Now the game Angry Birds has become more and more popular with the young and the old. I'm sure you also enjoy it a lot. But is it too small to play the game on your mobile phone or on your computer? Do you want to visit a park where you can find some bigger birds and pigs? As this picture shows, Angry Birds has now become much bigger. Copying the action of the real computer game, players pull a real catapult(弹弓) and shoot Angry Birds toys at green piggy balloons. I think that must be very exciting to touch such big birds.

    Angry Birds Land recently opened inside Sarkanniemi Amusement Park in Tampere, Finland(芬兰). It is the first Angry Birds theme park in the world. Finland is a country in northern Europe. And then other countries will copy Finland's example. The UK government says that they plan to build Angry Birds theme parks in the UK. What's more, you can see such theme parks not only in the UK, but also in other countries. The game, Angry Birds, is created by the Finnish company Rovio. It agrees to help build the theme parks all over the world.

    Do you have a nickname (昵称) ? Most of us do by our looks, clothing, or personality. But for cities, the meaning of their nicknames has much more than that.

    Many big cities have nicknames, such as New York--The Big Apple, London--The Great Smog, and Rome--The Eternal( 永恒的) City. Why do cities have such nicknames?

    In the 1920s, there were many races in New York. People called the prizes of these races apples. Writer John J. Fitz Gerald first called New York the Big Apple, because New York is the place that many people dreamed of going to for the biggest prize of all.

    For Rome, as the name suggests, the answer is simple. Romans believed that no matter what happened to the world, Rome would go on forever. Rome has been an important center of power for more than 2,000 years.

    As for London, in the Victorian period, it had problems with its air. Later in 1952, serious air pollution made 10,000 people fall ill. But now the air of London has become better.

    Does that sound interesting? Does your city have a nickname?

Computers make people's lives really easy. People can use their computers for working, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (shop), or playing games. Laptop (笔记本) computers make people's lives even {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (easy) as people can take laptops anywhere. They can work, shop, or play games any place {#blank#}3{#/blank#} any time. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} there is a problem with laptops. People can {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (burn) by them!

People who sit with laptops on {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (they) legs for hours and hours have noticed they get dark marks on their legs. The hot laptop is toasting the skin. {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (doctor) have noticed more people show up with "toasted skin syndrome (综合症)". The marks are not {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (danger), but they look strange because they are just in one spot on people's legs.

Companies that make computers tell people not {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (let) warm computers touch bare skin for a long time. Wearing pants and putting a laptop's case under the laptop is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (usual) enough to protect one's skin from the computer's heat.

① The 24th Winter Olympic Games took place in Beijing, but the city was no stranger to competitive (竞技性的) sports on snow and ice. 

② In fact, competitive winter sports were already popular in China a thousand years ago in the form of bingxi(playing on ice). Bingxi began in the Song Dynasty and became really popular during the Qing Dynasty. Emperor (皇帝) Qianlong hosted bingxi nearly every year. He had the first one in 1742, almost two hundred years before the first Winter Olympic Games. 

③ Many ancient painters painted pictures about the events of bingxi. Bingxi paintings show scenes (场景) of bingxi during the Qing Dynasty. 

④ In bingxi, there are three kinds of ice skating. The first one is the speed race which is similar to modern speed skating. Participants (参赛者) skate to the emperor's ice bed, from two to three kilometres away. In the painting, the emperor sits inside his ice bed. Whoever reaches the emperor first wins first prize. The second is figure skating. Jumps, spins (旋转) and pair work moves in modern figure skating can all be found in the painting. The third is soccer on ice. Participants in two teams skate, kick and try to score goals. 

⑤ The love for winter sports never diminished in China. People in the past showed great interest in winter sports and today more and more people take part in this kind of sport. 

① The first wonderful Chinese garden in the English city of Cambridge was open during the fourth annual (年度的) Cambridge Xu Zhimo Poetry (诗歌) and Art Festival.

② The China-UK Friendship Garden is also known as Xu Zhimo Garden. People build this garden to remember the late Chinese poet Xu Zhimo, an associate member (准成员) of King's College from 1921 to 1922. 

③ In 1928, after Xu's third visit to the English city, he wrote the poem Second Farewell to Cambridge (《再别康桥》). It is very famous and popular not only in China but also all over the world. This poem shows his true love for Cambridge, as well as his own thoughts and feelings about his first love. 

④ The poem's first and last lines have been carved (雕刻) into a granite stone (花岗岩). Since the garden opened, it has become one of Cambridge's most popular places. 

⑤ Steven Coghill is a gardener at King's College. And he first brought out the idea to create the Xu Zhimo Garden. It took him 3 years to plan and build the garden, and it has many trees and flowers that grow naturally in Zhejiang Province. Steven Coghill wants to build a garden to remember Xu Zhimo, because he really has a deep love for Chinese culture and Xu's poems.