Of course, it was the most interesting to practise shouting in Yangliuqing. The real Yangliuqing was a hundred times more beautiful than what was reflected in the New Year’s Painting. Sophie would never forget her first impression of Yang Liuqing: in the foggy pond, the dense leaves were like green little stages, waiting for the dragonflies to dance on. On the shaking waves, the willow branches drifted in the breeze, matching interestingly with the black swallows. 

Amid the peaceful greenness came a team of moving greenness. It was Sophie and her roommates. How they wished to cross the low fences and linger on the little bridges! But as soldiers responsible for great tasks, they must not play at will as little girls. 

When they reached the shooting range, the green color vanished from their sight. Only yellow earth and several targets for shooting could be seen at the distance. Following their officers’ requirements, Sophie and her classmates fell forward onto the ground, held their guns in the right gesture and aimed at the targets. She enjoyed the feeling when the gun sprang back on her shoulder. 

For the first bullet, she did not even touch the target. She thought to herself, if she were in the battle field, she must have kicked the bucket at a single instant. Luckily, the rest of her bullets had touched the target. From then on, she had a green colored dream. She wished that one day she could be a true soldier and an excellent shooter, always ready to knock the invaders’ brains out.

   

The last programs of the Military Training were military parade and school performance. After two months’ training, Sophie could march very standardly and it was her great glory to be selected as a member of the square team. So she had two tasks: in the morning she must practise marching with the square team and in the evening she must practice chorusing with the English Department. 

Sophie was very busy day and night, and she was full of energy. In the morning everything went on very well. But sometimes Sophie’ s got a headache. It was hard for her to put down her raised foot at the right time, and she always treaded off Wei Wei’ s shoes, making her scream now and then in the square team. Sophie was very fed up with the chorus in the evening. She was the standard soldier in the first row, everyone must focus on her to stand together in a straight line. So she had to raise her arms for at least ten times. What was most annoying, all the soldiers of English Department must put up with criticisms because of poor singing skills and constant tweaking and scratching. 

When they returned to the dorm, every one threw away their shoes and cursed the Military Training. However, they were happy to see that the performance of English Department was perfect, and was praised by the whole school. 

However, Sophie felt very upset because she had made two mistakes: when she was marching in the square team she treaded off Wei Wei’ s shoes, but thanks to clever Wei Wei. She did not scream aloud. The second mistake was due to the bad weather. When the team was singing The Evening of the Navy Harbor, every soldier was asked to hold a burning candle stick, to form a warm, sleepy atmosphere. Before the song started Sophie protected the feeble flame in her hands very carefully, when there blew a breeze and extinguished her candle. Much embarrassed, she could do nothing but finish the song holding an extinguished candle. And her freshman year, the green colored age, had drifted to the depth of memory along with the sound of the chorus.