So, let's imagine you are walking down the street drinking a box of tea. You finish drinking the tea. Now, what do you do with the box? Do you drop it on the ground? Or, do you do the right thing and drop it in a trash can? Hopefully, you drop it in the trash can because, besides harming the environment, littering is also very impolite.

    Recently, a magazine published a list of the most polite cities in the world. They looked three things: did people litter, did shop clerks say thank you and did people hold the door open for the person behind them? The top three politest cities were New York, USA, Zurich, Switzerland, and Toronto, Canada. Hong Kong, China was number 35. Shanghai wasn't even on the list.

    Does that mean that Shanghai is not apolite city? Well, maybe. There are different ways to judge(判断) politeness but the survey was looking at how a visitor to a city would feel when walking around its public places. Visitors don't like to step over empty tea boxes as they walk down the street. They don't like it when they buy something and the shop clerk doesn't say thank you or even give them a smile. They also don't like it when someone lets a door slam(砰然关上) into them instead of holding it open.

    Shanghai is a nice city but it is not always the most polite city. I don't think this is intentional(有意的). I think it's just a lack of awareness(缺乏意识). China is becoming a popular place for tourists to visit. When they come to Shanghai they will find a friendly city: it would be nice if they also found apolite one. And, remember, being polite makes you feel good, too. It's nice to be nice.

    Close contacts between Japan and the rest of the world were created in the twentieth century. In the last forty years, business contacts between Japan and the West have become very important. Many foreign companies now have offices in Japan and Japanese businessmen do business around the world. Differences between Japanese and Western ways of doing business, however, often bewilder foreign businessmen and make doing business in Japan difficult for foreigners.

    The American businessman, for example, wants to start talking business immediately. He does not want to wait. The Japanese businessman, on the other hand, likes to arrive at decisions after giving them serious thought. Another thing foreign businessmen have difficulty in understanding is when a Japanese means "Yes" or "No". This is because of cultural differences between Japanese and Western society, which make it difficult for a Japanese to say "No" directly.

    In the USA, it is easy to say "No" to something one does not want to do. But in Japan, it is very difficult to say "No". To refuse an invitation or a request with "No" is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly. So instead of saying "No" directly, the Japanese have developed many ways to avoid saying "No". These can help them avoid hurting other people's feelings. However, this often makes their ways of doing business rather difficult for foreigners to understand and follow.

    The story of how the song Happy Birthday to You came to be, began as a sweet one that later sourced. Two sisters, Mildred Hill, a teacher at the Louisville, Kentucky Experimental Kindergarten, and Dr. Patty Hill, the headmaster of the same school, together wrote a song for the children, called Good Morning to All. As the local expert on spiritual songs, and as the organist（风琴师） for her church, Mildred combined her musical talents with her sister's knowledge in the area of Kindergarten Education, Good Morning to All was sure to be a success.

    The sisters published the song in a collection named "Song Stories of the Kindergarten" in 1893.Thirty-one years later, after Dr. Patty Hill became the head of the Department of Kindergarten Education at Columbia University's Teacher College, a gentleman by the name of Robert H. Coleman published the song, without the sisters'permission. What was worse, he added a second verse（歌词） Happy Birthday to You.

    Mr. Coleman's addition of the second verse made the song become well known and, gradually, the sisters' original first verse disappeared. Happy Birthday to You, the one and only birthday song, had altogether replaced the sisters' original title Good Morning to All.

    After Mildred died in 1916, Patty, together with a third sister, Jessica, discussed the issue together and took Mr. Coleman to court（法庭）, they proved that they, indeed, owned the melody（曲调）. The court finally decided that the family legally（合法地） owns the song, whenever it is sung for commercial purposes（商业目的）.

    People in different countries like to eat different food. We all know Chinese like to eat dumplings when their friends come to their homes. Most people like eating dumplings at home sometimes people eat them at the House of Dumplings. Do you know what kind of food people like eating in the UK? Fish and fried potato chips are very popular in the UK. Sometimes people eat them at home, but they usually go to a fast food supermarket to buy them. They can have them in the restaurant or take them away home. Sometimes they also like to eat them in the park.