文化漫步等

美國孩子是如何學會獨立的？

“Can I borrow the car， Dad?”

“Not until you finish mowing the lawn（割草）.”

Sound familiar（熟悉的）? It would， to an American teenager. A job， a car， spending money， walking the dog and mowing he lawn. This isn’t just the boring life of middle age， but in fact， this is the life of many American teenagers.

In the US， it is common for kids as young as 14 to hold part-time jobs（兼職工作）. They might save up their money to buy a car and， at 16， actually（實際上）drive it. But this kind of independence（獨立）isn’t always fun. US kids need to take care of themselves and their younger brothers and sisters so that they are ready to live alone.

The average（平均的）age of a high school graduate（畢業生）in the US is 17. Traditionally（傳統地）， a US student graduates in June and moves out of his or her parents’ by September. Of course， one must be ready for this. With a relatively small amount of homework， US high school students have more time for working and learning adult（成年人的）responsibilities（責任）.

Is itbetter to live this way? It is good to cook for oneself and do laundry（洗衣服）， but US students don’t study enough. While American kids are working， Chinese and Indian students are studying.

The truth is， whatever you do now， you will never feel ready to be an adult.

面包片拼出的《蒙娜麗莎》

Look at the picture. A visitor is taking pictures with a Mona Lisa artwork. It is made of 6，000 slices of toast at a shopping mall in the Hong Kong.

瑜伽貓

Doing yoga is popular with people now， but these cats are special——they can do yoga， too. Dan Borris and his wife are good at taking photos， and they have a good idea. They borrow some cats form their friends and make these cats pose（擺姿勢）yoga. They take pictures of these yoga cats and make the pictures prettier on the computer. Then they make a calendar of 2010 of photos of yoga cats. People think the cats are very interesting and the calendars are popular.

騎車的樂趣

Have you ever seen bikes with one big wheel and one small wheel? They are very hard to ride. Every ten years， England holds a game in which people ride these old-fashioned（老式的）bikes. The person who rides the farthest in three hours will win. The winner in 2010， rode 107 meters.

貓和老鼠

為了抓到老鼠，貓可謂費盡心思，可老鼠們上當了嗎？

There is a cat and some mice in a house. The cat wants to catch mice. He walks here and there. The mice are afraid and don’t walk far away from their hole. Then the cat has a good idea.

One day， the cat climbs up a shelf and hangs form it. With his head down， he looks like dead. When the mice look out， hey see the cat. At first， they just let their heads out of the hole carefully. But nothing happens， so all of them walk out of their hole happily. Just then the cat jumps down from the shelf， and catches three or four.

From then on， the mice spend more time In their hole. The cat has another idea. The cat covers himself with flour， and lies down. Soon some mice want to come out. But an old mouse shouts， “Take care! That must be the cat. It is clever to keep away from it. ”

遲到的原因

Teacher: Johnny， why are you late for school every morning？

Johnny: Every time I come to the corner， a guidepost（路牌，路標） says， “School — Go Slow”.

我沒在聽

Mother asked her little daughter who was reading a book， “What are you reading， dear？”

“I don’t know.”the little girl answered.

“You don’t know？ But you were reading aloud， so you must know.”

“I was reading aloud， mummy， but I wasn’t listening.” explained the child.

金魚和貓

Little Amy was in the garden filling in a hole when her neighbor peered（凝視，窺視） over the fence. Interested in what the cheeky-faced youngster was doing， he politely asked， “What are you up to there， Amy？”

“My goldfish died，” replied Amy tearfully， without looking up， “and I’ve just buried him.”

The neighbor was concerned， “That’s an awfully big hole for a goldfish， isn’t it？”

Amy patted down the last heap（堆，許多） of earth then replied， “That’s because he’s inside your cat.”

（本欄目由肖燕玲供稿）