博主按：以下几篇小东西可能是我1999年间给中国科学技术信息研究所研究生班讲授英语课期间写的。我布置了几篇小作文，我也写同题作文。但这个记忆对不对，我也没把握。

我的几篇英语小作文（1999）

武夷山

My Opinion on “Brain Drain”

We often say that science does not have national boundaries, but scientists do have their respective motherlands. If we only emphasize the universalism of science, then the so-called brain drain is a false issue, because your research results are contribution to the science as a human civilization, no matter which country you happen to be when you make the relevant contribution. Albert Einstein was born in Germany. To avoid the Nazi execution of Jews (Einstein is one), he emigrated to the United States of America. His leaving was of course a kind of brain drain to the Nazi Germany, but the world science community would applaud such “brain drain” with extreme excitement and gratitude. However, brain drain is a very realistic threat to many developing countries, including China. If a man sheds too much blood in a short time, he dies. If a country loses too many scientists and engineers constantly, its future is in jeopardy. Therefore, the issue of brain drain needs to be dealt with properly. 

My Favorite Month

My favorite month is August. For one thing, I used to be a great fan of swimming when I was a student. In summer vacation, which falls in part of July and most of August, I always swam a lot, sometimes twice a day. Usually I would go to the university swimming pool with my buddies. If we were in good mood, we might go to swim in a river or in a lake. The feeling is so different from swimming in the pool.

The second reason I love August is that I like to look good although I am not a handsome man. In August I wear few clothes so my strong muscles are revealed, often attracting admiring eyes or even compliments from my girl classmates, which satisfied my vanity greatly, although I never dated any of them. In winter, in contrast, every one seems clumsy in heavy overcoats, so even the most beautiful girls have no way to display their curves. That’s why I always think God is silly to create four seasons. If I was God, I would keep the weather the same all year long , forever in August.

How to Organize an International Conference

First, calling for papers is really the key to the success of any international conference. Without enough high quality paper, the conference is doomed a failure. The theme and the topics for the conference should be well defined.

Second, try to find one or more financial sponsors. Money is not omnipotent, but money indeed talks and helps. In particular, if you are financially strong enough to cover the international travel expenses of internationally well-known invited speakers, the conference would have been  half way towards the final success.

Third, choose carefully two very capable persons, one as the Chair of the Program Committee and the other as the Chair of the Organizing Committee. The responsibility of the former includes the peer review screening of the received manuscripts, deciding on which papers should be formally accepted as the conference papers, and editing the conference proceedings. The other committee Chair will be responsible for all the logistic matters, such as arranging the pick-up of foreign participants in the airports, hotel booking, diet arrangement during the conference, local travel, etc.

What Is Intelligent Computer

An ordinary computer is only capable of doing things it is programmed to do, while an intelligent computer is able to learn new things and improve its performance based on the learning experience. Therefore, Deep Blue is a sort of intelligent computer. To certain extent, it can learn from the new skills through chess games and improve its moves constantly.

I would like to have such an intelligent computer that can get familiar with me gradually. At present, whenever I type my name, these letters are underlined with a red line. That is my spelling check software telling me that they are misspelled words. Such  red line drives me crazy because I never misspelled my name. The intelligent computer in my mind would know, after say 10 times of repetition of any word, that since my “master” loves this word so much, it must be a friendly one so I do not give alarms any more. Of course, it can do many other things and become my real pet.