China's Winter Olympians have been welcomed home as national heroes from Vancouver, Canada. The country enjoyed its best Winter Games results, collecting 11 medals in Vancouver—including(包括) 5 gold medals.
     With flowers and national flags in hands, many people waited at Beijing Airport for hours. Every member was received by a crowd of family members and friends. Hundreds of workers and fans welcomed the athletes and coaches back with color balloons and ribbons.
     Wang Meng who won three gold medals in Vancouver Winter Olympics said, “We have shown the Olympic spirit and our Chinese sports spirit at the Vancouver Olympics. We Chinese athletes didn't fear to meet the strong opponents (对手) and had good team work.”

    In summer, it's common on the street to see many Chinese women holding parasols¹ to protect themselves from the sun.  But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand.  She wrote on her blog, "Unlike Chinese women, American women like to put on their tank tops and sunglasses during summer. If you walk around an American college campus², you will probably see girls out on the grassy fields reading, but they really hope to get a head start on their summer tan³."

    This may be caused by the different standards of beauty between the US and China. Many Americans don't want white skin. They would rather be tanned³. Amy also wrote, "Having darker skin is so popular that many women and men will pay for fake⁴ tans so that they can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too."

    Why do they like tanned skin? Michelle Louis reported in her research, "The process of tanning can help make people's skin smooth and hide marks." She further explained, "Tans make people's skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner than when they have pale skin."

    Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. In different cultures and at different times of history, the standards change. On Amy's blog, she also gave two examples: Some women carried parasols around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago; During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought attractive. But now, Chinese women prefer to be slim.

    In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. People may grow up with only one idea of what beauty is, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the correct or the best idea.

New words:

①parasol n. umbrella used to protect people from the sun 阳伞

②campus n. grounds of school, college or university校园

③tan n. the brown colour of sun-kissed skin 晒成的棕褐

④become brown by the sun 晒成棕褐色，晒黑

⑤fake adj. not real 假的

    Different countries have different customs in giving presents.

    IN CHINA you must never give a clock to a Chinese person, because the sound of the word for "clock" is similar to the sound for "death" in Chinese. Also, don't wrap（包裹） a present in white, black, or blue paper, because these are the colors for funerals（葬礼）. Don't give a knife, because something sharp（锋利的） can cut a friendship.

    IN RUSSIA if we give flowers as a present, we have to give all odd numbers of them(one, three, five, etc.) because even numbers of flowers(two, four, six, etc.) are for funerals.

    IN GERMANY flowers are a good present to take to your dinner hostess, but don't take her red roses because it means you are in love with her. Don't take thirteen of anything because it's an unlucky number. Don't take an even number of anything, either. Don't wrap your present in white, brown, or black paper.

    An important question about eating out is who pays for the meal. If a friend of yours asks you to have lunch with him, you may say something like this, "I'm afraid it'll have to be someplace cheap, as I have very little money." The other person may say, "OK, I'll meet you at McDonald's."

    This means that the two agree to go Dutch, that is, each person pays for himself. He may also say, "Oh, no. I want to take you to lunch at Smith's," or "I want you to try the Chinese dumplings there. They're great." This means the person wants to pay for both of you. If you feel friendly towards this person, you can go with him and you needn't pay for the meal. You may just say, "Thank you. That would be very nice."

    American customs (1) about who pays for dates (2) are much the same as in other parts of the world. In the old days, American women wanted men to pay for all the meals. But, today, a university (3) girl or a woman in business world will usually pay her way during the day. If a man asks her for a dance outside the working hours, it means "Come, as my guest (4)." So as you can see, it is a polite thing to make the question clear at the very beginning.

    Ancient China produced many types of beautiful works of art. Among them，calligraphy(书法)，poetry(诗歌)and painting were the most famous. Often they would be put together in art. These became important starting with the Song dynasty.

Calligraphy is the art of handwriting. In the old times the Chinese considered writing as an important form of art. Calligraphers(书法家)would practice for years to learn to write perfectly，but with style. Each of over 40,000 characters needed to be written correctly. And each stroke(笔画)in a character had to be written in a certain order.

Poetry was also an important form of art. Great poets were famous all over the country，but all educated people were expected to write poetry. During the Tang dynasty poetry was so important that writing poetry was part of the examinations to become a civil servant (文官)and work for the government.

    Chinese painting was often connected with calligraphy. It is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as "national "or" native painting(国画)", which is quite different from Western painting. People can draw mountains, homes, birds, trees and water on it.