The word“day” has two meanings. When we talk about the number of days in a year,  we are using “day” to mean 24 hours. But when we talk about day and night,  we are using“day” to mean the time between sunrise and sunset. Since the earth looks like a ball,  the sun can shine on only half of it at a time. Always one half of the earth is having day and the other half night. A place is moved from day into night and from night into day over and over by the spinning（旋转）of the earth. At the equator（赤道）day and night are sometimes the same length（长度）. They are each twelve hours long. The sun rises at 6 o'clock in the morning and sets at 6 o'clock in the evening. For six months the North Pole is tilted（倾斜）toward the sun. In those months the Northern Hemisphere（半球）gets more hours of sunlight than the Southern Hemisphere. Days are longer than nights. South of the equator nights are longer than days. For the other six months the North Pole is tilted away from the sun. Then the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight. Days are longer than nights. North of the equator nights are longer than days. Winter is the season of long nights. Summer is the season of long days.

    Tea is an important part of Chinese tradition. Tea has very close relationship to Chinese culture.

It is said that Chinese tea was discovered by King Shen Nong. People say that he lived 5,000 years ago. One summer day, while he was visiting a faraway part of his country, he felt very thirsty. The servants began to make water hot enough to turn into gas for him to drink. Dried leaves from a near plant fell into the water. The king drank some, and found it could make him feel less tried. Also as a scientist, Shen Nong was interested in the new dink. And so, tea was created in 2737 BC.

    Drinking tea has many advantages. It makes people feel less tired, clears heat inside the human body and helps people lose weight. As you add a cup of tea to your daily life, please check the following helpful advice.

    Drink it hot. Tea oxidizes(氧化) quickly, so it is suggested that you drink it hot.

    Do not drink too much strong tea. It will probably be harmful to your stomach and make you feel sick if you make the tea too strong.

    The best time to drink tea is between meals. It may not make you have a strong wish to eat when your stomach is full.

Do not drink with medicine. It many change the medical result. You can drink tea two hours after you take medicine.

    Green tea is the best choice for office workers. Why? Because green tea helps stop the bad result of the computer.

    Different families have different table manners. For example, some people don't talk while they eat, some do. Some people talk with their mouths full, others don't. Some people put their elbows (肘) on the table, but others consider it unacceptable.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. Here's some good advice. If you're new somewhere just watch what other people do and don't do. If you follow the people you're eating with, you'll always have good table manners in their eyes.

    I grew up in an old-fashioned family. The main time my family saw each other was at dinner.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}. We talked about our day through the dinner whether we had good stories or not.A reason we talked so much was that our parents didn't allow us to get up until we finished all of our food. Being the daughter of a Greek cook and an Italian woman, my mom always put doubleportions (双份) of delicious meals on our plates.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. I still remember my father making us eat dinner for almost two hours just because we couldn't finish our food!

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。

A. When we sat down to eat it was our time to talk.

B. The problem was that sometimes we couldn't finish all the food.

C. Table manners vary (变化) with different people and different situations.

D. You may find Western table manners are different from Chinese manners.

    All around the world, people drink tea. But tea does not mean the same thing to everyone. In different countries people have very different ideas about drinking tea.

    In China, for example, tea is always served when people get together. The Chinese drink it at any time of the day at homes or in tea houses. They prefer their tea plain with nothing else in it.

    Tea is also important in Japan. The Japanese have a special way of serving tea called a tea ceremony（仪式). It is very old and full of meaning. Everything must be done in a special way in the ceremony. There is even a. special room for it in Japanese homes.

    Another tea-drinking country is England. In England, the late afternoon is "teatime". Almost everyone has a cup of tea then. The English usually make tea in a teapot and drink it with cream and sugar. They also eat cakes, cookies and little sandwiches at teatime.

    In the United States people drink tea mostly for breakfast or after meals. Americans usually use tea bags to make their tea. Tea bags are faster and easier than making tea in teapots. In summer, many Americans drink cold tea—"iced tea". Sometimes they drink iced tea from cans, like soda.

    From Asia to America and everywhere in between, Swing—an energetic form of dance that includes six-step and eight-step rhythms(节奏)—has taken the world by storm. Making a recent comeback, swing dance floors have popped up all over the world. Many clubs make fans of Swing happy by holding nights when swing music is played, and sometimes even offering classes to attract customers.

    Though Swing is now popular worldwide, it first appeared alongside the jazz movements of the 1920s and 1930s in New York City. While listening to jazz, the young black people of that time developed the movements of the Lindy Hop—a style of dance that is best known for a break away or "swing out" move and sudden improvisation(即兴表演).

    It was reportedly given this name when a reporter was interviewing a person at the dance hall who was watching other couples dance. When asked what that dance was called, the watcher looked at a newspaper next to him that had an article about Lindbergh—the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic(大西洋)—which was titled, "Lindy Hops the Atlantic". Then the watcher announced that the "Lindy Hop" was the name of the dance, and it has stuck since then.

    In 1926, the Savoy Ballroom was the first large business to offer a place for people to listen to swing music and dance. With its huge dance floor, the Savoy became a big success overnight, attracting some of the best dancers and musicians in the New York area.

    Within ten years, the Lindy Hops was sweeping through the United States and became a symbol of unity, as young people of all racial(种族的) backgrounds crowded into dance halls to swing the night away. Traditional dance teachers did not welcome it because they thought it was not even a real dance and were quite sure about its demise but Swing has proved them wrong; it continues to be one of the world's most fun dances.