Table manners are very different in every country. For example, when you are in England you must not lift your soup plate to your mouth. This is very impolite. But when you are in Japan this is completely normal. Lifting your plate to your mouth in Japan is a traditional way of drinking your soup. And also in Japan you don't have to worry about making a noise when you drink it. It just shows that you really like the food! But it is not the same in Britain, so you shouldn't make a noise when eating there.   

    In Britain, people don't put their hands or arms on the table during the meal. But in Mexico, guests keep their hands on the table all the time. In fact, you should watch what your hands do very carefully. In Arab countries, it is impolite when you eat with your left hand, so don't do it!

    In all the cultures it is impolite to speak when you are eating.

    In Ukraine you should not start eating first; you should wait for all the others to start eating with you. You also have to say "please" and "thank you" every time you ask for and get something. If you don't like some food, don't make faces and don't say: "Yuk! I hate that!"

    The best way to avoid making mistakes in other countries is to watch the host and try to do as he does.

    Once a king got two nice falcons(猎鹰) from his son. He had never seen such beautiful falcons before. He loved them so much and he ordered the best falconer to train them to fly.

    After several months, the king came to see how the training was going on. He found that one falcon had already been able to fly high in the sky, while the other one was staying on the branch(树枝) of a tree quietly without moving.

    The king called all his falconers together and ordered them to try every way they could to make it fly. But none of them succeeded. One day, while the king was taking a walk in the forest, an idea came to his mind. He decided to find someone who knew the natural environment well to solve the problem. Then he sent for a farmer who lived in the forest into his palace to train it at once.

    The next morning, the king saw the other falcon flying above in the sky freely. "It is unbelievable!" shouted the king. "How could you make it happen?"

    The farmer replied, "It's very easy. I just cut off the branch where the falcon rested."

    It is always the same to humans. We all have "two flying wings in our hearts as well, but we often seem not to notice them and stay where we feel safe and comfortable. We won't realize we can fly so high and freely until the "branch" we are resting on breaks.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}⑴The most unusual museum in London is the Science Museum. In most museums, there's no shouting and no running, and people aren't allowed to touch the exhibits (陈设品). But the Science Museum is different. It's noisy! People can talk about what they will see and do there, and some of the machines are noisy as well.

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}⑵When I visit the Science Museum, I go to the Launchpad (发射台). This is the most popular room because there are lots of physics tests. We can also learn how astronauts travel into space and back again here. I'm really interested in those kinds of things, so it is my favorite room.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}⑶On the second floor there is Human and Nature room. We can compare our speed with animals there. If we aren't quick enough, the lion will catch us! There are also rooms on transport, the environment and space technology, as well as math, physics and chemistry.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}⑷We can do a lot of things in this museum, but we have to obey some rules as well. For example, we mustn't take photos of the exhibits in the museum. But we can buy postcards of them in the museum shops.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}⑸Most important of all, the Science Museum is free. That means we can drop by for a few minutes or we can stay as long as we like—it's open from 10: 00 a. m. to 6: 00 p. m.every day except Monday. So if you go to London, make sure you visit the Science Museum. It's my favorite museum in the whole world.

    Here are two old stories from Chinese history. The Chinese people have told them for many years.

    One is a story about Cao Cao's son, a clever boy named Cao Chong. One day, Cao Caogot a huge elephant from Sun Quan and he wanted to know the weight of it. Because there wasn't a scale large enough, some soldiers advised him to(A)it up. But Cao Cao didn't want to kill the elephant. Just then, Cao Chong came up with a great idea. He asked some soldiers to lead the elephant onto about. As the heavy animal walked onto it, the boat went lower into the water. After Cao Chong drew a line on the side of the boat to mark how low it went, the elephant was taken off the boat. (B)The boat was filed with rocks until the water reached the line on the boat. Cao Chong then weighed the rocks. The rocks and the elephant were of the same weight. (C)曹操对他的儿子生常满意。

    The other story is about a wise man named ZhugeLiang. He was asked to make 100, 000 arrows (箭)within 10days. He told (D) his soldiers to fill 20 large boats with many straw men. In the early morning of the third day, the soldiers said the boats towards the camps of Cao Cao's army on the other side of the river. They shouted and boat their drums loud. When Cao Cao's soldiers heard the sounds, they thought they were (E)attack. However, they could not see through the thick tog on the river. Cao Caoordered his soldiers to shoot arrows towards the sounds of the drums and the shouting. Zhuge Liang got enough arrows and then sailed back successfully.

    Lily is from New York, the U.S.A. She is twelve. She is in Shanghai NO.3 Junior High School. She is in Class Eight, Grade One. Her phone number is 66786019. Dongdong is from Kunming. His English name is Tom. He is eleven .He is in Class Seven, Grade One. His telephone number is 24524233. They are not in the same class. They are good friends.