Autumn is a beautiful season. For many Chinese, the season is also a time for rebuilding(恢复).

    Chinese herbal medicine(中药)science says that people get tired and weak(虚弱的)during the hot summer. So when it comes to autumn, we need to rebuild. There is a tradition called tieqiubiao(贴秋膘). It means to eat some meat in autumn. This can help people get ready for the coming winter.

    Autumn is also a great season for outdoor activities; Chinese people think that fresh air in autumn is good for our health. The Double Ninth Festival is an important Chinese festival in autumn. On that day, families get together and climb hills for luck in the hope that old people will live much longer. Other good outdoor activities are hiking, biking and having picnics.

    Gift-giving is different from culture to culture and person to person.

    When people give gifts, sometimes color is important. For example, for many Chinese people around the world, red is a lucky color, and people often like to wrap gifts in red. However, do you know that in South Korea, red is a color of death? That is why you should not wrap your gifts in this color if you are giving a gift to a person there.

What about Western countries? In Western countries, the color of wrapping paper is not really important. But color does matter when giving flowers, especially roses. You should not give red roses to a Western person you don't know very well because they are a symbol of love. You could give yellow roses instead, as these are a symbol of friendship. You could also send pink roses as gifts to say thank you.

    What other things should you remember when giving gifts to someone from a different culture? Well, one thing you should keep in mind is the person's religion (宗教). When choosing a gift for a Muslim (穆斯林的) or Jewish (犹太教的) friend, you should never get food including pork, or things made from pigskin. Another thing that you should not get for a Muslim person is alcohol (酒).

    Dubai is a city of big business, expensive hotels, skyscrapers (摩天大楼), and shopping malls. In the early 20tb century, Dubai was a successful trading port. People from the world stopped in Dubai to do business. But it was still a small city, and most people lived as fishermen and businessmen. Then in 1966, oil was discovered. This brought a lot of money into the area, and soon Dubai began to change.

    Today Dubai is one of the world's most important business centers. In fact, each year the city gets its money mainly from business, not oil.

    Recently Dubai has attracted more and more visitors from abroad. They come to relax on its beaches, and every year, millions visit just to go shopping.

    Dubai is also one of the world's fastest growing cities. Many tall buildings are built in months. The city also has many man made islands. One of these, the Palm Jumeirah, is like a palm tree(棕榈树) and is very beautiful.

    The city is still and amazing mix (混合体) of people from different countries. The people from 150 countries live and work in Dubai, and foreigners now outnumber Dubai natives(本地人) by eight to one!

    Many people welcome the city's growth. But an increasing number of Dubai natives worry about the speed of change. As a Dubai native says, "We must always remember where we came from. Our kids must know we worked very, very hard to get where we are now, and there's a lot more work to do. "

    What we have been aware of is that people from Italy speak Italian and people from Russia speak Russian. But have you ever wondered the reason why people speak Spanish in so many South American countries? Do you know why the brilliant footballers of Brazil speak Portuguese?

    And why is French the first language of some people in Canada? The answer is that all these countries belonged to European empires at one time. The next question is: How did these empires begin? To answer that question we have to probably go back to the 15'h and 16 centuries, the golden age of European explorers.

    Although this period is known as the golden age of European explorers, it was not the beginning of European exploration. As you probably know, Marco Polo travelled a long way to China at the end of the 13" century and some people say that the Vikings discovered America

    long before Columbus set sail in 1492. However, it is during this “golden" period that some famous voyages took place. Columbus' voyage to America is the best known voyage of exploration, but Ferdinand Magellan sailed round the world in this period, and Spanish explorers such as Central and Pizarro reached South America. Cortez defeated the Aztecs in what we now know as Mesico and Pizarro defeated the Incas in what we now know as Peru. The roots of the Spanish empire were established and that is why he Spanish language is so widely spoken in Central and South America today.