,

she can do what she likes with them. It's her time, she can do what she

likes with her time.

B: They start frorii a certain point, don't they?

E: Well, I don't think they always do that...They try to remember that you're

growing up and then they forget.

D: Yes...they try to protect you...

E: They' re treating you like children and telling you where to put things...

C: ...going round tidying up after you.

6. "Intimate Elder Sisters" Allay Teenagers' Worries

Xiao Lin, a third year junior high school student from Beijing, packed his books and clothes and left home, with tears in his eyes.

He felt his divorced parents never loved him. He felt lonely, but he did not know where to go.

He thought of 440779, a phone number to reach the so-called "Intimate Elder Sisters".

That day was a day to remember in'his whole life. One of the sisters came to see him, and to his utter enjoyment, spent .the day playing with him .

　
"She told me 'The world is not as cold as you think it is. There is so much love here. I love you. Your friends love you.'"

Xiao Lin stayed at home, trying to fill it with the love he got from his Intimate Elder Sister.

Actually, the Intimate Elder Sisters are Wu Ruomei, I.u Qin, Ge Shujuan and Huang Xiaopo, editors o# the China Chiidren's News. Since they opened the hot line in March 1988, they have received mor.e than 10,000 calls from children across the country.

"We hope to ease their troub(es through heart-to-heart chats," said Wu Ruomei. Many of the children they talked to were disturbed by secrets they felt obliged to keep from both their parents and their teachers.

Children reach the Elder Sisters every day by phone with a wide range of funny or astonishing questions. "I' m growing into a fatty, sister, and I don't want that," and, "What do children on other planets look like?"

The questions are not always small and easy to solve. Yet, " Even if we just listen to these children' s sobbing, we' re helping them out of their loneliness," Wu said.

When Iittle Yanni called her Elder Sister in Beijing from Wuhan, she was weeping. "Mama is dying from cancer," she said. "I don't want her to leave me."

After comforting little Yanni, her Sisters informed children in other parts of the country, who sent Yanni and her mother letters and gifts, encouraging them to fight the disease courageously.

A Beijing boy refused to be identified on the phone. But he told his Elder Sister his cousin had accidentally injured another child and had to pay all the medical fees. Afraid of informing.his parents, he had stolen 110 yuan from a classmate's home and was discovered later. He was in great distress, but did not know what to do.

Wu said to him, "The boy's actions are forgiveable. Once he clears up the situation, he'll.win the trust of others.?Her sense told her that the boy was talking about himself.

After the call, Wu wrote to the boy's father, asking them to help the boy.

A few days later, a boy appeared before the editors. It was he who had taken the money. Now, a good student in No 20. Middle School of Beijing, he often visits with his Elder Sisters.

During the past year, Wu and her colleagues also opened the hot line for a short period in eight other cities in the country. In Nanning, capital of South China' s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, they

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