Carrots are grown all over the world. They are easy to plant and easy to harvest. They have a good taste.

When people think about carrots, they usually think they are a kind of long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. In fact, carrots are in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.

Carrots should be grown in a field that does not have water for a long time. The earth also should not be too hard. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the earth and turn it over(翻土). 

Weather, soil condition(土壤状况), and time affect(影响) the taste of carrots. Warm days and cool nights are the best time to grow great delicious carrots.

The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color is, the better the taste is.

Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow carrots the same way as you do during the summer months.

Carrots are prepared and eaten in many different ways. They are cut into thin pieces and cooked with other vegetables or meat. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground.

    There are many different kinds of music in the world . Let's read some kinds of them .

Classical Music

    Classical music is a form（形式）of music needing high musical skills . If you wish to learn this kind of music , you have to go through proper training .

Metal Music

    Metal music came out after the Second World War . The melody（旋律）of the song is heavily influenced（影响）by the structure（结构）for it . It is also known as “ information music ”. While in metal music , songwriting is based on（以……为基础）a form .

Hip-hop Music

    This music always includes the use of instruments such as the guitar , violin , piano , bass , drums and so on . In this type of music , the bass is the main instrument . It was first played by a group of travelling singers and poets（诗人）of West Africa .

Opera Music

    It first appeared in Italy in the 1600s . It has a great mixture（混合物）of theatrical art and musical invention and is used to playing in the theaters .

Jazz Music

    This type of music has strong and complex（复杂的）melodies . The main musical instruments are comet , trumpet or violin , that help carry the melody .

    Besides these , there are many others such as the blues , new age music , Celtic music , religious music and chamber music .

    Do you know Coco ， a 3D film by Lee Unkrich? It is one of my favourite movies and its score gets to as high as 9.1 of 10 on a Chinese website Douban. I was lucky to be the first one to watch it in China on November 24th, 2017.

    The film Coco tells a story about a twelve-year-old boy called Miguel Rivera. Coco was his grand-grandmother. Miguel had a musical dream but his family didn't like his dream. However, he still worked hard for it secretly and never gave up. One day, he went into a place full of the dead after touching a special guitar. Luckily，with the help of his grand-grand-grandfather, a great musician named Ekotto, he had a wonderful time and returned to the real world.

    You can still watch Coco on the Internet! Don't miss it! You will like it!

    In China, the 12^th month of the lunar calendar（阴历）is called layue. The month is full of interesting festivals and customs.

    Laba Festival, which falls on the eighth day of layue, is the first festival in this month. From this day on, people begin to get ready for the Chinese New Year. On Laba Festival, people eat hot Laba porridge.

    There are usually eight things in the porridge: rice, red beans, peas, dried lotus seeds（莲子）, dates（红枣）, and three different kinds of fruits and nuts. The porridge is not just good for your health, but a blessing（祝福）for the coming of Chinese New Year.

    Laba porridge is not the only tasty food in layue. Laba garlic（腊八蒜）is popular in the north.

    People begin to soak garlic in vinegar from that day on, and eat it with dumplings during the Chinese New Year. While in the south, people like making sausages.

    Another major celebration before Spring Festival is xiaonian. It is usually on the 23^rd or 24^th day of the last lunar month. Traditionally it is an important occasion when people offer sacrifices（祭品）to the Kitchen God who looks after the family.

    Don't forget to clean your home. This is also an important thing to do to prepare for the Chinese New Year. It means sweeping away the dust of the old year and welcoming a fresh start.

    Now, the last thing for you to do is to wait for the coming Spring Festival.

    Renminbi is on the rise

    Ye Li plans to study abroad after she finishes high school in summer. It will cost her parents a large sum of money. But as the value of the Chinese yuan has been rising in the last few months, the girl is happy to find she will need much less money.

    One US dollar used to buy 8.28 yuan Renminbi(RMB) in 2004. But by last Tuesday the number had fallen to 6.77. That means Ye's tuition fee(学费) at $ 20, 000 will cost her 30200 yuan less.

    What are exchange rates?

    The amount of RMB that one dollar can buy is called the exchange rate(汇率) between the RMB and US dollar. There are exchange rates between most countries. They show the rate at which one currency(货币) can be exchanged for another.

    The rates are decided by the different prices of the same product in countries. These change every day. A currency will become more expensive when demand(需求) for it is greater. As more and more countries have begun to trade(做贸易) with China in recent years, the RMB is in great demand, which has made its value go up.

    The other side of the coin

    A more expensive RMB is good for people like Ye. Chinese people can get more foreign currencies while exchanging with their money. They can buy more imported food, clothes, and cars. It also makes it cheaper to travel abroad.

    But it is not good for Chinese exporters(出口商) , like clothing sellers. A S1 export will bring in less yuan.

    What's more, Chinese clothing sells well abroad because of its low prices. Now a made-in-China T-shirt will cost foreigners more. There may be fewer foreigners who will buy Chinese products.