Europeans are being dug out from heavy snow after a week of very cold weather. The snowstorm is the harshest to hit Europe. Airports were shut down. And schools have been closed for a week.
Until Wednesday, at least 400 people across Europe had died because of the cold temperature. Several countries have said a state of emergency. In Ukraine, temperatures dropped as low as -33℉.
Although the situation is bad, at least one country is hoping the weather will last a little longer. In the Netherlands, the government is preparing for the country's “11 Cities Tour”. The 125-mile ice-skating marathon will be held along a network which joins 11 towns and cities together in Friesland Province.
The ice along the way must be inches thick for the event. Up to 2 million people are thought to cheer on the race's 16,000 competitors.
On Wednesday, Dutch soldiers joined in the preparations. They cleaned snow along the way. This will be the 16^th time that the event has taken place since the first race in 1909. Dutch General Hans said his soldiers were happy to lend a hand. “We want to do our bit for this national party.” he said.

    More and more young people from China begin to celebrate（庆祝）Father's Day. They send fathers present, or invite them for a nice dinner. But do you know how Father's Day started?

    While Mrs. Dodd, from America, was listening to a talk about Mother's Day in a church （教堂）in 1909, she had an ideas of having Father's Day to honor（纪念）her father, William Smart. Mr. Smart used to be a soldier(军人). His wife died when she gave birth to her sixth child. Mr. Smart had to raise his six children alone. They lived a hard life. After Mrs. Dodd grew up, she wanted to thank her father for what he had done for them. She wrote a letter to a church and asked for the third Sunday in June to be Father's Day. The church agreed with her.

The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19th, 1910 in Washington. Children made special desserts and did other things to make their fathers happy.

    Our country used to be very poor in technology, but great changes have taken place these years. Lots of our technology is much better than those of foreign countries. High-speed railway technology is one example.

    We learned about high-speed railway technology from foreign countries, but now we have mastered(掌握）and developed the key technology. Our high-speed railway technology is advanced. It can not only have a high speed but also be used in different environment and the cost is lower.

    China Railway Corp (CRC) is fully prepared to sell a full supply of high -speed railway technology. The company said selling of railway technology and building railways for other countries are going very well, and progress is being made in a number of countries. We have a major advantage. We are able to sell whole railway technology. It isn't very good to buy some technology from one country and other technology from another.

    The selling plan for our high-speed railway technology will follow the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (一带一路).

    Like the US-made Boeing 737 and France's Airbus, our high-speed railway technology could be an important project to help sell our technology in the future.

    Almost every family buys at least one copy of a newspaper every day. Some people can have as many as two or three different newspapers. But why do people read newspapers?

    Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings, such as battles lost and won, kings or rulers(统治者) overthrown(推翻) or killed, took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by words of mouth. Today we can read in our newspapers of important things that happen in faraway countries at the same time.

    Besides giving news from all over the world, newspapers tell us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, as well as radio, television and film guides. There are also book reviews, stories, and of course, advertisements(广告). There are all kinds of advertisements. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for the advertising space (广告版面), but it is worth the money because news of what they make in factories goes into almost every home in the country. For those who make newspapers, advertisements are also very important. Money from advertisements makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit(利润).