It is December 25th, 2050. The people in the city are all celebrating Christmas. I'm the mayor of our city. My citizens and I are holding a big party under the sea, though you wouldn't believe it. But please do not feel excited, you should feel sad because we have to live under the sea. Because of the pollution, the earth has been completely destroyed, from top to bottom. The atmosphere has no oxygen and moisture. As a result, the plants are burned by the strong sunlight with a great number of harmful rays. Of course, none of them are still alive. Not only no green, but also the temperature reaches about 121℃ all day even in winter because there is too much CO2 circling the earth.
On the land, there is no life. Luckily, the sea is not destroyed by human. So, we have to move into the sea. At the bottom of the water, people have built many new cities. There is a lot of advanced* equipment in each city. Computers are used to control all the machines, even the people's life. We can also make the seawater into fresh water. There are two machines making oxygen. If they stop working for only one minute, more than 10 million people will die.
The population of our city is over 30 million and, of course, it is quite crowded. We have lots of high buildings and bridges. The roads are wide, too. Our cars are miniature UFOs, don't be surprised, it is true. At the bottom of the sea you can't see anything, because there is no light all day. However, we have advanced lighting equipment so that we can see the "sun"under the sea. Of course, the advanced lighting equipment is very expensive. And if it doesn't work, we can see nothing under the sea. What should we do then?

    Switzerland (瑞士) is one of the most developed countries in Europe. It is famous as one of the cleanest countries in the world.

The Swiss (瑞士人) think that recycling is important. The government has made laws which require everyone to recycle. In 1998, the Swiss government passed a law which says that people cannot throw away any electronic machines. Instead, people are told to bring old ones, such as televisions, computers and fridges, to special centers when they don't need them. Many parts of the old machines are reused, and only the parts that can't be used are thrown away.

The government also charges (收费) a rubbish bag tax (税). If people want their rubbish to be collected, they must buy yellow stickers and put them on their rubbish bags. In 2003, 47G of all rubbish in the cities was recycled. This included 70% of paper, 95% of glass, 71% of plastic bottles and 85--90% of cans. Until recently, people can get a small amount of money when they recycle their bottles. Recycling has become a daily habit for the Swiss.

     Everyone should learn from the Swiss, and our country will be clean like Switzerland.

    One day an American called Simon went to London to visit his friend, Rick. Rick told him that his flat was on the first floor. When he arrived, Simon went straight to the first floor of the building. But he was told that there was no Rick on that floor. Do you know why?

    In fact, the British call the first floor of a building the ground floor. The floor above the ground floor is the first floor, which Americans would call the second floor.

The story shows that there are a few culture differences between Britain and America, though the British and Americans both speak English. The British usually hide their feelings. They seldom start a conversation with strangers. For example, on the train the British often spend their time reading newspapers or books. But Americans are quite different. They're more active and easier to talk with.

    The British and Americans may use different terms for many things. The British usually use football, eraser and mail while Americans prefer to use soccer, rubber and post.

    Edinburgh is the world's "festival city". The city holds 12 festivals throughout the year, half of which are celebrated during the months of July and August. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Scottish capital during the summer. Here are some of the events they can enjoy.