People use their mouths for many things. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word "mouth". But some of them are not so nice.

    Sometimes, people say something to a friend or a family member. Later they regret because it hurts that person's feelings. Or they tell the person something they didn't mean to tell. The speaker might say: "I really put my foot in my mouth this time."

    Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend is going to say. When this happens, the friend might say: "You took the words right out of my mouth!" Sometimes a person has a bad or sad experience with another person. He might say that experience "left a bad taste in my mouth." Or the person possibly has a very frightening(可怕的）experience, like having an angry dog running after him. He might say: "I had my heart in my mouth."

    Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. You might say the person "was born with a silver spoon (银勺) in his mouth". He is the opposite of a person living from "hand to mouth". This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food. 

    The British Museum is the biggest museum in the world. Inside, you feel smaller than usual. There are many things to see.

    The story of the British Museum goes back three hundred years to one unusual man, Sir Hans Sloane, a doctor to King George II. The doctor collected books, drawings, clothes, money, animals, flowers, things from all over the world. The doctor wanted everything to stay together when he died, so that people could come and have a look. The British Museum began. King George II gave his library, and the museum started to grow.

    The British Museum opened in 1759, six years after Sir Hans Sloane died. At first the museum was only open three days a week and only ten people could enter in an hour. There wasn't much time to see things.  Visitors had to run through the room.

    By about 1800, things began to get better. Wonderful statues, three thousand years old, arrived from Egypt. King George IV sold all his books to the museum secretly. A hundred years ago not only old books but also new ones arrived at the museum, and more people came to read them. Since then many famous men have written and studied there. And the library is growing faster and faster. There are four kilometers of new shelves every year and there are about two million visitors every year.

    The British government has started a ￡ 10 million Mandarin Excellence (普通话优秀) Program. The program will have helped over 5,000 British students to be fluent (流利的) in Mandarin Chinese by 2020.

    The program is led by local schools and supported (支持) by University College London. So far, 14 schools have taken part in the program. Hundreds of secondary school students in England have taken lessons in Mandarin Chinese. Over the next three years, they will spend eight hours studying Mandarin Chinese every week.

    Ned Miller is an officer of the British government. He said a high level of fluency in Mandarin Chinese would become more and more important. "Language skills are important for jobs and life. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by the largest number of people in the world. It is also one of the languages that matters the most to our country's future. If the United Kingdom wants to remain competitive in the world, we do need far more of our young people leaving school with a good command of Mandarin Chinese," Miller added. "We hope that our young people could be given the chance to study the language. We want them to be fluent in both spoken and written Mandarin. The Mandarin Excellence Program will help us do this. It will not only open the students' eyes, but also give them a great advantage when they enter the world of work."

    British kids, in fact, are not alone. In America, about 200,000 students are studying Mandarin Chinese. It is believed that 800,000 more will join them over the next couple of years.