I came to know a skating coach by the name of the Joe Toliver , a very nice man.

Joe was teaching serveral boys and girls ,black and white.We talked ,and he told me how much he loved sports.

He said,"Sports are a sort of art, or a sort of music ,that bring people together without the need of translation ."

Those lovely boys and girls were here and there ,giggling ,shouting ,and frolicking with joy .

At that moment ,an idea came to me ,or rather a heart -felt wish :What if these children some day go to China ,and play with Chinese boys and girls?

Sincerely ,I wish they will come .I wish they will grow into strong and handsome young men and women ,and come to Beijing in the year 2008 for the grand Olympic Games.

Why they come I don't really care.They may come to compete in sports events other than skating.

They may even come ,not to play sports ,but to cheer for their national teams.

What's important is that they come.What's more important is that people all over the world will gather in Beijing for the bliss of peace and friendship.

As Mr.Samaranch has said that the essence of Olympia is not confrontation ,rather ,the Olympic spirit is the desire for a healthy life ,the disire for a better world.

An astronaut once said,"From the spaceship I looked at our globe ,so lovely and peaceful like a sleeping baby.

Suddenly ,I felt the impulse to ask myself ; where are the national boundaries ?Why couldn't I see them?

Then the answer dawned upon me ;When God created human beings, He never divided them by drawing any lines .

It is poeple who keep themselves apart by wars and confrontations."

Come to recall the sight of the Sydney games,however ,we see the athletes of North and South Korea parading as one team .

We see American and Chinese women footballers hugging each other with tears in their eyes.

There used to be no boundary in human world ,and there shouldn't be.

The Olympic flag represents a dream .Pople from the five continents join their hands like the five rings tightly connected.

Misunderstandings are gone ,confrontations are gone.

Not long ago ,I got an e-mail From Joe .He told me the children were making great progress.

and he hoped they would turn out to be brilliant athletes.He also wished Beijing good luck ,saying if Beijing succeeds, he will come to China with his family to witness the great Olympics,and have a taste of well-know Beijing roast duck.

Reading Joe's e-mail ,I fell in deep thought .2008 ,what will I be like at that time ?

I may no longer be a student of law ,and have probably become a lawer as I have always wished.

I maybe working in Beijing ,maybe not .But ,no matter where I'll be ,what I'll be doing ,my heart will stand by it .

I'll act as a common volunteer and do whatever I can for Beijing ,for Olympics,for a better world .

My dear friends ,let us firmly believe that under the guidance of the Olympic Flame ,we will march together and sing together ,

for the peace of the world ,for the brotherhood of mankind.That day will come ,when our songs cross the time and space and go everlasting .

And that will be the very day ,when the Olympic dream comes true.Thank you ,Thank you .

Rick:Contestant number twenty ,what major effects will China's membership of the World Trade Organization have on the country?

LiBeid:Thank you for the question .Well, the um,sorry ,the topic reminds me of a story .

One day a poet went down to the seaside to think about the ending of this new poem.

Suddenly he caught sihgt of a figure dancing in the distance..

He was very curious and he walked up to the figure.It turned out to be a young man who was actually not dancing but picking up something from the beach.

He stopped the young man and asked him ,"Could you please tell me what are you doing here my young man?"

The young man answered,"The sun is about to rise and if the starfish remain on the beach ,they will be dried and dead .I want to save them ."

On hearing this ,the poet laughed and said ,"But can't you see there are hundres of starfish remaining on the beach .

The sun is about to rise in just a few minutes .You cannot possibly save all the starfish ."

There was a silence.Then the young man picked up another starfish ,looked the poet in the eye and said ,

"That is very true.But if I take action right now ,I can at least make a difference to this one ."

Again ,the young man ran to the sea and threw the lucky starfish into the beautiful blue water .

Thinking about a topic, the major effect of China's becoming a member of the World Trade Organization ,in my opinion,is to give China such spirit.

Is to stimulate the Chinese people , to make them realize that we cannot sit there waiting for the tree lunch like what we did years ago.

On the contrary ,we should stand up right away to work ,to compete ,to take the challenges.

This is the time of knowledge economy ,the age of changes and speed,the era of development and surpassing the outpack of competition and cooperation .

Tomorrow is so far away ,seize the day .Thank you.

Judge:Thank you very much indeed candidate number twenty .You ,you gave us a very moving and vivid picture of world peach and ,uh ,uh ,uh as you rightly say ,

the, uh,Olympic ideal promotes ,umm, good relations between nations .But it's not the only thing that does.

And I wonder if you can think of any other things that you might just briefly mention which promote good relations between nations.

Li Beidi:Well, I have a, a very good example about this .Uh,if I'm not mistaken ,in 1971,a group of U.S.ping-pong players visited China at the invitation of Chinese government,

and the next year ,a Chinese group paid back a visit to the United States and communicated with the palyers there.

Um,uh ,in the ,in the twenty years of Cold War actually ,it was the first time that there was a closer contact between the United States and China.

It was the little ball that broke the ice between the United States and China and gave both governments a chance to build up the friendship.

It was the little ball that brought the understandigs between poeple in the two countries .

Thus ,brought along communication and cooperation .Thank you .

Judge:Thank you .Well done .Thank you contestant number twenty .Um,I'd like to focus on the ,uh ,second topic you gave dealing with ,um,

the effect that involvement in the World Trade Organization will have,an as China becomes more globalized,

as all countries are becoming ,are there certain aspects of your culture that you would particularly want to make sure that ,um,

China becomes more globalized it doesn't lose aspects of the culture that you think are very important for China to ,

values that you think that it's very important for China maintain even though it becomes a more global country.

LiBeidi:Well, I don't worry at all about this topic ,because I ,I believe that even ,um ,after China's entry into the WTO,

there is something in our culture that we can surely maintain.

Actually ,um,well ,I don't know whether you live in Beijing or not ,but ,um,if you go to uh some ,some like operas,

you know Beijing Opera ,you know,there are a lot of places where you can ,you can go and listen and watch the Beijing opera.

We were not going to lose them.And the other thing is like the ,our language ,the Chinese art ,uh ,the Chinese characters.

Uh,Now we have the uh,uh ,the uh, we can ,we have the Chinese acters on Internet.The ,the ,the ,domain ,we ,we ,can ,um have ,uh the, uh,all kinds of ,uh, uh ,newspapers and TVs,

that we ,we ,we still have the broadcasting in Chinese.We are not going to lose our language.

And the most important thing is that Chinese,I think Chinese people like they always are, they will look at the future with smiles on their face.

We are confident.We believe that nothing is so difficult if we set our minds on it.

This is the most important thing for China because this is the spirit,which is rooted in Chinese nation.We are not going to lose it.Thank you.

Judge:Thank you.I believe I heard you say that you are a law student,not an English major .Is that right ?

LiBeidi:That's right .

Judge:Well, um ,could you tell us why ?What prompted you to participate in this contest?

I mean most of the students who participate in this contest are English majors.

LiBeid:Well.

Judge:What made you decide to participate in this competition?

LiBeid:Well,uh ,to tell you the truth,I didn't do anything special to ,to prepare for today's competition because as a student majoring in law,

you ,you got to have a , a ,a large range of knowledge.You should have a ,you should be enthusiastic about the society ,not only in English ,

but also in ,in foreign cultures like Britain or Australia.You should have a,a deeper understanding about your society and other societies.

So ,the preparation for today's competition ,I think is through the twenty years, from the very day I was born till today .

I have been growing .I have been getting knowledge,that's the preparation ,not only for today's competition,but that's the preparation for my whole life .Thank you .