We all know about this famous Kitty. She has no mouth, and she wasn't born out of a TV show or a video game. So how did this cute character become popular? How did she change the world?

    Hello Kitty was created (创造) in Japan in 1974.Sanrio, a company in Japan, was working for a new character to put on their new purse. The first picture of Hello Kitty was introduced on November 1. She was so cute that it became popular soon in Japan and all over the world.

    Hello Kitty is only a character, but she has a story of her own. Her full name is Kitty White, and she's even not a Japanese. She lives in the countryside outside London with her family—George White, Mary White and her twin sister Mimmy. Hello Kitty wears a red bow  (蝴蝶结) on her left ear while Mimmy wears a yellow bow on her right ear.

    Kitty loves goldfish and baking cookies, but her favourite thing is to eat her mum's apple pie! She also loves stars and candies, too. She is in the 3rd grade and she weighs as much as three apples but is five apples tall. She even had a blood (血.) type, which is A.

    Hello Kitty's appearance hasn't changed much, though she turned 40 on November 1, 2014.

    China is a nation of etiquette(礼仪). Chinese people are among the most hospitable people in the world. If foreigners visit a Chinese family, they would be surprised at the warmth that they would receive as guests.

    When you visit a Chinese family, the host usually makes tea for you. Then he will serve you snacks(小吃) like biscuits or candy. Someone in the family will also chat with you, never letting you feel lonely.

    At the same time, other family members will prepare a meal for you. Chinese people treat(款待) their guests with a big meal. They always present more food than the guests can eat. On the table, the guests must be the first to eat. Perhaps one of the things that surprises a Western guest most is that the Chinese host likes to pick food for visitors, which won't happen at Western tables. The Chinese family go out of their way to make you feel at home. As you are done eating, the host usually says, "It seems that you didn't eat much. Please have more." Although you tell them you are full, they still put more food in your bowl.

Being warm and hospitable has long been an important part of Chinese culture and tradition. As Confucius(孔子) said thousands of years ago:

    To meet friends from afar,

    How happy we are!

    When you are learning English, you find it not clever to put an English sentence, word for word, into your own language. Take the sentence "How do you do?" for example. If you look up each word in the dictionary, one at a time, what is your translation? It must be a wrong sentence in your own language.

    Languages don't just have different sounds; they are different in many ways. It's important to master the rules for the word order in the study of English, too. If the speaker puts words in a wrong order, the listener can't understand the speaker's sentence easily. Sometimes when the order of words in an English sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence changes. But sometimes when the order is changed, the meaning of the sentence doesn't change. Let's see the difference between the two pairs of sentences.

    "She only likes apples." "Only she likes apples." "I have seen the movie already." "I have already seen the movie."

    When you are learning English, you must do your best to get the spirit of the language and use it as the English speaker does.

    ①If you have a chance to go to Finland(芬兰), you will probably be surprised to find how "foolish" the Finnish people are.

    ②Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz(奔驰) with the money of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to do, and then walk off without paying. The driver would not show the least sign of being nervous and worried.

    ③The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration(登记) card to the waiter. With such a relaxing check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to get the meals free.

    ④The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the pay. From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.

    ⑤With so many mistakes in everyday life, surely Finland must be a place to those who love to take "petty advantages"(小便宜). But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have done their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest record of the exact hours they put in.

    ⑥As you can see, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real "gentleman". In a society of such high moral(道德) practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?