Canada is the second largest country in the world. It is over 7，000 kilometers from the 1 coast（海岸）to the east. It 2 six time zones. 3 it is 9 a. m. in Vancouver on the west coast，it is 1：30 p.m. in St John's on the east coast.

    English and French 4 the two main languages in Canada. About 60 percent of 5 people speak English， and about 25 percent speak French. More 6 70 percent of its population live in cities near the US border（边境）.

    Ottawa is the capital. Every year millions of tourists go there to7 museums and take part in the cultural（文化的）activities. Toronto is the largest city of the country 8 about 2. 5 million people. Montreal is 9 second biggest French-speaking city in the world.

    The maple leaf is the national symbol of Canada. The Canadian flag has a red maple leaf on a red 10 white background.

    There is a new novel called The 33rd Student. It's very unusual because 32 students wrote it together.

    Students from Class 1, Grade 2 of Hangzhou Qingchun Middle School began to write the novel last October. This March, they finished their 330, 000-word story.

    It was Zhou Hui, the class's Chinese teacher that had the great idea. Some students thought writing was boring. Zhou wanted to change their minds. The class had fierce（热烈的） discussions about the storyline and main character.

    The novel is a story about Nan Yao, a student new to Class 1.Nan is a tall boy with tanned（晒黑的） skin. He is from Hebei.

    Each student was assigned（分配） one part to write. Together, there are 32 stories about Nan's life since he came to Class 1.Students tried their best while writing the story. Huang Yiying, 14, said she got up at midnight to write down the idea for her story. Chen Tianbai, 14, wrote about a birthday party. He found it hard to imagine. So he held a party for his 14th birthday, wrote down what happened and turned it into his story.

    Zhou said most students revised（修改） their stories three times." Now, none of them are afraid of writing. They have written so much themselves!"

    The novel will be printed（印刷） and each student will get a copy. "It will be a very precious（宝贵的） memory for them." said Zhou.

    The Italians are famous for many things, including art, history, fashion and their style of cooking. Some of the best food in the world was created by Italians. The Italians make pizza and spaghetti, and they also make excellent desserts.

    One of my favorites is ice cream. The ice cream here is soft, delicious and very cheap. I am studying in Puglia, Italy and I have to stop myself from eating it every day. I like sitting on a park bench with a new flavor（味道）of ice cream.

    Nowadays, most of the ice cream produced in Italy is still handmade and there are lots of Italian ice cream shops around the world.

    The ice cream shops here in Puglia are open for most of the day. People can go and have an ice cream at any time, even late at night. There are so many interesting flavors that you could never possibly get bored of it. I always spend a long time looking through the glass, trying to decide what to have. I usually choose my favorite flavors. One evening though, I chose a new flavor. It translates as" English soup", which sounded funny and made me curious to taste it. The taste of the ice cream was quite strong but I enjoyed it anyway.

    I love the cold sweetness of the ice cream. Ice cream is one of my favorite things about Italian style of cooking. This year, I'm going to try as many flavors as possible.