(Written by a friend in Shanghai)

          What a hot day it is today in Shanghai.  The sky is blue, the sun is shining and there are no clouds.  The cicadas are producing their characteristic high-pitched, droning sound, and I don't like listening to it.    It bothers me a lot.  However, when I was a child, I was very interested in cicadas. 

          Every summer, my friends and I went to the woods in search of them.    It is not easy to catch them, as they can fly.  When they feel threatened because someone has come close, they stop buzzing.  They then decide if they’re in trouble, and if there’s danger afoot, they fly away.

          Even if I climbed a tree in pursuit, I still couldn’t catch one.  I was always happy and excited when I set out and disappointed when I went back home.  

          One of the times I was unsuccessful, I cried and asked dad for help.  He told me that catching cicadas needed a light hand and taught me to use a special device consisting of a long pole, a ring, and some gluten.  He helped me tie the ring on the one side of the pole, and we put gluten on the ring.  He said that the gluten would stick to the cicada’s wings. 

          Then Dad and I went to the woods, and I caught two cicadas easily with the new tool.  I was very exciting.     

          I put them in a little cage, and Mum gave me some watermelon so they’d have food.  That day I learned new things about cicadas:  Its mouth is just behind its forelegs and is shaped like a staw.  It’s used for piercing and sucking.  The males make a buzzing call by vibrating two drum-like membranes covering hollow chambers called tymbols on its abdomen. 

          From then on, biology became one of my favorite subjects. 

(Written by a Chinese teenager who has been attending high school in America for one year)

          Though I know it’s ironic, I’ve learned that the best way to gain confidence is to keep trying to accomplish something that seems to bring nothing but failure.

          I grew up in China, and in the seventh grade had a friend who was incredibly good at dancing.  Her name was Jia.  She took ballet and gymnastics after school, as she wanted to join the school’s dance team and be a cheerleader.  Though I wasn’t good at moving like that, she was my best friend and if she was going to do those things I felt that I should try to do them, too.

          When she became a cheerleader, however, I just sat on the bench and watched, as I didn’t have the nerve to try.  I thought my being there would cheer her up.

          When she tried out for the dance team, she was accepted.  I tried, too, but was cut.  I felt that I was headed for a similar fate with ballet, but as she was my best friend, I signed up anyway. 

          Jill was a natural at all kinds of body movements and had studied ballet before, but I had no idea of what was involved.  I couldn’t even stand right in the ballet slippers.  The movements seemed easy when the teacher demonstrated them, but when it was my turn and she asked me to do a split, I couldn’t begin to do it.  My muscles wouldn’t relax enough and the position I took was really weird.

          As the lessons continued, I embarrassed myself over and over by doing the movements wrong.  I was clumsy, and when the others laughed at me, I became clumsier.  I thought perhaps it was time to give up, but the thought didn’t appeal to me, as that would create an even greater gulf between Jia and me.  She was already spending more time with a girl who excelled in dance.  I was beginning to be left behind.   

          Determined to stick it out and save our friendship, I asked the teacher for private instruction so I could learn how to do the moves correctly.  She was very accommodating and worked with me after practice to review the new moves she’d taught that day.  I also practiced them over and over again at home every night.  At times, I had little hope of improving, but I persevered. 

          Then the unexpected happened one day.  I found that I could do a split really well with no pain in my legs.  I could suddenly do cartwheels, handsprings, and many other movements I hadn’t been able to do before.  When the coach asked us to spin around on our toes, I could do it without getting dizzy.  Every movement was much easier than before and I felt great.

          I still don’t know what caused the sudden change, but it led to my becoming a full-fledged member of our troupe, and we won five championships.  The ballet teacher was very proud of all of us, and our success helped me forget those long months when I couldn’t even do a split.

Instead of giving up, I had kept trying.  The success I’d experienced gave me badly needed confidence.

(Written by a friend in Shanghai)

          July 20^th was the eleventh day in Shanghai this year in which the temperature was over 35 degrees.  It was only 32 degrees yesterday, but it was a sweaty day, as it was muggy and the air pressure was low.  We have slept in an air-conditioned room for about a month and will depend on it all through August.  There were 28 days of 35 degree weather last year, and it is forecast that there will be even more this year.  My God!

          (Editor's note:  35 degrees Celcius = 95 degrees fahrenheit.)

          I remember what life was like in my childhood when we didn’t have air-conditioning.  When I felt hot, I waved a fan to get a current of air.  The neighbor’s children and I poured cold water on the ground before supper, and after we ate, we brought out wooden stools, chatted and played games.  It was the best part of the day.  When I finally went to bed, I opened the windows wide.  There were only three or four days above 35 degrees then, as there were fewer people and factories.  The environment wasn’t as hot as it is now. 

          Now I can’t think of how life would be without air-conditioning.  Many young people have never used a fan, and they work in offices with air-conditioning so they have to have air-conditioning at home, too.

          I fan myself or use an electric fan in the daytime and have the air-conditioner on in the evening.  We walk for about half an hour after supper and then watch TV or do other things in the air-conditioned room.  That uses more electricity, and I feel that staying a long time in an air-conditioned room isn’t all that good for one’s health.