blog 9

常常春天有雨天。 今天是雨天了，也很凉爽。 晚上是冷了。 明天将要晴天。气温左右五十度华氏。 现在上海气温是三十八度摄氏。

In 15th century China, opium was used for recreation, sparingly, because it was rare and expensive. The Chinese never had a problem with it until the 17th century when it was mixed with tobacco when people realized how addictive it was. Opium was banned in 1729, after which the consumption of opium increased drastically. This was because the British encouraged the Chinese to use opium, and sold it to them very cheaply from their sources in the British-controlled India. (Britain did it because their trading with China caused a decrease in British silver stock). The emperor of China tried to confiscate it, which led to two wars, after which Britain supressed China and used it as an opportunity to spread opium to other countries in the world. By 1905, about a quarter of China's population was addicted to opium. Opium has become less used now, and it's used for medicine, like morphine, codeine, heroin, and it is regarded as the best pain killer.

blog 7

现在，晴天，天气很好。 今天，六十华氏度。怪不得气温好，外面是春天！不过，明天有雨天。你的天气，怎么样？

I read an article the other day, on China Daily (I think) about a SARS outbreak a few years ago. They think that the infection started in a laboratory where researchers were doing research and had live and "dead" SARS that they were messing with. Luckily China was able to quickly quarantine the people who were infected and managed to contain the outbreak, so very few died compared to other outbreaks. China, and the rest of the world, was encouraged to update their safety procedures to make sure an accident like this doesn't happen again.