Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Internet didn't come out of a golden egg. Many of today's creations were not born of people who had creative ideas, but who did not stop at simply having an idea. They took one brick of capital (资本), another brick of knowledge, perhaps a brick or two of family and friends, and built their empires (帝国) brick by brick.

    If you want to build an online empire, you cannot settle for simply having a website full of articles, or a website full of pictures—there are already thousands of sites like that, so you need to come up with something new and creative.

    So if you are starting to build something up, ask yourself: what do you really want to do, and what are you really good at? Believe it or not, you can make money at something that you are an expert in, and you need to know what that is.

    Remember, having an online empire does not mean that you have to do it alone. You can take your friends along with you. Having a friend advertise your services online is a good way to attract more visitors to your empire.

    Building an online empire, you will have to be prepared to not only come up with creative ideas, but to carry your ideas through. Talk to people who have already succeeded in building their own empires. Talk to people who are struggling. Join a mailing list that will help you get through your struggle to achieve your goal.

    As you move forward, you will find that you can help other people, and you will have a good many stories to tell—not to mention a lot of money in the bank.

    If you learn the real secrets of creating a long term stable (稳定的) online business then you will have enough money to retire on.

    When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from China.

    When India had not opened up its markets to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now.

    Still, her answer surprised me, “Green tea.”

    As long as I can remember she didn't even drink Indian tea.

    I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story. My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses.

    At the turn of the century，China was not really familiar to the average Indians. It was a strange country.

    How things change! And how soon!

    Now every town of any size seems to have a “China Market”. And everyone is talking about China.

    The government of India has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done. A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investments(投资) and such a step would “work wonders as it did for China”．

    But it's a two way street. I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Bangalore to train in software. Meanwhile, all the Indian IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China.

    No wonder that trade, which was only in the millions just ten years ago，was expected to hit about $15 billion for last year and $20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments.

    No wonder，my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino－Indian(中印) century as the two countries started on January 1 the Sino－Indian Friendship Year.

    But what is still a wonder to me is my mother drinking Chinese tea.

    Tang Dynasty poets sang for about three centuries in different tones. There were many famous poets living in the Tang period such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin. Poems of the Tang Dynasty edited in the Qing Dynasty is a collection of more than 48,900 poem that were written by over 2,200 poets. But it didn't cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.

    During the Tang Dynasty, poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.

    Tang Dynasty poets wrote poems to win fame and also to develop their temperament(性情). They poured out deep feelings for their friends and criticized in injustice in the world through poems.

    In the Tang Dynasty scholars had to be poets. Their readers were not only people of high social position but also common people. Poets recited poems, women singers sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, read Tang poems. This atmosphere affected foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries, like Japan and Vietnam.

    Tang poetry is a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It's a miracle in the cultural history of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited(继承)Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, was combined with the best of other cultures and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world. Tang poetry wasn't the only spiritual wealth created by the Tang Dynasty people. Philosophy and religion, handwriting and painting and music and dance all gained new peaks of development. Tang poetry, however, was the jewel in the crown and its greatest achievement.

假如你叫李华，是一名高中生。你和外国笔友Lucy都是文学爱好者，尤其喜欢英语诗歌。最近，Lucy发来电子邮件，询问你最喜欢哪一首英语诗歌、作者是谁、你为什么喜欢它。

1）请根据自己的亲身体会，给Lucy写一封电子邮件。

2）词数100左右。开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。

Dear Lucy,

    I am glad to tell you about my favorite poem. ……

    Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

    Yours,

    Li Hua

    Recently I was invited to a friend's house for supper — and had a meal I have never had before.

    All the friends invited were a little1It's not that Ben is unsociable, or a bad cook, but it's just that he never 2more than he has to. So how come he was inviting us round for a meal? Had he bought something 3for his friends? He greeted us at the door and showed us into his dinning room where a 4table was waiting for us. “Nothing but the 5for my friends!” said Ben. We all sat down and looked 6at each other — what did he7to?

    Ben returned with four bowls of hot soup. “It's a 8of carrots, potatoes and tomatoes,” said Ben. The next 9was also a little strange in that we didn't quite know what it was again. It's just 10mixture of vegetables.

    As we ate we chatted and finally the11turned back to what we were eating. “Was there a recipe(食谱)for this,” asked Marina , “or did you 12it up?” Ben put his fork down. “What I cooked 13what I could find.” Marina was surprised. “But you can find anything in supermarkets these days.” “But there's 14choice in what you can find 15supermarkets,” he replied.

    16that we had all finished the food, Ben decided to tell the truth. He had read recently that supermarkets usually 17away 5 percent of their food every day. So Ben decided to look inside his local supermarket bins. There he found food that was slightly out of 18 boxes of throw-away vegetables and fruit.

 So Ben had19provided a decent (不错的) meal for his friends, and made us aware of the fact that there are many poor people who need the food, but the amount of food thrown away is enough to 20millions of people.