Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.

    Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4,1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.

    The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three­day feast (盛宴).The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.

    In time, other colonies (殖民地) began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed (宣布) the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving.

    Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours. But the Canadian Thanks­giving Day falls on the second Monday in October.

    The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand—a system of rapid handwriting, and now it's threatening to finish off handwriting as a whole. When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2012, just 15% of the most1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive(手写体). The rest? Block letters.

    And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of US students who no longer get much handwriting instructions in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.

    There are those who say the culture is at a crossing, turning from the written word to the typed one. If handwriting becomes a lost form of communication, does it matter?

    It was at University Virginia that researchers recently discovered a previously unknown poem by Robert, written in his unique script. Handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers, historians say, because their authenticity can be confirmed. Students also find them more fascinating.

    The loss of handwriting also may be  a cognitive(认知的) opportunity missed. Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better—a lifelong benefit.

    It doesn't take much to teach better handwriting skills. At some schools in Prince George's County, elementary school students use a program called Handwriting Without Tears for 15 minutes a day. They learn the correct formation of manuscript (手写的)letters through second grade, and cursive letters in third grade.

    Social media is one of the fastest growing industries in today's world. A study conducted by the US Pew Research Center showed that 92 percent of teenagers go online daily. The wide spread of social media has changed nearly all parts of teenagers' lives.

    Changing relationships

    High school student Elly Cooper from Illinois said social media often reduces face- to-face communication. “It makes in-person relationships harder because of people's attention given to their phones instead of their boyfriends or girlfriends,” Cooper said.

    Yet, some people believe social media has made it easier to start relationships with anyone from anywhere. Beth Kaplan from Illinois met her long-distance friend through social media. He currently lives in Scotland, but they're still able to frequently communicate with each other. “I can feel close to someone that I'm talking to via FaceTime,” Kaplan said.

    Wanting to be “liked”

    The rise of social media has changed the way teenagers see themselves. The 19- year-old Essena O'Neill announced on the social networking service Instagram that she was quitting social media because it made her unable to stop thinking about appearing perfect online. Negative comments also can do great damage to a teenager's self-esteem. Teenagers who get negative comments can't help but feel hurt.

    Opening new doors

    However, Armin Korsos, a student from Illinois, takes advantage of the comments he receives over social media to improve his videos on the social networking site YouTube. “Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that has never been possible before,” Korsos said.

    Membership

    All you need to do is fill out the order form at the bottom of the page, select your first order from our book list and then post the completed form back to us.

    Special offers for new members

    As a special offer, you may choose any reduced-price books from our new members' book list, to the value of 100 yuan in total. Tick the box on your form to order a free watch. Join before the end of this month and you receive another free book carefully chosen by our staff. Order an audio-book from the many on offer, at half the recommended retail price.

    When you've joined

    As a member you get around 50% off the publisher's price of every book you buy, and what's more, they come straight to your door. Your free club magazine arrives once a month to keep you up to date with the latest best-sellers we've added to our list. On the Internet, you can find all our titles for the year at our exclusive members' website. Our website also has a book swap service where members can request or offer books for exchange.

    Being a member

    All you have to do is order four books during your first year. After that, you can decide on the number of books you wish to take. In each of your monthly club magazines, our experienced staff choose a "Book of the Month" for you, which is offered at an extra-special price. If you do not want this book, just say so in the space provided on the form and send it back to us. We always send the book if we do not receive this form.

    Once we receive your order, your books are delivered within one week. And remember, you have up to a fortnight to decide if you wish to keep the books you have ordered. If they aren't what you expected just end them back!

    1990 was a significant year in world events. In February, Nelson Mandela was set free after 27 years in prison. In October, East and West Germany became one country again. Then at the end of 1990, the World Wide Web was born. For this final event we have one man to thank, Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Web.

    Berners-Lee was born on June 8, 1955 in London, England. His parents, both computer designers, encouraged him to think and work creatively as he grew up. He was an excellent student and naturally took an interest in computers and science.

    After graduating from Oxford University, Tim went to work at a science research center in Switzerland. There he developed some of the different systems that would later become the Web. The first was HTML, the computer language used to make web pages. The second was an address system that let computers anywhere find each other and send and receive information. In 1990, while still at the science center in Switzerland, he put them together to make the first Internet browser. It could run on any computer and allowed people to share their information with the rest of the world.

    Tim knew that the more people used the Web, the more useful it would be. He wasn't interested in money but knowledge, so he gave out his invention for free to anyone who was interested. Many were interested and the growth of the Internet began.

    Today Tim works as a professor at the MIT in America, researching new and interesting ways to use the Web. He has received many awards from governments and organizations for his efforts. He is still not very interested in money. That is why he is so admired by his students and workmates. It may also be one of the reasons why few people outside the world of technology know his name.

    October 15^this the Global Handwashing Day. Activities are planned in more than 20 countries to get millions of people in the developing world to wash their hands with soap. For example, donors(捐赠者) will give 150,000 bars of soap to schools in Ethiopia.

    Experts say people around the world wash their hands every day, but very few use soap at so-called important moments. These include after using the toilet, after cleaning a baby and before touching food.

    Global Handwashing Day is the idea of the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. Partners include the United Nations Children's Fund, American government agencies, the World Bank and soap makers Unlever and Procter and Gamble. The organizers say all soaps are equally effective at removing disease-causing germ(细菌). They say the correct way to wash is to wet your hands with a small amount of water and cover them with soap. Rub(揉搓) it into all areas, including under the fingernails(指甲). Rub for at least twenty seconds. Then rinse well under running water. Finally, dry your hands with a clean cloth or wave them in the air.

    The Partnership for Handwashing says soap is important because it increases the time that people spend in washing hands. Soap also helps to break up the dirt that holds most of the germs. And it usually leaves a pleasant smell. The Partnership for Handwashing also says washing with soap before eating or after using the toilet could save more lives than any vaccine(疫苗)or medicine. Hand washing could also prevent the spread of other diseases. When people get germs on their hands, they can infect(感染)themselves by touching their eyes, noses or mouths. Then they can infect others.