“I can't see clearly, because I don't wear my glasses today.” We always hear people saying something like this. Glasses are very important to many people. Do you know how they were invented and developed?

    Glasses took a long time to develop into what you can find in the glasses store today. The Chinese first used colored glasses as fashion. They thought that those glasses had magic, but they didn't think that glasses could help eyes to see clearly.

    In 1262, the inventor, Roger Bacon, discovered the amazing function(功能) of lenses(镜片), and he thought that glasses could be used to help people to see. Twenty years later, in Florence, Italy, the inventor, Alessandro di Spina, made the first pair of glasses that could help people to see.

Although these glasses worked, scientists didn't understand how glasses helped eyes to see. They thought that eyes sent out light onto whatever a person was looking at, and then the light came back to the eyes. Johannes Kepler finally found out how glasses worked.

Inventors continued to improve glasses. In 1784, Ben Franklin created glasses that had bifocal(双焦的) lenses. Many years later, in 1827, George Airy made circle-shaped glasses to correct astigmatism, an eye problem that stops the eyes from seeing things clearly.

    Taiwan island, the biggest island of China, is between the South and East China Seas. Almost two-thirds of the island is covered by mountains.

    Traveling in Taiwan, you can do lots of things. In Taipei, you can taste all kinds of delicious food . Standing at the top of Taipei 101, the world's tallest building until now, you can get a view of the whole city.

    Taiwan has nice natural landscape as well. Sun and Moon Lake is a beautiful lake. On one side of the island it looks like the sun, on the other side it looks like the moon. That is why people call the lake the Sun and Moon Lake. Ali Mountain is the nearest mountain around Sun and Moon Lake. You can enjoy a nice experience with Gaoshan people. It's a wonderful place to see a very beautiful sunrise. If you enjoy swimming, fishing, boating and eating delicious fruit and fresh fish, Peng Lake must be a good place to visit. Everywehere in Taiwan, you can see mountains, valleys(山谷), and hot springs, together with fields of rice, oranges and tea.

    Modern Chinese use the solar calendar（阳历）as English people do . But at the same time, they use their own lunar calendar. Each lunar year is given the name of one of these animals : the rat , the ox , the tiger , the hare , the dragon , the snake , the horse , the goat , the monkey , the chicken , the dog and the pig . This list lasts for 12 years and then starts again.

     Each Chinese month starts on the day of the new moon. And the full moon comes on the 15th day of the month. The New Year always starts between January 21 and February 20. On the last day of the lunar year, there is a big family dinner. All members of the family except married daughters try to be present at this meal, even of they have to travel many miles to reach the home of their parents. Old quarrels are forgotten, and everybody is happy. After the dinner, the children keep awake to welcome the New Year.

    The New Year celebrations last for 15 days, from the new moon to the full moon. On the first day, children and unmarried people go to visit their elder

    There are many different kinds of festivals around the world. Here are four of them.

    Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland

    Ireland is an island country. It's in the west of Europe, There are wide green fields.

    Saint Patrick's Day is on 17th March. It's an important holiday in Ireland. This holiday is to remember Saint Patrick. He did good things for the people of Ireland.

    During the holiday, there are parades and lots of green. You can see people in green clothes, and you can even see green buildings.

    Red Wednesday in Iran

    Red Wednesday is a fire jumping festival in Iran. It is on the eve(前夜) of the last Wednesday of the year. People jump over the fire. They hope that it will take all the bad things away.

    Quebec Winter Carnival in Canada

    When winter comes, it's party time in Quebec City, Canada. The Quebec Winter Carnival is all about outdoor fun. It starts from the end of January and ends in mid February.

    One of the most popular activities is the dog sledding race(狗拉雪橇比赛). It has more than 30 teams and the race goes on for 6 kilometres. You can see happiness on every face.

    The Desert(沙漠) Festival in Tunisia

    Tunisia is a very important country in North Africa. Every year on the last Sunday of December, the Desert Festival is held in Tunisia. As "Ships of the Desert", camels are very important in the festival. There is camel racing and camel wrestling(摔跤).