Each year, we celebrate many holidays here in America.

    On January 1, we welcome the coming of a new year like many people in other countries. And we have another, four holidays on the first day of a month: April Fool's Day, May Day, Friendship Day ( Aug.1 ) and Grandparents Day ( Sept.1).

    The most important holiday for the young people comes in February. It is Valentine's Day. Lots of boys give red roses to girls as a present.

    People celebrate some holidays for their family members. We say thanks to our mothers in May and celebrate Father's Day in the following month. In November many people return home for Thanksgiving Day, so the whole family can stay together.

    There are also some interesting holidays for children. For example, Halloween comes at the end of October. Children often play with pumpkin lanterns (南瓜灯) and put on all kinds of masks (面具).

    Of course, the most important festival is Christmas. After a year of work and study, people can enjoy a long holiday, eat big meals, and visit family and friends.

    English is becoming more and more popular in China. It can be used in every field, such as on some signs and restaurant menus. But there are some problems when people use it. Perhaps you've seen the English letters "WC" in your city. They show public toilets. But do you know it is far from native(地道的) English？In fact, foreigners from English﹣speaking countries seldom use the letters.

    Workers in our city are changing "WC" signs all over the city. The government is spending much money changing all the bad English on signs and restaurant menus. Many other places in China are following our steps.

    "WC, or water closet, is old﹣fashioned English. It sounds dirty to me. "says Nancy, a young woman from the US. The old sign will become "Gents/Men" and "Ladies/Women". "I see much poor English in everyday life, and not only on signs, "she says, "I know what they mean, but they are Chinglish, not real English. For example, when someone says to me "My hometown is Guizhou Province", I know he or she should say "My hometown is in Guizhou Province". Hometown is a smaller place in a province. The common mistakes that Nancy picked up include "Not Entry", which should be "No Entry", "Direction of Airport" should be changed to "To the Airport". And it is "Room Rate", not "Room Price". And remember to "Keep off the Grass" rather than "Care of the Green".

    The next time you walk on the street or eat in the restaurant, you can go and see if the expressions are right.

    I'm Yu Fei. I come from No. 1 Junior High School in Ji'nan. It is {#blank#}1{#/blank#} beautiful. My friend Xiaoli is in this school Xiaoli is of medium {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. She has {#blank#}3{#/blank#} hair, a long face, a small mouth and big {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. She is thirteen. She is in Class Five, Grade Seven. She is a good student, and she is good at painting pictures. She hopes to be an {#blank#}5{#/blank#} when she grows up. She has two good {#blank#}6{#/blank#} in her school. They are Lucy and Lily. They are {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. They are twins. They are fourteen They have big noses and big eyes, and they are very {#blank#}8{#/blank#} and thin. Lucy, Lily and Xiaoli are in the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} class. Mrs. Smith is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} English teacher. She is friendly to them and often helps them.

①What did people do to communicate in ancient times? Here are some very interesting answer s to this question.

②Alphorns(阿尔卑斯长号角) were once used to communicate in the mountains in Switzerland. They are very long and they are very heavy, too. So, alpharns are hard work to blow. Then why use them? Well,they make a loud sound which travels much further than the human voice. Herdsmen(牧民) used them to call cows in the distance for milking. At sunset, alpharns were also used to send a message down to villagers that all was well. These days, they're mostly used as musical instruments.

③The people ofLa Gomera, an island in Europe, have their own special way of sending messages from mountain to mountain. They use a whistled(口哨的) language called el silbo, which comes from their language . Spanish. Whistling can be heard within five kilometers, which means it can be used across much greater distances than shouting. El silbo can be used for all kinds of messages, including greetings and announcements. El si lbo is used a lot less than it used to be, but primary school students in La Gomera have to leave it.

④Did you know it's also possible to send messages without making a noise? This is called visual communication, and it includes the use of flags and even smoke. Long ago, soldiers along the Great Wall of China used smoke as a warning. If they noticed the enemy from their signal(信号) tower, they li t a smoky fire. When soldiers in other towers saw the smoke signal, they lit fires too. In this way, messages about the enemy's arrival could travel as far as 800 km in just a few hours.

Zoo: Hi, Anna! What's your favourite country?

Anna: China. It has a long history.

Zoe: {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Anna: Oh, yes. I visited it four years ago. 

Zoe: {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Anna: My parents. 

Zoo: {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

Anna: Yes, we went to the Mount Qomolangma. 

Zoe: Wow! Did you climb to the top? 

Anna: {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Zoe: Where else did you go?

Anna: Well, we went to Beijing and climbed the Great Wall.

Zoe: {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It must be fantastic.

Anna: Yeah. I think it's the greatest man- made wonder in the world. You should visit it some day.

There are some very good inventions which, for one reason or another, don't become popular. These inventions should be better known, even though I think that some of them are crazy. Let's have a look at some of these inventions and see if you agree that they should be more successful. 

The Australians had a great idea to stop people from drinking and driving. The idea was that if a driver wanted to start the car, she or he would have to blow into a bag first. If there was too much alcohol(酒精) in their breath, the car wouldn't start. It sounded like a great idea to me, but people said that they might need to drive the car in an emergency even if they had drunk too much alcohol. Another idea I liked was an invention by a scientist who thought his children watched too much TV. He linked the TV to an exercise bike so that the electricity to power the TV was generated(产出) by the bike. If the children wanted to watch a lot of TV, they had to pedal(踩踏板) very hard. I found another invention on the Internet which was intended (倾向于) to encourage good habits. Believe it or not, this invention was an ashtray(烟灰缸) which spoke to you when you lit a cigarette! The "voice" of the ashtray was activated (启动) by the heat from the cigarette and reminded you how dangerous it is to smoke. 

One of the strangest inventions I have come across is a bicycle which can cross rivers! The idea was that when you came to a river, you could inflate a huge plastic ball all around the bike. You would then get into the ball which would float on the river while you pedaled the bike inside the ball! Why not use a bridge instead? A friend of mine at school once bought a strange pair of football shoes. On the bottom of the shoes there was a rotating pad of studs (转动钉垫). The idea was that you would change direction more quickly if the studs rotated with you. The problem was that every time you stopped you changed direction whether you wanted to or not! I think he wore those shoes twice! One thing I would like is a baseball cap with a built-in radio so you can listen to sport all day with your hands free. While we are on the subject of sport, the Americans invented a kind of robot for sports fans. If you were watching your team on TV on your own, you could press a button and the robot would do "high fives" with you! Fantastic! I wonder if you have any good ideas for inventions like these.