve hunted enough you know two shots mean a(n) ____________. I had forgotten that there were other hunters around.

I decided to give up hunting from that day on.

   Good morning! Thank you for _______ the lecture. Today, I’m going to talk ________ what the Internet is.

 The Internet is a network. It joins millions of computers together around the world. When you’ve joined the Internet, there _________ lots of things we can do. We can find lots of interesting information on the World Wide Wed (www). We can find information about our favourite sports__________ film stars. We can _______ send e-mails to other people by e-mail. It is much _________ and quicker than calling our friends or sending a letter.

Thanks to the Internet, the world is becoming __________. People can now work at home with a computer___________ them, getting and sending the information they need. They can buy or sell whatever they want__________ the Internet. Everyone looks forward to _________ more about the world from the Internet.

The Palace Museum

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Li Ming