Members of an international organization are called the Global Greeters. They offer travelers the chance to get to know a city as well as local people do.

    Unlike the professional guides(专业导游), the volunteer greeters act more like neighbours. They take visitors to visit the city–either on foot or public traffic—to discover favourite neighbourhoods, cafes and parks.

    All the programs work a little differently, but the basics(基本项目) are the same. The tours are free and last anywhere for two or four hours. Volunteers can be all ages, and their ages and interests try to match the travelers.

    New York City(USA)

    Big Apple Greeter is the pioneer “welcome visitor” program founded in 1992 by New Yorker Lynn Brooks. More than 300 volunteers now can welcome guests from all over the world in 22 languages. Greeters explain the New York City subway and bus systems and show guests around one or more of their favourite neighbourhoods. Like many greeter organizations, Big Apple accepts online donations to help with its daily costs.

    Houston(USA)

    Houston Greeters will organize activities such as golf, biking or an outing to an Astros game(太空人队的比赛). Another activity is to arrange a tour in need of a particular interest.

    Chicago(USA)

    Chicago Greeters help visitors visit one of the city's many famous neighbourhoods. The group organizes walks through Ukrainian Village on the Near North Side and Andersonville, home to Scandinavian restaurants and shops and Middle Eastern bakeries. Guides will also organize tours around themes such as fashion, film or public art.

    France

    In France, English speaking volunteers for Parisien d'un Jour lead visitors through hidden corners of Paris, often ending with a lively discussion on a café balcony. Guides in Lyon organize walks around themes such as shopping, markets and sports.

    Two men are walking in the park. One is Mr. Brown, a worker, and the other is Mr. Black. Mr. Brown is going to a chair. It is beside the road. Mr. Black is after him. Mr. Brown finds Mr. Black. Now Mr. Black begins to walk faster(更快), because he wants to get to the chair before Mr. Brown. Now Mr. Brown begins to walk faster because he also wants to get to the chair first. Then they both run. Mr. Black runs faster than(比) Mr. Brown. So he gets to the chair first and sits down on it. Mr. Brown runs after Mr. Black. When he gets to the chair, he sees Mr. Black sitting on it. He is sorry to show a notice(通知) with the words “ Wet Paint (油漆未干)” to Mr. Black. Now Mr. Black knows why Mr. Brown is going to the chair.

根据短文内容，完成表格。

    Potato chips are Americans' favorite snacks(零食). Where do potato chips come from? In 1853 a native(本土) American named George Crum made the first potato chips. Crum was a chide(头目) in an expensive restaurant in Saratogasprings， New York. One day， a customer(顾客) did not like the French fries. He said they were too thick(厚的). So Crum made more， this time thinner. The customer still didn't like them. Crum got unhappy. He decided to make the customer angry. So he cut the potatoes， very thin. The customer loved them.

    Other people wanted Crum's  potato chips. Now， there was a new food on the menu— Saratoga chips. Soon Crum opened his own restaurant and made his special chips.

    It took a long time to make potato chips. People peeled the potatoes by hand. Then in 1920，the automatic(自动的) potato peeler changed everything. Now it was faster and easier to make potato chips. Now potato chips were not a specialty. They were a popular snack food， but only in the north.

    A salesman named Herman Lay wanted to sell potato chips in the south. He sold potato chips in bags. His business grew. Today， Americans eat a lot of potato chips every day.

    It's very common for students' marks to fall. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Sometimes it is only because the exams get harder.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} He or she will be able to help you with the subjects you find difficult. Stop comparing yourself with other people. It does not matter if other students get higher marks than you. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Before each exam, you should go through you notes from class. You should remember the most important things you have written in a shorten form.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} You will be surprised when you find you remember so much. It may take hard work and your marks may not improve straight. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Soon they should begin to climb again.

    Have you ever counted the number of digits (数字) in your mobile phone number? Your number has 11 digits. You may sometimes find it hard to remember your number. That's because China has the longest mobile phone numbers in the world. Why is that?

    The 11 digits can be divided into three parts. Each part has a different meaning. The first three numbers tell you which mobile phone service company it is. For example, 135 is for China Mobile Communications

    Corporation and 188 is for China Unicom. The fourth to the seventh digits tell you where the number is registered (注册). And the last four digits are random (随机的).

    The main reason for using 11 digits is that we have the largest population in the world. We once had 10 numbers. But as our population grew, there were not enough numbers for us to use. So we began to use 11 digits starting from 1999. Eleven digits can be used to make tens of billions of mobile phone numbers. That's enough for each person to have seven or eight phone numbers to use in China.

    And mobile phone numbers can be recycled. Usually, the service company will reuse a canceled number after three to six months. If you call a number that you haven't contacted for a long time, you may find that its owner has changed.

    Besides China, Britain and Japan also use 11-digit mobile phone numbers. But their numbers always start with 0. So they cannot create as many numbers as we can. Countries like the United States, Australia and India use phone numbers with 10 digits. Canada's mobile phone numbers are perhaps the shortest in the world: they use seven digits.

    It's easy to just get fast food when you're hungry, but it can also be unhealthy and expensive. So I made my own food at home using healthy recipes(菜谱).

Trying new things

    I tried some zucchini noodles.  Zucchini isn't my all-time favorite, but I was surprised by how good this tasted.

Shaking up(重组) breakfast

    Two more days until my healthy diet was over and I felt really good about myself. For breakfast, I had a banana sandwich. Don't let the term "sandwich" fool you. The banana actually works as the "bread".

At-home burrito

    I found an easy burrito recipe. I needed black beans, garlic, tomatoes, lettuce and some other vegetables. What a great recipe for vegetables!