When 4-year-old Prince George started his first day of school in September. Chinese language was on his curriculum(课程).

    And he wasn't alone. It is reported that about 51 percent of the parents in the UK want their children to learn Chinese, as it's believed to be one of the most useful languages to know.

    In the popularity of Chinese drove the UK government to start the Mandarin Excellence Programme in September last year. It aims to make at least 5.000 British state secondary school students be good at speaking Chinese by 2020.

    Yet, the UK isn't the only country showing a growing interest in Chinese.

    The language has become the second most spoken foreign language in the United States this year, after only Spanish, with over 2.1 million speakers.

    Many US famous people such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Malia Obama, former US president Barack Obama's daughter, study Chinese as a second language.

    So far, 67 countries and regions have included Chinese in their national curriculum. So why are so many countries enthusiastic about learning Chinese?

    One reason could be that as China continues to develop rapidly. Chinese is increasingly becoming a useful tool for people's personal and professional growth.

    "I think everyone believes that Chinese will be the next great superpower…even if it's not a superpower like America. It's still very important." Aisling from Germany, who studied at the Renmin University of China, told Xinhua News Agency.

    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 teahouses. They prefer(更喜欢) their tea plain, with nothing else in it.

    Tea is also important in Japan. The Japanese have a special way of serving(招待) 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 "iced tea". Sometimes they drink iced tea from cans, like soda.

If you go to Beijing and Shanghai, you can see the same and the different points between them. In some ways they look the same, and in other ways they look different. They both have tall buildings and wide streets, though some buildings in Shanghai are taller than the ones in Beijing. They are both important in China. Beijing is the capital of China, there are more places of interest there, but Shanghai is the biggest city in China. Now they are becoming more and more important in China.

Mary, 68, a famous Italian engineer, has been a member of Eating Light Club in Guangzhou for a year. 

"I used to be too heavy and have sleeping problems, and as a result I had to visit the doctor from time to time. But amazingly my situation has been greatly improved since I joined the Eating Light Club. In the club, light foods are recommended because they are foods that your body finds easy to take in and get nutrition from. I also learned to make some tasty light meals and have really got into it. So when the Free Food Fair came around, I challenged myself to a light dinner recipe（食谱）. Here it is. "

 For centuries, humans have made great efforts to study the Moon. Galileo, the Italian astronomer, noticed the mountains and lands on the Moon with a telescope(望远镜). In 1969, the US Apollo 11 project marked the first time that humans set foot on the satellite. Recently, China' s Chang'e 6 brought back the rocks and soil from the far side of the Moon for the first time in history. You may wonder: what is the value of exploring the Moon?

 Many scientists believe that the Moon was made of the rocks and dust from the baby Earth. When the solar system(系统) just formed. a Mars-sized object crashed into the Earth. The force of the crash was so great that it sent materials from the Earth, and from the object that hit it, back into the space. Some of the rocks and dust stuck together and created the Moon. 

 Those materials on the Moon's surface(表面) have stayed unchanged for over three billion(十亿) years, since it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere. This simple fact makes our Moon a time capsule, which allows scientists to uncover the Earth's past. 

 It is also about our future. In the last two decades, water was discovered on the Moon. It may help future humans look for drinkable water, breathable air, and rocket fuel outside the Earth. Besides, the Moon is a proper place to test technologies required for deep space exploration, including sending humans to Mars. 

 Considering the important role that moon exploration plays in scientific research and human future, scientists suggest that human activity on the Moon should avoid bringing harm to its environment. 

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