WEBVTT

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race

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The track lines

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are the staff

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We’re jumping notes

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running on the track

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The waves of cheering

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are from the teachers

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and parents

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The rising and falling sound

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is the students’ shrieking

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The accidental fall

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is only a short rest note

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Get up and keep running

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The music isn’t over yet

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At the end of the music

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there are sounds of laughter

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sighing

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and most of all

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their applause for us

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My favorite part is “The accidental fall

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is only a short rest note

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Get up and keep running

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The music isn’t over yet

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Because the sentence makes me believe

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that if I fall accidentally

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in a race

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I wouldn’t give up

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It also makes me feel that

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I might still be able to beat

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those who are ahead of me

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and win first place

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I became

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a writer

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after this book

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One time

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at an airport

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I saw

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a scene

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which gave me a lot of inspiration

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What scene was it

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A flight was delayed

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There were a lot of kids

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and their parents waiting for the plane

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The kids saw

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a toy spider

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at a book store in the airport

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They had no idea what it was

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But I knew

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I told them

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Hi

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if you shout at it loudly

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it’ll come down and climb up again

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I wrote a poem

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about what happened and submitted to a publisher

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It was rejected

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I changed the poem to an article

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and submitted it

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It was rejected again

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I changed it to a story

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and submitted it

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It was rejected once again

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It’s okay

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I went to work in the daytime

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and I wrote at night out of boredom

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One day

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when I was reading the newspaper

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I saw

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that it said inside a tiny square

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that the Mandarin Daily News was looking

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or submissions for a children’s story contest

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It’s called

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Mudi Children's Literature Award

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And

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it had to be at least 4,500 characters

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My story started out

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as a poem, and became a 1,000-character article

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and then a 1,200-character story

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The requirement was 4,500 characters

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and the deadline

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was three days away

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I thought since

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I had nothing else to do after work

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So, I changed my 1,200-character story

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to a 4,500-character story

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I met the character requirement and submitted it

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I won third place

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and received NT$80,000

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For “Mr. Squirrel’s Bread”

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it tells the story of

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Mr. Squirrel

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who sticks it out

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even after constant failures

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In his last attempt

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people tell him

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he only

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has one last piece of dough left

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or something like that

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He still

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soldiers on

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He then

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finds out that

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his tears are the key

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I submitted my stories to Mandarin Daily News

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They were published

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and I received money

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which I used to buy chocolate

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I think his stories

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especially emphasize

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enthusiasm, angst

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and sadness

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And

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especially in

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“Spicy Teachers”

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in which Teacher Wasabi and Teacher Chili

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can’t stop their tears

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in a contest

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I think it’s very funny

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The context is full of

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Because food is closely connected with our lives

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it's full of

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material I can use

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So, in volume three

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I wrote “Spicy Teachers”

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Why

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Because Teacher Wasabi and Teacher Chili

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compete to see who is spicier

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One good thing about children’s books

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is that I can

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present my characters

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in a non-human

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approach

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So, in “Spicy Teachers”

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it’s very natural to have

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Teacher Wasabi and Teacher Chili interpret the story

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Of course, it has a double meanings

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which are

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the spiciness of chili

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and

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the beautiful appearance

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of the teachers

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The most important

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writing skill

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is to have a critical eye

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After you finish a composition

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erase your name and change it to

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the name of the person you dislike the most

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You can then use your critical eye

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to find faults

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After you find all the faults

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correct them

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and put back your name

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How do you get a critical eye

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You need to read a lot

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The reason

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Otherwise how would you know what direction

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to go when you make a correction

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For sure you will make the correction

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based on your wonderful

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previous reading experiences

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in which

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the story might be funny

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or sad

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or outraged

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As long as it can stir up your emotions

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you can apply

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your wonderful reading experiences

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when you read

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someone else's work

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not yours

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and see if you have the same experience

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If not

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keep finding faults

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and figure out where the problems are

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You’ll realize

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the work you’re correcting

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feels the same

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as a wonderful work you read before

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When you get a similar feeling

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then you’re almost there

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Sometimes

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when you reread a favorite book

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after a while

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you’ll find out you notice

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something you didn’t read before

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I believe a lot of kids have this experience

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They like to read a book repeatedly

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A book that they don’t

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get tired of reading

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I believe why they don’t get tired of it

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is because they notice something

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they didn’t read the previous time they read it

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I think the mysterious principal

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is similar to the character I created

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Like earlier

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at school, I asked the kids

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what characters should show up

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in the next volume

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They would tell me what they thought

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Right

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I could then apply their ideas in my works

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I become a mysterious principal

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who steals ideas

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from the kids

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Sometimes when I run out of ideas

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and want to find new characters

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I go to a night market

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For example, at a night market

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I see oyster omelets

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shrimp omelets

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calamari omelets

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and stuff like that

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Also guava with licorice root powder

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sausages

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Taiwanese sausage with sticky rice

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and stinky tofu

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I put all of those

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in my stories

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When the kids read them

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they also

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feel

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those are things are in their daily lives

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It is more fun

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and interesting

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when they read the stories

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Literature is the art of language

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Art is wisdom

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Wisdom comes from life

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Life can be read

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Put in more effort. Reading is good for you