初三每周認讀和閱讀18AThe late president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, once said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his own language, that goes to his heart.”Mandela understood that our mother language is a very intimate (親近的) thing to us. For people who speak an ancient tongue as their mother language, it helps them keep their traditions. Their language is their main link (聯系) with their ancestors. And it is also how they imagine the future.So its a serious thing that a language disappears. Over the last century, more than 400 languages have died out. Some languages are now spoken only by a few dozen people, like Yagan in Chile. Africa and South America are also places where many languages are dying.Why are humans speaking fewer languages than we once did? The answer has to do with globalization (全球化). Nowadays, its more useful to speak certain languages English is one example rather than others. This has killed some languages, usually ones spoken by fewer or less influential people.But some people arent prepared to accept a planet with fewer and fewer languages. The United Nations has set Feb 21 as International Mother Language Day. The organization wants people to pay more attention to dying languages.This work is very important. As US writer Rita Mae Brown wrote, “Language is the roadmap(路線圖) of a culture. It tells where its people come from and where they are going”.BYou cannot love without givingA girl was working as a nurse in a private hospital (私立醫院). One day, a patient who was seriously ill was brought to her hospital, but soon had to be transferred to a different hospital for an operation. The director (主管) of the hospital said that the patient couldnt be transferred unless he paid his bill first. The patients family asked if they could pay the bill after the operation, as the patient was critically ill. But their request was refused.The nurse, who had just arrived to work, heard about the situation and made a surprising decision. She removed her golden bracelet (手鐲), took it to the cashiers desk (收銀臺) and said she would use it to cover the patients bill. Thanks to her help, the patient was immediately transferred to the other hospital and his life was saved. Although the bracelet was the only piece of valuable jewelry(珠寶) she owned, the nurse donated (捐贈) it to save the patient, even though he was a total stranger to her.The nurses actions caught the attention of the doctor who was on duty that day. He later fell in love with the nurse and they eventually (最終) got married.We may give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. Love means giving as much as we can. Love is like a smile neither has any value unless they are given away. As Mother Teresa once said, “It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do.”CMonsters are nothing new in Hollywood films. We have seen green ogres in the Shrek (怪物史萊克) series and fuzzy monsters in Monsters University (怪獸大學). In China, there is another popular monster movie Monster Hunt (捉妖記).Three years ago, the films star Huba won peoples hearts. He is the child of the monster king. With his big eyes and cute voice, he looks very much like a human baby.Now Huba has come back in the movie Monster Hunt II, which came out on Feb 16. This time, as Huba prepares to become the monster king, both the old monster king and monster hunters want to kill him. Hubas human parents Song Tianyin and Huo Xiaolan try to save him.According to the movie series director Raman Hui, the movies inspiration (靈感) comes from Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海經) , which is a collection of stories from Chinese mythology (神話). It features various mythological creatures that are similar to Huba. Some look like blowfish (河豚) that can swallow (吞下) dinosaurs. Some look like rabbits, but have the faces of mice and can fly like birds. These strange but amazing creatures have been inspiring modern Chinese artists to make movies, TV shows and other works of art.Raman Hui is