A greeting is a way of saying "Hello" to someone. People in different countries greet each other in different ways. Here are some.

World Greetings

    Even nowadays there are a lot of misunderstandings between nationalities. Let's have a look at what the following people have to say.

Maria Conti: I find the English people insincere (虚伪), cold and unfriendly. They keep saying "Thank you", "I'm sorry", even when they don't know each other. They are even polite to their own relatives! Except for helping you find your way in the streets, they aren't really friendly and never invite you to their houses.

Giannis Sinios: On the contrary I found them both broad-minded and friendly. I was invited to people's houses and they all showed great interest in my ideas, Greek life and people. In England I learned that it was possible to be warm, friendly and polite at the same time.

Judy Brown: I lived in both Italy and Greece for a few years. At first there were a few misunderstandings between my foreign friends and myself. For example, I once gave a Greek friend a present for her birthday. I was rather sorry that she didn't unwrap it immediately. What's more, she even didn't thank me until I asked her if she liked it! I've learned from different experiences that a lot of foreigners find our attitude to what we English people call politeness is rather insincere. They feel that politeness isn't necessary between friends.

Spring Festival

    In China Spring Festival is the most important festival. It comes on the first day of the first lunar month（阴历月）.

    Before Spring Festival comes, people go out to buy things, such as meat, chicken, fish, fruit, sweets and new clothes. They clean their houses and decorate them. The Chinese character fu is a must. It is usually stuck（贴） upside down, which means "fu comes".

    The celebrations （庆祝） begin on the eve of the lunar New Year. The family get together for a bi g dinner. If a person is far from home, he will always try to get home for this big dinner. After the dinner, the whole family will sit together, chatting （聊天） and watching TV.

    During the holidays （节日）, they go to visit relatives and friends and exchange New Year greetings. They sit around talking and eating candies, cakes and all kinds of delicious food. Every family prepares something special. Each child will get money as a New Year gift. People in the north of China often eat dumplings for breakfast. People in the south often eat niangao because niangao means "higher and higher one year after another".

    The celebrations last （持续） 15 days. It will come to an end when Lantern Festival finishes.

The Terracotta Warriors, one of the eight wonders of the world, have enjoyed international fame. Located in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, they are warriors of the first-ever emperor in1China or Qin Shi Huang in Chinese, Ying Zheng.

Even though I knew they are life-sized sculptures (雕塑), I was still2 when I saw them. I was lucky enough to3 the pit (深坑) and take a close look at them for the first time.

They were made around 2, 200 years ago. When I first got down into the pit, the sculptures scared me4some of them lacked body parts.

I was told that the Terracotta Warriors are not easy to preserve (保存;保护) for over thousands of years. But to my surprise, they were actually5 in color when they were first discovered. However, the color fell off6after being exposed in the air.

The difficulty of preservation is one of the reasons why they have stopped7out other pits. Although the Terracotta Warriors are breathtaking, they are only part of the Mausoleum (陵墓) of the First Qin Emperor.

Shen Wenxi, an expert and museum librarian of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told me there's an even grander area8 man-made mountains, rivers and seas inside the emperor' s underground palace.

However, there is no plan to dig them until there are perfect9of protecting and preserving them. Experts are still busy restoring the relics (修复文物) that were10in the 1970s.

Problems between parents and children are common. If you need to improve your relationship with your parents, you are not alone. To develop a better relationship with your parents, you should change how you think and do things. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Act first. Don't wait for your parents to try to improve the relationship. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Be thankful to your parents. Think about everything that your parents have done for you. You are sure to feel thankful to them. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Give them a nice gift or do some housework without being asked. They will be happy with you for these actions.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Talk to your parents about things that you care about and your feelings about these things. Often talk to them, and your parents can understand you better. If so, it's easy for them to discuss things that you are interested in and develop the relationship.

Accept that your parents are different. They grow up in a different situation with different technologies. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Try to remind them of any problem in their relationships with their parents because of these differences.

Use these ways when you talk to your parents to improve your relationship with them.