史书渊 决赛一等奖 初中组

　　First, I have a question for you,‘what is the meaning of the wordfamily?”You may say that a family is agroup of people who are relatedto each other. This is what theword “family “explained in thedictionary. But to my opinion, theword “family” means somethingmore than that doesn’t it?I used to be that kind of luckykid that always has both myparents’ attention, since I amthe only child. They have givenme all their love and care eversince I was born, so I never hada chance to know that what is it

　　like to be alone without living ina family. Because of that, I never really take it seriously when people say things to me like “you have such a great family”， ‘you should really cherish it’ etc. I didn’t appreciate or feel grateful for that, instead, I complained a lot, like’ ohh, gosh, my mum’s so annoying’ or ‘what’s wrong with my parents? Why can’t I having a crush on that guy? Old people.。。”But things kind of changed when I graduated from elementary school, I chose to study in an all boarding school which in there, I could finally get rid of my privacy pryer mum and dad. But as the time goes by, I started to realize that I was wrong, I was completely wrong. Through the days studying in the boarding school, I find out that compare to everyday-the-same school meal, mum’s homemade food is just so sweet and yummy, I now know that it’s the taste of love, it’s the taste of family. I find out that compare to friends’ faking smiles and spreading rumors, mum’s grandmotherly and endlessly words are a lot more familiar, I now know that it’s the sound of trust, it’s the sound of family. I also find out that taking care of myself feels really bad since there will be no more reminding me of ‘ it’s getting cold outside, you should get you big coat on’, I now know that I really can’t live without my loving fami ly。

　　So that weekend I had a talkwith my parents and told themeverything, I told them howwrong I was about the familything and that I am gonnacherish every moment of thefamily from now on, and I toldthem, I love them, always haveand always will.And that is my answer to thequestion’ what is a family’ aswell. To me, family is a group ofpeople who cares for each other,who will always be there throughup and downs, and family isa group full of love, trust andrespect.So everybody, let’s all cherishevery moment we spend withour family and truly enjoy beingpart of it!

　　胡旭雯 决赛二等奖 小学高级组

　　Hello, everyone. I'm Cookie Hu,a student of Xin Cheng GardenPrimary School, Suzhou, China.It is my great honor to stand hereand give my speech. My speechis Family.When we talk about family, mostpeople may think we should startfrom the “small” family whichforms up by father, mother,children & relatives. However,today I will do it differently. I willtalk about the “big family”-ourEarth.As we all know, we have onlyone earth. It is a beautiful homein which we all live. Unfortunately,our home is facing a lot ofthreats, such as air pollution,water pollution, overpopulationand so on.We all know that air & waterplay important roles in our life.If people continue to pollute airand water, if we take no actionto deal with the serious situation,what will be the result? It ishard to imagine, but one thingis for sure that our earth will bein great trouble。

　　So ladies andgentlemen, we can not affordto wait until it is too late whenthere is no city, no hotel, and nolecture hall to hold any speechcontest.It is good to see that nowadaysboth governments and people are becoming more and more aware of environmental protectionandecologic a balance. What we need to donow is to put words into actions.And this should start fromevery and each one of us, andit should start from small deed:saving water; recycling suchas batteries, old newspapers,empty glass bottles and anyother recyclable garbage. All inall, we must make full use of thethings around us even if they arerubbish.So let’s shake hands now asfriends. And see what we can doto make our family ------earth------our only home a place of loveand harmony.That’s all. Thank you for listening!